Oriole #845- Jim Miller

As I continue to go through my recent personalized upgrades, I've realized that I have never written much about a number of these players. Some I might have shown off a signed card, others maybe I wrote a sentence or two about, but many former Orioles have been slighted thus far on my blog. So I will work on fixing that issue!

Jim Miller was one of those players. My only mention of him to this point, was his inclusion in a long post about a road trip I took to Norfolk back in 2009. I showed off two of his signed Orioles affiliate cards that I got on that trip, which was my one and only in-person autograph experience with him.

Since that time, my dad has begun production with his amazing OMCs, so I now have possibly the only signed Jim Miller O's card in existence. A friend on SCN was able to help me get it signed last season.

Jim's professional baseball career has been interesting to say the least. He was drafted by the Rockies in the 8th round of the 2004 draft and has pitched in 471 minor league games to date. He had just a single start in all of those appearances but has racked up 134 saves, with a 3.53 ERA and a 27-37 record as a reliever.

Jim was traded from the Rockies to the Orioles (with minor leaguer Jason Burch) for Rodrigo Lopez on January 12, 2007. He pitched the next four seasons in the O's minor leagues, with a short MLB call-up to the Birds in September 2008; he made his Orioles & MLB debut on September 1 of that year, and had an 0-2 record with a 1.17 ERA with one save over his eight games with the O's.

Since his time in Baltimore, Jim has again reached the MLB level with the Rockies (2011), A's (2012), & Yankees (2013). The 33 games he pitched for the A's are the vast majority of his 48 MLB appearances to date. But Jim is still working to live out his MLB dream, and is currently pitching for the Yankees AAA affiliate Scranton/Wilkes-Barres Railriders.

Good luck to you Jim! (Just not too much since if you make the bigs again you will probably be pitching for the Yankees.)

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

To celebrate, here are the nine former Orioles who are either Mexican or are of Mexican heritage.

 

I have to start with Fernando-mania, who was near the end of his career by the time he pitched for the O's but is still the biggest name of the bunch.

Next up is the only current Oriole with a Mexican background. Mr. Sporadic, Mike Gonzalez.

Rodrigo was the O's #1 pitcher for a few consecutive seasons. Which doesn't necessarily mean much considering the competition, but still, he was their Opening Day starter in 2005 & 2006.

Aurelio, like Fernando, had a long career but was an only an Oriole for the tail-end of it. He tragically was killed by an out-of-control driver while walking down a Detroit street in 2000. He was only 52 at the time of his death.

Jerry is one of the many Hairston men in his family who have played in the Major Leagues. When I was getting back into following the O's in the early-mid 2000's, I remember that he and B-Rob were in battle for the starting second base job. I think the Orioles made the right decision.

 

Most of what I remember about Karim isn't particularly positive, so I'm not going to look up anything about him. Suffice it to say that his heritage is why he's included here.

 

I've already featured these last four cards at some point, but they are the only autographs I have of these guys, so they're getting rerun.

Geronimo earned an F for his autographs skills, or lack thereof.

While Carlos, Andres, and Sergio were grouped together in a post highlighting difficult foreign autographs. I don't have anything to say about them that wasn't already said in that post, maybe besides pointing out that they are all Mexican, which you knew if you've been following along.


Hope that everyone celebrates some Mexican freedom and heritage in the American style of drinking a margarita or Corona. But not too many since you probably still have to go to work tomorrow!