2000 Orioles Debuts, Orioles # 656-681

To continue the new posting method that I started last week, I'm going to cover all of the Orioles players who debuted during the 2000 season in this post.

2000 was a big year for player debuts in Baltimore, and 26 different players made their debut in black and orange during the season. This year might also be one of the best examples of why I've opted to start posting so many autographs in a single post. I have very little to say about this group, at least not much that I've not already written about in the past. Let's just say that the 2000 Orioles were a largely forgettable team.

Mike Trombley #656, 4/3/2000 (2000-01)

Mike's only "Orioles" card doesn't picture him in an Orioles uniform so I took the half-step upgrade to this Orioles signed 8x10.

Buddy Groom #657, 4/3/2000 (2000-04)

Buddy pitched out of the bullpen in Baltimore for five seasons and was pretty decent for the most part. One of the most interesting numbers I came across in his Orioles stats was the number of games he appeared in was always divisible by 10 (70, 70, 70, 60, 60). Weird right?

He also holds the major league record of appearances (786) without a single plate appearance.


Chuck McElroy #658, 4/5/2000 (2000-01)

Pat Rapp #659, 4/6/2000 (2000)

Calvin Maduro #660, 4/7/2000 (2000-02)

Tim Worrell #661, 4/7/2000 (2000)

Jose Mercedes #662, 4/9/2000 (2000-01)

It took me quite some time to track down a signed Orioles card of Jose, but I finally did last year. He was still pitching in the Mexican Leagues through last season but I wasn't able to find any stats for him this season, so maybe he has finally hung up his spikes after a 20 year career.

Willie Morales #663, 4/9/2000 (2000)

Greg Myers #664, 4/22/2000 (2000-01)

Mark Lewis #665, 4/27/2000 (2000)

Luis Matos #666, 6/19/2000 (2000-06)

It's pretty sad that Matos is probably the second most "notable" Oriole on this list, as his career was largely disappointing. He always seemed to have the potential to take his game to the next level, but just never was able to do so, mainly due to his propensity to get injured and miss games.

He is still actively playing ball, and has been a member of various Mexican League teams over the past five years.

Darren Holmes #667, 6/29/2000 (2000)

Darren pitched in 557 games for eight different teams over his 13 season MLB career, but only five of those games were with the O's during the 2000 season. His Orioles ERA was 25.07, so suffice it to say, things didn't go well for him in Baltimore.

Ivanon Coffie #668, 7/15/2000 (2000)

John Parrish #669, 7/24/2000 (2000-05, 2007)

Parrish pitched in 153 games for the Orioles, mainly out of the bullpen, over parts of 6 seasons, and wrapped up his Orioles career with a 12-12 and 4.52 ERA. Sadly, what I remember most about him is that he grew up in Lancaster, PA which is near my hometown of Carlisle.

Melvin Mora #670, 7/29/2000 (2000-09)

I've featured a few cards, and a bobblehead, of Melmo over my years of writing this blog, but it appears as though I've never written an in-depth post about him. Now isn't the time, nor place, but it's something that I will have to correct in the near future. He was one of Kalina and my favorite players on the Orioles during the mid to late 2000's.

Ryan Kohlmeier #671, 7/29/2000 (2000-01)

Ryan Kohlmeier led the 2000 Orioles team with 13 saves. A stat like that doesn't give me a good feeling about the makeup of the bullpen.

Brook Fordyce #672, 7/30/2000, (2000-03)

Brook was chiefly a back-up catcher during his 10 year MLB career that he spent with five different teams, Just over half (312) of his 623 appearances came during the three and a half seasons he spent in Baltimore, during which time he occasionally was the starter.

Chris Richard #673, 7/31/2000 (2000-02)

Carlos Casimiro #674, 7/31/2000 (2000)

Trenidad Hubbard #675, 8/2/2000 (2000)

Trenidad played for nine different MLB teams over his ten season big league career, so is a true definition of the word, journeyman. He rarely found regular playing time in the Majors, but was obviously a good enough player for so many different teams to take a chance on him.

He appeared in 31 games for the 2000 O's before moving on, and I actually only discovered that he was pictured as an Oriole on this MLB Showdown card earlier this year. Luckily, a fellow collector alerted me to the card's existence right before someone on SCN was holding a signing with Trenidad, so I quickly bought the card, and got it signed and personalized in a span of only a few weeks. That's an open and shut case in my Orioles autograph world.

Leslie Brea #676, 8/13/2000 (2000-01)

Jay Spurgeon #677, 8/15/2000 (2000)

Apparently, I've never scanned my autograph of Jay, and that has me questioning if I even have one, although I'm fairly certain that I do. To be continued on this one...

UPDATE: I found my, and took a picture of, my Spurgeon autograph. We can all rest well now.

Mike Kinkade #678, 8/23/2000 (2000-01)

The highlight of Mike's baseball career was likely being a member of the Gold Medal winning baseball team during the 2000 Olympics. He played parts of six seasons in the Majors from 1998-2003, but rarely received regular playing time.

He was a super utility player and appeared at six different positions, including catcher, during the 2001 season for the O's.

Fernando Lunar #679, 8/29/2000 (2000-02)

Karim Garcia #680, 9/6/2000 (2000, 2004)

Luis Rivera #681, 9/20/2000 (2000)

An Orange Kind of Day

As some of you may know, one of my mini collections is of autographed Orioles cards (as well as those of their affiliates) that picture the player wearing the O's distinctive orange uniform. It's a color that very few teams wear and I like its uniqueness. Most of the cards that depict the O's wearing orange uniforms are from shots taken during the team's exhibition games in Spring Training. But now that the Orioles have officially brought an orange uniform variation back into the regular rotation, I'm expecting to see more orange uniform cards in the coming years.

This collection is kind of a passive thing that I don't like to spend money on, but I will try to obtain signed orange uniform cards in person or via trade. At some point, I might get my "have list" uploaded but doubt I will ever put together a want list.

Here are some current and former Orioles rocking the orange.

Quite a few of Miggy's Orioles cards show him wearing orange

I believe that Kirk, who writes Eutaw Street Cardboard, sent me this Bergy autograph

Melmo is also shown wearing orange in the '05 Donruss set; nice work Donruss!

Unsuccessful Oriole, Bob McCrory, is shown wearing the Tides orange uniform variation

Orioles Bobbleheads of the Week- Brian Roberts & Melvin Mora

It's been a bad week around Birdland due to the GM search, so here's a throwback bobblehead duo from 2006 to cheer me you up.

These bobbles of third baseman Melvin Mora and second baseman Brian Roberts were handed out on two dates during the 2006 season. When put together, they interlocked to display the elaborate post-game  handshake that the two did after Orioles wins. 

Back in 2006, the Roberts bobblehead created quite a stir when the 20,000 bobbles that arrived in Baltimore featured a much darker skinned version of B-Rob. As I understand it, he appeared more purple than anything, but the O's were forced to return and/or destroy them and had to hand out vouchers. It's things like this that makes the organization look bad, well, in addition to the losing of course. 

I was able to get Mora to sign the bobblehead during the 06 season, as you can barely see in the top two pictures. For some reason I didn't think to take a picture of it when I snapped these other shots. 

And here is an older picture I have of B-Rob with the box; the picture shows Mora & Roberts doing their handshake. 

2006 doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but thinking about these bobbleheads and that season makes me nostalgic for some reason. 

At Least Ty Made An Appearance

That's right Wiggy, stay in the on-deck circle.

Although Joe Buck & Tim McCarver didn't mention it in the FOX broadcast, Ty started the 7th inning as a defensive replacement for AL 3B starter, Evan Longoria. I don't think I would have even known that he was in the game if Torii Hunter hadn't try to throw out Scott Rolen at third, who was going from first to third on Matt Holliday's single. Ty fielded the ball cleanly and it was his only fielding chance in the game, so any potential Orioles ASG embarrassment was avoided.

While I was happy to see that Ty had the chance to play in the All-Star Game, I'm a little disappointed that he didn't get an at-bat. He was scheduled to leadoff for the AL squad in the bottom of the 7th, but Joe Girardi decided to go with his own guy, Nick Swisher, instead of Wiggy. With righty Adam Wainwright pitching, I guess it made sense for switch hitting Swisher to bat instead of playing the odds with the righty-righty matchup that Wiggy would have faced. Still, BOO Girardi. Let the lone Oriole representative hit!

You can put that bat away Paul!

As far as I can tell, Melvin Mora and Paul Blair are the only other Orioles All-Stars who appeared in the game but didn't get a chance to bat. Melmo seems to have appeared as a pinch-runner in the 2003 midsummer classic, while Blair was used as a defensive replacement in the 1973 ASG.

Orioles Autograph Year in Review: Hit or Miss Signers

These players seemed to be very streaky in regards to their signing habits. I saw a few of them sign multiple times one week but then not at all again for months. It could have something to do with how their performance on the field was going, or what was occurring in their personal lives; but whatever the case, they signed much better at some times than others.



Melmo was the ultimate streaky signer this season. I'm sure that a lot of it had to do with his slipping performance at the plate since I remember him being a better signer in years past. But I didn't get his autograph all season until my trip in early August to see the O's play in Canada.

Later that same week, I was able to get his autograph at Camden Yards. But those were the only two times I got him all year. I did see him sign at the last Saturday game of the year but missed out on him that time.


I'm not sure if Felix was a streaky signer as much as he seemed to prefer signing on the road. He signed at all three Blue Jays games that I went to in Toronto, but I only saw him sign once or twice in Baltimore. And I can't really count the Orioles Store signing he did in York that Kalina went to for me as it wasn't his choice to be there. But I appreciate her effort to further my collection!




I was going to categorize David as a bad signer or at least an I don't think he's a good signer until the last series of the season in which he signed at all three of the games. So I guess that upgraded him to a streaky signer. To that point, I only got his autograph one time (on the above card) including the '08 season while he was with the Baysox.

But then I got this card signed at the last Saturday game of the season. It's his first Orioles card and I really wanted to get it signed even though it's a chrome card. I tried to wipe the card down and it at least somewhat worked. I don't think he had seen the card yet since he flipped it over the check out the back before he threw it back my way. I would have offered him an extra if I had one even though these cards aren't cheap.




I'm not sure that calling Ty's signing habits streaky is accurate. He fell somewhere on the spectrum between streaky and I don't think he signs much. I got this card signed in Toronto too and I was really happy since it was my first card of him in an O's uniform. It's an interesting shot as Ty is between the netting and the camera but I like it since it's unique.


Ty signed this card for me earlier in the season. I lucked out and was the only person he signed for since the usher had just gone through to clear all of the non-ticket holding, seat-jumping autograph hounds out of the area by the dugout. But I was sneaky and stayed a few minutes longer, hoping for some luck. Ty walked to the dugout steps near the camera well and I asked if he would sign for me. He said yes, so I hopped the ropes and got my card signed before the usher could shoo me away. Too bad that I chose a card that spelled his last name wrong! I somehow had never noticed that and Ty pointed it out to me but at least he still signed it.

3 New Orioles to add to the list

Three players made their Orioles debuts in last night's O's game in Boston. I don't want to talk about the game at all except for mentioning the new Birds. I have very little good to say about the game last night, it was total crap.

In order of appearance:

The Orioles claimed Chris Lambert off waivers from the Tigers on August 20, 2009 and he made his O's debut last night with 2 outs in the bottom of the third inning with one runner on.

His stats for Detroit in 11 games over the past two seasons: 1-3, 7.90 ERA, 2.049 WHIP

His stats for the O's last night: 13.50 ERA, 1.500 WHIP, 1 HR, 1 BB, 2 ER in 1.1 innings pitched. Only 12 of his 23 pitches were strikes

Chris Lambert does not give me a good feeling in my belly. He might only be an Oriole for a brief amount of time. And yes, Core Contrarian did warn me.



Justin Turner came to the Orioles in the Ramon Hernandez trade this past offseason. That automatically makes him OK in my book. He made his major league debut in the top of the 7th inning last night, replacing Melmo in the lineup and at third base. He went 0-2, striking out swinging in his debut AB and lining out softly in the ninth. Hey, that's still better than Ramon Hernandez, and probably Ryan Freel, combined!




Guillermo Rodriguez or G-Rod as we referred to him as at Bowie this season, made his Orioles debut as a defensive replacement for Matt Wieters in the bottom of the 6th inning. He also struck out to end the game (and the misery) in his only plate appearance.

He played 39 games for the '07 Giants in his only other Major League action to date. He is a minor league veteran who has played in 852 minor leagues games over the past 14 seasons so it's always nice to see a guy like him make it to the Bigs.


As you can see I was able to get G-Rod's autograph a couple of times while he played for the Baysox, so I am happy to add him both to the list of players who played for the O's and to the list of players that I have autographs of. It's always ideal for me to be able to do that since it makes my project so much easier.


*I stole the scans of the Lambert & Turner cards from Ebay. I try to avoid this but i had no choice as I had no pictures of either.

Recent Auto's at O's Games

Here are some cards that I have been able to get signed at recent O's games. My current definition of recent is within the past month or so. So, yes, that means that I am about a month behind on everything I am trying to do. Oh well, baseball season is almost over and then I can finally catch up on things. Sorry to anyone that I owe packages to, they will be on their way soon enough.

And I start off my post by lying to you. I got this Bruce Chen autograph when he was in town with the Royals in late July. So I'm like 6 weeks behind on showcasing this card. Wow, that's pretty bad.

But I do have a funny story about this autograph; if you read my previous post about Bruce, it really seems like he is a very nice guy. And at this O's-Royals game, he once again came through for the fans by being the only Royal to sign for the fans after BP. He signed everything for everyone, and used my sharpie for most of the signing but I didn't care as he was, like I said, the only player signing. He signed a couple of dollar bills for some guy and then the usher told him that he didn't think that was legal so I doubt Bruce will do that again.



This is now my favorite autograph of our slick-fielding shortstop. I like these O-Pee-Chee cards for autos.



Melmo came through again. And seeing as I got this signed shortly after my trip to Toronto; I got Mora's signature twice in one week and not another time for the rest of the season. At least to this point. It seems as though he is a streaky signer.



Bergy was around for his t-shirt giveaway game in mid-August. Not only did he sign this card for me but I was also able to get my t-shirt signed. Sweet!



I do not like that Moeller is featured in a Yankees uni on this card. I try to avoid getting Yankees or Red Sox cards signed whenever humanly possibly but I didn't have any other cards of his. But since I got my 09 Tides set for my birthday, this situation has been rectified.





That's it on Orioles autographs but I found out last weekend that the Indians are a very good signing team. I just missed out on Grady Sizemore twice but I did get a few decent autos.


Travis Hafner, although he's not the player he was a few years ago, is still a cool autograph to get at a game. He signed for a ton of fans too.


Aaron Laffey was talking to some friends/family in the stands and was signing while doing so. Interesting note about his autograph- he signed Laffey first, and then added the A. I've never seen a player sign backwards like that before.


Chris Perez signed for me for the second time this season. The first time was a Nationals-Cardinals game in DC when Perez was still playing for St. Louie.


Wyatt Toregas, a rookie catcher signed this team card for me. I think he was trying to leave some room for others to sign the card. That, or he has a tiny signature.


Finally, Eric Wedge. I like the way his signature looks; it's all over the place.

Autograph pictures from my trip

As I try to catch up on work, and life in general, after my trip I want to make sure I get back to posting regularly (whatever that might be). Pictures of the Orioles playing at the Skydome are forthcoming. And I do know that it's now officially called the Rogers Centre, but I definitely prefer calling it the Skydome.

In the meantime, here are most of the Orioles autographs that I was able to get in Toronto. I love going to O's road games since it is so much easier to get autographs from the Birds. These are presented more or less in order of how much I like the players, and/or whether or not I already have their autographs.

While I'm OK with the Gregg Zaun trade, I was not prepared for it, so didn't have my Moeller cards on the trip with me. I got him on this cool O-Pee-Chee Orioles checklist. But Bad Chad surprising me like that!

Felix finally signed for me at a game.

Berky got the win on Friday, which is the only reason he is ranked this high. I ran into his cousin before that game; he seemed like a really nice guy. And don't get the wrong idea, I don't know Berken but his cousin said hi since I was wearing my Orioles gear.

Dino continued to be a good signer, and to look tough in all pictures taken of him.

Guthrie signed but seems to like to mess with some of the fans by telling them he will sign and then running away multiple times.

Finally an in-person success with "The Crow"!

Also my first time getting Brian Bass in-person. I think Toronto was a good luck charm for me.


Probably the best signer on the team, LUUUKE signed for everyone, and some of their mothers.


This isn't the first time Melmo signed for me, but it is the first time this season.


Ty finally signed this card; his first in an Orioles uniform.


"Claw" signed for me! He has moved down a little on my favorite O's list as he keeps giving up runs but this is an awesome action shot of him pitching!


I think that this is now my favorite Jonesy autograph. What a great looking card.


Nolan was signing and let's just say that Kalina was a little bit happy about that.


But Wiety signed too! And I was very happy about that!
It's the first time I got him to sign since he was promoted to the O's in late May.
He signed all three days of the series too.

So, to wrap up this post; I highly recommend that, if you love the Orioles and getting them to sign things for you, you should hit the road with the team sometime. They are much more likely to sign since there are many fewer O's fans than in Baltimore and it's always cool to check out other ballparks.