Harold Reynolds, 1994 Fleer #17

I strive for variety in this blog, sometimes to the point of distraction. In fishing for ideas today, I went through the tags to see if there were any important players that were under-represented. Some vintage subjects (Dons Baylor and Buford) have only gotten one post each, and that will have to be remedied. One of the more surprising members of the One-Post Club was Harold Reynolds. Sure, he was only an Oriole for one underwhelming season (.252/.343/.334 in 1993), but I've spent enough time waxing nostalgic about that 1993 season and my introduction to O's fandom that I would have assumed that H.R. would have had a greater presence on this blog. Besides, the timing of his stint in Baltimore means that there were about a hundred and eleventy different card sets featuring Harold in orange and black.

So here's another Harold Reynolds blog post, so the one from October 2008 doesn't get lonely. And just so this thing doesn't come across as complete filler, here's a fascinating tidbit about the Harold Reynolds Era in Charm City: Harold hit four home runs with the O's, the final four of his career. (He totaled a whopping 21 longballs in parts of 12 seasons.) All four were hit between July 15 and August 21. The last was a high-leverage shot in a wild game in Baltimore vs. the Rangers. 46-year-old Nolan Ryan was facing the Orioles for the final time in his career, and he didn't leave on a high note, surrendering a first-inning grand slam to Mike Pagliarulo and lasting just three innings. But the Birds were shut out in the following seven innings, and the Rangers chipped away and ultimately took a 5-4 lead in the eighth inning. Reynolds led off the ninth against Texas closer Tom Henke and tied the game with a solo home run! It stayed tied until the bottom of the 12th, when Mark McLemore singled off of former Oriole Craig Lefferts to score Jack Voigt, who had led off with a walk and advanced to second on a bunt. I guess if you're not going to hit many homers, you might as well make them count when you do.