Miguel Tejada, 2006 Upper Deck #888

I went to a small card show this morning over in Glen Burnie, and emptied out my wallet at some nickel and dime boxes. About half of my haul was various Orioles cards, the better to keep the good times rolling here. I haven't sorted them yet, but it seems like I plucked out several dozen different cards of Melvin Mora and Jay Gibbons. I may have to become the world's foremost Jay Gibbons supercollector by default, and that's about as sad as any sentence I've ever typed. Anyway, this nondescript checklist card was one of my purchases today, but I'm less interested in what Miguel Tejada is doing and more interested in what's on the scoreboard behind him. It's been a while, so let's do some sleuthing!

The bottom of the scoreboard looks like it's got a Toronto at Houston matchup. #7 is a very unusual number for a starting pitcher, and I remember former Oriole Josh Towers having the #7 jersey for the Blue Jays. Roy Oswalt wore #44 for the Astros, so we should have our starters. That makes this Sunday, June 12, 2005. Oswalt tossed a real gem, two-hitting the Jays in a 3-0 victory. Towers gave up all three runs (two earned) on nine hits and a pair of walks in seven innings. Willy Taveras and Jason Lane each had three hits and an RBI for the Astros.

Oh, but you probably want to know about the Orioles. On June 12, they were visiting the Cincinnati Reds in interleague play, and it didn't end well. Sidney Ponson barfed up a seven-run, eleven-hit masterpiece in six innings of work, and Steve Kline tossed a molotov cocktail on the fire by allowing all three batters he faced to get on base. Todd Williams replaced Kline and permitted those three runners to score on a pair of singles, giving the Reds their full tally of ten runs. The O's batters fought gamely, with six runs in a losing effort. Sammy Sosa had his second (and last) multi-homer game with Baltimore, career home runs #581 and #582. Incidentally, Ken Griffey, Jr. took Ponson deep for the 512th longball of his own storied career. So there you go. 10-6 loss, giving the Reds a pair of wins in a 3-game set.