Vintage Fridays: Mike Cuellar, 1975 Topps #410

2808 career innings in the major leagues. Four All-Star seasons. A World Series ring. A Cy Young Award. 185 career wins, including four seasons with at least 20 and seven with at least 15 W's. A lifetime ERA of 3.14 in the regular season, and 2.85 in a dozen postseason starts. Heck, he even holds an obscure record: most home runs hit by a player with a career on-base percentage below .130 (seven homers, .128 OBP).

...All of this, and Topps couldn't manage to spell his name correctly on this card near the tail end of his career. It's C-U-E-L-L-A-R. No respect, I tell ya.

Vintage Fridays: Mike Cuellar, 1972 Topps #70

Who wants to play catch with Mike Cuellar? He promises not to throw the screwball without warning. He also breaks his promises.

Vintage Fridays: Mike Cuellar, 1974 Topps #560

On July 4, 1971, Mike Cuellar won his tenth straight decision with a complete game victory over the Tigers, 3-2. Cuellar and Detroit starter Joe Coleman each went the distance, allowing six hits apiece. But Coleman allowed a two-run homer to Boog Powell in the first inning and a leadoff shot to Elrod Hendricks in the sixth to make the difference. Cuellar kept the Tigers off the board until the bottom of the sixth, when Aurelio Rodriguez doubled and Tony Taylor singled him home. A Bill Freehan solo homer with one out in the ninth gave Detroit a glimmer of hope, but Cuellar snuffed that out by retiring the next two batters to finish off the game. He'd also win his next start on July 8 to improve to 13-1 before his luck evened out and he posted a 7-8 record in the second half of the season. Nevertheless, Mike wound up at 20-9 with a 3.08 ERA for the year, as the Orioles rotation boasted four 20-game winners en route to the American League pennant.

Vintage Fridays: Mike Cuellar and Dave McNally, 1971 Topps #69

On Thursday night, the Orioles won a 3-2 nailbiter over the Red Sox, giving Chris Tillman his 15th win on the fifth attempt. You wouldn't think that 15 wins would be a big milestone, but Tillman is the first O's pitcher to reach that peak since Erik Bedard in 2007. Wins aren't the end-all and be-all of pitching stats these days, but it's a pretty simple indicator of how dang hard it's been for this team to find reliable pitching. If you'd like an interactive illustration of this, there's a fun quiz on Sporcle that asks you to choose the 29 Oriole pitchers who have notched a 15-win season from a larger list of possibilities. I got 25 of the 29, an 86.2% success rate. Can you top that?

Vintage Fridays: Mike Cuellar, 1971 Topps #170

The Orioles have had some great Cuban-born players throughout six decades in Baltimore. There's Mike Cuellar, Rafael Palmeiro, Danys Baez...okay, so there have been two great Cuban-born Orioles. But tomorrow another noteworthy native of the Caribbean island will make his O's debut. Outfielder Henry Urrutia, who batted .365/.427/.531 in a total of 67 games at AA Bowie and AAA Norfolk in the first half, has joined the team in Texas this weekend.

"Hank", as Buck Showalter has already taken to calling him, had an uncommon path to the big leagues. After five seasons with a .350 batting average for Las Tunas of the Cuban League, including a .397/.461/.597 batting line in 2010, he made a failed attempt to defect from the country and was suspended for the 2011 season. Urrutia was able to defect in September 2011, taking refuge in Haiti. The Birds signed him for a $778,500 bonus last July, but he encountered difficulties in obtaining a visa and was not able to make his U. S. pro debut until this past spring. While there's a big difference between the minors and the majors, the Orioles were significantly impressed by the way that Henry was able to shake off two years' worth of rust, especially with the bat. I don't expect him to hit .365 against the David Prices and Justin Verlanders of the world, but he doesn't have to do that to help the O's chase a playoff spot. Buckle up, as they say.

Vintage Fridays: Mike Cuellar, 1975 SSPC #375

This is an outstanding photo. From the dusky sky in the background to the faraway grimace on an aging Mike Cuellar's face...that face. The lines are so numerous and so deep that you could probably count them to determine the veteran screwballer's age. You know, like the rings in a tree. Assuming that Mike didn't fudge the numbers when he left his native Cuba, he would have been 38 years old in this picture. It seems to me that most of today's players don't age quite so visibly. Of course, they have the time, money, and resources to take better physical care of themselves than players of Cuellar's era. Is it any wonder that Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz wear their years better than he did?

Mike Cuellar, 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #42

Today would have been Mike Cuellar's 75th birthday. So in honor of the fourth-most-winningest pitcher in Orioles history, I went searching for a box score of interest. I found a doozy: Saturday afternoon, July 11, 1970. The Birds were riding high at 52-32, a full 5 games ahead of the second-place Tigers in the American League East. Cuellar was matching up with Joe Niekro, but neither had his best stuff. The O's broke out on top in the second inning with an Elrod Hendricks two-run homer, but Paul Blair hit a shallow fly ball to strand the bases loaded. Three Detroit hits tied the score at 2-2 in the home half.

It was still tied two innings later when Mark Belanger hit a two-out single and Cuellar followed with a two-run home run of his own! It was part of a career-high three-hit day for the Cuban screwballer, and one of eight career longballs (including his grand slam in the 1970 ALCS). He wasn't exactly Don Newcombe with the bat, as his career slash line of .115/.128/.171, good for a -15 OPS+, illustrates. Anyway, Mike gave back a run in the bottom of the fourth, as Bill Freehan tripled and scored on a Don Wert sac fly. 4-3, O's.

Freehan struck again with a solo homer in the sixth to knot it back up at 4-4. But the Orioles picked their pitcher back up in the eighth with (what else?) a two-run shot. This time it was Terry Crowley going deep off of Daryl Patterson, who had replaced Niekro after the Detroit starter walked Brooks Robinson to lead off the inning. The Tigers fought back again in their half of the eighth, though. Cuellar got the hook after a leadoff single by Willie Horton, and reliever Eddie Watt allowed Horton to score via a single, sac bunt, and a Wert groundout. Earl Weaver then called on Pete Richert to save the day. He walked Jim Price, but struck out Ike Brown looking to strand the tying and go-ahead runs. He then earned his tenth save by retiring the top of the Tigers order 1-2-3 in the ninth. Cuellar earned his 11th win despite permitting five runs in seven innings. It was the rare day when Mike had a better day at the plate than he did at the mound.

Vintage Fridays: Mike Cuellar, 1970 Topps #199

I'm going to acknowledge up front that I'm gaming the time on this one a bit. It's not being posted until 12:30 AM on Saturday, but it's going to count for Friday. This card commemorates Mike Cuellar's strong performance in the first-ever American League Championship Series game on October 4, 1969. He pitched eight innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on three hits and a walk while striking out seven. However, he left trailing 3-2, as his counterpart Jim Perry had been up to the task for the Twins. Perry began the ninth inning looking for a complete game victory, with the only blemishes on his slate being solo home runs by Frank Robinson and Mark Belanger. (Yes, Mark Belanger.) But the longball proved Perry's undoing, as Boog Powell tied the game with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the ninth. A Brooks Robinson single chased the Minnesota starter, but Ron Perranoski held the line and the game went into extra innings. In the twelfth, Perranoski's fourth inning of work, he finally cracked. Belanger eked out an infield hit, Andy Etchebarren bunted him over, Don Buford moved him to third with a grounder, and Paul Blair dropped a bunt single to plate the winner. It was indeed a squeaker...that's e-a, not e-e. You'll have to indulge the English major in me.

Mike Cuellar, 2001 Topps American Pie #83

This morning, I rolled out of bed at 8:30 to take part in one of my family's Easter weekend traditions: a Saturday breakfast at IHOP with the extended family on my mother's side (our cabal at the back of the restaurant numbered 16 strong), followed by a visit to the cemetery to pay our respects to Boots and Shorty, my grandmother and grandfather, as well as my great aunt Bee. Boots and Bee were sisters, and they passed away in the summer of 2006 within days of one another. We all still miss them terribly, of course, but our memories and traditions keep them alive. Often we can even imagine what one of them would say in certain situations. I never even met my grandpa, who died of a heart attack 34 years ago - six years before I was born. All that I know is that he was a good-hearted man who cared deeply for his family. When I was growing up, Boots used to tell me often that Shorty would have loved me, would have enjoyed my company, would have been proud of me.

It's never easy to lose those who we've spent our lives with. Obviously I don't feel the losses of baseball players as acutely, but the Baltimore Orioles are still a family of sorts to me. I've spent close to two decades immersed in their tradition, their day-to-day activities, their people. At the end of the day, guys like Curt Motton and Chuck Estrada are still largely just names to me, but yesterday's news of Mike Cuellar's death truly resonated. It was only one day prior that I read the Orlando Sentinel article that alerted me to the fact that he was on his last legs, having been ravaged by illness in a particularly cruel two-month stretch. While the initial news prepared me for the worst, I still hoped a vain sort of hope that he would have a miracle recovery.

I never saw "Crazy Horse" pitch, but I knew from a young age that he was one of the giants of my favorite team's past. I knew the accolades and numbers: four 20-win seasons, the first Latino (and first Oriole) to win the Cy Young Award, seven straight years with 248 or more innings pitched, the grand slam in the 1970 ALCS, the clinching win in the 1970 World Series, fourth in franchise history in wins with 143. But by all accounts he was also a warm and selfless person, helpful and congenial to teammates and friends and peers. He struck up a friendship with manager Dave Trembley over the last few years, working his way back into the O's organization as a spring training instructor. He was ours, and we were his. But nothing can take that away. Miguel Angel Cuellar Santana will always be a Baltimore Oriole.

Mike Cuellar, 2005 Topps Retired Chrome Signature Edition #TA-MC

So my sister's wedding is tomorrow. I'm wiped out from the rehearsal dinner, so you get another "Ooh, lookie what I have" post. Shiny Mike Cuellar on-card autograph. Retro Topps logo. Sideburns. "Baltimore" on the jersey. Crappy scan, because it came in a sticker-sealed plastic holder and I didn't want to disturb it (the scratches are on the holder, not the card). Now I'm off to bed before I pass out in my chair.

Vintage Fridays: Bird Hill Aces, 1969 Topps #532

Time to take a quick breather from Wietersmania to focus on a subject recently approached by the delightful Dinged Corners: multi-player combo cards. When I received this card a year or so ago, I thought it was pretty nifty, but curious. When you think of great O's rotations from the glory years, it seems inexcusable to exclude Jim Palmer. But he had just missed most of 1967 and all of 1968 with arm woes, so Topps can be forgiven for not guessing that he'd come back to win 245 more games in the ensuing sixteen seasons. But what about the guys who made the cut? Sure, Tommy Phoebus was a local kid, and he even no-hit the Red Sox in 1968, but was he really an "ace"? Then there's Jim Hardin, who I couldn't tell you anything about without first checking an encyclopedia. Then again, I could just read the text on the back of the card, which goes a long way toward explaining why this particular quartet were featured.

Dave McNally, of course, was the veteran of the group. 1969 would be his eighth season with the Orioles, and after gaining national attention with his World Series-clinching shutout in 1966, he fully realized his potential in 1968 with 22 wins (trailing only Denny McLain's 31), 10 losses, and a 1.95 ERA (third-best in the Year of the Pitcher). He led the American League with a 0.84 WHIP(!) and was still only 26. He would run off three more consecutive 20-win seasons, including a league-best 24 in 1970 and a 21-5 record in 1971, the year that the Birds boasted four 20-game winners. Ace? Yes.

Mike Cuellar had just arrived in Baltimore via an offseason trade with Houston. In what amounted to Cuellar-for-Curt Blefary, the O's got away with murder. The Cuban screwballer had amassed a ho-hum 36-32 record in three full seasons in the Astros rotation, but his peripherals were good and a great supporting cast in Charm City made all the difference. Mike went 23-11 with a 2.38 ERA and 1.01 WHIP in his first Oriole season, and (just like McNally) posted four 20-win seasons in orange and black, three of them consecutive. His 24 victories in 1970 tied McNally for the league lead, and he twice topped the Junior Circuit in winning percentage. In each of his first seven seasons with the club, he completed at least 17 of his starts, including an A.L.-best 21 in 1970. Ace? You bet.

Hindsight is 20/20, but at the time this card was printed, Tom Phoebus looked like another great Oriole pitching find. The unibrowed hometown boy had gone 14-9 as a rookie in 1967, and followed up with a 15-15 mark in his sophomore season. His 2.87 ERA was none too shabby, and of course there was the April 27 no-no against Boston. Nine strikeouts, three walks? Yes, please. 1969 was more of the same, a 14-7 record and a 3.52 ERA that was higher, but still better than average. Curiously, he earned only ten decisions in 21 starts in 1970 (5-5), but boasted a 3.07 ERA and a relief win in the World Series that fall. The Birds struck gold by trading Tom that offseason for Padres pitcher Pat Dobson, the missing link of the four 20-game winners in 1971. Phoebus lasted just two years in the National League, winning another half-dozen games. Ace? It didn't turn out that way, but apparently life is still good for Tom.

Righty Jim Hardin was the youngest of this foursome, and he too seemed to be on the rise. After going 8-3 with a 2.27 ERA in half a season in 1967, the slim Tennesseean racked up 18 wins against 13 losses with a 2.51 ERA the next year. He seemed durable, going the distance in 16 of 35 starts. But after being slotted into a swingman role, Jim was less effective in 1969-1970 (12-12, 3.57). On the plus side, he did hit a walkoff home run against former Oriole Moe Drabowsky in 1969! As with Phoebus, Hardin was traded in 1971 and out of the majors within two seasons. Ace? Nope, but it's not he was no slouch for a few years there.

So all four of these guys may not have won 20 games year after year, but two of them did, which isn't a bad success rate in baseball. This card certainly isn't cringe-worthy like this 1993 Upper Deck Cardinals team card spotlighting Geronimo Pena and Bernard Gilkey. Yikes.

Mike Cuellar, 2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #136

On the list of promising sights as the first full week of Orioles Spring Training commences, 71-year-old Mike Cuellar in an O's uniform instructing the lefthanded pitchers of today and tomorrow is right up there. No matter how far the team has fallen in the past decade-plus, it still has a rich and successful history to draw upon. Not only is the screwball-tossing southpaw sharing his knowledge and expertise with younger generations, but he is serving as a living bridge between the model franchise of the 1970s and the club that is now taking baby steps toward being a potential superpower in the 2010s.

Though you might expect that Cuellar has more to offer to the younger pitchers in camp, guys like Brian Matusz and Rich Hill, today it was 37-year-old Jamie Walker that spent the most time picking the Cuban's brain. Walker is a true rarity: a professional baseball player who is a student of the game's history. When he signed with the Orioles as a free agent two years ago, he apparently devoured a few books about the team's past. He was effusive in his praise of Cuellar and his storied career, and acknowledged that pitchers like him "set the foundation" for Walker and his contemporaries. He also expressed awe for the amazing durability of pitchers from that era, who often exceeded 300 innings and completed upwards of 20 starts per season.

It's really a breath of fresh air when the oldest pitcher in a team's camp (who is also one of the highest-paid), says something like, "I don't know it all." I'm not sure whether Walker is healthy and able to rebound from his miserable 2008 season, but I like his chances that much better with a 185-game winner offering suggestions for his release point and grip.

Vintage Fridays: Mike Cuellar, 1977 Topps #162

As you can see, this card has a little surface wear. I like it, though; the tiny white divots that mottle Mike Cuellar's photograph make it look more like an oil painting on a bright canvas; it could have been crafted by one of the Old Masters. Cuellar was an Old Master himself at this moment in time; at thirty-nine years old he was the fifth-oldest player in the American League. 1976 had been his eighth season with the Orioles and his fourteenth overall. But the end was near. His won-lost record was an atrocious 4-13, his first sub-.500 win percentage in an O's uniform. He deserved every loss, as his 4.96 ERA was his highest ever for a full season. As Earl Weaver remarked, "I gave Mike Cuellar more chances than my first wife."

Cuellar would run out of chances the following winter. The Orioles released him four days before Christmas. By the time this card came out, the Cuban lefty would be attempting to prolong his career as a California Angel. Though he had climbed the ranks to become the AL's oldest active player, it was a short-lived reign. He was torched in his only two appearances for the halos to the tune of an 18.90 ERA, and his career ended with his release on May 16.

Nevertheless, when taken as a whole, the career of Mike Cuellar truly was a work of art.