Bob Melvin, 1991 Crown/Coca-Cola All-Time Orioles #296

Sure, Bob Melvin is all smiles and innocent doe eyes in this headshot from his playing days, but he wasn't so placid tonight. The current Oakland manager was ejected from the Orioles' 4-2 victory over the A's following an argument with home plate umpire Brian Knight in the middle of the sixth inning. Knight had called outfielder Sam Fuld out for batter's interference after he ran too far inside of the first base line while beating out a bunt, and subsequently tossed Fuld out of the game for protesting too much. You certainly can't blame Melvin for losing his cool, since Oakland was just swept in a four-game series in Baltimore for the first time ever and has lost seven in a row overall. As an O's fan, it's just good to see the team take care of business against a struggling team before the schedule really gets tough.

Bob Melvin, 1991 Donruss #335

It's past my bedtime, and I'm glued to the American League Wild Card Game on my television. In the bottom of the ninth, Bob Melvin's Athletics are trying to close out a 7-6 win over Jeremy Guthrie's Royals. I have no real stakes in this game, but I can't stop watching. The playoffs have just begun. I might be a wreck by the time the weekend gets here...

Bob Melvin, 1991 Bowman #89

Bob Melvin got a new job today. Bully for him! The former Tigers/Giants/Orioles/Royals/Red Sox/Yankees/White Sox catcher is now the interim manager of the Oakland Athletics, after the O's beat the A's so badly that they had no choice but to fire skipper Bob Geren. Sure, the experts will blather on about four straight years without a winning record this, and alienated the players that, but you and I know the truth. Anyway, I'm glad Melvin is getting another shot. In 2007, he led the Diamondbacks to 90 wins and an NLCS appearance and won the N.L. Manager of the Year Award. Arizona finished with a record 11 games better than expected, based on the fact that they were outscored over the course of the year by 20 runs. I don't know if you can give him the credit, but let's see you win a division with Livan Hernandez, Doug Davis, and Micah Owings as your 2-3-4 starting pitchers. Anyway, they slipped to 82 wins the next year despite adding Randy Johnson and Dan Haren, and Bob got the quick axe in 2009 when the club got off to a 12-17 start. Sounds like a raw deal if you ask me. I hereby wish Bob Melvin and the Athletics the best of luck...until August 15, when the O's travel to that empty concrete pit in Oakland to settle the season series.

Bob Melvin, 1991 Fleer #482

Everybody loves a good play at the plate. It's one of the most dynamic and intense opportunities for an action photo that there is. I've featured several great examples in this space. Heck, there's a whole card blog inspired by such moments. But with this horrifically yellow card, Fleer has given us the most anticlimactic play at the plate photo they could find. In this Orioles-Rangers contest at Memorial Stadium, Bob Melvin stands poised and ready for a throw home that is already too late, as Texas outfielder Ruben Sierra strides safely to the dish.

My crack research indicates that this photo was likely taken on Sunday, August 6, 1989. Melvin played in only one home game vs. the Rangers in 1990, and Texas did not score in that game. These two players were involved in three qualifying games in the previous season, and Sierra scored in two of them. However, only the August 6 game took place in the afternoon. In a matchup of promising young pitchers, Pete Harnisch and Kevin Brown each allowed a single run in the second inning. Melvin himself drove in the O's first run with a double to center field to score Joe Orsulak. In the top of the third, Texas took a 2-1 lead as Sierra led off with a single, stole second, and scored on a two-out single to right field by Rick Leach. Orsulak's throw home was indeed fruitless, and allowed Leach to take second base. Fortunately, Harnisch escaped the inning without further damage.

The starters traded zeroes until the ninth, when a Cal Ripken single and a Keith Moreland double chased Brown. Randy Milligan greeted Rangers closer Jeff Russell with a game-tying single, but the Birds left the bases loaded and the game went to extras. Baltimore reliever Mark Williamson stranded two more Texas runners in the top of the tenth, and Mike Devereaux sent the fans home happy with a one-out home run in the bottom of the inning off of Russell. Orioles 3, Rangers 2.

The photo may not be any great shakes, but at least the game turned out well.

Bob Melvin, 1992 Upper Deck #692

In this photo, Bob Melvin looks like he's preparing to punch somebody in the groin. Fast-forward to 2009, and he probably feels like doing just that. It was just announced that the Arizona Diamondbacks have fired Bob as their manager after four-plus seasons. In 2007, he was Manager of the Year for guiding the club to 90 wins, a National League West crown, and an NLCS appearance. A year and a half later, the D'backs are 12-17 and nine games behind the Dodgers, so he's a bum. I suppose you know the breaks when you agree to take a managing job, and baseball skippers generally have more job security than their counterparts in the other major professional sports in this country. Still, if you see Bob Melvin in your travels this weekend, be sure to buy him a beer. It probably hasn't been a great week.

Bob Melvin, 1991 Leaf #240

It's always seemed to me that the Orioles have produced more than their fair share of managers. The best manager to have spent some of his playing years in the orange and black is undoubtedly Davey Johnson, who returned to lead the Birds to back-to-back playoff appearances in 1996 and 1997. The best Orioles player to become a skipper was Frank Robinson, who made history as the first black manager in both leagues (Cleveland, 1975 and San Francisco, 1981). There was Johnny Oates, who presided over some competitive O's teams in the early Nineties before leading Texas to their only prolonged period of success later that decade. Some managers that you'd never expect played for the Orioles, however briefly; Lou Piniella made his major league debut in Baltimore in 1964 (0-1 with three pinch running appearances).

Today's card features a man who is the reigning National League Manager of the Year and has guided the exciting young Arizona Diamondbacks to a 10-4 start in 2008. They're currently tied for the best record in the major leagues, and look poised to return to the NLCS (and maybe go a little farther) this year. Bob Melvin has always been one of those players and managers that I assumed was a nice guy, just because he looks placid and pleasant. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but I can tell you that he was a solid defensive catcher during his three years in Baltimore, committing just five errors total and throwing out 29% of would-be base stealers.

Melvin also proved the old adage that "good things come to those who wait". As of August 27, 1989, he was the only Oriole who had been with the team all season who had not hit a home run. That day he almost single-handedly beat the Yankees, swatting a three-run home run in his first at-bat and later hitting his first (and only) triple of the season to drive in another run. The Birds won 8-5, and Bob fell a double short of hitting for the cycle.

Bob Melvin's patient nature has served him well as a manager. He took over a Diamondbacks team that had lost a staggering 111 games in 2004 and piloted them to a 26-game improvement in 2005. Though Arizona saw no further improvement the following season, he stayed the course with a lineup full of players in their early-to-mid twenties and the present - and the future - look bright in the desert.