1993 Orioles Debuts, #524-539

Moving right along with my debut years theme, up today are the new 1993 Orioles players. Here are the past debut years I've featured (2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1995, 1994).

1993 was a mixed bag of Birdland debuts; there were a few veteran players who only spent a season or two in Baltimore as well as eight players who would make their MLB debut appearances for the O's. Harold Baines and Jeffrey Hammonds were the only two players who had a major impact for the team during their time in Baltimore. 

Harold Reynolds #524, 4/5/93 (1993)

Harold Baines #525, 4/5/93 (1993-95, 97-99, 2000)

Fernando Valenzuela #526, 4/9/93 (1993)

Sherman Obando #527, 4/10/93 (1993, 95)

Besides having one of the cooler names in Orioles history, Sherman didn't contribute much to the team in 47 games he played for them over parts of two seasons. But it turns out that he actually had quite a successful career playing in Japan and consistently had good numbers over the six seasons he played there. In fact, for a few seasons he was the second best player in the league behind only Ichiro. 

He continued to play baseball at least part time through the 2008 season, having been a member of Panama's 2006 World Baseball Classic team, 2007 Baseball World Cup squad, and their 2008 Olympic team. Most recently, he served as the first base coach for the Charleston RiverDogs for at least the 2009 season. 

Brad Pennington #528, 4/17/93 (1993-95)

Brad was a very wild pitcher who averaged well over a walk an inning during the parts of five seasons that he spent in the Majors. He also averaged more than a strikeout per inning, which is probably what kept him the big leagues as long as it did, and he wrapped up his career with a 7.02 ERA over 79 games. 

I am a big fan of his autograph however, it's got so much flair to it that it's hard not to like. 

Damon Buford #529, 5/4/93 (1993-95)

Mark Leonard #530, 5/6/93 (1993)

Jamie Moyer #531, 5/20/93 (1993-95)

What can I say about Jamie Moyer that you likely don't already know? Not much, I'm sure. But when the Orioles signed Moyer to a minor league deal earlier this season, I got excited to think that a player could re-play for the Orioles after an almost 20 year break. That would have been amazing, but sadly the O's released Jamie after a three start minor league trial. I hope that he can catch on somewhere because it's not often that you get to see a 49 year old play at baseball's top level.

I'm also a bit surprised that I had never featured Moyer before today. 

Paul Carey #532, 5/25/93 (1993)

Jeffrey Hammonds #533, 6/25/93 (1993-98)

John O'Donoghue (2) #534, 6/27/93 (1993)

This John O'Donoghue (2) is the son of John O'Donoghue(1) who also pitched for the Orioles, and I've conveniently labeled them 1 & 2 for your reading ease.

2 pitched in 11 games for the '93 Orioles. He kindly signed this card for me during his time with the team and as you can see, I was still learning about how Sharpies interacted with glossy cards. Thanks a million Pinnacle!

Mike Oquist #535, 8/14/93 (1993-95)

I know that I have an autograph of Oquist and I have no idea how it's not scanned. I will get on this ASAP.

Mike Pagliarulo #536, 8/16/93 (1993)

Kevin McGehee #537, 8/23/93 (1993)

Lonnie Smith #538, 9/12/93 (1993-94)

Mike Cook #539, 9/29/93 (1993)

Finally

My dad has been creating Orioles cards for me of all the new Orioles players as they have made their Baltimore debuts since Miguel Gonzalez, who debuted way back at the end of May. So about a third of my team set now consists of his self-produced cards, and I have just missed getting a few of them signed by the new Orioles. I was either getting autographs in the wrong location or the players were signing down the line and just never made it to me. Until now...

Lew Ford kindly signed one of my dad's cards for me on Thursday, so I got that proverbial monkey off of my back. For some reason, I forgot to ask Lew to personalize it to me, but luckily my dad typically sends me a short stack of his cards every time he makes some, so I have a few more of this version to get signed. If nothing else, I'm probably the only person who has a signed Lew Ford  Orioles card right now.

Thank you for all your awesome cards, Dad! And thank you Lew for being the first to sign one of his creations!

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Eddie Waitkus, "The Natural" , Oriole #2

This week's edition of an unpossible autograph features one of the players with possibly the most interesting story of nearly any of the 938 men who have appeared in a game for the Orioles. Many of you might not recognize the name Eddie Waitkus, but you likely have heard his story, or at least the fictionalized account of it. I bet that the name Roy Hobbs would ring a bell for many more of you, and you see, Eddie was the inspiration of the title character in the book, and later the movie, "The Natural".

Writer Bernard Malamud wrote "The Natural" way back in 1952, when Eddie's story was better known. You see, while the book was not a biography of Eddie, the part about the ballplayer who was shot by an obsessed female fan is based off of his story. Ruth Ann Steinhagen, who had some mental issues to say the least, became infatuated with Eddie and his All-Star caliber of play when he was a member of the Cubs between 1946-48. Apparently the fact that she was able to watch him play throughout the season kept her at bay, but when he was traded to the Phillies prior to the 1949 season, and she was no longer to see him regularly, made something snap inside of her.

On June 14, 1949 she stayed at the Phillies' team hotel and posed as one of Eddie's former classmates, and asked him to meet her in her hotel room. He obliged, walking into Steinhagen's trap, and she shot him in the chest, nearly killing him. Eddie's life was saved by the doctors who worked on him, and Ruth Ann was committed to a mental institution. At this point, the book and movie diverge from Eddie's tale, but it is a major part of Malamud's story. Outside of saying that the book and movie end differently, I won't give away any more information but I strongly suggest that you read the book and/or watch the movie if you have never have before.

Eddie made a quick recovery from the assault and actually was back to playing baseball at the beginning of the 1950 season. While he did suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder for the remainder of his life, his baseball skills didn't seem to suffer too badly. He continued to play through the 1955 season, and was a member of the inaugural 1954 Orioles. In fact he was the second player to ever bat for the team when he came to the plate on April 13, 1954 in Detroit against the Tigers. Eddie played in 133 games for the O's over the 1954-55 seasons, and let me tell you that it's a tough task to find a signed copy of this 1955 Bowman, the one and only Orioles card issued during his lifetime, at least at a semi-reasonable price.

Eddie passed away from complications of esophageal cancer at just 53 years of age in 1972. His untimely passing at a relatively young age, combined with his fame due to the connection to "The Natural" make his autograph a highly sought after commodity. RIP Eddie.


To briefly explain the misspelled/made up title of these weekly posts: Every Friday, I profile a former Oriole who has passed away. I've substituted the word unpossible for impossible as an homage to a line from "The Simpsons". Young Ralph Wiggum, who is not very smart, says "Me fail English? That's unpossible." 

Oriole # 938- J.C. Romero

J.C. Romero, the Oriole new lefty bullpen specialist, made his orange and black debut in last night's 7-1 win against the Red Sox. He worked a scoreless eighth inning, giving up one hit, and became the 938th player to appear in a game for the O's. I don't currently have an autograph of J.C., but he was included in the 2012 Norfolk Tides team set, so I hope to have him sign that card for my collection in the near future.

J.C. has pitched in the Major Leagues since 1999 with seven different franchises, most notably the Twins and Phillies, and over those 14 seasons, he has appeared in 676 games, almost exclusively as a reliever. He was a major key to the Phillies' 2008 World Series Championship victory, even earning the win in the decisive game five to secure the series win. However, that following off-season, he was suspended for 50 games for testing positive for a performance enhancing drug, which he claimed was due to a tainted supplement.

Over the past two seasons, J.C. has bounced around between the majors & minors for seven different clubs, and the story of how he came to the Orioles is rather interesting.

Prior to the 2012 season, the Cardinals signed him to a one year contract but released him in mid-May. The Orioles quickly signed him to a minor league contract and assigned him to the AAA Norfolk Tides, and Romero had an opt-out date of July 10th if he hadn't been called up to Baltimore by that time. Well, that day came and Baltimore's bullpen was doing just fine, so the Orioles let him get away. The Indians proceeded to sign him to a deal and assigned him to their AAA club, but it was to some sort of conditional deal that allowed the Orioles to get him back if they needed him for the big league club. And that time came on Monday, when Troy Patton, the only lefty reliever the O's had used all season, injured his ankle and had to head to the D.L. So the Orioles got Romero back from the Indians, albeit in return for one of Kalina's favorite minor leaguers, Carlos Rojas.

Car-los Ro-jas! clap clap clapclapclap  Car-los Ro-jas! clap clap clapclapclap

So, it's nice to have Romero as a, possibly short-term, part of the bullpen, but it's unfortunate that it cost the Orioles a player, even if clubs consider Carlos to be an organizational type of player.

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)

1995 Orioles Debuts, #550-573

Way back in June, I began to group former Orioles players by their debut years as a way to show off some of my autographs that have slipped through the crack since the start of this blog. After waiting about a month since the last one of these posts, I'm back at it. Here are the old posts if you want to check them out (2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996). 

Bret Barberie #550, 4/26/95 (1995)

Andy Van Slyke #551, 4/26/95 (1995)

Kevin Bass #552, 4/26/95 (1995)

Matt Nokes #553, 4/26/95 (1995)

Jesse Orosco #554, 4/28/95 (1995-99)

Doug Jones #555, 4/28/95 (1995)

Kevin Brown #556, 4/29/95 (1995)

Jeff Manto #557, 5/4/95 (1995)

Jeff spent nine seasons in the Majors between 1990-2000 and was a true journeyman, having played with eight different MLB teams during that time. The 89 games he played for the '95 O's were far and away the most he ever played for any team during a single season. After his playing career ended, he spent time as a minor league coach and manager and rose all the way to become the White Sox hitting coach prior to the 2012 season. 

Curtis Goodwin #558, 6/2/95 (1995)

Curtis played five years in the big leagues for five different teams and was best known for his blazing speed. He is also apparently cousins with Gary and Walter Payton. 

Cesar Devarez #559, 6/3/95 (1995-96)

Terry Clark #560, 6/8/95 (1995)

Mark Lee #561, 6/9/95 (1995)

Gene Harris #562, 6/20/95 (1995)

Gene was a relief pitcher whose career lasted from 1989-95, and his three appearances with the '95 Orioles were his last big league appearances. He is probably best remembered for being replaced by likely future Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman as the Padres closer during the 1994 season. It's a role that Hoffman wouldn't relinquish for many years.

Gregg Zaun #563, 6/24/95 (1995-96, 2009)

John Desilva #564, 6/27/95 (1995)

Jeff Huson #565, 6/27/95 (1995-96)

Jeff spent twleve seasons in the majors as a utility infielder and had the luck to play in both Nolan Ryan's 7th no-hitter and Cal's streak breaking 2131 game. He played in 83 games during the 1995-96 seasons with the O's, and it's awesome that he was included in a certified autograph set as the Orioles utility infielder. I wish they still made certified sets like that! 

He is currently a Rockies' broadcaster so I might try to send him a TTM request sometime to see if he would personalize a card for me.

Rick Krivda #566, 7/7/95 (1995-97)

Scott Erickson #567, 7/9/95 (1995-2000, 2002)

Joe Borowski #568, 7/9/95 (1995)

Bobby Bonilla #569, 7/29/95 (1995-96)

Jim Dedrick #570, 8/12/95 (1995)

Jarvis Brown #571, 9/1/95 (1995)

Mike Hartley #572, 9/3/95 (1995)

Mike pitched in over 200 MLB games between 1989-95, mostly with the Dodgers and Phillies. He appeared in just three games with the '95 O's in what would prove to be his final MLB action. Over the past five seasons, he has been coaching baseball throughout Europe, including in Germany, Croatia, and Italy. I didn't even know that they played baseball in Europe, but I'm all for it!

Jimmy Haynes #573, 9/13/95 (1995-96)

Oriole #937- Manny Machado

Manny Machado made his Orioles' debut in Thursday night's game against the Royals as the O's starting third baseman. He was 2-4 at the plate and scored a run. His first major league hit was a triple to lead off the fifth inning, which lead to his scoring the Orioles' first run of the game. Interestingly, Machado's debut was probably the biggest debut in Baltimore since Matt Wieters, and Wieters' first big league hit was also a triple.

Manny on third base after his triple

I feel that expectations are high for Manny's career but are tampered for the time being, especially since he was called up directly from the AA Bowie Baysox and has never played a game at the AAA level. Getting two hits in his first game won't do anything to lower what the fans will expect of him, but I personally am happy to have him in Baltimore this season. The team is in the playoff hunt and there are a few veteran players on the roster who just haven't been getting it done. If nothing else, this should light a fire under some of them. 

Manny is a very confident individual and player, so I don't expect the big league lifestyle to effect him too much. He seems to have a fairly high opinion of himself, so he will likely fit in to the Majors pretty well. 

I have had the opportunity to get Manny's signature a number of times during the time he spent with the Aberdeen Ironbirds, Frederick Keys, Bowie Baysox, and at spring training prior to this season. While his autograph has never been much to look at, there are still visible differences between his "good" and "bad" signatures. 

Here is a card he signed for me while he was playing with the Ironbirds shortly after he was drafted in 2010. Not great but not too bad. 

But then here are some of the signatures I got during his time with the Keys throughout the latter half of the 2011 season.

That last one looks like a single M and doesn't bear much resemblance to the pre-printed signature on the card. 

By no means am I trying to begrudge a player like Manny who has easily signed thousands of autographs already in his young career. It's great that he signs at all, and it's obviously not something that he needs to do. But I can almost guarantee that he will be a very tough autograph to get later in his career, especially if he achieves the level of success that I think that he is capable of reaching. 

On a slight uptick, here is his autograph that I obtained during 2012 spring training, which seems to be a return towards his early career 'graph, which is certainly a good thing. 

Good luck in the Majors Manny! I would love to be cheering for you for many years to come.

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Clint Courtney, Oriole #6

Clint "Scrap Iron" Courtney was a catcher in the big leagues from 1951-61, and spent a majority of his career with the St. Louis Browns/Orioles franchise. He followed the team from St. Louis to Baltimore prior to the 1954 season and became one of the original Orioles; he even played in the new franchise's very first game against the Tigers in Detroit on April 13, 1954. By my numbering system, he was the sixth player to appear in a game with the franchise (four other players batted in the top of the first, making them Orioles #1-4, then I used the other player's position numbers to determine the rest of the debuts, and since Clint was the catcher (position #2) he is Oriole #6.) He hit the first home run in Memorial Stadium history and would play with the Orioles over three separate stints in 1954, '60, & '61.

Clint earned the nicknames "Scrap Iron" and "The Toy Bulldog" due to the combination of his feisty, combative style of play and his relatively small stature. He was often involved in fights on the field and accrued a number of fines during his career. He is also regarded as one of, if not the first, catchers to wear glasses on the field. In 1960, he became the first catcher to use an over-sized mitt to better catch the knuckleballs thrown by Hoyt Wilhelm; the unique mitt's invention is frequently attributed to then Orioles manager, Paul Richards.

After his playing career ended, Clint became a coach and manager, mainly in the Braves' farm system. During his time as the manager of the Richmond Braves, the team was on a road trip to Rochester, New York, when Clint suffered a fatal heart attack while playing ping pong with one of his players. He was only 48 years old at the time of his death. RIP Clint.

It took me quite a few years to track down a signed copy of Clint's 1954 Bowman card. It is the only Orioles card of his that came out during his lifetime, so I'm very glad to have this signed copy in my collection. I got it at a reduced price because the card is trimmed, but all I care about is that it's signed, so it works just fine for me. While writing this post, I noticed that Clint's jersey says Oriole's, as opposed to Orioles. Not a big deal, but just interesting, to me at least.



To briefly explain the misspelled/made up title of these weekly posts: Every Friday, I profile a former Oriole who has passed away. I've substituted the word unpossible for impossible as an homage to a line from "The Simpsons". Young Ralph Wiggum, who is not very smart, says "Me fail English? That's unpossible." 

Some Recent Upgrades

Between doing some in-person graphing at games and picking up some signed cards via consignment, I've been able to upgrade a number of autographs in my collection recently, mainly of the current players on the team. 

I was able to get a few players to sign their first Orioles cards, including

Wei-Yin Chen,

 Wilson Betemit,

and Tommy Hunter.

I also "upgraded" a few of the autographs in my collection to include personalizations from the players.

Thanks to JJ,

Ryan Flaherty,

Darren O'Day, 

and Steve Johnson for personalizing their autographs.

Also, I just noticed that Steve's picture on his Bowman Dodgers card was taken at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, MD, home of the Orioles' short season Aberdeen Ironbirds. The only connection I can make is related to Steve being from the Baltimore area, but that still doesn't really place him at the stadium. Oh well.

I was able to finally get an "in-person" signature of DeMarlo Hale via consignment. He has handily ignored me each time I've called out to him this season.

Miguel Socolovich signed this team card for me. I only had one single minor league card of his prior to the season, which he signed for me during spring training, and couldn't pass up the opportunity at an autograph, so this works for now. At least until I receive my 2012 Norfolk Tides team sets.

Finally, Al Bumbry made an appearance at a AA Bowie Baysox game a few weeks back to celebrate his bobblehead night  (pictures coming at some point), and he was signing for everyone.

I gladly scooped up an orange uni autograph and his York Revolution coaches card.

My National Experience

I attended the National Card Show at the Baltimore Convention Center on Saturday and pretty much spent the entire day at the show. I easily could have spent at least another half day at the show, but I had other things to do since I recently got back from my trip. I was able to cover the entire show, but not as well as I would have liked. I also ran into fellow Orioles collector and blogger Ryan, and got a preview of his haul from the show.

For someone like myself who has such a limited collection focus, I knew going in that it would be pretty unlikely for me to find any autographs I need for my Orioles collection, but a show like this at least gave me some hope. I went in to the show with the realistic goal of knocking out the three recently-debuted Orioles that I needed; Jim Thome, Omar Quintanilla, and Lew Ford.

After looking through a few certified autograph boxes in search of the trio, I came across an in-person autograph dealer about halfway through the show. Visually, his autographs meshed well with other examples I have seen of the autographs I needed, so I pulled the trigger. It also helped that he happened to have all three of the players I needed.

Of course, as I mentioned in Monday's post, I later came across this signed Ford Tides card at one of the last booths I stopped at, so that Twins card is now available for trade.

In addition to those three guys, I came across this autograph of short-time Orioles infielder Eider Torres. The price was next to nothing and I like it much better than the autograph that was in my collection, so I made the upgrade.

So this SP certified autograph of Torres is now up for trade. 

I also found a large number of cards that I needed for my various Topps, Topps Heritage, and subset collections, but I was unable to scratch off any of the other Orioles autographs needs on my list. While I wasn't really surprised, I was still somewhat disappointed. I guess my collection is at the point where, even at a show the size of the National, no one has what I'm looking for. However, one of the dealers mentioned that he had sold a signed 1964 Lou Jackson Orioles on Thursday, so I guess that I know there is at least one out there!

Upgrading My Steves

Shortly before I went on my trip, I acquired both of these autographed Orioles postcards for my collection.

And then a few days before I left, I did some in-person graphing at the O's game. See if you can notice anything different on these two. 

Yep, both personalized, just as I like 'em.

I'm especially happy to have gotten Pearce to sign his postcard, now that he has moved on to the Astros and will be much harder to track down. I do have to give him props for signing at O's game I attended during his short tenure with the team. I just wish more players shared his attitude towards signing for the fans.

Oriole #935, Lew Ford & #936, Nate McLouth

And I'm back. My "fishing trip" was a little longer than expected, but now I'm back in the saddle and ready to ramble on and on about Orioles autographs once again.

A few players made their Orioles debuts while I was away, so I wanted to discuss them today. Both of these guys are MLB veterans whom the O's promoted from AAA Norfolk.

First up is the 935th man to play in a game for the Orioles, Lew Ford, who made his O's debut on Sunday, July 29, against the A's in Baltimore. He has now played in six games with the Orioles and is still looking to make his mark for the team, but it has to be a good feeling for Lew to just make it back to the Majors.

You see, these games with the Orioles are Lew's first appearance at baseball's highest level since 2007 with the Twins. Since then, he has played in Japan, Mexico, and the independent Atlantic League twice all in an effort to make it back to "the show". Congrats to you, Lew. You continued to play the game you obviously love and you made it the whole way back to the top.

I picked up this signed Tides card of Lew at the National on Saturday, but unfortunately not before I had already purchased a signed Twins card, so if anyone still needs him, just let me know.


Nate McLouth, who had been playing with the Tides for two months, had an opt-out clause in his contract scheduled for last Friday night at midnight. Well the Orioles opted to not let him get away and called him up; they made room on the roster for him by designating Endy Chavez for assignment.

Nate made his Orioles debut in Saturday's game in Tampa against the Rays becoming Oriole #936, and immediately made his impact known, going 2-4 at the plate with a double and a run scored, so hopefully that might be a sign of things to come. If nothing else, he seems to be a nice upgrade over Chavez.

McLouth was a long-time Pittsbugh Pirate (he earned an All-Star berth and Gold Glove with the Buccos in 2008) before being traded to the Braves in mid-2009 and seeing his career take a downhill turn. He signed an off-season deal to return to the Pirates prior to the 2012 season but struggled in limited playing time and was released on May 31. He signed a deal with the Orioles on June 5th and hopefully playing in the American League can get his career back on track.

I don't currently have an autograph of Nate's in my collection but I have a line on a signed Tides card of his and should have that locked up soon.