1993 Orioles Debuts, #524-539

Moving right along with my debut years theme, up today are the new 1993 Orioles players. Here are the past debut years I've featured (2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1995, 1994).

1993 was a mixed bag of Birdland debuts; there were a few veteran players who only spent a season or two in Baltimore as well as eight players who would make their MLB debut appearances for the O's. Harold Baines and Jeffrey Hammonds were the only two players who had a major impact for the team during their time in Baltimore. 

Harold Reynolds #524, 4/5/93 (1993)

Harold Baines #525, 4/5/93 (1993-95, 97-99, 2000)

Fernando Valenzuela #526, 4/9/93 (1993)

Sherman Obando #527, 4/10/93 (1993, 95)

Besides having one of the cooler names in Orioles history, Sherman didn't contribute much to the team in 47 games he played for them over parts of two seasons. But it turns out that he actually had quite a successful career playing in Japan and consistently had good numbers over the six seasons he played there. In fact, for a few seasons he was the second best player in the league behind only Ichiro. 

He continued to play baseball at least part time through the 2008 season, having been a member of Panama's 2006 World Baseball Classic team, 2007 Baseball World Cup squad, and their 2008 Olympic team. Most recently, he served as the first base coach for the Charleston RiverDogs for at least the 2009 season. 

Brad Pennington #528, 4/17/93 (1993-95)

Brad was a very wild pitcher who averaged well over a walk an inning during the parts of five seasons that he spent in the Majors. He also averaged more than a strikeout per inning, which is probably what kept him the big leagues as long as it did, and he wrapped up his career with a 7.02 ERA over 79 games. 

I am a big fan of his autograph however, it's got so much flair to it that it's hard not to like. 

Damon Buford #529, 5/4/93 (1993-95)

Mark Leonard #530, 5/6/93 (1993)

Jamie Moyer #531, 5/20/93 (1993-95)

What can I say about Jamie Moyer that you likely don't already know? Not much, I'm sure. But when the Orioles signed Moyer to a minor league deal earlier this season, I got excited to think that a player could re-play for the Orioles after an almost 20 year break. That would have been amazing, but sadly the O's released Jamie after a three start minor league trial. I hope that he can catch on somewhere because it's not often that you get to see a 49 year old play at baseball's top level.

I'm also a bit surprised that I had never featured Moyer before today. 

Paul Carey #532, 5/25/93 (1993)

Jeffrey Hammonds #533, 6/25/93 (1993-98)

John O'Donoghue (2) #534, 6/27/93 (1993)

This John O'Donoghue (2) is the son of John O'Donoghue(1) who also pitched for the Orioles, and I've conveniently labeled them 1 & 2 for your reading ease.

2 pitched in 11 games for the '93 Orioles. He kindly signed this card for me during his time with the team and as you can see, I was still learning about how Sharpies interacted with glossy cards. Thanks a million Pinnacle!

Mike Oquist #535, 8/14/93 (1993-95)

I know that I have an autograph of Oquist and I have no idea how it's not scanned. I will get on this ASAP.

Mike Pagliarulo #536, 8/16/93 (1993)

Kevin McGehee #537, 8/23/93 (1993)

Lonnie Smith #538, 9/12/93 (1993-94)

Mike Cook #539, 9/29/93 (1993)

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!

A few TTMs

As they continue to roll in, I will continue to share them with you; that's what I'm here to do!

Mike "Bird" Parrott 1977

I have to start by addressing Mike's nickname. Now obviously, a parrot is a bird, so it makes sense, but wouldn't it have been more original to work off of Parrott? Mark "the Bird" Fidrych was already pitching in the Majors so I feel like "Bird" was pretty lame for Mike.

Ok, now that I got that out of my system; Mike was the O's 1st round draft pick in 1973 but only pitched in 3 games for the Birds (haha) before he was traded to the Mariners after the '77 season. He was the Opening Day pitcher for the Mariners in 1980, and won that game, but he did not win again for the rest of the season, finishing the year at 1-16. At least the '09 O's won't let that happen with Jason Berken, will we? I mean, at least, Berken wasn't our #1 starter at the beginning of the season, right?

Mike is currently the pitching coach for the D'backs AAA team, the Reno Aces.

Jerry DaVanon 1971

Jerry was the Orioles backup infielder during the '71 season and is currently officiating high school basketball in Houston, TX. His son, Jeff DaVanon, also played in the Majors for a few seasons.

Royle Stillman 1975-76

There isn't much information to be found about Royle, he played in a combined 33 games for the Orioles over two seasons. So I will focus upon the bet I made with myself when I first saw this card. I said "I bet Royle is from California." I was right, so I got paid, by myself. Win some, lose some.

Bobby "Bo" Bonilla 1995-96

Six-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger, four-time MVP vote receiver (coming in second to Pirates teammate Barry "Barroids" Bonds in '90, and third beyond Bonds and winner Terry Pendleton in '91). Bobby Bo accomplished all of these things before donning the black and orange but is a guy I have always had a soft spot for; but I know you Mets fans would disagree with me. Now I did grow up liking the Pirates and then the Orioles, so that had a lot to do with it, but Bobby always had some flair or attitude to his game that appealed to me.

After a few tumultuous years with the Mets following his Pirates days, he was traded to the Orioles for Damon Buford and Alex Ochoa on July 28, 1995. Nice work on that one O's front office; but I'm serious this time. Bobby Bo was only on the Birds for a season and a half, but he did help the O's make the '96 playoffs. He signed at the Orioles Alumni Autograph tent at the Orioles game on 6/29 but I was unprepared as he wasn't on the list of possible signers, so I was really glad to find that he signs TTM.

Back to the B's

I know that I have gotten away from updating my current autograph collection due to FanFest, incoming TTMs, Opening Day and the O's Alumni Autograph excitement but now I will get back to it and finish off all of the "B" players. Sorry for the long post!


Mike Bordick (97-00, 01-02)
I need to start by saying the Mike Bordick is awesome. I was always a big fan of his, mainly due to his slick fielding. He set records as a SS for most consecutive errorless games (110) and chances (543). At the most demanding position on the field, that is a crazy accomplishment! The O's liked his fielding so much that they moved Cal from SS to 3B to accommodate Bordick; and if you aren't familiar with the O's organization in Cal's latter years, it is amazing that they did anything to displace him. Another interesting note about Bordick is that when the O's traded him to the Mets during the 2000 season, Melvin Mora was one of the players the Orioles got in return from the Mets. Bordick then re-signed with the O's after the season so it was a win-win!


Phil Bradley (89-90)
Phil's playing days were a little bit before I was old enough to appreciate his great fielding. He only played about 1.5 seasons on the O's, coming in a trade from the Phillies and then being sent to the White Sox.

Leslie Brea (00-01)
He pitched in only 8 games for the O's and amassed an ERA over 12. That's why I don't have much else to say. But I want to add that I feel it's a stretch to refer to any of the three guys on this card as "Vintage Rookies". Brea also came from the Mets in the Bordick-Mora trade.


Chris Britton (06)
Chris was a "big" reliever for the O's in 06, and by "big" I'm referring more to his girth than his clutchness. He is listed as one of the heaviest players in baseball history at 275 lbs.
In all fairness he had a pretty good '06 season, appearing in 52 games and sporting a 3.35 ERA. After the season he was traded to the Yankees, for Jaret Wright and a cool $4 million, since the Orioles had plenty of bullpen help but not enough starters. Anyone recall how Jaret Wright worked out for the O's? Neither do I...


Jim Brower (06) auto on Giants card
Brower was another reliever for the O's during the '06 season. He wasn't nearly as successful as Britton, sporting an ERA of 13+ and lasted only 12 games.



Kevin Brown (95)
This version of Kevin Brown is (most likely) the pre steroid user, and obviously a predecessor to the guy the Dodgers made baseball's first $100 million man in the late 90s'. I got this autograph at a game and from what I recall he was pretty approachable and accommodating with fan requests. Good on ya Kevin.



Damon Buford (93-95)
I must first address that this is one of my first autograph experiences with a glossy card. I didn't know to rub it down, erase it, or do anything else to prepare it for an autograph. And this still bothers me fifteen years after I got this at a game. Sad, right? Damon was a great signer and how excited does he look on this card?
He never did too much on the field but was part of trade with Alex Ochoa to the Mets that brought Bobby Bo to the Orioles in '95. Damon was later signed back to the O's as a free agent in 2001 but never got into a game.


Don Buford (68-72)
Damon's dad Don had a much more accomplished stint in the black & orange than his son did. He finished in the top 30 in MVP voting 3 of his 5 years and he is regarded as one of the better lead-off men the Orioles have ever had.



Freddie Bynum (07-08)
Fr-EDDIE was a super utility player for the past few seasons. As I recall it, he hit a HR in one of his first at-bats leading to high expectations from me. Things didn't really work out but I was able to get his autograph at a BaySox game last summer.



Tim Byrdak (o5-06)
Since Tim wasn't ever featured on an Oriole card, I figured that using his Lynx card was the second best thing. He was a pretty good middle reliever in '05 but not so good in '06. He is still pitching in the Majors, and is currently on the Astros.



Eric Byrnes (05)
Since the O's were one of 3 teams that Byrnes played for in '05, I was pleased to find a signed Orioles card of him. He was pretty awful during his time on the O's with a batting average below the Mendoza line (.192). Byrnsie has been an exciting player over the course of his career but couldn't get things going in Baltimore. He has had some up and down years for the D-Backs but had a stellar 2007 season.
Also interesting that the O's traded Larry Bigbie to the Rockies for Byrnes.