Luis Matos, 2001 Upper Deck MVP #71

Luis Matos is a Loon.

I swear I'm not resorting to childish name-calling. Matos, who is still only 36 years old, is currently the manager of the Dodgers' Class-A Midwest League affiliate, the Great Lakes Loons. This is his first year on the job, and the team is currently 25-26, smack in the middle of the pack in the Eastern Division. They are five and a half games behind the Lansing Lugnuts, and boy do I enjoy goofy minor league team names. Oh, and here's the kicker: the Loons' hitting coach is one of Luis' former Orioles teammates, the one and only Jay Gibbons. The only way it could be any better would be if the Great Lakes pitching coach was Matt Riley. (For the record, it's Glenn Dishman, who pitched for the Padres, Phillies, and Tigers from 1995-1997, and was born in Baltimore. I guess Midland, Michigan is Charm City North.)

Luis Matos, 2005 Donruss Team Heroes #46

One of the myriad things that I've missed about baseball: the constant chatter during games on Twitter. Just tonight, fellow O's fan and PressBox writer Paul Folkemer tweeted the following after Steve Pearce's second-inning two-run homer:

Paul Folkemer ‏@PaulWFolk 1h1 hour ago

With his 30th HR as an Oriole, Steve Pearce has tied Luis Matos for 87th place on the all-time list. #essentialinfo

That's probably the only time you'll ever see Steve Pearce and Luis Matos mentioned in the same sentence. Speaking of Pearce, here's another one:

ESPN Stats & Info ‏@ESPNStatsInfo 8m8 minutes ago

Steve Pearce: HR in 2nd straight game. Last 2 Orioles to start season with HR in consec. games led MLB in HR that year (Davis '13, Cruz '14)

So you can mark it down. Steve Pearce is good for at least 40 homers this year. The numbers don't lie, especially in such small sample sizes.

Luis Matos, 2005 Donruss Signature Series #21

Thunderstorms in the middle of a ballgame is as disappointing as a starting lineup featuring Luis Matos.

Rain, rain, go away. We want to beat the Yanks today.

Luis Matos, 2005 Donruss #109

I hope that I never run out of cards with distinctive photos like this. I can't tell you why Donruss selected a picture of Luis Matos trudging back to the dugout after a strikeout, but I'm glad that they gave me a puzzle to solve. The opposing catcher is wearing Detroit Tigers duds and has a name ending in "Z". Baseball-Reference tells me that Matos played three games for the O's in Detroit in 2004: a May 28-30 weekend series. He didn't strike out on Friday, and Brandon Inge was behind the plate on Saturday, with Ivan Rodriguez serving as designated hitter. Sunday afternoon "Pudge" was catching for the Tigers, and Matos went 2-for-5 with a pair of singles, a run scored, and a strikeout looking. Bingo.

So this picture was taken on May 30, 2004. Mike Maroth took the mound for the Tigers, with Erik Bedard toeing the rubber for the Birds. After a scoreless first inning, Luis batted with one out in the second and was called out on a 2-2 pitch, which immediately preceded the moment captured above. Detroit eventually took a 2-0 lead on a pair of RBI singles by Rodriguez, but the O's broke through in the top of the sixth. Brian Roberts and Jerry Hairston had back-to-back hits, and B-Rob scored on an errant pickoff throw by Maroth. The score held at 2-1 until the top of the ninth, when Motown closer Ugueth Urbina ran into some trouble. The first four Baltimore batters reached safely, with Javy Lopez, Matos, and B. J. Surhoff all singling and Rafael Palmeiro drawing a walk. With the game tied and the bases loaded, Robert Machado struck out. Roberts then walked on five pitches to give the Orioles their first lead of the day, and Hairston followed with a two-run single. Future Oriole Jamie Walker replaced Urbina and got Melvin Mora to strike out, then intentionally walked Miguel Tejada to reload the bases. Manager Alan Trammell's strategy backfired, as Larry Bigbie (who had pinch-run for Lopez) drove in a pair with a single. Matos grounded out to end the inning at last, but that was of little consequence. In all, the O's scored six runs on five singles and three walks.

Jorge Julio came in to wrap up the win for the visitors, but walked the first two batters with a five-run cushion. (That sounds about right.) He got a big break when Rodriguez bounced into a double play, then allowed an RBI single to Rondell White. It was too little, too late for the Tigers, as Craig Monroe flew out to Matos to bring about the 7-3 final. So even though the Donruss photographer caught Luis in a moment of frustration, things worked out for the best...at least for one day.

Luis Matos, 2001 Stadium Club #86

When you're looking to kill an hour in front of the television, you could do worse than the seeming hundreds of list-style programs that MLB Network uses to flesh out their schedule. I just got through watching the 75 Greatest Robbed Home Runs, and I got a bigger kick out of seeing the grainier 1980s and 1990s footage than the more contemporary highlights. There was also more variety in the older clips; it seemed like the foursome of Carlos Beltran, Ken Griffey, Jr., Mike Cameron, and Torii Hunter were represented in 50 of the 75 clips. There were also a ton of Oriole hitters being denied home runs. Off the top of my head, Roberto Alomar, B. J. Surhoff, Jeff Conine, Leo Gomez, Doug DeCinces, Boog Powell, Adam Jones, and Corey Patterson were all victimized. On the other hand, only two Oriole outfielders were recognized for their thievery, and they were probably two of the last guys you'd expect:

39. Luis Matos robs David Ortiz - 7/9/05. By this point, the Orioles had already lost their early-season hold on first place, but on a Saturday afternoon they drew back to within three games of the first-place Red Sox with a 9-1 romp at Camden Yards. However, the result was still very much in doubt with two outs in the top of the third. Bruce Chen had just given up an RBI single to Edgar Renteria, and "Big Papi" followed with a blast to left-center field. Matos backed up to the fence, leapt, and denied Ortiz of a three-run homer. Four batters into the home half of the inning, Rafael Palmeiro successfully clouted a three-run shot of his own, and the Birds were on their way. The following season, Luis played his final big league game before even turning 28.

33. Joe Orsulak robs Harold Baines - 5/19/90. The O's were already trailing 3-0 when Baines led off the top of the fourth with a deep fly to right. "Joe O" made a leaping grab at the wall in Memorial Stadium to bail out starting pitcher Jay Tibbs. Baltimore fell behind 5-0 before a Mickey Tettleton three-run homer closed the gap to 5-3 in the seventh, but the Birds couldn't muster any further attack and fell by that same score.

Oh, and if you care about this sort of thing, ex-Oriole Gary Matthews, Jr. earned the #1 spot with the back-to-the-field, running-up-the-wall catch that he pulled off a few years ago while with the Rangers. Bully for him.

Luis Matos, 2003 Fleer Tradition Update #U68

My flight from San Diego (by way of a connection in Cincinnati) is scheduled to arrive at 9:33 this evening. Since timely air travel isn't always predictable, and in the best-case scenario I'd be back at home by 11:00 PM, I'm going with a failsafe post. And since this is a bit of a lazy entry, here's one of the laziest O's in recent memory. Happy President's Day to one and all!

Luis Matos, 2001 Fleer Futures #182

If I were to assign superlatives to every card in my collection (and really, why wouldn't I?), the above would be declared "most glittery". It might not be so apparent in the scan, but the gray-looking surface that comprises the right side of the card is actually a dense carpet of silver glitter. Did the prototype also involve macaroni? I simply cannot imagine who the target demographic for this set was. Maybe Fleer was attempting to reach out to young girls, but the ones that I know (all one of them) have much simpler, more mainstream collecting interests. The kids don't always need to be pandered too, Mister Card Company Bigwig. Sometimes less is more...especially when glitter enters into the equation.