Manny Alexander, 1992 Topps #551

It's true, I finally got the White Whale of my 1992 Topps Oriole team set. It was one of about 40 cards sent to me by fellow O's fan Paul last week. Just yesterday, Ed spotted some of my other set needs at a card show and picked them up on the cheap. After the dust settled, I consulted my want list, and I now need one stinking card. The last man standing is Ryne Sandberg, who occupies card number 110. So if anyone has ol' Ryno hanging around and just taking up space, I'd be glad to take him off of your hands. Shoot me an email.

Meanwhile, how cool is it that Chipper Jones is still playing? (Not very cool, if you're a Mets fan. Otherwise, it's quite nifty.) This isn't even his first Topps card. He had a draft pick card in the 1991 set, since the Braves chose him first overall out of high school in June 1990. I was in the second grade in 1990, so I'm grateful to guys like Chipper for sticking around in the major leagues to make me feel a little less old.

Jose Mesa, 1992 Topps #310

Okay, here's a question for you longtime Oriole fans. Was Jose Mesa really this ugly? By the time I became a fan, "Joe Table" was a Cleveland Indian, and thankfully he had dropped the Stoney Jackson look somewhere along the way. I also didn't remember him being quite so doughy, but maybe this photo is just taken at a bad angle. All I know is that I wouldn't exactly be filled with confidence if a guy took the mound for my team looking like that. He's a far cry from Al Hrabosky when it comes to projecting an intimidating figure.

Doug Robbins, 1992 Topps #58

It's never a comforting thing to be the lowest man on a Top Prospects totem pole. Doug Robbins bore that burden both literally, in his bottom right position on the card, and in the scope of his pro baseball career. Brad Ausmus just retired a few weeks ago after an 18-year major league career that included an All-Star selection and three Gold Gloves. Dave Nilsson was the first Australian-born All-Star in MLB history, and hit .284 with 105 home runs in eight seasons. The other two gentlemen were not so lucky.

Jim Campanis and Doug Robbins were both catchers on the 1988 Team USA amateur squad. Campanis' father and grandfather had both played briefly in the major leagues, and Jim seemed poised to join them when he hit .392 with 23 home runs and 92 RBI for USC in 1988. The Mariners drafted him in the third round that year, but he hit .254 in six minor league seasons and never made it past AA. As for Stanford product Robbins, he batted .391 with a 1.055 OPS in the 1988 Baseball World Cup and was drafted in the tenth round by the Orioles. He hit over .300 in three of his first four professional seasons. In 1992, he batted .306 with a .399 on-base percentage at AAA Rochester. At that time, Chris Hoiles was firmly entrenched as the O's catcher, so Robbins was dealt to Oakland. He played only 57 games for AAA Tacoma in 1993, and his average sunk to .226. For some reason, that was the end of his baseball career...until 1996, when the 29-year-old pitched (yes, pitched) 12 games for the Rhode Island Tigersharks of the independent Northeast League. That didn't go so well, as he allowed 72 baserunners in 31 innings and surrendered 39 earned runs (a 11.32 ERA). That would be the true end of Doug Robbins' time in baseball.

Johnny Oates, 1992 Topps #579

I selected Johnny Oates today because he was the manager of the Orioles on Thursday, June 2, 1994. Of all of the games I've attended over the past fifteen years, that day's game has proven one of the most memorable. Among other things, it was the only game I've ever attended with my mother - just the two of us. Even better, she pulled me out of school to go to the game, which started at 12:35 in the afternoon. I was in sixth grade at the time, and for reasons I did not fully understand at the time (and certainly don't understand or even remember now) our teacher failed to plan a field trip for the class at any time that year. With the school year winding to a close, Mom took it upon herself to provide me with a field trip of my own. This was obviously superior to a regular field trip; I was spared from a day of school when no one else was, and there was no threat of an educational experience! The tickets were a gift from one of her coworkers who couldn't use them that day. I recall a quick stop at the McDonald's around the corner from my school for lunch, and then we were off to Oriole Park at Camden Yards. This would have been only my second game at the still-new ballpark, and my first game of the 1994 season.

At the time, the O's sat in third place with a respectable 27-22 record, six games back of the front-running Yankees. It was one of several competitive Baltimore teams in the early-to-mid Nineties, anchored on offense by Rafael Palmeiro, Cal Ripken, Jr., Brady Anderson, and Harold Baines. The starting rotation was topped by Mike Mussina and Ben McDonald, who was having a breakthrough year; at the end of games, veteran Lee Smith would saunter in from the bullpen to close out wins. There's no telling how good that team would have been over a full season; they were 63-49 on August 12, when a players' strike halted (and ultimately cancelled) the rest of that year's action. They stood frozen, six and a half games behind the Yankees in second place and just two and a half games behind the Indians for the first-ever Wild Card berth.

As time ran out on the 1994 season, so too did it run out on Johnny Oates. The former O's catcher, who had guided the team to three straight winning seasons and no worse than third place in each full season since taking the reins, was fired by an impatient Peter Angelos, who had spent a lot of money to bring several star players (Palmeiro, Smith, Sid Fernandez, and Chris Sabo) to town and expected greater results. Oates, known as one of the kindest and gentlest men in the game, landed on his feet. He was quickly hired by the Texas Rangers, and helmed them during the greatest period of success in team history. In 1996, his second year in Texas, the team won 90 games and captured their first division title. For his efforts, Johnny was named Manager of the Year in the AL. The Rangers would win three AL West crowns in four years, but they ran into the Yankees each time, winning just one playoff game in all that time. Oates resigned after a last-place finish in 2000 and a slow start in 2001. Just three years later, at age 58, he died from a brain tumor. Texas retired his number 26; legendary pitcher Nolan Ryan (#34) is the only other Ranger to receive this honor.

To be continued tomorrow.