Cal Ripken Jr. and Roberto Alomar, 1998 Pinnacle #183

Mail call! This is just one card from the latest care package I received from prolific collector Max. As is typical for Max, the small padded envelope contained a goodly assortment of cards spanning the past few decades, from the widely-distributed base cards to some absolutely weird and obscure cards that will require some researching on my part. Though these cards were sent to our old address, they still made it into my hands, so I'm also considering this to be the first card package I've received at the new house. It's only fitting that it came from Max; now maybe I'll finally send him the cards I pulled together months ago. (Note to self: do it. Do it now!)

As for tonight's featured card, it made me realize that Cal Ripken and Roberto Alomar spent only the first of Robby's three seasons in Baltimore playing alongside one another as a double-play duo. The club shifted Cal to third base in 1997, slotting in newly-acquired Mike Bordick at shortstop. But for one year, the Birds had one of the most star-studded keystone combos in baseball history.

Jeffrey Hammonds, 1998 Pinnacle #115

I read an interesting post on The Platoon Advantage today. In it, "Bill" comes to the realization that a screening committee makes the ultimate determination about which eligible retired players appear on the Hall of Fame ballot. This year, that meant that 41 otherwise-eligible guys (10+ years of big league experience, retired since 2005) were turned away. Bill takes a look at each and every one of them, and finds something worth mentioning about their time in the majors. By my count, there were eight ex-Orioles: James Baldwin, Midre Cummings, Buddy Groom, Jeffrey Hammonds, Luis Lopez, Greg Myers, Keith Osik, and Steve Reed. You could also count Jay Powell, the reliever who was Baltimore's first-round draft pick in 1993 and was later traded for Bret Barberie. It's a nifty trip down memory lane, though the stark fact that Jeffrey Hammonds has been retired for five years is a slap upside my head. Where does time go, where is it still going?