1986 Orioles Debuts, #409-420

Man, 1986 was a fairly blah year in regards to the players who debuted with the Birds. Not a single one of the twelve new players played more than three seasons in Baltimore and I would be hard pressed to list a star in the bunch. A few guys had decent big league careers, but not due to their brief stints in Birdland.

Here's my older posts in the series...
(2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987)


Jackie Gutierrez #409, 4/7/86 (1986-87)

Rich Bordi #410, 4/7/86 (1986)

Juan Bonilla #411, 4/7/86 (1986)

Juan played six seasons in the Majors between 1981-87, most notably spending the first three seasons of his career with the Padres; he came in 4th in the 1981 National League Rookie of the Year balloting for them.

He mostly played second base, but played a fair amount at third in his single season with the Orioles. Overall, he played in 102 games and hit .243 during his stint in Baltimore.

Juan Beniquez #412, 4/9/86 (1986)

Rex Hudler #413, 5/15/86 (1986)

Odell Jones #414, 7/8/86 (1986)

Tom Dodd #415, 7/25/86 MLB Debut (1986)

Tony Arnold #416, 8/9/86 MLB Debut (1986-87)

Ricky Jones #417, 9/3/86 MLB Debut (1986)

Ken Gerhart #418, 9/14/86 MLB Debut (1986-88)

Carl Nichols #419, 9/14/86 MLB Debut (1986-88)

Mike Kinnunen #420, 9/15/86 (1986-87)

TTM Success- Rex Hudler

Rex "Wonder Dog" Hudler

1986

The Yankees traded Rex and Rich Bordi to the Orioles on Decemeber 12, 1985 in return for Gary Roenicke and Leo Hernandez. He played in just 14 games for the Orioles, all of them during the 1986 season, and was used almost exclusively as a late-inning defensive replacement or pinch-runner. He only had one at-bat over those 14 games, but luckily there is this Orioles Crown card to confirm that he spent time with the O's.

Rex played for 6 Major League teams over a 13 season career in the Majors but played in 100 games just once while on the '91 Cardinals. He was primarily a second basemen but spent time at every position besides pitcher and catcher.

For the past ten seasons, Rex was the color commentator for the Los Angeles California Angels of Anaheim. His contract was not renewed by the Angels & FSN West after last year so Rex is currently a broadcasting free agent.

He signed my TTM request in 37 days and I really like the "Go Hard" inscription. It's always nice to see something unexpected and different with someone's autograph. Thanks for signing Rex!

Killer B's

Larry Bigbie (01-05)
I always liked Larry when he was an Oriole, he even tossed one of my friends a ball in the front row of the OF stands after making a nice catch to end an inning. He just never really lived up to lofty expectations (he was a first round pick) and is now possibly the biggest pariah to play for the O's. He threw B-Rob under the steroids bus during the messy Mitchell Report investigation and I'm pretty sure has been black-listed by MLB since. The last I heard he was playing in Japan.


Kurt Birkins (06-07)
Kurt was a middle reliever for the O's, and I remember we lost him on waivers to the Rays. I do love these Topps 52 cards though.


Paul Blair (64-76)
Paul is probably the greatest Oriole CF of all time and was known for his tremendous speed. He was on 2 World Series champion clubs, won 8 Gold Gloves and played in 2 All-Star games during his tenure with the Orange and Black. Not too shabby! He is to be at the O's Fan Fest this Saturday so I'm hoping to get a personalized autograph from him.

Bobby Bonilla (95-96) (Auto on Pirates card)
As a Pirates fan growing up, I was psyched when I heard that Bobby Bo was going to be an O! He and Barry Bonds* were part of the Killer B's, hence the name of the post. And since Bonds was so easy to dislike, it made Bobby even more likable to me as a kid. He only played for the O's for a brief time and seemed to be pretty "confident" of his abilities by that point but still, it's hard to hold much against a player that I liked most of my life. Also to get him from the Mets, the Orioles only had to give up Damon Buford and Alex Ochoa.


Dan/Danny Boone (90)
Outside of having probably the funniest/coolest/Coonskin-cap wearingest name of any Orioles player, I know that he only pitched in 4 games for the O's so I feel lucky that he has a card wearing an O's uni and that I have that card signed. He also seems a little old to be a "Rookie Prospect", as he was 36 in 1990.


Rich Bordi (86)
He was a pretty decent reliever for the O's in '86. Another guy I don't remember much about and I'm not sure what to say about. Kind of a funny name in my opinion.