Orioles Card "O" the Day

An intersection of two of my passions: baseball cards and the Baltimore Orioles. Updated daily?

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Jose Mesa, 1992 Fleer #17

I am a man of many interests, tastes, and humors. I'm also probably misusing the word "humors". Let me go check...

Nope, I'm good. Anyway, a couple of things that I always appreciate are good baseball nicknames and amusing Spanish-to-English translations. For these reasons, I'm sharing Jose Mesa, his ridiculously long legs, and the odd combination of metallic green gradients and ochre (not orange) block lettering. The literal translation of his name is "Joe Table". Seriously, that's pretty apt if you break down his career, particularly his early years as an Oriole. In parts of four seasons (1987, 1990-1992) in Baltimore, he went 13-24 with a 5.45 ERA. It's safe to say that "Joe" was setting the table for opposing hitters. Sure, he eventually switched to the bullpen in Cleveland and went on to pitch for two decades, accumulating 321 saves. But his 4.36 ERA and 1.47 WHIP would have been much too high for my blood pressure.

Others on the All-Translation Team would include Pedro Feliz (a.k.a. "Peter Happy") and Guillermo Mota ("Willie Speck"). Can you think of any others?

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