Joe Orsulak, 1988 Score Rookie & Traded #41T

I spent a couple hours this evening opening a package from Andy of Traded Sets fame. A few weeks back, I was home sick from work when he posted a Photoshopped image: a mosaic-type composite image taken from several 1988 Topps cards. By scouring his old '88 Topps blog, I was able to identify all 24 cards that were used to compile the Frankencard within a couple of hours. Since I was the first person to get them all right, I won a prize that is simply staggering: the complete factory sets of 1989 Topps Major League Debut and 1988 Score Rookie & Traded (including the pictured glorious Joe Orsulak card, complete with Spring Training batboy in short-shorts), as well as a box stuffed with a few hundred 2008 and 2009 Topps and Upper Deck cards. Even the few doubles were a very welcome sight, the better to restock my trading pile.

The box that Andy set was assembled with great care. Each small box of cards was enveloped in bubble wrap and wound tight with packing tape, then those boxes were placed in a larger box full of packing peanuts. The larger box was also covered top, sides, and bottom with packing tape. Nothing was happening to those cards in transit. I've alluded to my profound lack of motor skills in the past. Let me just say that if I had thought to videotape the painstaking ordeal that I made out of opening the package, it would have been an instant hit on YouTube.

Now I need to sort, catalog, and store these cards, along with recent deliveries from Greg the Night Owl and readers Jeffrey, Matt, and Alan. Then there are the stacks of cards piled on my dresser, and computer desk, and in my den...

Feel free to grab me by the shoulders and shake vigorously. It probably won't do any good.

B. J. Ryan, 2002 Upper Deck 40 Man #213

A wise man once said, "You don't know what you got 'til it's gone". Or maybe it was '80s hair band Cinderella. No matter. Everywhere I looked today, I found examples of this adage:

-It seems like just yesterday that the Blue Jays had a stud closer, having lured 30-year-old lefty B. J. Ryan from the Orioles for a ridiculous $47 million. He was an All-Star in 2006, his first season in Toronto (1.37 ERA, 38 saves), but blew out his elbow the following year. He bounced back in 2008, but lost his ninth-inning job early this season and was just released today after putting up a 6.53 ERA in 25 games. So now the Jays have no B. J. and they still owe him the $15 million left on his contract. Sad for them.

-My week in Ocean City went way too fast, and today I was fully re-baptized in the horrendous waters of mass transit. My morning train ran into delays involving a broken down train ahead of it, and it took nearly two hours to get from here to D.C. In the early evening, a gas main broke north of Baltimore, and I had to get off of the train at Penn Station and take a bus to the park-and-ride, which added up to another hour of travel. If I ever take another job in Washington, I want someone to shoot me.

-As if I needed bad news, I learned that Andy's, my favorite bar in my college town, is closing forever in a week and a half. I'll talk more about this later. For now, I'm desperately hoping that I can make the drive down there on Saturday to pay my respects.

-Of course, in all of my exasperation, I finally got into my car at 7:15 tonight just in time to listen to Mariners closer David Aardsma try to slam the door on the O's. I groaned and griped as announcer Joe Angel described just how the Orioles found themselves losing 3-0: the major culprits were a scoreless seventh inning, when former Bird Garrett Olson escaped a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam, and an Oscar Salazar throwing error that led to an unearned run in the eighth. But the O's just wouldn't give up, capitalizing on two Jose Lopez errors, a walk, and some timely hits to piece together a five-run, game-winning rally. The Mariners were three outs away from their second shutout in three games and a series win. So much for that. Instead, I had the pleasure of listening to Baltimore complete their fourth improbable comeback in the past few weeks!

So as far as today goes, let's call it a wash.

Zach Britton, 2007 Donruss Elite Extra Edition #50

Earlier this year, I threw my hat in the ring for Thorzul's group break, claiming any Orioles that he might pull from a big random mess o' cards purchased from eBay. All it cost me was $5, and I got a few nifty O's cards that I probably wouldn't have sniffed out on my own. The above card, featuring minor leaguer Zach Britton in an Aberdeen IronBirds uniform, is a nice example. (By the by, Zach's currently sporting a mighty fine 2.40 ERA with the Frederick Keys.)

Of course, I haven't had nearly as much luck when it comes to pulling Orioles from the few 2009 card sets that I've been collecting. I already talked about my trials and travails with 2009 Topps; I had thumbed through over 120 of them before finding my first hometown player. As it stands, I've got 204 of the 330 Series 1 cards and I pulled two whole O's (and received two others via trade). I fared a bit better with my first two jumbo packs of Series 2, receiving three Birds out of 72 cards. Still nothing to write home about, especially when one of the guys in orange and black was the long-gone Alex Cintron. Nice call, Topps.

More recently, Upper Deck's inaugural set under the O-Pee-Chee umbrella has grabbed my attention. Most of the other bloggers that I read have taken a shine to the simple, old-school design and gloriously thick and dull cardboard stock, so I grabbed a couple 24-card packs from Wal-mart yesterday evening to judge for myself. I too liked what I saw, particularly the inclusion of just two inserts total. This is a set that might actually be feasible to collect, perish the thought! But something was still amiss. You guessed it: no O's. I had to look at the ugly mugs of Mark Teixeira and Captain Cheeseburger Sabathia, but not a single one of my guys. Of course I didn't get any Rangers, Cubs, Cardinals, or Padres either, but who cares about those goofy teams?

It's a good thing that I've found trading partners all over the blogosphere, because I sure as heck don't have a nose for Orioles when I'm grabbing packs from the store.

Adam Jones, 2009 Topps Heritage #53

Congratulations to Adam Jones, who yesterday was selected by Rays manager Joe Maddon as the Orioles' sole representative in next week's All-Star Game. With the home team having been down in the dumps for a dozen years now, most of us are resigned to having just one of our O's on the 33-man American League roster. But this is no Cal Ripken, Jr. reputation pick, nor is it a Tony Batista "Gotta Pick Somebody" selection. Even after a rough June brought his numbers down to Earth a bit, Dr. Jones still looks like one of the breakout players of 2009. He's leading the Birds with a .308 batting average, and his 12 home runs are already three more than he hit all of last season. His center field defense continues to improve on a daily basis, as his five assists suggest.

But most encouraging of all, Adam is still a few weeks away from his 24th birthday. Things should only get better in the coming years. Also, if you're keeping count, the O's have now gotten two All-Star appearances out of last year's Erik Bedard trade; closer George Sherrill was the club's sole representative in 2008, and has actually had a better first half this season. A third player, Kam Mickolio, will get a chance to bolster the Baltimore bullpen following today's promotion from AAA Norfolk. Of course, there's still a large amount of buzz surrounding pitching prospect Chris Tillman, who has a 2.69 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and 9.2 strikeouts per nine innings with the Tides and is rumored to be joining the big league club shortly. This isn't the first time I've talked about the Bedard Trade (which, as some have pointed out, has quickly become the Adam Jones Trade), and it certainly won't be the last time. I'll do anything to supplant the painful memories of Glenn Davis, after all.

Sammy Stewart, 1983 Fleer #74

I'm back from the beach, reluctantly. It was great to have a chance to spend seven straight days doing as little as possible, and the lack of an open wireless connection at the apartment we rented even forced me to take a vacation from the Internet. I'll be the first to admit that this was a good thing, on balance. Of course, it meant that last week's blog posts were even more minimal than I'd intended, since I left them to the last minute and had to post them during the week from my sister's iPhone with no accompanying text. Fortunately, my hopes that the seven great Eddie Murray cards that I chose would speak for themselves seemed to be well-founded. Thanks to everyone who added their own commentary in my absence! By the way, I did have a chance to double back and post the image that I'd intended to use for Wednesday's post, so go give it a look. Now that I'm back in Baltimore, you've all got my full attention for another three and a half weeks...then it's off to San Diego for another long weekend, and you'd better believe that I've already started that countdown!

When I finally checked my email this afternoon, I found the usual batch of reader comments from my recent posts, but there was also a new comment left on a much older post. This happens from time to time, and in this case I'm going to call your attention to it. Last Tuesday, an anonymous commenter identifying herself as Sammy Stewart's oldest sister Linda weighed in on my April 13, 2008 entry, which highlighted Stewart and his post-baseball struggles with drug abuse and his subsequent incarceration. Per Linda's comment:

"I am Sammy's oldest sister, Linda and I would like for all of you to know that Sammy is doing wonderful. He's been in prison for over 3 years now and we are trying to get that sentence reduced or even clemency for him. Sammy has changed back to the man he once was, all drugs out of his system for 3 years now, he will look you in the eye and he is interested in what you've got to say. I think God that I have my brother back. Sammy is a wonderful man, a big heart and a great sense of humor. He's never known a stranger. Drugs ruined my brothers life and one of the worst things about this is that I had to watch our parents suffer and worry about Sammy, they were heartbroken. They are both dead now but I know in my heart that they are helping Sammy through these years. I think 8 or 9 years for habitual felon is pretty drastic and with the way the NC prison system being overloaded and underbudget they are going to need to let some of these types of offenders out. It's costing the gov way to much money. My brother has been through several classes, has a culinary school certificate, he is singing solos at church and all in all he is making the best of his time. He's helping the other guys in there also. He gets along with everyone and everyone likes him. I have written a letter to the gov of NC hoping for clemency so any prayers would be greatly appreciated. I love my brother, I don't like some of the things he did but he's human and he does deserve another chance. I know that if he gets out of there he can be a productive part of our society. He loves to work with kids and that's one of his hopes, of course he still loves baseball so he would love to work with the teams in any capacity. Sammy never hurt anyone other than himself and of course the people that love him so I think his sentence was toooo long. I would be interested in talking to any about Sammy anytime. Good thoughts and prayers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you Linda Banks"

Assuming that the commenter is who she claims to be (you never can be sure, but I'd like to think no one would exploit such a sensitive situation), I'd like to thank her for taking time out of her day to check in with a first-hand account, especially one that features such encouraging news. Everyone deserves a fresh start in life, and I continue to hope that Sammy makes the most out of the time that he has left in this world.

Eddie Murray, 2008 Upper Deck Goudey #18

Vintage Fridays: Eddie Murray, 1978 Topps #36