Oriole #721- Deivi Cruz

Anybody out there remember who the Orioles' starting shortstop was in 2003? Hint-check the title of the post.

Yep, it was none other than Deivi Cruz, who made his Orioles debut on Opening Day 2003 as the team's shortstop, and went on to play in 151 more games for the O's during his only season in Baltimore. He was the only starter who made his Orioles debut that day, although relief pitcher Kerry Ligtenberg made his Birdland debut later in the game.

Looking at the list of players who have filled the Orioles Opening Day shortstop position over the years, I would say that Deivi is rivaled in obscurity only by the 2008 starting SS, Luis Hernandez.

Current O's autograph list added, Luis Hernandez TTM & pics from Tuesday's game

Since this is something I should have done a while ago, you will notice that I now have a link to my Orioles autographed cards on the upper left hand side of my blog. It shows all the Orioles players I currently have autographs from and which team's card is signed; if that column is blank, that means I have an O's card signed. If I don't have an Orioles card signed of a specific player or you have any autographs on my want list that could help me out, please let me know. I am always ready and willing to trade and hope to list all of my autographs for trade (mainly from late 80's through mid 90's) on the site soon.


Also, when I was on my way home from work yesterday, I was thinking that a returned TTM request waiting for me in my mailbox would be a nice way to end a crazy day. I hadn't got one back for almost two weeks but Luis Hernandez came through for me. I sent the request to his attention with the Omaha Royals and he signed in about 2 weeks for me! Thank you Luis! Although you weren't on the Orioles for very long, I appreciate the nice autograph.


And here are some pictures that Kalina and I took at the O's/Angels game on Tuesday night. I had an 0h-fer night with autographs but got some cool pictures in another close loss by the O's.

Here is Torii Hunter posing with a kid's Flat Stanley (I had never heard of him either but Torii seemed like a really nice guy)

Cool pre-game presentation of Lou's 2008 Eastern League(AA) Triple Crown award LOOOOOUUU!

And yes, Dave Trembley, this is pretty much how I felt about that BS balk call too
We should ask Jamie Walker what he thought about it...