1994 Orioles Debuts, #540-549

Today, I'm going to continue with my method of posting my remaining O's autographs by the year of player's debuts with the club. If you want to see any of the previous posts, here they are (2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1995)

As many of you know, 1994 was a horrible year for the sport of baseball, as the players went on strike and the postseason was skipped. It was certainly the worst year that I have ever experienced in regards to my favorite sport and I hope to never have to go through something like that ever again. It felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me, and 'poof' one day there was just no more baseball. It was horrible and awful and unfortunate. While Cal's Streak and McGwire and Sosa's HR battles reinvigorated a number of fans following the strike, I think that a number of former fans just never came back to follow the game.

Anyway, here are the players that debuted for the Orioles during that abbreviated season. You'll notice there aren't many, at least in part due to the strike taking away the end of the season. Most of these guys were veterans by the time they arrived in Baltimore, with Armando Benitez being the only real rookie debut of note.

Rafael Palmeiro #540, 4/4/94 (1994-98, 2004-05)

Chris Sabo #541, 4/4/94 (1994)

Lee Smith #542, 4/4/94 (1994)

Mark Eichorn #543, 4/6/94 (1994)

Sid Fernandez #544, 4/17/94 (1994-95)

"El Sid" pitched for fifteen seasons in the major leagues and is certainly best remembered for the ten seasons he spent with the Mets early in his career. He was a two-time all-star for them and was also a big part of their 1986 World Series championship team.

The Orioles were his first post-Mets team and he pitched reasonably well in 1994 but struggled in 1995 and was released at the All-Star break. Overall, Sid had a 6-10 record and a 5.59 ERA with the Orioles over 27 appearances.

Tom Bolton #545, 5/8/94 (1994)

Mark Smith #546, 5/14/94 (1994-96)

Mark was the Orioles 1st round selection (#9 overall) in the 1991 draft, so expectations were fairly high for him. I recall that he was featured on quite a few cards as an Oriole, so I was surprised when I looked up his stats and discovered that he appeared in just 67 games over his three seasons in Baltimore. I was even more surprised to discover that he had played off and on in the Majors through 2003, when he appeared in 33 games with the Brewers. Overall, Mark played in 414 games over parts of eight seasons with five different franchises.

In non-baseball news, the Baseball Assistance Team gave Mark an award for heroism for rescuing a man from a burning car crash in 2000. That takes some serious guts, congratulations Mark! Great work!

Scott Klingenbeck #547, 6/2/94 (1994-95)

Dwight Smith #548, 6/15/94 (1994)

Armando Benitez #549, 7/28/94 (1994-98)

Request Week Bobblehead Edition- Rafael Palmeiro

Fellow autograph blogger, Zach, requested that I write a more in-depth post about Rafael Palmeiro after I essentially wrote a blurb about him in a Case of the Sundays post a few weeks back. (My Case of the Sundays posts are normally about players, cards or autographs that I don't particularly like.) The O's gave away this bobblehead of Raffy back in July of 2004; I've avoided sharing/writing about it because I no longer like him and the bobble sits in the back row of my Orioles bobbles.

 

I assume that most of you are familiar with Raffy's extraordinary career and spectacular fall from glory. It's hard for me to relive those memories, so if you want to read the whole story about his fall from grace, you can read about it here. For a quick recap, the Orioles were playing pretty well in 2005 and had a chance to finish the year with a .500 record for the first time in eight seasons. Near the middle of July, Raffy recorded his 3000th hit and the Orioles planned a "Rafael Palmeiro Day"  in mid-August at Camden Yards to celebrate the accomplishment. But then the news came on August 1st that Raffy had tested positive for a steroid, one of the more serious ones too. The man who had pointed his finger at members of Congress earlier that year, swearing under oath that "Let me start by telling you this: I have never used steroids, period. I don't know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never." had lied and was suspended for 10 days. And the celebration for him was cancelled.

 

 Photo credit- Sports Illustrated

To make matters worse, it came out that Palmeiro blamed the positive tests on some tainted B-12 shots that Miguel Tejada had given him, thus implicating an Oriole teammate and making the organization look bad. The team collapsed under the pressure of the situation and finished 14 games under .500. Palmeiro faded away and didn't even play a game in the month of September.

A man who was once considered a sure-fire first ballot Hall of Famer, one of the four members of the 500 HR, 3000 hit club, became a baseball pariah within a mere month. Although, he has maintained that he never took steroids, most of the evidence points to the contrary. In his first year of HOF eligibility, he received only 11 percent of the votes; 75 is needed for induction, so it seems unlikely that he will be voted in anytime soon.

Although Raffy probably would have gone into the Hall wearing a Rangers hat since he played more seasons there and had slightly better numbers in Texas, I used to think of him as one of my favorite Orioles. He was consistently great and it really tore me up when all of this happened. Today, I have 0 respect for him and don't like to think about him. This will likely be the last post I ever do on the guy who I once considered one of my top five favorite O's. Boo to you Raffy.

A Case of the Sundays- Raffy

At one point, I would've written a glowing post about Raffy and all of the things he accomplished in an Orioles uniform. But not after the way he disgraced the team, the sport, and himself. Boo to you Raffy. Like the O's needed any other reason for the fans to dislike the team and the haters to dismiss us. This is the first time you've been mentioned in the two plus years I've written this blog and this is all the write up you get from me.