Ricky Gutierrez, 1992 Bowman #103

What, you don't remember Ricky Gutierrez as an Oriole? That's probably because he never played a game for the big league club. The Miami high schooler was chosen by the Orioles with the 28th overall pick in the 1988 draft, a pick they received as compensation for failing to sign #1 choice Brad Duvall in 1987. His stock rose when he hit .306 in 49 games at AAA Rochester in 1991, but he hit .252 (and slugged .288!) the following year for the Red Wings. The Birds dealt him to San Diego in August 1992 for veteran pitcher Craig Lefferts. He debuted with the Padres in April 1993, and became the starting shortstop for the cellar-dwelling Friars. He hit .251 with 5 homers and 26 RBI as a rookie with a 78 OPS+, which was a typical performance for him. He managed to stick in the bigs for 12 years, with a career OPS+ of 83. He topped out at 99, when he hit .276 with career highs of 11 home runs and a .375 OBP for the 2000 Cubs.

I don't really have any pithy way to end this, so here's a list of former Orioles that Ricky homered against in his career: Dennis Martinez, Jeff Ballard, Steve Trachsel, Pat Rapp, Kevin Brown, Rob Bell, Gregg Olson, Sidney Ponson, and David Wells. He also went deep against ex-O's farmhand Garrett Stephenson. So...that's that.

Jeff Williams, 1992 Bowman #284

Whenever people ask Jeff Williams if he likes denim, he tells them, "No."

Then he breaks out in an irrepressible grin.

"I LOVE denim."

Chito Martinez, 1992 Bowman #19

You may notice that I have tinkered with my widgets, which is the sort of thing that can get you arrested in some states. I had added a slideshow of the O's cards that I'd previously posted to the left side of the blog, but I wasn't thrilled that it stopped at a certain point (about 100 cards in, I think) and returned to the beginning. I thought it might get repetitive. So for now, I've replaced it with the Song O' the Day. In the days before these cards became my blogging focus, I had a LiveJournal that I updated regularly. I tagged every post with a song, usually whatever I was listening to at the time or a tune that I just couldn't get out of my head. Very occasionally, it would be tangentially related to whatever I was writing.

I love music, especially when it comes to sharing it with my friends and family. So I thought a music widget would be a fun diversion for everyone. When applicable, I will provide a YouTube video link. Plus, now you, my readers, can find out how awesome my taste in music is. DISCLAIMER: the proprietor of this blog does not, in fact, have awesome taste in music. Any posting of cool songs and/or artists herein is either coincidental or the result of recommendations by said blogger's much hipper friends and/or family.

With the legalese out of the way, tonight's song is "Orange Sky" by Alexi Murdoch. Based on this song choice, I have scanned and posted early 90s outfielder Chito Martinez, who is wearing a batting practice jersey that happens to be...orange. Plus, he's Chito, which is like Chee-tos, which are of course orange. And delicious.