The Other Jose Bautista

Jose "Utility Bomb" Bautista 2004

I list this Jose Bautista as "the other" and "Jose Bautista 2" because he is the second Jose Bautista to play for the Orioles. The first Jose was a pitcher who was an Oriole from 1988 through 1991.

This Jose Bautista's time on the Orioles was very short. He played 16 games for them at the beginning of the 2004 season, mainly appearing as a pinch-hitter and pinch-runner. He got 3 hits in 11 at-bats and also scored 3 runs for the O's. He spent the 2009 with the Blue Jays where he earned the nickname "Utility Bomb" for his strong throwing arm and the pop in his bat.

The most interesting thing about Jose is the number of transactions that he was involved in between December 2003-2004. Try to follow this mess...

December 15, 2003- the Orioles drafted him in the Rule V draft from the Pirates (the team who originally drafted him)

June 3, 2004- after the Orioles put him on waivers, the Devil Rays selected him

June 28, 2004- the Royals purchased him from the Devil Rays

July 30, 2004- the Royals trade him to the Mets for Justin Huber

July 30, 2004- traded by the Mets with Ty Wigginton and Matt Peterson to the Pirates for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger

August 4, 2004- Jose completely forgets what team he plays for and what city he lives in, reports to Team USA

OK, I made that last one up, but have you ever heard of one player being bounced around like that in a single season?

To recap, he appeared in games for four different Major League teams during the 2004 season, the Pirates must have really wanted him to lose him in the Rule V and trade for him in the same season, and Jose, along with Wigginton and Benson, was one of three all-time Orioles involved in the 7/30 trade with the Pirates and Mets. Amazing.

Oh and did I mention that he was the first player EVER to have been on the Major League rosters of 5 different teams in one season? I kind of feel bad for the guy.

O, what should have been

I wanted this to be a happy recap post about the game tonight, but the "Brim Reaper" really screwed that up. So I hope to be in the mood to recap a few things I saw at the game tonight sometime this weekend. But the pain is too fresh right now, I don't have anything nice to say about what happened, so I won't say anything at all...

On a positive pre-game note, I did get 3 autographs! I got Luke Scott and Gregg Zaun, both of whom I already had autos from but had never got a Luuuuke in person before tonight.

Although you can't see the borders of this card, how perfectly located is that autograph? Luke used my sharpie to sign about 20 other autos too.


And Zaun was wrapping up signing for the fans and pointed to three people to sign for, and I was luckily the last one he picked out. He still seems like a good guy after all these years since he last played for the O's.

The player whom I still needed an autograph from and really lucked out getting since he is on the 15 day DL is Kris Benson. He was in town with the Rangers since he had to fulfill some of his charitable obligations from his Oriole days. Anna Benson was there too, and she was wearing only a mildly inappropriate outfit!
How great is this card?!? That is a perfect orange color for an O's card and a great signature to top it off!

2 more requests

So today I sent two more TTM letters to recent Orioles, Kurt Ainsworth and Kris Benson. Now while I know that Ainsworth didn't have much of a career and is no longer active; I think that Benson is still trying to get back into some team's rotation. I have no idea if he is currently signed with anyone.

My new friend, Lance Burnitz, offered me some advice over the weekend too. I guess the best course of action for current players is to send a request c/o their team as opposed to sending to their home address. For retired players, the home address seems to be the way to go. And he also suggested Sports Collectors.net as a way to find out who signs, who doesn't and meet some other collectors. I will probably check that out when the next paycheck hits!

I'm also really looking forward to a package sent to me by my buddy Rod of Padrographs. I'm excited to see what is coming my way. I hope to find some old school Padres autographs in my stash to send to him to return the favor.