Mike Devereaux, 1991 Fleer #469

It's been a couple years since I posted Orioles-specific want lists for all of the Topps base sets on my other blog. I've done a pretty good job of maintaining them, but to date I still haven't expanded to cover other sets and brands. I really need to get on the ball. Last weekend I was picking through a box of cheapie 1980s-2000s Orioles and something compelled me to pick up this card, even though I've seen so much junk wax for my favorite team that my first assumption would be that there couldn't possibly be any O's that I lack from that era. But sure enough, I didn't have Mike Devereaux in Banana Land in my collection. What's more, there are still eight cards left for me to get from the dime-a-million 1991 Fleer set. Guess I'd better get crackin'.

Bob Melvin, 1991 Fleer #482

Everybody loves a good play at the plate. It's one of the most dynamic and intense opportunities for an action photo that there is. I've featured several great examples in this space. Heck, there's a whole card blog inspired by such moments. But with this horrifically yellow card, Fleer has given us the most anticlimactic play at the plate photo they could find. In this Orioles-Rangers contest at Memorial Stadium, Bob Melvin stands poised and ready for a throw home that is already too late, as Texas outfielder Ruben Sierra strides safely to the dish.

My crack research indicates that this photo was likely taken on Sunday, August 6, 1989. Melvin played in only one home game vs. the Rangers in 1990, and Texas did not score in that game. These two players were involved in three qualifying games in the previous season, and Sierra scored in two of them. However, only the August 6 game took place in the afternoon. In a matchup of promising young pitchers, Pete Harnisch and Kevin Brown each allowed a single run in the second inning. Melvin himself drove in the O's first run with a double to center field to score Joe Orsulak. In the top of the third, Texas took a 2-1 lead as Sierra led off with a single, stole second, and scored on a two-out single to right field by Rick Leach. Orsulak's throw home was indeed fruitless, and allowed Leach to take second base. Fortunately, Harnisch escaped the inning without further damage.

The starters traded zeroes until the ninth, when a Cal Ripken single and a Keith Moreland double chased Brown. Randy Milligan greeted Rangers closer Jeff Russell with a game-tying single, but the Birds left the bases loaded and the game went to extras. Baltimore reliever Mark Williamson stranded two more Texas runners in the top of the tenth, and Mike Devereaux sent the fans home happy with a one-out home run in the bottom of the inning off of Russell. Orioles 3, Rangers 2.

The photo may not be any great shakes, but at least the game turned out well.

Joe Price, 1991 Fleer #488

Well, it must be Thursday night, because I'm starting to get punchy. This happens every week. After four days of running on five-ish hours of sleep a night, I get within sniffing distance of Friday and I get a giddy burst of energy. I think that's the very definition of a weekend warrior. What can I say? Friday means two days without a four-hour round trip commute, or a 6 AM wakeup, or deadlines, or the high-pitched beeping of a fax machine that needs a new cartridge...

Okay, let's wrap this up before I kill my own buzz. Thank you to Joe Price for standing in as Joe Friday. Dragnet...is that the most dated reference I've ever made on this blog?

Dave Gallagher, 1991 Fleer #471

Here we see Dave Gallagher managing not to squint in the face of an onslaught of blinding yellow borders. He's smiling for the camera during pre-game warm-ups in a stadium I can't quite pinpoint; I believe it's Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Dave's orange, black, and white batting glove reads "S-M M". Is that the size of the glove? It seems a bit inexact. It could be the initials of the manufacturer, but I don't know. I seem to be falling short of providing you any vital information on the finer details of this card photo.

Failing that, I'll look at the card back. Let no one say that Dave Gallagher never paid his dues in the minor leagues. He'd played over six hundred minor league games in five years before getting a peek at the big time with the Indians as a 26-year-old in 1987. He spent much of that time in less than ideal climates, to say the least. Just check this line out: 1982 was split between Chattanooga and Waterloo (Tennessee and Iowa, not bad), 1983 was Buffalo, and then he spent three whole seasons at Maine (1984-1986). Besides his fifteen games in Cleveland in '87, he spent a dozen games back at Buffalo before being traded to the Mariners, who assigned him to Calgary, which just happens to be in Canada. Perhaps sick of being shuttled around, Dave chose his own destiny by signing with the White Sox as a free agent that offseason. At the beginning of 1988, he found himself...in Vancouver. Brrr. The ChiSox recalled him in May, and he hit like a man possessed (.303 in 101 games). Do you think he was tired of being exiled up North?