Orioles Card "O" the Day

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

Monday, December 8, 2008

T. R. Lewis, 1993 Bowman #85

Former Orioles farmhand T. R. Lewis is one of those guys I haven't given a second thought since about 1995, when he was putting up decent (but not eye-popping) numbers in the minors. He was just another of the seeming dozens of would-be O's who got their own baseball card but never played a single game with the big club. At least that's what I thought until I happened to flip this card over while sorting last week:

"In identifying the best pure hitter in the Baltimore system, Theodore Roosevelt Lewis could be a candidate. Unfortunately, shoulder problems (originating in 1989 when he was tossed from a car at 75 mph) have left him in defensive limbo. A .290 hitter over four seasons, he could develop into a potent DH."

Wait, WHAT? The T. R. stood for Theodore Roosevelt? There was a guy in the Baltimore organization who could hit .300 and was named for the ass-kickingest President in American history, and I didn't even know it? And he survived being thrown from a car at a high speed as a teenager? All this, and he never even got a taste of the major leagues? Sometimes life just isn't fair.

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