Jeffrey Hammonds, 1994 Leaf Limited #1

11 days. Eleven. I will be a father in less than two weeks. I'm dealing with a lot of complex emotions, and I tried to unpack some of them earlier today in a Facebook post. I hope you'll forgive me if I copy and paste:

"Sometimes I worry that I'm going to run out of ways to express my gratitude to everyone. Since Janet's diagnosis back in March, our friends, family, coworkers, and community members have given so much: advice, companionship, sympathy, prayers, hope, time. Then there are the material gifts: baby clothes, toys, books, and care items, ready-to-heat meals (that's a biggie)...and of course we were blown away when you donated $3,700 to Janet's head shaving fundraiser for the St. Baldrick's Foundation.

It's precisely because of this generosity that we've hesitated in asking for more. But our friend Molly offered to set up a donation page to help defray our medical costs, and I don't mind telling you that the expenses associated with cancer treatment caught us off guard. Long story short - Blue Cross/Blue Shield Federal offers great maternity coverage, but their cancer coverage leaves a lot to be desired.

Our GoFundMe page has been up for less than 48 hours, and you've already contributed over a thousand dollars. Janet and I both are simply overcome with emotion. Some of you have boosted the signal by sharing our page with your own friends, resulting in donations from folks that we don't even know. What is there to say? Thank you. You've given us comfort, hope, and peace of mind. I hope we can repay you in kind."

You can find our GoFundMe page here. Every bit helps, and I'm not just talking about donations. It helps to know that there are people I've never met who are pulling for us, reading about my experiences and hopes and fears and offering encouraging words. Thanks as always.

Jeffrey Hammonds, 1994 Collector's Choice #123

If you look closely at this photo, you will see that the name engraved on the bat is "Jeff Hammonds". That is literally the first time I can recall seeing his name shortened. Was it his choice, or did the bat company just goof? Maybe it was a space-saving measure. I wonder if Jeff Hammonds would have had a more successful career than Jeffrey Hammonds. What about J. B. Hammonds? Eh, I don't like that. It sounds too much like an investment firm. Ultimately, I think Jeffrey was the right call. It just has a ring to it...not a World Series ring, unfortunately, but what's done is done.

Jeffrey Hammonds, 1998 Collector's Choice #313

A few thoughts about this card:

• It's always interesting to see card photos from 1997 featuring the "24" decal on the Orioles' helmets. Of course, that was a sign of support for outfielder Eric Davis, who was battling colon cancer during that season.
• I like the placement of the O's logo in the bottom left corner. It complements the picture, rather than distracting from it.
• This could be one of two games: June 30, 1997 or July 2, 1997. Both games featured Jeffrey Hammonds starting in right field for the Birds and Mike Lieberthal catching for the Phillies. Both were Baltimore wins, 8-1 and 10-6, respectively. In the first game, Hammonds went 1-for-3 with a walk and was replaced by pinch runner Tony Tarasco in the seventh inning. In the latter game, Jeffrey went 1-for-5 with a two-run homer in the eighth inning off of Ricky Bottalico. This late blast gave the O's some insurance after Lieberthal had hit a two-run shot off of Arthur Rhodes in the previous half-inning.
• I really, really need to clean the glass on my scanner.

Jeffrey Hammonds, 1997 Score #205

I took a quick look at all of my previous Jeffrey Hammonds posts to make sure I hadn't used this card before. When you post a card scan on a near-daily basis for seven and a half years, you can never be too sure. Anyway, I realized that there are quite a few amusingly goony Hammonds cards in circulation. Click the link above, and you'll see what I mean. This 1997 Score card, with Jeffrey shooting a knowing glance at the photographer ("I see you snapping shots of my butt, and I don't even care"), doesn't even crack the top three.

Jeffrey Hammonds, 1998 Fleer Ultra #132

Baseball cards can elicit so many emotions in us. What do you feel when you gaze upon the grotesquerie of Jeffrey Hammonds' intense mid-throw grimace? Is it bemusement? Boundless terror? Curiosity? A vague sense of discomfort? Perhaps it's all of the above. Personally, I'd go with a mixture of the first two. That's a pretty danged silly face, but there's something wild and dangerous in those bugged-out eyes and that twisted mouth.

Jeffrey Hammonds, 1995 Fleer Ultra #3

It's a little-known fact that in the mid-1990s, Jeffrey Hammonds was the Orioles' grand champion in invisible pig carrying for three years straight.

Jeffrey Hammonds, 1994 Studio #123

The Orioles have pretty much gotten what they should have expected from infielder Mark Reynolds in his first season with the team: plenty of strikeouts and plenty of home runs. Today he accounted for all of the O's offense with a pair of solo home runs, his team-leading 25th and 26th of the year. The second was a real moon shot, a 450-foot bomb that reached the second deck in left field. It was a rare slugging feat; only Rex Hudler of the Angels had ever hit one there in an actual game. Reynolds' blast was also the sixth-longest home run in Camden Yards history, and the second-longest by an Oriole. The only Baltimore player to hit one farther was Jeffrey Hammonds, on September 15, 1997. In the first game of a doubleheader with Cleveland, he crushed an Eric Plunk offering 460 feet to score Roberto Alomar and turn a 5-4 seventh-inning deficit into a 6-5 lead. It's incredible that with all of the power hitters the Orioles have had since moving to Eutaw Street in 1992, creaky, injury-prone Hammonds holds a distance record. I guess that's just a little more proof of what could have been.

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?

Jeffrey Hammonds, 1998 Leaf #86

This is one of Jeffrey Hammonds' final cards as an Oriole. At just 27 years of age, it seemed as though he had already peaked as an athlete. But he had a couple of good years left in him. After hitting .302 with the Reds after a late-season trade in 1998, he put up an .870 OPS the following year in a part-time role, hitting 17 home runs in 262 at-bats. He was traded to the Rockies for the 2000 season and the combination of increased playing time (he remained healthy enough to amass a career-high 511 plate appearances) and the high altitude of Coors Field agreed with him. Hammonds had a lofty .335 average, .395 on-base percentage, and .529 slugging percentage. He scored 94 runs, homered 20 times, and drove in 106 and made the All-Star Team. As luck would have it, he was also a free agent at the end of the year.

Perhaps ignoring his home/road splits (.399/.465/.651 at home, .275/.325/.415 on the road), the Brewers backed up the Brinks truck in Jeffrey's driveway: three years, $21 million. Unsurprisingly, injuries limited him to 49 games in 2001 and 46 games in 2003. In between those two seasons, he did make it through 2002 with 128 games played, but hit .257 and slugged only .397 while driving in a paltry 41 runs. Jeffrey's career wound down with short and injury-marred stints in San Francisco and Washington, highlighted by an NLDS appearance with the 2003 Giants in which he reached base five times in seven trips to the plate. When the Nationals wanted to option him back to AAA New Orleans in mid-2005, the 34-year-old outfielder chose to retire instead. He stuck around for parts of 13 big league seasons, hitting .272 with 110 home runs and 423 RBI.

When the Baltimore Sun caught up with Hammonds at the end of his career, he offered the following assessment of his time in baseball: "I am not downtrodden. I made millions. I played in the biggest ballyards. I played in some of the biggest games. That would be selfish [to be bitter]. I'm not the norm. And I can say that and say that with pride."

Jeffrey Hammonds, 1994 Triple Play #284

As I said yesterday, Jeffrey Hammonds wasn't a total bust. Of the six seasons in which he played for the Orioles, four were productive. But look a bit closer.

1993: Hits .412 in spring training, but a strained hamstring necessitates a season-opening stint at AA Bowie. Makes his major league debut on June 25 at age 22. Has two hits in each of his first three games and at least one hit in each of the first six. Hits .323 and slugs .500 in the first 29 games of his career, but a herniated disk  in his neck puts him out for most of August. Plays only four games in September (two starts) before being shut down for good.

1994: Hits .296 with an .819 OPS, but misses more than six weeks in May and June with a right knee injury. Ultimately has reconstructive surgery on the knee joint in October.

1995: A disaster. He spends 47 days on the disabled list and doesn't play all that well when he is able, hitting .242 with a .650 OPS. Hits four home runs in 178 at-bats.

1996: Another lost season. He hit .226 overall in 71 games and wound up being demoted to AAA Rochester in midseason. He was even worse after being promoted at the end of July, hitting .182 in fifteen games before getting shut down again in mid-August.

1997: Rebounded to contribute to a Baltimore club that led the American League East from wire to wire.  He played in 118 games (his high-water mark with the Birds), hitting .264 with an .809 OPS and a career-high 21 home runs. His home run total was second on the team to Rafael Palmeiro, and he achieved another personal best with a 15-of-16 mark in stolen bases. But like many of his teammates he struggled in the postseason, scraping out a single hit in 13 at-bats.

1998: Stop me if you've heard this before: missed 35 games in June and July. He was a solid player when he was able to play (.826 OPS), but the O's finally washed their hands of him in August and traded him to the Reds for the similarly-disappointing Willie Greene. Jeffrey's final career stats with the Orioles: .264 AVG, .767 OPS, 51 HR, 183 RBI, 38 SB in 410 games.

Jeffrey Hammonds, 1992 Classic Draft Picks #4

Whelp, the Weekend Warrior is ducking out on his readership once again. This afternoon my girlfriend and I are headed to Ocean City for a two-night getaway. I've never been to O.C. in the offseason, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what it's like in cooler weather and without a crush of people turning the boardwalk into a hazard.

While I'm away, I'm leaving you with a trio of Jeffrey Hammonds cards. Why? Well...why not? Today we begin at the beginning, when Jeffrey was a five-tool prospect from Stanford University upon whom Orioles fans could pin all of their hopes and dreams. The O's chose him with the fourth overall pick in June 1992, wedged between Montreal's pick of Mississippi State pitcher B.J. Wallace and Cincinnati;s choice of UCF outfielder Chad Mottola. When you consider that Wallace never made it past AA and Mottola hit only .200 in 59 career major league games (including six with the Orioles in 2004), Hammonds wasn't a total miss. Even playing the hindsight game, the first round of the 1992 draft was pretty underwhelming: look at this list and tell me who you'd rather have - Derek Jeter, Shannon Stewart, Johnny Damon, Charles Johnson, maybe Preston Wilson.

Of course the back of the card reminds you of what could have been. The stats show a .354 batting average over his sophomore and junior seasons for an elite NCAA program, with 20 homers, 90 RBI and 54 steals. Further research uncovered a PAC-10 Conference record 48 steals as a freshman and a 37-game hit streak. He also hit .414 in the 1992 Olympics. The gushing write-up mentions him in the same breath as Rickey Henderson and mentions the predominant opinion of baseball scouts that Jeffrey  was "the best player in the nation". Back then, he probably was.

Jeffrey Hammonds, 1994 Upper Deck SP #121

Today, pitchers and catchers reported to Sarasota and Ed Smith Stadium to begin spring training for the Orioles. The world is a little better for it, I'd like to think. I went searching for an image that embodied this time of year and I found Jeffrey Hammonds politely signing what appears to be a Spring Training preview from some newspaper or another. Of course, that's Rafael Palmeiro on the front page, along with a Cardinals player who I believe to be Gregg Jefferies (an odd choice in hindsight, but he did hit .342 the previous season). I'm guessing that this was a St. Petersburg paper, as the O's and Redbirds shared Al Lang Stadium for Grapefruit League purposes from 1991 through 1995.

It's not easy to tell in this way-foily scan, but the teammate signing autographs in the background is none other than Cal Ripken, Jr. Who else would it be?

So play ball already!

Jeffrey Hammonds, 1995 Fleer Ultra 2nd Year Standouts #7

This Day in Orioles History: May 23, 1998

Orioles 9, Athletics 1 at Network Associates Coliseum, Oakland, CA

Outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds led an offensive explosion as the Orioles (21-27) attempted to turn around a disappointing start to their season, pummeling the similarly struggling host A's (20-27). The former #1 draft pick from Stanford went 2-for-5 with three runs scored and four driven in. His fourth-inning grand slam against ex-teammate Jimmy Haynes chased the pitcher from the game and turned a 3-0 contest into a 7-0 laugher. A two-run double by Harold Baines put the finishing touches on the game in the sixth inning.

Almost lost in the shuffle was a strong effort by veteran O's starter Doug Drabek. Off to a brutal start in what would be the final season of his 13-year career, he went the distance, allowing four hits and striking out nine. Believe it or not, Jack Voigt drove in the only Oakland run with an eighth-inning double. Sadly, it was Drabek's best performance as an Oriole by far. He missed most the second half with injuries, and his solid career came to an ignominious end with a 6-11 record and a putrid 7.29 ERA.

Jeffrey Hammonds, 1994 Upper Deck #210

Today the Orioles used the fourth overall pick in the first round of the MLB Draft to select Brian Matusz, a left-handed pitcher from the University of San Diego who just concluded a great junior season (12-2, 1.71 ERA). Though they're receiving praise from most corners of the baseball universe, and I like the pick myself, it's important that we don't get carried away here. We longtime O's fans have had our hearts broken before.

Jeffrey Hammonds was the first "can't miss" prospect that missed during my fanhood. In 1992, the Birds selected him fourth overall out of Stanford University, the same school that had given us that Mussina fellow a year earlier. Two picks after Hammonds' selection, the Yankees took some high school shortstop from Michigan, Derek something. But Hammonds was your classic five-tool player, someone who would contribute almost immediately. Plus, he had a great smile. See for yourself.

Early on, Jeffrey seemed to be all that was advertised. He was in Baltimore by midseason 1993, and was hitting .323 in early August, at which point he went on the DL with a herniated disk. But it would be the first of many injuries for the outfielder, who would surpass 100 games played in just one of his six seasons in orange and black. The Orioles finally gave up on Hammonds in 1998, swapping him for Cincinnati's own unrealized, injury-prone ex-prospect, third baseman Willie Greene. Jeffrey had one ridiculously good year in the rarified air of Colorado in 2000 but finally retired last year as a .272 career hitter, a journeyman who spent thirteen years tantalizing six teams with glimpses of what could have been, if the stars had only been aligned differently.