Chris Hoiles, 1996 Topps #191

April showers, yada yada yada. This is getting ridiculous. The Orioles and Pirates were rained out tonight for the second straight evening, further delaying Manny Machado's return from the disabled list. I had tickets for tonight's game, but I won't be able to swing the rescheduled doubleheader tomorrow. Sure, it's a necessary move, because the conditions were so rough in Baltimore that even the swiftest players would have been reduced to Chris Hoiles Speed, but it's still a bummer. I'm ready for those May flowers already.

Cal Ripken, Jr., 1996 Topps #96

Okay, since you patiently endured yesterday's bait-and-switch, here's a fitting card to commemorate my 2,131st blog entry. I would do a victory lap, but it's late and I had a big dinner. Instead, here's a list of the the players who started the most games at shortstop for the other 27 teams in MLB during the first 2,105 consecutive games that Cal Ripken, Jr. played at shortstop (that discounts the first month of Cal's streak, during which he started at third base):

Atlanta Braves - Jeff Blauser, 645 games
Boston Red Sox - Luis Rivera, 425
California Angels - Dick Schofield, 1,015
Chicago Cubs - Shawon Dunston, 1,079
Chicago White Sox - Ozzie Guillen, 1,358
Cincinnati Reds - Barry Larkin, 1,111
Cleveland Indians - Julio Franco, 698
Colorado Rockies - Walt Weiss, 212
Detroit Tigers - Alan Trammell, 1,442
Florida Marlins - Kurt Abbott, 183
Houston Astros - Rafael Ramirez, 470
Kansas City Royals - Kurt Stillwell, 473
Los Angeles Dodgers - Jose Offerman, 531
Milwaukee Brewers - Robin Yount, 347
Minnesota Twins - Greg Gagne, 1,021
Montreal Expos - Spike Owen, 507
New York Mets - Kevin Elster, 462
New York Yankees - Alvaro Espinoza, 421
Oakland Athletics - Mike Bordick, 517
Philadelphia Phillies - Steve Jeltz, 497
Pittsburgh Pirates - Jay Bell, 904
St. Louis Cardinals - Ozzie Smith, 1,771
San Diego Padres - Garry Templeton, 1,119
San Francisco Giants - Jose Uribe, 909
Seattle Mariners - Omar Vizquel, 610
Texas Rangers - Scott Fletcher, 491
Toronto Blue Jays - Tony Fernandez, 1,066

According to Sports Illustrated, these 27 teams combined to start 524 players at shortstop from July 1, 1982 through September 6, 1995. The O's, of course, started just one player at that position. That'll do nicely.

Alvie Shepherd, 1996 Topps #234

Sadly, Alvie Shepherd was unable to become the first "Alvie" to reach the major leagues. The righty from the University of Nebraska was born Alvie Conrad Shepherd; according to Baseball Reference, the only other Alvie in pro ball history was Alvie Mickelson, who played 11 games in the Class C Lone Star League in 1948. As for Shepherd, he was done with baseball at age 25, having topped out at AA in four minor league seasons. He called it quits with a career record of 17-16 and a 5.57 ERA. So if you want your future child to make a unique mark in MLB, you could name him Alvie...or not.

Manny Alexander, 1996 Topps #34

I finally got around to ripping through the box of 1992 Topps that I bought last month, and my hopes of completing the set proved misguided. Despite needing less than 200 cards for the full 792, I was undone by the crappy collation of the junk wax era. I'm still 55 short, and I throw myself upon your mercy, fellow collectors. You can find my handy-dandy want list here, and email me for trade talk at brotz13 at gmail dot com. Let's do business, so that I might finally close out my only incomplete Topps base set from 1986-1993.

The most glaring need in my set, by the way, is card number 551. It's been the only Oriole I've needed for several years, and I never bothered checking to see who was on it because I kind of enjoyed the mystery. But after opening 36 packs of 1992 Topps without finding that white whale, I finally gave in and looked it up. It's a multi-team prospect card featuring Alex Arias, Wil Cordero, Chipper Jones....and Manny Freaking Alexander. Very sneaky, Manny.

Kevin Brown, 1996 Topps #376

Last night I discussed some of the strange maladies of Brady Anderson. Tonight I'm featuring Kevin Brown, who had a penchant for stabbing at balls hit back up the middle with his bare pitching hand, which strikes me as a particularly stupid instinct. Of course when it comes to stupid self-inflicted injuries, Kevin had a real doozy near the end of his career. It was 2004, when he was playing out the string with the Yankees. They had traded for him because he was old and expensive, and therefore passed the Yankee Test. On September 3, he started against the Orioles and took the loss, giving up three runs in six innings against his former club. After being pulled from the game, he stormed into the Yankee Stadium clubhouse and punched a wall with his left (non-pitching hand). Despite having the presence of mind to protect his money-making hand, the tempremental veteran missed three weeks of action after having pins inserted in the broken appendage.

Of course, New York fans probably wished that he had smashed the other hand, as he returned just in time to lose three of his last four decisions. This included an absolute thrashing in the deciding game of the 2004 ALCS, in which the Red Sox chased him in the second inning. He allowed five runs and recorded four outs, and Boston completed their comeback from a three games to none deficit in the best-of-seven series in an anticlimactic fashion. If the clubhouse attendant had any sense, he probably covered the clubhouse walls with foam rubber before Joe Torre gave Brown the hook.

Bobby Bonilla, 1996 Topps #329

Eventually I'll stop piggybacking off of Brian at 30-Year-Old Cardboard, but his birthday posts are excellent reminders and inspiration on slow days. Much as my offhand reference to Mike Cuellar's age (71) made reader Bob feel a bit old last week, it startled me to learn that Bobby Bo was turning 46 today. I remember Bonilla as the ultimate midseason pickup, a guy whose excellent half-season in Baltimore in 1995 (.333, 10 HR, 46 RBI) seemed to go to waste on Phil Regan's muddled sub-.500 team. Given a full season to bat in the midst of Rafael Palmeiro and Cal Ripken in 1996, the slugger turned in a .287-28-116 stat line for a team that finished three wins short of the World Series. From what I've heard, he was a good teammate as an Oriole, and I remember him and Palmeiro calling a team meeting after Tony LaRussa and the A's got a little too comfortable throwing chin music at the Birds.
Happy Birthday, Bobby. You were one heck of a hitter...but not much of a pitcher!