Earl Weaver, 2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #32

I would say that Earl Weaver was having his worst hair day when this photo was taken, but...I've seen footage of him rocking a perm in the ABC broadcast booth during the 1983 World Series. Whew.

Brooks Robinson, 2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #148

I know that several of my readers have been rooting for the Orioles longer than I've been alive, so I'll pose a question: can you believe that it's been 35 years since Brooks Robinson retired?

On this date in 1977, Brooksie made room on the roster for Rick Dempsey (who had been sidelined with a broken finger) by announcing that his legendary 23-year career was over. The longtime O's third baseman was certainly one of those players that wrung every last drop of baseball ability out of his body, as he had appeared in only 24 games in his final season, including 15 starts. He batted just .149 (7-for-47) with a .212 on-base percentage and .255 slugging.

Even his final game appearance was underwhelming. In the bottom of the ninth inning on a Saturday evening in Baltimore (August 13 to be exact), he was announced to pinch-hit for Al Bumbry. There were two outs, and the Birds were trailing Oakland 9-6 with Lee May standing on second after hitting a double. But A's manager Bobby Winkles replaced lefty pitcher Bob Lacey with righty Doug Bair, and Earl Weaver countered by sending Tony Muser to the plate instead of Robinson. Muser struck out to end the game.

Nevertheless, Brooks had given the fans of Charm City plenty to cheer about in more than two decades in orange and black, and they got one last chance to salute their hero with "Thanks Brooks" day, a celebration coinciding with a Sunday, September 18 game.

Boog Powell, 2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #28

It's the Big 7-0 for Big 2-6 today - Boog Powell's 70th birthday! He's gotta be the best baseball player ever born on this day, right? Let's see:

-That prematurely balding runt Dustin Pedroia is 28 today. Aww crap, he's younger than me. Then again, I don't resemble a common vampire bat.

-Ex-Phillie and current Astro pitcher Brett Myers is 31. He's also a pig.

-Jorge Posada, who seems to be slowly decomposing in a Yankee uniform in 2011, is blowing out 40 candles. 271 homers is nice, but it ain't 339, right Boog?

-Ex-pitcher Diego Segui is 74. His claims to fame are fathering ex-Oriole David Segui and pitching for both Seattle teams (Pilots and Mariners). A 3.81 ERA isn't too impressive for a guy who did his work in the 1960s and 1970s.

-Rudy York was born 98 years ago today (he passed away in 1970). Rudy was an All-Star catcher for Detroit and Boston and hit 277 home runs, but our guy wins the OPS+ battle, 134 to 123.

So there you have it. In my totally unbiased opinion, the massive slugger from Florida is the pre-eminent ballplayer in the August 17 club. Happy birthday, and many more, Boog!

Cal Ripken, Jr., 2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #50

This is yet another photographic oddity from the 2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites set. I'm pretty sure that Andy had no idea how interesting these cards were when he packed them up and sent them my way! Unlike the Jim Palmer 1975-style card with the circa 1991 photo, this card matches up well: Topps has paired a 2000 card design with a photo from July 25, 1999. I can pinpoint the date because of the unusual uniform that Cal Junior is wearing. If you don't remember the Orioles wearing a black pullover with silver script text and especially short sleeves, it's because they haven't worn them yet.

Huh?

One of the more poorly-executed ideas in the history of baseball promotions was Turn Ahead the Clock Day/Night, which was sponsored by Century 21. Unlike the regular Turn Back the Clock games, when teams commemorate past glories by wearing vintage uniforms from days gone by, The first Turn Ahead the Clock Day was the brainchild of the Seattle Mariners, who got the Kansas City Royals to play along for a 1998 game and had a lot of fun with it. Read more here. So when the Powers That Be got a hold of the idea and spread it out to twenty other teams the following year, it became much too much. Most of the designs were laughable eyesores, and to make matters worse, they seemed to conform to the same dumb template. The O's actually got off easily. Don't believe me? Check this out. Or this (Nice 'stache, Larry.) How about this? Maybe this? By now you're probably begging for mercy. But the piece de resistance came from the "Mercury" Mets. Sheesh.

After the way the game turned out, it's a wonder the Birds didn't ask to keep the "futuristic" unis in a fit of superstition. Powered by Cal's three hits, including a double and a home run, and a three-homer, six-RBI explosion from the temperamental Albert Belle, Baltimore won an eleven-inning thriller over the Angels, 8-7. It was the team's sixth straight win, as the Orioles overcame a horrendous start by Sidney Ponson (surprise!) with seven innings of one-hit relief. Belle's third homer tied the game with two outs in the ninth inning, and Cal gave the fans a thrill with a walkoff single two innings later.

That's all well and good, but an Orioles uniform without orange? No way.

Jim Palmer, 2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #46

This card arrived a few weeks ago in a bundle from Andy, the mastermind behind the enjoyable and informative '88 Topps blog. If you're unfamiliar with All-Time Fan Favorites, it's a set that Topps released from 2003 to 2005, highlighting the best players in each team's history on designs from past Topps issues. These aren't reprints; they've just taken different photos from their archives and created new cards in an old style. The card backs feature the player's statistics only from those years that he spent with the featured team. It's a neat way to allow collectors to pull some vintage stars and vintage designs out of brand new packs.

Now, I mentioned that these cards use era-appropriate photos for the players. Mike Cuellar appears on a 1969 Topps-style card clean-shaven. Cal Ripken, Jr. has gray around his temples on his 2000-styled card. So when I took a closer look at this card, I did a double-take. As you may know, the design is taken from the colorful 1975 Topps issue. But you might notice that Jim Palmer is wearing a solid black cap, with the ornithologically-correct bird logo that didn't make an appearance until 1989. It might be harder to tell, but he's also wearing an orange practice jersey with the newer-style "Orioles" script (it's longer and thinner than the graphic used during Palmer's career). More apparent are the creases on Palmer's face; known for his dark good looks during his playing days, here he looks significantly older than he did on his actual 1975 Topps card. I think I'm onto something of interest here.

You might remember me writing about Jim Palmer's aborted comeback attempt during Spring Training in 1991, some seven years after his retirement (and months after his enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame). I am reasonably certain that the photograph on this card was taken during that very brief time in which the 45-year-old legend was in camp with the Orioles! I don't doubt that it was big enough news for Topps to dispatch a photographer to get some shots of him for their end-of-season Traded set (or maybe even their brand-new Stadium Club set!). With the then-ongoing boom of the baseball card market, few things would have created such a buzz as the first current-issue Jim Palmer card since 1984.

Now I'm still making something of an assumption here, but nonetheless this is one cool card that was worth the twelve years that the photo sat unused in Topps Central.