Brady Anderson, 1994 Fleer Flair #251

Baseball has a nearly limitless ability to surprise. Would you ever have suspected that Brady Anderson's resume would someday include both a 50-homer season and a position as a trusted executive in the Orioles' front office? The O's have been a competitive team for the past five seasons, and for much of that time they have kept me guessing. After last year's frustrating 81-81, third-place finish, I wasn't brimming with optimism for 2016. I didn't figure on the team retaining Chris Davis, Matt Wieters, and Darren O'Day. Even after they did so, I didn't think it would be enough to boost them back to the top of the division. I didn't expect Mark Trumbo, acquired from Seattle in a salary dump, to be closing in on 20 home runs in the first week of June. When the Orioles stumbled in recent weeks, losing seven of nine games (including dropping the first two of a four-game series vs. Boston), I didn't foresee them bouncing back to win five of the next six and counting. They're doing it in quite unusual ways:

-Last Wednesday, they outlasted the Red Sox in a bizarre 13-9 slog. I was there, and stuck around as it took 3:58 to play eight and a half innings. The Sawx outhomered the Birds 5-0, and it didn't matter.

-Thursday the O's clobbered Boston again, 12-7, and this time blasted seven home runs, one of them by rookie catcher Francisco Pena, who was recalled from AAA Norfolk earlier in the series after Caleb Joseph hit the DL. Ubaldo Jimenez blew a 4-0 sixth-inning lead in the blink of an eye, but the Baltimore offense was up to the task.

-Over the weekend the Orioles took two of three from the Yankees, earning comeback wins against dominant relievers Dellin Betances on Friday and Aroldis Chapman on Sunday. Yesterday's game was especially remarkable, with Chapman blowing a save following a 97-minute rain delay in the eighth inning; Matt Wieters erased a 1-0 New York lead by turning an 0-2, 101-mph fastball into a single up the middle to un-load the bases. Even in Saturday night's 8-6 loss, the O's nearly wiped out a 7-0 deficit with six runs in the seventh before running out of gas.

-Tonight the string of weird W's continued with a 4-1 victory over the scuffling defending World Series champs from Kansas City. Mike Wright was so putrid in a 2.2-inning start last Wednesday that he was immediately sent down to Norfolk, only to return to Charm City when Darren O'Day landed on the DL. Given a second chance, he held the Royals to a single unearned run on five hits and two walks over seven innings to earn his first win since May 14. Scoreless through six innings, the Baltimore bats woke up for three home runs and four runs total in the seventh and eighth innings to salt the game away.

Sure, the Red Sox are probably still the favorites to take the East, but it's the Orioles who are in the lead after a bit more than one-third of the season. They've had at least a share of first place for 48 days this year, after enjoying the top spot for just 11 days in 2015. What's not to like?

Mike Devereaux, 1994 Fleer Flair #252

You might've noticed that I disappeared for a week. There's a hell of a lot going on in my world right now, and I'm trying to make sense of it all. But I can still take solace in the nonsensical, like Mike Devereaux fighting a slightly larger Mike Devereaux. Which is mightier? Little Devo's Bat of Truth or Big Devo's Fist of Justice? There are no wrong answers.

Jamie Moyer, 1994 Fleer Flair #6

You had to know that this post was coming. Ever since Jamie Moyer signed with the Rockies in his quest to pitch a 25th big league season (and 28th professional season) after missing all of 2011, I've been monitoring his progress. I was thrilled when he earned a spot in Colorado's starting rotation to begin the year, but I figured I'd save the celebratory post for the occasion of his first win. Last night, the lefty made history. By holding the Padres to six hits and two unearned runs in seven innings, Moyer became the oldest pitcher to ever win a major league game. At 49 years and 150 days of age, he bested the mark set by the Dodgers' Jack Quinn in 1932 by a cool 80 days. In true Jamie Moyer fashion, he did it all without throwing a single one of his 87 pitches at 80 miles per hour or greater.

Jamie also had a remarkable sense of timing in accomplishing the feat when he did. As I noted, yesterday was the 47th anniversary of Jim Palmer's big league debut. Moyer's win was the 268th of his career, tying him with Palmer on the all-time list. Not only that, but it was also 66 years to the day that Jack Quinn passed away. I don't want to end on such a morbid note, so here's a few more of those endless and delightful Jamie Moyer age facts:

-He was born on November 18, 1962, making him less than 16 months younger than President Obama and 27 months younger than former teammate Cal Ripken, Jr.

-He is older than every member of the Rockies' original 1993 starting rotation and their Opening Day starting lineup, with the exception of first baseman Andres Galarraga (born June 18, 1961).

-He debuted with the Cubs on June 16, 1986. In the news at the time: the USFL's antitrust lawsuit against the NFL, Mikhail Gorbachev's new arms-control proposal for the USSR, protests over apartheid in South Africa, and the NBA draft prospects of Brad Daugherty and Len Bias.

-Moyer has faced 8.9% of all hitters in major league history. As of April 9, 2012, he had pitched to 1,417 of the 15,855 men who had taken hacks in a big league game since 1876. That's still less than Greg Maddux, who is the current record holder with 1,535 unique batters faced (9.7%!). More details here.

Some day I will tell my children that I saw Jamie Moyer pitch...as they watch him pitch.

Sid Fernandez, 1994 Fleer Flair #253

Sid Fernandez was one of the best-known baseball players to come from Hawaii, the 50th state to join the United States of America. That's why he chose to wear #50 on his back throughout his career. Those are the kind of nuggets of uniform-number minutiae that I share on my NumerOlogy website, which chronicles the men behind the numbers in Oriole history. I've just given the site an update for the first time in nearly a year, because I am equal parts technologically impaired and prone to procrastination.

As I've mentioned, I found out last May that some unscrupulous person had hacked my site to redirect to malware sites. However, I was in the process of renovating and moving into my house, and I wasn't sure how to fix things. So I put it off...and put it off some more...and suddenly another baseball season was upon me. So I finally did what I should have done months ago and emailed the troubleshooting folks at my webhost. They responded the same day with a solution that was embarrassingly simple. One file in particular had been corrupted, and I needed only to reload it and set it to read-only. Done and done. I also logged the last season's worth of uniform number comings and goings. Now the 2011 season can truly start, and I feel like a proper dope.

Chris Hoiles, 1994 Fleer Flair #3

Earlier this week I heard the unwelcome news that Chris Hoiles had resigned as the manager of the York Revolution, a nearby team in the independent Atlantic League. He had been the only manager the team ever had, leading them through a rough inaugural season in 2007 and providing a steadying influence that allowed the club to earn a postseason berth the following year. But the Revs were struggling badly this season, 33-63 overall and just 9-17 in the second half. Overall, Chris won 162 games and lost 200 in his tenure. Hoiles claims that it was his own decision to step aside. Even if that's not the case, you have to respect him for being classy enough to take full responsibility. He says that he believes the team needs a fresh voice to motivate them, and he encouraged good friend and longtime Orioles bullpen catcher and batting practice pitcher Sam Snider to accept the position of interim manager.

It really is a shame that Hoiles couldn't stay on as the skipper. He'd moved his wife and three sons from Ohio to the York area earlier this summer, and now he says that he's unsure of his next move. I wish all the best to Chris and his family in this uncertain time.