Alan Mills, 1993 Fleer Ultra #143

After spending the past two seasons as the pitching coach at short-season Aberdeen, Alan Mills seems to be settling in nicely after his 2014 move to the Delmarva Shorebirds. The Orioles' Single-A South Atlantic League affiliate, who plays its home games in Salisbury, had the lowest team earned run average of all full-season affiliated clubs across minor league baseball in the month of May. That's a 2.11 team ERA, and if I'm not mistaken, that's all farm systems, not just the Baltimore organization. The Shorebirds feature 2013's first-round draft pick, righthander Hunter Harvey (3-4, 2.31 ERA, 67 K/58.1 IP), as well as the fantastically-named Sebastian Vader (7-3, 3.26 ERA, 3.4 K/BB). I'm sure that Mills has plenty of pitching wisdom to offer his charges, but I can't help but wonder if he's also able to motivate them through fear. After all, would YOU want to make that guy angry?

Jeff Tackett, 1993 Fleer Ultra #147

Hi there! Sorry for the unexplained absence yesterday. I had a few friends over to watch the Royal Rumble, my favorite WWE pay-per-view of the year. I spent the afternoon cleaning and the evening hosting, and never did find the time to squeeze in a bit of writing. These things happen.

Meanwhile, back in 1993, the baseball card industry's all-time favorite Oriole backup catcher had his likeness printed on another attention-grabbing card. (If you don't know what I mean, click the 'jeff tackett' tag at the bottom of this post to see some of the other noteworthy cards of Tackett's ouvre.) I know that a few catchers in the 1970s and 1980s were known for eschewing the customary regular batting helmet turned backwards as part of their defensive gear, and instead opted for a helmet with the visor completely missing. But these tended to be smooth and streamlined, kind of like a hard skull cap. The visorless helmet Jeff Tackett is wearing on his '93 Ultra card is more contoured than the batting helmets of his era, making it look more like the hockey goalie-style masks that started popping up in baseball later in the 1990s. But the longer that I look at this photo, the more it seems that the contours on Jeff's lid are tricks of the shadows and the straps that connect the helmet to the face cage. I don't often toot my own horn, but this is probably the most time (and words) that anyone has ever spent on examining Jeff Tackett's catcher's gear.

Harold Baines, 1993 Fleer Ultra #492

Here's something you didn't see very often: Harold Baines wearing both a glove and an Orioles uniform. I'm guessing this was a photo from Harold's first spring training with the O's. The soft-spoken slugger appeared in 666 games for the Birds spanning seven seasons, and not once did he play the field. In fact, he had a single appearance in the outfield in the last nine years of his career. It came on June 10, 1997, during Baines' second tour of duty with the White Sox. The Yankees drubbed Chicago 12-1 that day, and for some strange reason manager Terry Bevington sent the sore-kneed designated hitter in to replace Lyle Mouton in right field in the seventh inning. Fortunately, nobody hit the ball in his direction in the final two innings.

Mike Devereaux, 1993 Fleer Ultra #493

When I became an Orioles fan in 1993, I took a quick dislike to Mike Devereaux. Looking back, it's almost hard for me to remember how Devo became the first in a long line of my personal whipping boys. It probably didn't help that he was fresh off a breakout season in which he'd hit .276 with 29 doubles, 11 triples, 24 home runs, and 107 RBI. Expectations were high, but the outfielder had a down year in '93. He hit .250 with 14 HR and 75 RBI, and missed 31 games in total. It's possible that I could have personally seen a few games in which he made high-profile mistakes and they made a lasting impression upon me. Certainly, his awful 1994 season didn't do anything to disabuse me of my animosity toward him (.204, 9 HR, 33 RBI in 301 AB). An ugly beaning at the hands of Cleveland's Chad Ogea did nothing to help him, of course.

The following season, he wound up hitting .299 with the White Sox and the Braves, and was the unlikely MVP of the National League Championship Series (.308, 5 RBI in 4 games). He proceeded to return to the O's in 1996, just in time to stop hitting well again (.229, 8 HR, 34 RBI), capped off with a hitless postseason (0-for-3). My dodgy relationship with Mike Devereaux continued unabated.

But Devo was a fine Oriole in the big picture. He was a gifted athlete, and his speed helped him to play an exciting center field (though he wasn't much of a base stealer). He put together back-to-back years with double-digit doubles, triples, and home runs (1991-1992), which you don't see much. He also holds a few major league records for players born in Wyoming: most triples (33), home runs (105), and RBI (480). That counts for something, doesn't it?