Jeff Robinson, 1992 Score #186

Looking at Jeff Robinson's right arm, contorted with his palm facing outward, the muscles in his forearm strained and taut, I'm thinking again about just how abnormal the act of pitching a baseball is. As if to underscore this point, the text on the card back mentions a circulatory problem in his fingers that interrupted his sophomore season, back in 1988 with Detroit. That year, he was 13-6 with a 2.98 ERA (128 ERA+) and six complete games, but his 24th and final outing of the season came on August 23. He didn't come close to matching those numbers again, and battled an assortment of maladies over the next two seasons, most notably a stress fracture in his right forearm in 1990. After passing through three organizations in 1992 (Texas, Pittsburgh, and back to Detroit), he was out of baseball by age 31. Sadly, he passed away in October 2014 after suffering from undisclosed health issues.

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Bob Milacki, Mike Flanagan, Mark Williamson, and Gregg Olson, 1992 Score #427

The combined no-hitter started by Bob Milacki and finished by the O's bullpen on July 13, 1991 was a rare highlight for the Orioles in Oakland. For as long as I can remember, it seems like the Oakland Coliseum (or O.co Coliseum, as some idiot decided it should be called) has been a special house of horrors for the Birds. But suddenly, there is sweet relief. Jim Johnson wriggled out of a bases loaded, no-out jam in the ninth inning today to seal a 7-3 win and to guarantee the Orioles their first series win in Oakland since 2007. But by taking the first three games of this four-game set, the O's are also assured of winning their first four-game road series against the A's since July 31-August 3, 1997. Just as a refresher, the club's winning pitchers in that series were Armando Benitez, Mike Mussina, and Shawn Boskie. (I write, read, and think about the Orioles 365 days a year, and it probably would have taken me 100 guesses or more to tab Shawn Boskie. He won a half-dozen games here.) Not that I'm getting greedy, but a win in tomorrow's finale would give Baltimore their first four-game sweep in Oakland since May 22-25, 1987. Ken Dixon had three saves in that series, don't ya know.

A lot of smart people assumed that the O's would come back down to earth in 2013 after going 29-9 in one-run games in their wild-card run last year. It's still early, but we've got 24 games to look at, almost 15 percent of the season. The Orioles are 15-9, including an 8-4 road record and a 9-6 mark in the brutal American League East. They're in second place in the division, 1.5 games behind the Red Sox and 6.5 up on the offseason darlings in Toronto. I'm glad the good times aren't over in Birdland just yet.

Anthony Telford, 1992 Score #853

I don't know if you've heard, but the Internet makes the world a pretty small place. Case in point: Today Anthony Telford left a comment on a blog post I wrote about him two years ago. Fortunately, I had kind words to say about him, and vice versa. It's a gentle reminder of something that I know I occasionally take for granted. If you share your words, thoughts, and opinions online, anyone can read them at any time. Choose those words carefully. (For instance, I should probably hope that Sidney Ponson never Googles himself!) Anyway, I'm glad that Anthony dropped by and liked what he saw, and I think I'll have to do as he suggested and put a card in the mail.

Cal Ripken, Jr., 1992 Score #433

OH GOD KILL IT

KILL IT WITH FIRE

Cal Ripken, Jr., 1992 Score #884

Few people realize that Cal Ripken, Jr.'s historic consecutive games played streak almost came to an untimely end at 1,495 straight. It was July 14, 1991, and Cal and the Orioles had just lost a 3-2 heartbreaker in 11 innings in Oakland. Trying to get his mind off of an 0-5 day at the plate, the shortstop agreed to an impromptu photo shoot with Score. He was still preoccupied, however, and didn't think it odd when the photographer led him to the defunct 16th Street train station. Lost in his own thoughts, Junior failed to hear the giant old-timey locomotive that was bearing down on him, seemingly from nowhere. The photographer (who would be fired shortly thereafter) claimed that he tried to warn the player of his impending doom, but that his shouts were drowned out by the loud, shrill whistle of the train. Luckily and mysteriously, the original "iron horse" stopped inches short of squashing Baltimore's native son. But after everyone had recovered their wits and checked the train, there was not a single living soul to be found inside.

Strange but true.*

*=Not actually true

Paul Kilgus, 1992 Score #268

Previously on Orioles Card 'O' the Day, I dithered over Twitter. Though the most vocal of you seemed to be on the "con" side of the argument (or more accurately, the "What's the point?" side of it), I broke down and signed up. I've added a Twitter widget to the left sidebar on this blog. It's at the bottom of the sidebar, so hopefully you can ignore it if you're so inclined. For those who are so inclined, you can follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/brotz13. Now that I got that out of the way, I solemnly swear never to type "Twitter" three times in one paragraph again.

So, today's card-centric business. I first picked this card out just for a cheap laugh at Paul Kilgus' curly mullet and cop 'stache. But then I noticed some uncanny parallels to recently departed reliever Jamie Walker. For your consideration:

-Kilgus was a left-handed relief pitcher from Kentucky. He was drafted by a Texas team (the Rangers) and made his major league debut at age 25. He was 6'1", 175 pounds. He had a 5.08 ERA in his only season with the Orioles.

-Walker was a left-handed relief pitcher from Tennessee. He was drafted by a Texas team (the Astros) and made his major league debut at age 25. He was 6'2", 190 pounds. He had a 5.11 ERA in his final season with the Orioles.

Look, it would be irresponsible of me to accuse Paul Kilgus, whose major league career ended in 1993, of shaving his mustache, cutting off his mullet, and reinventing himself as Jamie Walker, whose major league career began in 1997. But the proof is in the pudding. Examine the following photos closely, and judge for yourself. If you're still not sold, ponder the following: Jamie Walker was supposedly one of the "replacement players" brought into Spring Training by the MLB owners in 1995 while the MLBPA players were on strike. Because of this fact, he was never allowed membership thereafter in the Players' Association. As a result, his face never graced a baseball card. Of course, this conveniently kept that same face from intense scrutiny by industrious sleuthing baseball fans. Did I just blow your mind?

Juan Bell, 1992 Score #646

SoI posted this entry about Juan Bell on Tuesday. A few nights later, I was looking through some cards that I still have to enter into my computer inventory and I found the card above. I'll repost the 1992 Donruss Juan Bell below, so you can look at them one on top of the other:

So the plot thickens. Was there a rogue photographer with Score who was secretly working for Donruss? Or vice versa? I never imagined that there could be double agents amidst the growing number of card companies that were vying for an ever-larger piece of the pie in the early 1990s. This makes me wish that I still had my cards organized alphabetically, rather than by year and brand, so that I'd be more readily able to spot cool trends like this. As always, if you have any more examples of things like this, let me know...