Baltimore Orioles, 1985 Fleer Stickers

You’ve probably noticed that I use player birthdays as a convenient topic for a blog entry whenever I’m lacking for inspiration. If it seems like it’s happening a lot lately, well…let’s just say that baseball season can’t start soon enough. So I was stunned to pull up Baseball Reference’s birthday page for today only to find that there has not been a single Oriole player who was born on January 31! When you stop and think about it, it’s nothing too unusual. Since 1954, 910 men have suited up for the Birds, and there are of course 366 possible birth dates on the calendar. The rest of baseball picks up the slack for Baltimore, however: Hall of Famers Jackie Robinson, Ernie Banks, and Nolan Ryan were all born on this date. I wouldn’t mind claiming any one of those men as Orioles, but it doesn’t quite work that way.