Happy Cinco de Mayo!

To celebrate, here are the nine former Orioles who are either Mexican or are of Mexican heritage.

 

I have to start with Fernando-mania, who was near the end of his career by the time he pitched for the O's but is still the biggest name of the bunch.

Next up is the only current Oriole with a Mexican background. Mr. Sporadic, Mike Gonzalez.

Rodrigo was the O's #1 pitcher for a few consecutive seasons. Which doesn't necessarily mean much considering the competition, but still, he was their Opening Day starter in 2005 & 2006.

Aurelio, like Fernando, had a long career but was an only an Oriole for the tail-end of it. He tragically was killed by an out-of-control driver while walking down a Detroit street in 2000. He was only 52 at the time of his death.

Jerry is one of the many Hairston men in his family who have played in the Major Leagues. When I was getting back into following the O's in the early-mid 2000's, I remember that he and B-Rob were in battle for the starting second base job. I think the Orioles made the right decision.

 

Most of what I remember about Karim isn't particularly positive, so I'm not going to look up anything about him. Suffice it to say that his heritage is why he's included here.

 

I've already featured these last four cards at some point, but they are the only autographs I have of these guys, so they're getting rerun.

Geronimo earned an F for his autographs skills, or lack thereof.

While Carlos, Andres, and Sergio were grouped together in a post highlighting difficult foreign autographs. I don't have anything to say about them that wasn't already said in that post, maybe besides pointing out that they are all Mexican, which you knew if you've been following along.


Hope that everyone celebrates some Mexican freedom and heritage in the American style of drinking a margarita or Corona. But not too many since you probably still have to go to work tomorrow!

Some Difficult Foreign Autographs

I recently came across a dealer on eBay who supposedly has some good connections in Central America and the Caribbean to track down former big leaguers who live in relative hiding from the autograph community. I really have no idea how the mail system works down there, but I guess this guy travels around getting autographs. Sounds like a pretty good gig to me. My dad also helped me out with one of these guys. His help is ALWAYS appreciated and I know that he enjoys tracking down these autographs as much as I do sometimes.

I will lead off with the card my dad gave me as a gift.

Orlando Sanchez played 4 seasons in the Majors but only appeared in 73 games over that time, the last 4 of which were for the '84 Orioles. 59 of his 73 games were with the Cardinals, so the majority of the few cards he has show him in a Cardinals uniform. He has an O's Crown card but it shows him in a Cardinals hat, so it's hardly an O's card.

He has managed and coached in the Mexican Leagues since his playing days ended. I found information that lists him as the Manager of both the Mayos de Navojoa of the Mexican Pacific League and the Saraperos de Saltillo of the Mexican League. If anyone is ever heading to one of those teams' games, let me know and I'll send you my Crown card! (Not expecting this to actually work out)

Carlos played for the Angels, Mariners and O's during his 3 seasons in the Majors, and 129 of the 237 MLB games he appeared in came with the '78 O's. There isn't much else out there about Carlos, but he was apparently a pro with the chewing tobacco. Look at that chipmunk cheek! How could he even breathe?

Sergio played 10 of his 16 games in the Majors for the O's in '72 & '73. He also had a 6 game cameo for the Dodgers in '76. He was much more successful during the 19 seasons that he played for the Naranjeros de Hermosillo. He was inducted into the Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame(click the link if you know Espanol and want to read Sergio's HOF bio), so I guess he was good. He has coached and managed in the Mexican Leagues as well, so that could have helped him with the MPBHOF induction.

Here is the most accomplished player of the group, Mr Melvin Mora's uncle. No, I kid, I'm quite sure that he's not related to MelMo, but they are the only 2 O's who have the surname Mora.

Andres played professional baseball for over 20 years and hit 419 homers in the Mexican Leagues, which is the third most of all-time. That's some impressive stuff and was likely a large part of the reason that he was elected to the Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame(same deal as above).

He played between 73-77 games for the O's each season from '76-'78 and had some success at the Major League level but never enough to stick for a full season. He also played 9 games in 1980 for the Indians.