Fernando Valenzuela, 1993 Leaf #472

Adam Jones and the rest of Team USA had a rough debut at the World Baseball Classic last night, falling to Team Mexico by a 5-2 score. Nobody on the American side did much hitting against Yovani Gallardo and the Mexican bullpen, all of whom are being coached by former Oriole Fernando Valenzuela. Jones went 0-for-3 with a walk in his first-ever WBC game. Fortunately, the U.S. has an immediate shot at redemption, as they face Team Italy (featuring ex-O's farmhand Mike Costanzo) at 9:00 this evening.

Harold Baines, 1993 Leaf #249

Today is the 92nd birthday of Waldon Thomas "Wally" Westlake, whose eight-game stint in Baltimore in 1955 qualifies him as the oldest living Orioles player. I already used my lone Wally Westlake card in a post last March, so I thought I'd consult Baseball Reference's Oracle of Baseball to link Wally to the youngest living Oriole, 19-year-old phenom Dylan Bundy. Incidentally, Bundy will turn 20 in a week. So we may as well wish the future 600-game winner a happy birthday while we're at it! There are five degrees of separation (and 72 years of age) between these two O's, and there are some fun names involved in this chain:

• Wally Westlake played with Cal McLish for the 1948(!) Pittsburgh Pirates.
• Cal McLish played with Minnie Minoso for the 1959 Cleveland Indians.
• Minnie Minoso played with Harold Baines for the 1980 Chicago White Sox. (NOTE: Minoso, then age 54, went 0-for-2 as a pinch hitter in the last few games of the season.)
• Harold Baines played with Jim Thome for the 1999 Cleveland Indians.
• Jim Thome played with Dylan Bundy for the 2012 Baltimore Orioles.

There was one four-link chain between Wally and Dylan, but it comes with a catch: though Westlake and Brooks Robinson were each on the 1955 Orioles club, they were not teammates. Westlake joined the O's on 15 and was released on July 9. Brooksie made his big league debut on September 17. Just for giggles, here's that chain:

• Wally Westlake and Brooks Robinson both played for the 1955 Baltimore Orioles.
• Brooks Robinson played with Dennis Martinez for the 1976 Baltimore Orioles.
• Dennis Martinez played with Jim Thome for the 1994 Cleveland Indians.
• Jim Thome played with Dylan Bundy for the 2012 Baltimore Orioles.

There was also a cool chain that went Westlake-Joe Nuxhall-Pete Rose-Tim Raines, Sr.-Brian Roberts-Dylan Bundy, but I similarly tossed that one out since Roberts was back on the disabled list by the time the Birds' young phenom debuted with the team in September. Everything is connected if you look hard enough.

Leo Gomez, 1993 Leaf #155

Today just d-r-a-g-g-e-d. It was 27 degrees when I sat my frozen tuchus behind the wheel of my car this morning, just so I could drive to work at my half-empty office. One of my contact lenses must have had some extra dirt or debris on it, because my right eye was bothering me all day, but I never did succeed in dislodging the offending particle. (Update: I was wearing the lens inside-out. That'll do it.) It wasn't a bad day, it wasn't a good day, it was just there, and it stayed there well past the sell-by date. I need something to snap me out of these winter doldrums...

...A Leo Gomez card should do the trick! Hey, stop laughing and look at Leo's ass. Whoops, I mean his back left pocket. It looks like he's got a glove tucked in there. However, he's wearing his batting gloves. So what's the extra glove for? Baserunning only? I mean, it takes the right kind of gear to go 4-for-14 on attempted steals for your career.

Jokes about Leo Gomez's rear end don't do it for you? I'm just trying to make something out of a dull situation.

Brady Anderson, 1993 Leaf #177

Here we see Brady Anderson, during his breakout season in the major leagues (21 home runs and 53 steals) dealing with anger, with disappointment, with failure. I'm guessing he has just struck out; from the looks of it the third strike was called and he does not agree with the home plate umpire. Of course, his complaints aren't going to get him very far. In the end, he's still out.

Yesterday, Brady struck out again, five years after calling it a career. In his first year of eligibility for the Baseball Hall of Fame, he did not receive a single vote. This, of course, means that he will be dropped from the ballot in future votes.

Brady Anderson is not a Hall of Famer. He was an good player over his fifteen-year career, as his 109 OPS+ suggests (100 is league average). In his prime you could count on him for 15-20 home runs and 20-30 steals and steady outfield defense. He had one monster season in 1996 (hitting in front of Roberto Alomar, it might be noted): 37 doubles, 50 home runs, 110 RBI, 1.033 OPS, 156 OPS+ (if 100 is league average, 150 might be considered Hall of Fame; Frank Robinson topped that mark in thirteen different seasons). Although steroid accusations have hounded him for a decade, they remain only accusations. You'll forgive me for trying to presume that a major league player in the 1990's is innocent; after all, sometimes a fluke is just a fluke. Remember Davey Johnson's 43 home runs in 1973?

Brady Anderson will never have a plaque in Cooperstown. But in a world where some esteemed writer sees fit to dole out one of his ten votes to Todd Stottlemyre's 138 wins and 4.28 ERA, I'd say Brady at least deserves a courtesy vote. After all, that seems to be the way the game is played.

A couple more points before I go: I love that the back of this card features Brady running in mid-stride and superimposed over the Baltimore Inner Harbor for no good reason. I love it even more because the wreath hung on the exterior of the National Aquarium indicates that the picture was taken at Christmastime, which couldn't be any farther removed from baseball season. I also love the cheesy rainbow foil Orioles logo in the top left corner; Leaf put it there just because they could. Nearly a decade removed from the 1990s baseball card zeitgeist, I sometimes look back on these designs with the same embarrassment that my parents feel when they reminisce about their bell bottoms and Beatle boots.