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)

National Success-Juan "Titi" Beniquez

Juan had a much longer MLB career than I thought he did, and played in exactly 1500 games over 17 seasons for 8 different American League teams from 1971-1988.  He spent the 1986 season with the Orioles as a super utility player, appearing at all three OF positions, first & third base and also serving as the DH.  Juan's O's highlight occurred on June 12 when he hit three home runs, half of his season total, in one game against the Yankees.  Atta boy, Juan!

Over his career, Juan was generally used in a super utility role, and rarely filled a single position for any substantial period of time, only appearing in over 135 games once in his career, when he played 145 games for the '76 Rangers.  His 5 seasons with the Angels were the most amount of time he spent with any of the 8 teams he played for, and his career highlights were winning a Gold Glove on the '77 Rangers and receiving some MVP votes for his '84 season with the Angels.

I really like Juan's autograph, it's very stylized and smooth.  I can also more or less read Juan Beniquez, but only because I know what I'm looking at.  Juan's autograph is readily available online, but I've had no luck going after the very few Orioles autographs I've seen for sale.  I bought this card from the same dealer who had the Hazewood & Melendez autos.  I have one more Crown card to show that I bought from him. 

As was the case with Melendez yesterday, I can't find a translation for Juan's nickname, Titi.  I have an idea based on my knowledge of American slang, but I don't see how that makes any sense...