Orioles Card "O" the Day

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

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Scott Erickson, 1996 Stadium Club #51

Whoever was responsible for selecting Scott Erickson as one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2000 obviously never saw this card. What strikes me about this photo (other than Scott's facial expression of extreme constipation) is the knotty mass around his right elbow. This is something I've seen before on cards featuring pitchers. It's just a grisly reminder that man wasn't meant to hurl a small object with the kind of force necessary to make it travel 85 to 100 miles an hour. Each year, countless pitchers learn this lesson the hard way; Scott Erickson was no exception. He was never the same after the 1999 season, with elbow injuries limiting him to 71 games over the final seven years of his career. His ERA never dipped below 5.55 during that time.

Of course, he still gets to come home to this every night, which is one heck of a consolation prize.

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