Mickey Tettleton, 1989 Score #358

162 games are in the books, and the playoff matchups are set. Here in Baltimore, we'll be hosting the Detroit Tigers on Thursday in the American League Division Series. People are going to go gaga over the guys from the Motor City because they have big names in their starting rotation: Max Scherzer, David Price, Justin Verlander. That's great, but Chris Tillman, Wei-Yin Chen, Bud Norris, and Miguel Gonzalez are all having quite good seasons in their own right. Detroit beat the O's five times in six meetings this season, but those games were all in April, and each team moved in a different direction as the year wore on. The Orioles were the club that left their division rivals in the dust, finishing 96-66 and  wrapping up the AL East crown with 11 games left to play. The Tigers frittered away a seven-game lead in the Central on two separate occasions, and had to wait until today's regular season finale to pop the champagne. I like our chances.

To put it another way, the Birds gave away Mickey Tettleton to the Tigers in January 1991. There won't be any more gifts this October.

Terry Kennedy, 1989 Score #123

This is quite a well-composed photo. Your eye is drawn to Terry Kennedy as he shields his eyes from the sun with his glove and peers upward to track the ball. In his right hand he holds his catcher's mask, which will make an excellent emergency catching apparatus if the glove fails.

Of course, TK's face is completely cloaked in shadow, and nobody bothered to crop out the umpire's disembodied arm and hand...come to think of it, this card is pretty cruddy. Well, what can ya do?

Rick Schu, 1989 Score #452

For reasons that I can't begin to imagine 25 years later, the Phillies played a young Rick Schu at third base in 1985 and shifted the excellent Mike Schmidt to first base.

In other Orioles-Phillies crossover news, I'm sure you're dying to know how my sojourn to the City of Brotherly Love went. I had a great time. Citizens Bank Park is a beautiful stadium, with a nice open view of downtown Philadelphia. The food choices were of course plentiful, and we opted for crab fries from Chickie's and Pete's (french fries with Old Bay - hard to screw up) and pit beef sandwiches from Bull's Barbecue. The "Bull" is of course former Phils slugger Greg Luzinski, who had his moments as a player but was no Boog Powell. Likewise, the beef was tasty but didn't quite measure up to Boog's - a little too dry and crumbly. As for the beer, they had stands spaced out evenly throughout the stadium that offered both domestic and craft options, and there was no difference in price, which left a good impression on this beer snob. Thumbs up to the Hop Devil.

As far as the game goes, we had a great vantage point from section 418, high above the field but smack behind home plate. It was hot but not oppressively so, and got pretty comfortable once the sun went down. We were treated to a strong performance by Cliff Lee, who struck out 11 in 7.2 innings. Ryan Howard provided most of the offensive fireworks with a perfect 4-for-4 evening with a walk, a pair of doubles, a home run, and 3 RBI. (By the way: there is a big neon Liberty Bell in the outfield that swings back and forth and lights up red and blue when a Phillie goes deep. They also play a clip over the PA of the late, great Harry Kalas shouting, "That ball is OUTTA HERE!". Nice touch.) The only disappointment came when Howard, needing a triple for the cycle, drove a ball to deep center field just out of the reach of Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen. It hit the wall and rolled away, but Howard pulled up at second. I doubt he would have made it to third, but there was a chance. The other excitement for the evening was provided by the Phillies debut of Hunter Pence, acquired 24 hours earlier in a trade with the Astros. He went 1-for-5 with an RBI single and was cheered wildly both before and during the game. The final was a 7-4 win for the home team, delivered in a tidy three hours.

Since I've already devoted two full paragraphs to the Phillies, I'll share an Oriole-related anecdote. As promised, I wore my Oriole cap to the game. The O's had already lost the first half of the doubleheader with the Yankees, 8-3, and when Ryan and I went for a beer during the third inning, I got a score update on my phone that they had fallen behind 2-0 in the first inning of the nightcap. I was annoyed, but not surprised. When we made it back to our seats, a guy behind me noticed my hat and mockingly asked me what happened. He motioned out to the out-of-town scoreboard, and I saw to my horror that several more Yankee runs had scored and the first inning was not yet over. At that point the guy sitting to my left piped up, and it turned out he was a New York fan. He offered some good-natured sympathy, and we kept following the progress of the game as it escalated to 8-0, 9-0, 12-0...he even bought me a beer out of pity. So that's where we stand in the world, Oriole fans.

Jay Tibbs, 1989 Score #262

There's something rotten in the state of Denmark when I'm posting a second Jay Tibbs card in the span of three weeks. Jay probably wishes that I wasn't mentioning him, since I'm now bringing up his ten-game personal losing streak during that season. He actually started out 2-0 and 4-5 in 1988 before dropping the rest of his decisions that year. Strangely enough, he went undefeated for the O's in 1989, running up a 5-0 record in an injury-shortened campaign.

This brings us to current O's starter David Hernandez, who has now surpassed Tibbs' 10-game skid by losing 11 straight since starting his career 4-4. His is the longest ongoing skein in the major leagues, as you might suspect when it's May and a guy is winless since the previous August. David hasn't had much help, of course. The anemic Baltimore offense has put up a total of 21 runs in his seven starts, with only six of those tallies coming while he was actually in the game. The second-year hurler could use a break soon, or at least before he mounts a serious challenge to ex-Met Anthony Young's record string of 27 losses.

Of course, with Chris Tillman and Jake Arrieta knocking on the door, he might not get the chance to make such dubious history anyhow.

Doug Sisk, 1989 Score #264

It's not easy being a major league pitcher, particularly when you do something to raise the ire of the hometown fans. You and I make our fair share of mistakes every day, but we don't do it in front of tens of thousands of spectators, not to mention thousands or even millions more on television. And when we screw up, nobody is waiting to boo and jeer until they're hoarse. We're not going to get pelted with beer cups and peanut shells. The phone lines at the local talk radio station won't be burning up with impassioned calls for our dismissal. Most importantly, no one will mail us a fake prescription for cyanide, "to be taken daily".

Now, Doug Sisk was probably a frustrating pitcher to watch. A scan of his career record shows that the sinkerballer routinely walked more batters than he struck out. It's also possible that the supposed Mets fan in the anecdote wrote his clever missive in the midst of Sisk's brutal 1985 season. But even so, Doug couldn't have been bad enough to deserve death. The things that he did, he did very well: his sinker allowed him to keep the ball in the park, as he surrendered only 15 home runs in over 523 career innings. You'd almost certainly have to have a pretty thick skin to be a ballplayer. Even if 99.9% of the threats are empty, I know I would worry about the other 0.1%.