Adam Jones and Nick Markakis, 2010 Topps #543

Ten years later, it's funny to look at this card and realize that Nick Markakis is still in the major leagues and Adam Jones is not. Amidst all of the upheaval of the past few years, the biggest blow to me as a fan was when the Orioles parted ways with AJ before the 2019 season. It was all the worse because there was no clean break; while Adam remained an unsigned free agent throughout the winter, new GM Mike Elias was careful not to say anything one way or the other about a potential reunion. It was up to the fans to read between the lines - at least until March 11, when Jones finally signed a one-year deal with the Diamondbacks. With a stroke of the pen, his 11 years as a Baltimore fixture came to an end. He left behind a legacy of five All-Star appearances, four Gold Gloves, and a position of leadership in the clubhouse and the community.

I was rooting for Adam to rejuvenate his career in Arizona, and it looked promising in the early going. Through June 1, he was batting .283/.329/.516 with 12 homers and 37 RBI in 56 games. But in his final 81 games (66 starts), he slumped to .241/.300/.331 with 4 home runs and 30 RBI. His full-season numbers (.260 AVG, .728 OPS, 87 OPS+) were his worst since 2008. When factoring in his defensive metrics in right field, Jones finished with a -0.6 WAR, his first-ever season below replacement level. In December, the 34-year-old outfielder signed a two-year, $8 million deal with Japan's Orix Buffaloes.

Meanwhile, the 36-year-old Nick Markakis is somehow plugging along with the Braves, preparing to spend his sixth season in Atlanta when and if the season gets started. He's batted .284/.359/.403 in his half-decade in the National League, essentially swapping some of his already-modest home run numbers as an Oriole for more doubles. He's up to 2,355 career hits in 14 seasons overall, and his next two-base hit will make a nice round 500.

As we hover indefinitely on the verge of a 2020 MLB season, Baltimore's projected outfield is some combination of Dwight Smith, Jr., Austin Hays, Anthony Santander, and (pending his own health and the ongoing sad saga of Chris Davis at first base) Trey Mancini. Based on their collective potential and 2019 performances, it's actually one of the better segments of the Oriole roster. But a few years along, it's still strange not to see #10 and #21 in the center-right alley in Camden Yards.

Nick Markakis, 2008 Topps Heritage #170

Two disparate thoughts:

1. The Orioles' Opening Day win wasn't the only game on Thursday to end with a walkoff home run. Our old friend Nick Markakis, owner of 166 career homers and 2,056 base hits, clubbed the first game-ending round-tripper of his 13-year career. He really made it count, breaking a 5-5 tie with two outs in the bottom of the ninth with a three-run shot. (Incidentally, I might just mention the O's Opening Day victory in each and every blog post until they actually win another game...hurry up, guys.)

2. Last Saturday I visited the Baseball Card Outlet for the first time in a year. I'd love to drop in more often, but when I start rooting through their bargain vintage boxes, a dollar or two here or there adds up in a hurry. I pried myself away after picking up 30 late 1950s Topps cards, including a 20-count from the 1959 Topps set that I've been chipping away at for several years. Now I have 444 of the 572 cards in that set, a cool 77.6% completion rate. So I'm almost as close to finishing that 60-year-old set as I am to completing the 2008 Topps Heritage set that pays tribute to it. Of course, there are no Mickey Mantles and Willie Mayses lurking out there for the Heritage set...so it's mostly an uphill climb from here.

Nick Markakis, 2004 Bowman Signs of the Future #SOF-NM

I hope that everybody had a great Mother's Day. I've been fortunate to have several excellent mother figures in my life, from my mother and my dearly departed grandmothers to my mother-in-law. Of course I have to add my wife Janet to that list, as we're about seven weeks away from welcoming our little one to the world. Watching her balance home life and work while throttling breast cancer and going through the usual aches and pains of pregnancy has left me in awe. My kid is going to have an uncommonly strong, bright, funny, and kind mom; as I've told Janet, I'm just going to be trying to follow her lead.

There's some very encouraging news on the health front, while we're talking about it. Janet has completed the first of her two courses of chemotherapy, and the tumor has already shrunk significantly. It started out with a circumference of 3.4 cm, roughly the size of a golf ball, I'd say. Now it's maybe the size of a blueberry, and even the oncologist was having a hard time locating it by touch! If you are interested in keeping closer tabs on our experiences throughout this challenging time, Janet has been keeping a blog (and even trusting me to contribute occasionally). So hop on over to Janet versus the Titmonster...and yes, I'm to blame for the name. No apologies.

Nick Markakis, 2008 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts Destination Stardom Memorabilia #DS-NM

There are eight words in the brand, set, and insert set name of this card. I just find that really annoying. It also strikes me that the swatch of white fabric embedded in the card is placed directly in front of Nick Markakis' groin. It's like it's a makeshift loincloth. Enjoy that image, won't you?

Nick Markakis, 2014 Topps Heritage #106

I haven't been buying many cards lately, because we're moving to a new house at the end of the month (way to bury the lede, Kevin), and all of this cardboard really adds up. But Target went and slapped a $12.99 sticker on a blaster box of 2014 Heritage, and I still haven't wrapped up that ding-danged set yet, so I didn't put the box down after it threw itself into my hands. I didn't do too badly, either. I got a dozen base cards that I needed, and though the few short prints in the blaster were dupes for me, maybe they'll serve as trade bait if anyone else is still working on this set. What's more, each and every one of the eight packs featured a Purple Refractor parallel. I didn't get any personal favorites, so the shiny purple versions of Carlos Santana, Strasburg, Sale, Cano, Arenado, Kimbrel, Josh Hamilton, and Carlos Gomez are also all available for the right offer. One other rarity I pulled was a black-back parallel of the Michael Brantley card. Supposedly every card in the set has a parallel version with this variation, but I couldn't find a listed insertion ratio; it seems that they're pretty rare. Maybe I'll just hold on to that one. At any rate, I certainly got more than I expected out of a marked-down blaster.

Nick Markakis, 2009 Upper Deck Goudey #18

Sound the air raid sirens! Mere days after I mused upon Nick Markakis' home run drought, he finally touched 'em all tonight against Dodgers pitcher Brandon Beachy. His first-inning, two-run shot went out to straightaway center field in Atlanta, clearing the fence at the 400-foot mark. It was Nick's 394th plate appearance for the Braves. His first homer as an Oriole came a bit quicker, as he went deep off of Tampa Bay reliever Dan Miceli in his sixth and final plate appearance in his first start for the club. But who's counting?

Nick Markakis, 2008 Topps Orioles Team Set #BAL1

Nick Markakis is having a decent enough season in his new digs in Atlanta. As was usually the case in Baltimore, he's played in all but one of the Braves' 89 games in 2015, batting .293 with a .381 on-base percentage and 20 doubles. But while he's on pace for the most two-baggers he's hit in a season since 2010, and he's reaching base at a higher rate than he has since 2008 (.406 OBP), his already-diminishing home run power has completely evaporated. Nick has yet to go deep this year, leaving him with a career-worst slugging percentage of .353. His last round-tripper came on September 25, 2014, when he led off the game by driving a Hiroki Kuroda pitch over the right field fence in Yankee Stadium. So his home run drought has reached 90 games and 392 plate appearances. The Oriole player with the most playing time without a single homer this year was Everth Cabrera, who was 0-for-105 in 29 games before going to the big free agent list in the sky. So I'll continue tracking Nick Markakis from afar with a morbid curiosity, to see how long it takes him to go yard.

Nick Markakis, 2008 Upper Deck #368

Nick Markakis might not be an Oriole anymore, but this is how I'd like to remember him: unflappably gloving a fly ball in right field as a gaggle of goony Red Sox fans jabber in disappointment behind him.

Nick Markakis, 2008 Topps 50th Anniversary All-Star Rookies Chrome #ARC19

Well, now that we're closing the door on Nick Markakis' career as an Oriole (for the time being, at least), we might as well take a look at where he stands on the team's all-time leader boards. Onward!

• 1,547 hits, sixth place
• 1,365 games played, tenth place
• 749 runs scored, eighth place
• 316 doubles, sixth place
• 141 home runs, 13th place
• 658 RBI, ninth place
• 553 walks, ninth place
• .290 batting average, 11th place

Not bad for nine years' work.

Nick Markakis, 2009 Topps Allen and Ginter Mini #31

Yes, I got the news about Nick Markakis last night, but I decided to sleep on it in case it was some elaborate hoax. But no, it's true: for the first time since 2005, someone besides #21 will be starting in right field for the Orioles next Opening Day. Markakis signed a four-year, $45 million contract with the Atlanta Braves after the O's balked at a fourth year. The historically cautious Orioles were reportedly concerned about a herniated disc in Nick's neck, and I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt on that. After all, I haven't forgotten the sad saga of Brian Roberts' health-related decline, and I'm sure Dan Duquette and company haven't either. So in one sense, I'm relieved. Baltimore's soft-spoken outfielder has given us steady competence and numerous great moments over the past nine seasons, and those memories won't have to be tarnished by watching him slide into irrelevance in his thirties. There have already been signs that Nick is slowing down, and in the cutthroat American League East nobody can afford to make personnel decisions for sentimental reasons.

This might sound like sour grapes, but I'm just trying to examine the pros and cons of life without Nick Markakis in orange and black. On the "con" side, the O's are already a team with deficiences in on-base percentage, and jettisoning a guy with a .358 career OBP isn't exactly going to help matters. At the moment, the Orioles don't have firm starters on the outfield corners or at designated hitter. They'll have to find some workable combination of Steve Pearce, Alejandro de Aza, David Lough, and maybe eventually Dariel Alvarez, a 26-year-old Cuban outfielder who had an impressive 2014 at Bowie and Norfolk. There aren't many attractive options on the free agent market, since it's hard to see Duquette throwing money at Melky Cabrera after taking a hardline stance on Nelson Cruz and Markakis.

Of course, the Orioles' 2003 first-round pick is leaving a void off of the field as well. By all reports, Nick is also well liked in the clubhouse, and his charitable contributions in the Baltimore area will also be missed. It sucks that he's gone, but it could be worse. Can you imagine being an Athletics fan? I'd be afraid to form any kind of attachment to any of their players.

Nick Markakis and Adam Loewen, 2004 Topps #691

Here's proof positive that Nick Markakis has been an Oriole for a long time. The O's grabbed him with the seventh overall pick in the June 2003 amateur draft. That year, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays took Delmon Young with the first pick. Eleven years later, there's no such team as the Devil Rays, and Delmon is probably en route to his sixth team after spending this past season as Baltimore's pinch hitting ace. Later in the first round of that 2003 draft, the Montreal Expos spent the 20th overall selection on pitcher Chad Cordero. That one's a two-fer: a defunct team and a player who's out of baseball altogether despite making the All-Star Team in the Nationals' inaugural 2005 campaign. Just to hammer the point home, Markakis shared his rookie card with the Birds' previous first-round pick, Canadian junior college pitcher Adam Loewen. In the last decade, Loewen has switched from a pitcher to an outfielder/first baseman and back to pitcher again. As the longest-tenured member of the Orioles, Nick Markakis has enjoyed a level of stability that is foreign to Loewen, Young, Cordero, and scores of other baseball players.

Today, Nick celebrates his 31st birthday in an odd sort of limbo. The O's have bought out the $17.5 million option on his contract for 2015, paying $2 million for the privelege of making their senior player a free agent. Rumors and whispers make it seem like all but a foregone conclusion that #21 will stay in Baltimore, with a four-year contract in the $40-48 million range. But if it were so cut and dry, why would it take several weeks and counting to put it to paper? I know that the Orioles typically move at their own pace, but it seems like they're leaving things to chance. I'm sure some fans panicked when word leaked that Markakis' agent was meeting with other teams last week, though you'd have to chalk that up to due diligence.

I expect Nick Markakis to patrol right field in Camden Yards in 2015, just as he has ever since 2006. But until he signs on the dotted line, he is not officially on the team. He is still an Oriole, and yet he isn't. If I'm impatient and anxious about it, I can't imagine how Nick himself feels.

Nick Markakis, 2014 Topps Opening Day #161

The Orioles had three Gold Glove winners again this year, tying the Royals (argh) for the most honorees in 2014. Adam Jones and J. J. Hardy each won their third straight, and Nick Markakis became a two-timer. Jones was tabbed as the American League's top defensive center fielder for the fourth time overall, tying Jim Palmer, Bobby Grich, and Mike Mussina for third place in team history. Only Brooks Robinson (16), Paul Blair (8), and Mark Belanger (8) can top that. The O's extended their margin over the rest of the American League with 70 total Gold Gloves, and closed the gap with the Cardinals (85) for the overall lead. This is three straight years with three Gold Gloves for the Birds, which may not mean much in the grand scheme of things...but it's better than not winning them.

Nick Markakis, 2014 Donruss Jersey Kings #37

Okay, so last night didn't go according to plan. But it was still an incredible, strange, tense game, and it takes four wins to go to the World Series...not one. I figured it was a good omen when I pulled this Nick Markakis jersey relic from a rack pack of 2014 Donruss Series Two on Thursday, but 'Kakes had an uneven first game of the ALCS. He collected two singles, a double, a run scored, and a stolen base, but was slow to get to Alex Gordon's three-run double in the right field corner and also made the final out in the tenth inning with the tying runs on base. So it goes. In a few minutes, Bud Norris will get a shot at evening up the series.

Nick Markakis, 2008 Topps Year In Review #YR174

They did it. They really did it. The Orioles pounded the Blue Jays, 8-2, for their 91st win of the season. Their ninth win in the last ten games. The win that clinched their status as 2014 American League East Champions. The O's are on top of the East for the first time since 1997, and it's the first time they've celebrated a clinch with a home victory since 1969. I was there, and the celebration was still going when I reluctantly left at 11:00 PM. Crappy iPhone photos and game recap tomorrow. For now, I'm just thrilled for Nick Markakis, who endured six seasons of losing at the beginning of his career, only to be sidelined with a broken wrist when the Birds finally reached the postseason in 2012. (Thanks, CC Sabathia.) Now, he finally gets to participate in playoff baseball. I love this team. I love this season.

Nick Markakis, 2010 Topps National Chicle #73

It's often said that baseball is a team sport, but Nick Markakis sure seemed like he was single-handedly beating the White Sox on Monday night. The veteran left fielder went 3-for-5 with a pair of runs scored and a two-run homer as the Orioles won an 8-2 game that was much closer than the final score. O's starter Bud Norris cruised through the first six innings, but a two-out single by Avisail Garcia in the seventh trimmed the lead to 3-2. Then Conor Gillaspie drove a Norris pitch deep to right field, and Nick left his feet and robbed Chicago's third baseman of a potential go-ahead home run. If you missed it, here it is, and if you already saw it, you probably want to watch it again:

By the by, Markakis is batting .400 in August and entered tonight's game with a 10-game hitting streak. It's nice to see him looking more lively than he did in 2013.

Nick Markakis, 2003 Upper Deck Prospect Premieres #84

Yes, it really has been 11 years since the Orioles drafted Nick Markakis, a "dangerous" lefty junior college pitcher with "an above-average fastball and hard-breaking curve that he can spot all over the plate", according to the copy on the back of this card. For some crazy reason, the O's envisioned him as an outfielder. In that capacity, he's won a Gold Glove, appeared in 1,259 games over parts of nine seasons, and collected 1,431 hits (eighth in team history, trailing seventh-place Brian Roberts by 21). I guess that hunch paid off.

Nick Markakis, 2012 Topps Opening Day #33

Well, the wildly schizophrenic Mid-Atlantic weather has swung to another extreme, with a full day of heavy rain slashing the 80-degree temperatures of the weekend by half and postponing tonight's Orioles-Rays game. So instead of driving downtown to watch Miguel Gonzalez square off with Jake Odorizzi, I'm holed up in the house with my pets, cold beer, and WWE Network live streaming on the Xbox. I'm sure Nick Markakis and the rest of the O's are enjoying the extra rest, especially since Adam Jones and Evan Meek are now afflicted with the flu bug that laid low Brian Matusz and hitting coach Jim Presley for the past few days. Get healthy, guys.

Nick Markakis, 2012 Bowman Gold #131

I have many hopes and dreams for the Orioles' 2014 season. I hope that the positions of second base, left field, and designated hitter are not the gaping holes that they currently seem to be. I would very much like for Dave Wallace to be the pitching coach who finally says the magic words that turn Brian Matusz and Zach Britton (and maybe Kevin Gausman) into quality big league starters. I'd prefer it if Mike Bordick never utters the phrase "good piece of hitting" during another MASN telecast. But perhaps most of all, I would like the shambling, singles-hitting undead creature who took over Nick Markakis' body in 2013 to go away, and for the real Markakis to return with a vengeance.

Nick Markakis, 2010 Topps Turkey Red #TR71

On June 24, Nick Markakis hit a solo home run in a 5-2 home loss against the Indians. He hadn't hit a home run since, a span of 51 games and 228 plate appearances. Even more discouraging, he hit his last double on July 19. That's 31 games - 144 trips to the plate - since the right fielder had an extra-base hit of any kind. But today was a different story, as Nick doubled in his second at-bat and homered in his fourth. His long-overdue power surge helped the Orioles take the rubber game of their weekend series with the Athletics, 10-3. If Markakis can start clearing the fence - or at least driving balls into the gaps - it would go a long way toward helping the O's get back to the postseason. I'll need more than one good game to start getting excited, though.

Nick Markakis, 2008 Upper Deck A Piece of History Red #12

It's been a good week for Orioles' comebacks.

First there was last Wednesday's raucous 9-6 victory over the Nationals, which I witnessed in person. Chris Tillman handed Washington a 6-2 lead, which their excellent starter Jordan Zimmermann carried into the sixth inning. A Nick Markakis solo homer trimmed the margin to three, which is where things stood as of the seventh-inning stretch. At that point, I changed from the gray Orioles tee that I worn to the park to the bright orange Chris Davis "Crush Power" giveaway shirt that I'd received on my way through the gate, jokingly declaring the change to be for rally purposes. Things escalated quickly, with four straight Baltimore hits tying the game and chasing Zimmermann. The big blows were Steve Pearce's two-run homer to make it 6-5 and Manny Machado's league-leading 24th double, which knotted the score and sent J.Z. to the showers. Suddenly a largely pro-O's crowd of 39,129 was on its feet and replicating the "Seven Nation Army" chant that is more widely associated with the town's other pro sports team. The noise didn't stop when Markakis gave the Birds the lead by grounding a single through the middle, and things got really wild when Davis added some insurance by belting a two-run homer to cap his own 4-for-4, two-homer game. Steve Johnson, Tommy Hunter, and (exhale) Jim Johnson kept the Nats at bay with 4.1 innings of hitless relief, and I shouted myself hoarse. Five days later, I think I'm finally back at full volume.

Friday night, Tiger pitcher Max Scherzer seemed to have the O's figured out after some early stumbles. An Adam Jones two-run bomb gave the home team a 3-2 lead in the third inning, but he was the last Oriole to reach base off of the Detroit starter. Meanwhile, a rocky night for Miguel Gonzalez meant that the Birds were staring at a 5-3 deficit in the bottom of the night. But with Scherzer's pitch count at 119 on a muggy night, manager Jim Leyland went to his closer, the always-bombastic and often-shaky Jose Valverde. The O's bats woke up, with a Markakis home run and back-to-back singles by Jones and Davis putting the tying and winning runs on the corners. But consecutive pop-ups by Matt Wieters and J. J. Hardy left the team's fate in the hands of Chris Dickerson, who had been limited to one plate appearance in the previous week due to wrist soreness. Starting his first game since May 23, the reserve outfielder and DH had been 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts against Scherzer. But Valverde was no Scherzer. Dickerson belted a no-doubt Earl Weaver special: a walkoff three-run homer to right-center field that sent a capacity crowd at Camden Yards into hysterics. 7-5.

Yesterday's 4-2 win wasn't quite as dramatic, but again the offense seemed to come out of nowhere in the late innings. Rick Porcello held the Birds to three singles and a walk in the first six innings, and it looked like a solid Camden Yards debut for rookie Kevin Gausman (1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 4 K, 6 IP) would be wasted. The Tigers picked up a second run off of Brian Matusz in the top of the seventh, but Chris Davis (naturally) touched off another rally with a leadoff homer in the bottom half of that frame. Singles by Dickerson and Hardy put the tying and go-ahead runs on the corners...sound familiar? Porcello was done, and Leyland called upon Phil Coke to put out the fire. That didn't work out so well for him. Danny Valencia tied the game with a pinch single on an 0-2 pitch, and one out later, Nate McLouth put the Orioles ahead with a broken-bat grounder that cut through the middle of the infield. The O's tacked on a bonus run in the eighth via an Alexi Casilla RBI double, and again the Baltimore 'pen held strong. 4-2.

We'll see if the Orioles can hold on to a bit of that home-field magic as they open a road series in Houston tomorrow night. Of course, I wouldn't mind a few wire-to-wire victories either. They're a little easier on the nerves.