Luis Aparicio, 2003 Fleer Tradition #67

The magic number is 11. The division lead is 10. The Orioles are 19-9 over the past three years in Fenway Park. The last time any American League East team other than the Yankees or Red Sox had a double-digit lead in the division, the Tigers were running roughshod in 1984. (That was also the year that Little Looie Aparicio was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.) The last time an Orioles team had a lead this large, it was 1979. I wasn't alive then, and nobody on the current Baltimore roster was alive, either. Please don't wake me just yet.

Vintage Fridays: Luis Aparicio, 1963 Topps #205

The White Sox had the nerve to trade Luis Aparicio to the Orioles in January of 1963. So Topps had to slap a drab hatless portrait of Looie on his card, but there was still the inset photo to worry about. Pity the poor baseball card company drone who had to draw an O's cap onto a tiny black-and-white photo of an All-Star shortstop. What I'm trying to say is that I can almost understand why Aparicio looks like the Great Gazoo in the inset photo.

Vintage Fridays: Luis Aparicio, 1965 Topps #410

Today I posted the final card on my Great 1965 Topps Project blog. It's incredibly satisfying to officially close the book on my most ambitious undertaking to date as a collector. The 1965 Topps blog predated my Orioles card blog by a couple of months, and it took me a shade under five years to complete this classic 598-card set. It took another nine months to complete posting those cards to the blog, but that's neither here nor there. If you've never checked it out, or haven't been there for a while, go read up on all of the most prominent players of the 1960s, from Luis Aparicio (complete with Star-Spangled Banner Sesquicentennial sleeve patch) to Willie Mays, from Sandy Koufax to Warren Spahn, and then some. At the risk of repeating myself, I'm forever in awe of the kindness and generosity of my fellow collectors. Most of you have never met me face to face, and yet you reached out to me and went out of your way and helped me complete a vintage set that is nearly 50 years old and chock-full of Hall of Famers. My next task is a bit less grandiose: I'll be blogging the entire 1993 Topps set. I'm hoping to launch that project in the next week or so; stay tuned!

Vintage Fridays: Luis Aparicio, 1966 Topps #90

Feliz cumpleanos a Luis Aparicio, who turns 77 today. "Little Looie" spent five years (1963-1967) in Baltimore after the White Sox traded him for a trio of young hitters and Hoyt Wilhelm. Already the reigning American League steals leader in each of his first seven years in the majors, the shortstop extended his streak to nine while wearing an Orioles uniform. In 1963, he swiped 40 bags in 46 attempts for an 87% success rate. The following year he stole a career-high 57 bases, and even swatted a personal-best 10 home runs. He added a pair of Gold Gloves and a couple of All-Star selections to his already-impressive resume. Luis even had three separate five-hit games in the 1966 season, including a 5-for-6 effort with three runs scored on June 2 as the O's erased a 5-2 deficit in topping the Angels 9-6. He was later a member of the Hall of Fame Class of 1984, along with Harmon Killebrew and Don Drysdale. Ex-White Sox double play partner Nellie Fox joined him posthumously in 1997.

Incidentally, the Orioles and White Sox start a four-game series tonight. May the best team* win!

*that wears orange

Luis Aparicio, 2008 Topps Ring of Honor #RH-LA

Since I took advantage of another snow day today to finally update my NumerOlogy website, I currently have uniform numbers on the brain. Now I'm thinking about retired numbers, or more to the point, unretired numbers.

I've only heard of two instances in which a team retired a player's number to honor his contributions, only to put the number back into circulation later. Both times, the team in question was the Chicago White Sox, and both times the previously honored player was a former Oriole.

In 1989, the White Sox sent Professional Hitter (TM) Harold Baines to the Rangers in a midseason trade. To commemorate his decade of service to the team, during which he hit 186 home runs and was a four-time All-Star, Chicago took the rare step of retiring his number while he was still an active player. Baines' career took him from Texas to Oakland to Baltimore, and back to the South Side of the Windy City in 1996. Rather than ask him to take a new number, the Pale Hose "unretired" his #3 just for him. The Sox traded him away once more the following season (back to the O's), but re-reacquired him in 2000 via another trade with Baltimore and once again reissued #3 to him. He retired as a White Sox player (as it should have been) the next year. His uniform number went back into mothballs...until 2004, when he joined ex-teammate Ozzie Guillen's coaching staff. Clear as mud, right?

Well, the Sox have done it again. Luis Aparicio was a Hall of Fame shortstop who was best known for his play with the White Sox (1956-1962, 1968-1970). "Little Looie" won nine Gold Gloves and nine straight American League stolen base crowns, and was a ten-time All-Star. He was the first real major league star to come from Venezuela, and generations of his countrymen have have followed in his footsteps at shortstop (Davey Concepcion, Guillen, Omar Vizquel, etc.). Naturally, Aparicio's #11 was retired by the ChiSox in 1984, just weeks after he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Fast forward to the present, and Vizquel (who will celebrate his 43rd birthday in April!) has signed with the White Sox for the 2010 season, which will be his 22nd in the majors. Since debuting with the Mariners in 1989, he has worn the #13 that Concepcion made famous. The only problem is that his new manager Guillen has also worn that number since the 1980s and refused to cede it to the shortstop. So Omar met with Aparicio over the winter and asked the Hall of Famer (now 75 years old) if he could pay tribute to him and perhaps educate a new generation of fans by wearing #11. After giving it some thought, Luis agreed and the White Sox honored his wishes.

Just hashing all of that out makes me glad that the O's retire a select few numbers...and keep them retired.

Luis Aparicio, 1981 TCMA Stars of the 1960s #358

I want to try something new and (hopefully) fun this evening. This will be the first installment of "Ask an Orioles fan". If you have any questions about Orioles history, the current team, O's cards, or anything else that you can imagine, leave me a comment. As soon as I get it, I'll write back and give you the best answer that I can. I'll start it off:

Q: Why on Earth did it take you twenty months of blogging about the Orioles to post a Luis Aparicio card?

A: I thought I already had gotten to Little Looie. I must have been thinking of Tim Stoddard. The similarities are uncanny.

So there you have it. Now fire away!