One More Request- Damon Buford

After yesterday's Don Buford post, it seems only fitting that fellow Orioles blogger and Ryan, Ryan H, who writes the always Oriole-tastic '"O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog, wanted to hear about Damon Buford, who is Don's son and also a former Oriole. 

This card might look familiar to the few of you were reading my blog way back in April 2009, but I think it will be new to most of you. At the time, I was including 5-6 players in each post, so I only wrote a brief stub about Damon at the time. One thing I will repeat is how I got this autograph in-person at an Orioles game/FanFest/something-or-other back in 1994 and how he concept of prepping a glossy card for an autograph was a foreign concept to me back then, hence the extreme bubbling. 


Damon played in the Majors from 1993-2001 with five teams but was generally a fourth outfielder and only played in more than 100 games in a season twice during his career. He was an Oriole for parts of three seasons at the start of his career from '93-95 before he was traded to the Mets halfway during the 1995 campaign. 


There really isn't too much more to say about Damon, that fairly well sums up his career. I would like to upgrade this autograph to a better looking signature from Damon, but it seems like he rarely to never signs now that his career is over. Maybe one day...


If anyone else has any requests for posts, I can continue to integrate any and all suggestions into the blog as I get them, just let me know!

Wrapping Up Request Week- Don Buford

Sorry for the delay with my final request week post, my birthday was over the weekend and it kept me away for a computer for a few days. The final request came from a blog reader who goes by Reivax, who wanted to hear my take on Don Buford. I've briefly covered Buford two other times, but not in much detail.

Don Buford played with the Orioles from 1968-72 during some of the best years in franchise history. He was the lead-off hitter for most of his time with the O's and still holds the all-time Major League record for the lowest GIDP (ground into double play) rate, averaging only once in every 138 at-bats. That's pretty amazing. He also made the 1971 All-Star team and received MVP votes in three of his five seasons with the O's.

After Don's playing career, he went on to hold various Minor League coaching and managing positions with a few Major League teams, mainly the Orioles. He even spent some time in their front office, talk about versatility!

Maybe the current team should have Don come in and talk to everyone. Outside of the injured Brian Roberts, the O's don't have much in the way of lead-off hitters, so at least he could give advice to a few of the current players filling that roll.

Request Week- Bruce Chen

Zach who writes the continually great and entertaining "Autographed Cards" blog requested that I write about two players. The first of which is former Oriole and current Royal, Bruce Chen.

Bruce is the quintessential journeyman and has pitched for ten different MLB teams since 1998. He's still only 34 years old, so I think he might be able to squeeze at least two more teams in before he hangs up his spikes. Bruce pitched for the Orioles from 2004-06, and pitched very well his first two seasons in Baltimore before falling off precipitously in 2006.

I actually have a few funny stories about Bruce. The first of which took place at Orioles FanFest in 2005. If you're not familiar with the set-up, it takes place at the Baltimore Convention Center (a pretty standard convention center), and players are located at 4-5 signing stations around the building. While some of the details have changed over the years, essentially fans have to wait in long lines to get autographs. Well, as I was about to leave for the day, I saw a somewhat familiar looking Asian man looking around like he didn't know where to go. It was none other than Bruce, who was standing in the middle of hundreds of Orioles fans, many of whom had been waiting in long autograph lines all day, but no one immediately recognized him. I pounced on the opportunity and got his autograph on the event program. I think that I then pointed him in the right direction but by that point, I had blown his cover and other fans started to figure out who he was.

My next story occurred a few years later when Bruce was a member of the Royals. He signed this Bowman card for me at Camden Yards prior to a Royals-O's game and pretty much signed for all of the fans who were there (which wasn't many). The last two guys he signed for didn't have anything for him to sign except a few dollar bills which Bruce willingly signed. After he did so, a nearby usher mentioned how that could be considered defacing US currency, and Bruce mumbled something about never signing money again. It was a pretty funny ordeal.

Bruce was also known to be a "funny" guy, or at least a joke teller, and the Orioles had a "Bruce Chen Joke of the Day" feature that ran on the JumboTron between innings. A few of his jokes that I could find were:

"What do you do with a one-legged dog?" "Take him for a drag."

"Why did the bicycle keep falling over? Because it was too tired."

"What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear."

Hilarious, right?

I was happy to hear that the Royals are apparently doing a similar feature with Bruce and Zach mentioned that he has added at least one more joke to his arsenal.

"Where do you find a no legged dog? Right where you left him."


Here's to you Bruce Chen!

Request Week- Charles Johnson

Request week continues to roll along as blog reader Sharon requested a post about Charles Johnson, who she says that he is her favorite player. She didn't mention why that is, but I hope to touch on it during this post. Let me know how I did Sharon!

Charles was a catcher in the Majors for twelve seasons from 1994-2005 and played for six teams over his career. He is best remembered as a Marlin, and rightly so as he spent seven seasons representing the teal and black. He was known for being a great defensive catcher and appropriately caught three no-hitters, all with the Marlins; Al Leiter in 1996, Kevin Brown in 1997, and AJ Burnett in 2001. There are very few other catchers who can say there were behind the plate for that many no-no's and only Jason Varitek(4) has caught more.

During his time with the Marlins, Charles also won four consecutive Gold Glove awards from 1995-98, made two All-Star squads ('97 & '01) and was a member of their 1997 World Series Championship team. I would certainly think that he deserves a spot in the Marlins Hall of Fame, if they have something like that: considering the team has only been around since 1993, I doubt that many players have done more for the franchise.

On December 1, 1998, Charles was traded by the Dodgers to the Mets, who flipped him that same day to the Orioles for Armando Benitez. He spent the next season and a half as the O's everyday catcher and he was enjoying the best offensive season of his career in 2000 when the Orioles traded him and Harold Baines to the White Sox for Brook Fordyce and three minor leaguers (who never made it to the big leagues). Sure seems like a clunker from where I sit.

I purchased this Orioles signed card online. I previously had an in-person autograph from Charles in my collection, but it was on a Marlins card and I needed an upgrade. Charles signed for me in 1994 or 1995 when the Marlins were playing the Pirates and his signature looked more like the pre-printed one on the card than the abbreviated version that it devolved into, but that's a pretty standard occurrence.

Request Week- Jake Fox

Request Week continues to roll along with another suggestion from Justin, AKA piratesfan731.This time around he wants to hear about Jake Fox.

I've actually posted about Jake a few times in the past. Specifically, I wrote these three posts within a single week back in June 2010 when Jake was traded to the Orioles. I guess I was going through a "Jake Fox phase" to write about the new back-up catcher three times in one week. Most recently, I displayed a card that Jake signed for me last Spring Training shortly after he got through mowing down Grapefruit League pitching by hitting 10 homers in March.

Jake signed this Orioles postcard for me during the first week of the season. It's his only Orioles issue to date. 

Mainly due to his offensive outburst, Jake won the backup catcher job and broke camp with the O's. Unfortunately, he couldn't carry over his spring success and isn't known for calling a great game, so he was designated for assignment on June 1. He cleared waivers and spent a few months with AAA Norfolk before being called up to the O's on August 23. At this point, I see him as the emergency catcher and a bat with some pop off of the bench. Here's to hoping that Jake can rediscover some of that Spring Training magic!

Request Week- B.J. Surhoff

B.J. Surhoff is probably the second best Oriole player that I've never profiled, behind only Mike Mussina. So I'll do my best to make this a good write-up. Fellow Orioles blogger, Ryan H, requested that I post about him so here we go.

For starters, this card is always the image that pops into my head when I think or talk about B.J. I guess this card made an impression on me in my younger collecting years and that it's just stuck with me all these years later. It's very strange, because most of the time, I identify former Orioles players with the O's, even if they are more widely known for having played with a different team. I am guilty of reversing that with B.J. and that's probably why it has taken me so long to write about him.

B.J. played in the Majors from 1987-2005, spending his first nine seasons with the Brewers before signing with the Orioles as a free agent in December 1995. He would go on to sign four additional free agent contracts with the O's and spent a total of eight seasons with them, so it's pretty obvious that he enjoyed playing in Baltimore. In a very controversial and questionable move, the Orioles traded B.J. to the Braves for a few prospects (who never amounted to anything) at the 2000 trade deadline. I remember that both he and his many fans in Baltimore, were torn up about the transaction.

The best season of B.J.'s career came with the O's in 1999 when he smashed 28 home runs, scored 104 runs, drove in 107 and hit .308. He made the only All-Star team of his career that year and also participated in the HR Derby. He retired at the end of the 2005 season at the age of 40 and wrapped up his career with 2326 hits (including 440 doubles and 188 homers) and a life-time .282 batting average. He was elected to the Orioles Hall of Fame in 2007 and has served as a special instructor with the O's in recent years.

I got this card signed at an Orioles FanFest in probably 2004 or 2005. B.J. is known his his dry, scathing sense of humor and I remember him joking about not many people being in his line.



The requests continue to come in and here's what I have lined up for request week so far:
Jake Fox for Justin
Charles Johnson for Sharon
Rafael Palmeiro & Bruce Chen for Zach

It appears that I have room for one more request if anyone out there is itching to hear my take on any other former Orioles players.

Request Week- Rocky Cherry

I'm kicking off my all request week with a suggestion from Justin, AKA piratesfan731, who wanted to see and hear a little bit about former Oriole Rocky Cherry.

I have to start by saying the most obvious thing about him; that his name is just amazing. Way back in July 2009, I described it as "one of the greatest, most ice-cream-sounding names ever", and I'm sticking by that statement. I would guess that his parents either had a great sense of humor, or they were rather oblivious to the awesomeness that those eleven letters contain.

It's best that we remember Rocky for his name because his MLB stats over the 2007-08 seasons for the Cubs and Orioles aren't pretty. He had a 1-4 record with a 5.77 ERA over 40 relief appearances, 28 of which came with the O's after the Cubs sent him and Scott Moore to Baltimore for Steve Trachsel on August 31, 2007. He hasn't pitched professionally since the end of the 2009 season, and I would venture a guess that he has retired.

Interestingly, this is the only card that pictures Rocky in an Orioles uniform. There is a "gold" version of this that's only #ed to 75, but if you want an Orioles card of Rocky, it will be autographed. Which is perfect for me and my collection, but not so much if you didn't want to pay for the signature. I lucked out and got this card on ebay sometime in 2009 for either .25 or .99 plus shipping. You can still find this card but you will need to pay significantly more, proportionally at least. ($5 is a lot more than a quarter, am I right?)

If anyone else is interested in making a request for my O's autograph request week, please leave a comment!

Orioles Autograph Request Week

I've noticed that my readership has been declining recently and I want to attempt to reverse that trend. So I'm making the next four days "Reader Request Days". That's right, YOU get to pick who I write about. Just leave a suggestion in the comments section, and I will do my best to write about everyone who is requested. I would prefer to write about guys that I haven't covered before but that still allows you to pick from 100's of former Birds.

I have yet to write about some Orioles greats such as Midre Cummings, Mike Kinkade and Keith Shepherd. Oh wait, I meant Mike Mussina, Gregg Olson, and BJ Surhoff. But whether you would like to hear my take on Cummings, Mussina or anyone in between, just let me know and I'll do my best to hook you up! I'm currently only missing autographs from 10 all-time O's, so there is a good chance I can come through on all your requests. I hope to hear from some of you!