Melvin Mora, 2005 Bowman Heritage #165

You win some, you lose some, and the Orioles did both today in splitting a doubleheader with the Red Sox. But there are good feelings in Birdland tonight thanks to the 7-4 win in the nightcap, fueled by Nelson Cruz's 5-for-5 evening with two doubles, a home run, a stolen base, and a pair of RBI. Cruz had an outside shot at the cycle, but was thrown out trying for the triple in the top of the eighth inning. It was Baltimore's first five-hit game since J. J. Hardy pulled it off in 17 innings against Boston in 2012. Keep digging, and the team's last five-hit game in nine innings came from Nick Markakis a year earlier. If you want to get really wonky with it, the last five-hit game by an O's left fielder took place on May 25, 2003, back when Melvin Mora was still roaming the outfield. I'd say that the Birds have gotten a pretty good return on the $8 million they spent on Nelson this year.

Brian Roberts, 2005 Bowman Heritage #21

Tonight I had a fantasy draft for a league that I slapped together yesterday, in true procrastinator fashion. I know that one of the immutable laws of our society is that No One Cares About Your Fantasy Team, so I won't give you a blow-by-blow. I'll just let you know that the only Oriole on my squad (a.k.a. Melvin Muammar) is Brian Roberts. In and of itself, this isn't news; this is about the fourth or fifth season that I've had the O's second baseman on my team. But this time, I didn't pick him up until the 19th round. After several seasons as a productive fantasy player who was guaranteed to rack up steals, runs, and doubles, Roberts is a backup plan for Dan Uggla. Even though he's my favorite player, I couldn't justify selecting him before the final stages of our draft - not at age 33, not after he missed more than 100 games last year and sat out several spring training games with a stiff neck and back spasms this month. I still don't want to bet against him, so I took a flyer. It's up to Brian to prove me wrong.

Javy Lopez, 2005 Bowman Heritage #101

Right, so it was probably foolish of me to think that I would be able to blog in detail about the National AND clean my house and host my birthday party today. But tonight's abbreviated blog post does allow me to build suspense if nothing else. The card above is one of my more economical purchases from Friday's trip to the Convention Center. It's in the style of 1951 Bowman, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite vintage sets. Surprisingly, the handful of 2005 Bowman Heritage cards that I picked up yesterday were my first few cards from that set. To be continued...