1984 Orioles Debuts, #386-396

Oh boy, 1984 was not a banner year for new Orioles players. There was pretty much Larry Sheets, and I guess one could mention Nate Snell and Ken Dixon, who both stuck around in Baltimore for a few years, but beyond that, there are quite a few "who's that?" type of players.

I might need to consider starting to cover multiple years in these posts, both to add some meat to them and to bump up the number of pictures. But that's not going to happen today.

Here's the older posts in the series...
(2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987, 1986, 1985)


Wayne Gross #386, 4/2/84 (1984-85)

Tom Underwood #387, 4/7/84 (1984)

Orlando Sanchez #388, 5/20/84 (1984)

Mark Brown #389, 8/9/84 MLB Debut (1984)

John Pacella #390, 9/1/84 (1984)

Vic Rodriguez #391, 9/5/84 MLB Debut (1984)

Ron Jackson #392, 9/7/84 (1984)

Larry Sheets #393, 9/18/84 MLB Debut (1984-89)

Nate Snell #394, 9/20/84 MLB Debut (1984-86)

Jim Traber #395, 9/21/84 MLB Debut (1984, 86, 88-89)

"The Whammer" played in parts of four seasons with the Orioles before moving on the play in Japan and Mexico. He played in 264 games during his time with the O's, and played mostly first base.

Probably the most notable thing that occurred during Jim's playing career is an incident in Japan in which Jim charged the mound and the pitcher retreated all the way to the outfield.

He is currently an Oklahoma City Sports Radio host, and seems to be a bit of a blowhard from some comments I've heard from other collectors.

Ken Dixon #396, 9/22/84 MLB Debut (1984-87)

A Wayne Gross Kind of Day

For whatever reason, I've been struggling to churn out posts lately. I don't know if the extremely hot weather has fried my brain, or if it's just my annual Orioles malaise kicking in, but I apologize if I haven't been producing high-quality reading material lately.

Since the Orioles have never had anyone named "Blah" play for them, Mr. Gross will have to do.

While I have nothing against Wayne, and am pretty much too young to recall having seen him play, the combination of his name and this card work together to convey my mood. I'm sure Wayne is a decent guy since he's a 90+% TTM signer according to SCN, but I'm no fan of '85 Fleer, even though it has a nice orange border.

Anyway, Wayne played 11 seasons in the Majors from 1976-86, spending 1984-85 with the Orioles, while book-ending his career with the A's. He was an All-Star in his rookie season in 1977, in what would really prove to be the best season of his career.

Probably the most interesting thing I found out about Wayne is that he had a cameo in the 1994 remake of "Angels in the Outfield" as a relief pitcher for the White Sox. At least he did according to his Wikipedia page, and I couldn't confirm that fact on the IMDB page for the movie, so can't say it's 100% accurate. But it's very cool if it is!