Rich Dauer, 1984 Fleer #4

Congratulations to the Houston Astros, who have a date in Kansas City for Game 1 of the ALDS after dispatching the Yankees in the Wild Card Game by a 3-0 margin. There are no former Orioles on Houston's postseason roster, since Scott Feldman is injured and L. J. Hoes spent most of the season cooling his heels at AAA Fresno. But there are still some familiar faces in the navy blue and orange. Rich Dauer mans the first base coach's box for the 'Stros, after spending the previous two seasons managing San Diego's AA San Antonio Missions club. Ex-O's infielder Enos Cabell is a special assistant to GM Jeff Luhnow, and one-time Baltimore pitcher Dyar Miller is the Houston organization's minor league pitching coordinator. It goes without saying that I'll continue moonlighting as an Astros fan in the Division Series; there's no way I'm letting bygones be bygones so soon where the Royals are concerned.

Rich Dauer, 1981 Topps #314

O's fans, how can we distract ourselves on an off-day after being no-hit? Well, I'm sure it would help if I stopped bringing it up, but it's too late for that. I did a bit of Googling and learned that the Orioles' record for most hits in a game was set on August 28, 1980. On a Thursday evening in Memorial Stadium, the Birds outslugged the Angels 13-8 as the two teams combined for 40 hits: 26 for Baltimore and 14 for California. Eight of the 11 O's to bat had multi-hit games, and only John Lowenstein (0-for-3 after replacing Ken Singleton in the fifth inning) had an oh-fer. Rich Dauer and Gary Roenicke each had a team-high four hits, with Roenicke rapping three doubles. If you're wondering why the Orioles didn't score even more runs than their baker's dozen, they did fail to hit a single home run and were victimized by a pair of double plays. Still, their six-run, nine-hit fifth inning was instrumental in helping the O's endure an uncharacteristically rocky outing by winning pitcher Jim Palmer, who allowed six runs on 11 hits, two walks, and a hit batter in six and a third innings. Sammy Stewart got the last eight outs, but also gave up another two runs.

Look, I'm not greedy. I'll settle for, say, 10 runs and 15 hits tomorrow. What do you say, guys?

Rich Dauer, 1981 Donruss #232

Occasionally I flip through my 1981 Donruss cards and I wonder how the company ever got off the ground. Who looked at this out-of-focus, washed-out picture of Rich Dauer at Comiskey Park and said, "Yeah, good enough...print it." It looks like something your nearsighted aunt snapped with a Polaroid on Photo Day. When I scanned this card, it came out crooked...that seemed to be in the spirit of the half-baked, blurry, shadowy, paper-thin 1981 Donruss set, so I left it like that.

Rich Dauer, 1983 Donruss #455

After months upon months of speculation, or maybe two and a half weeks, the Orioles finally revealed the full details of their uniform tweaks for the 2012 season. Check it all out at Roch Kubatko's blog, and then you come right back hear so I can tell you what I think about the new duds.

Welcome back! First, I'll get the piddling dislikes out of the way. I've never been a fan of the white-panel hats. They're just not my style, and I think they pale in comparison to the solid black look. I also still don't like the "O's" hats, but I don't feel as strongly about them as did when they first appeared last decade. That's just as well, since they don't seem to be going anywhere any time soon.

I'm indifferent to the Camden Yards 20th anniversary patch. It's not very exciting to look at, but it's not a Citi Field-esque catastrophe either. The brick pattern in the background is a nice enough touch, but the black box around the orange-and-white Oriole Park at Camden Yards text looks a bit off to me. The color I most associate with the ballpark is green. Did they think it would clash too much? Eh.

A minor thumbs up to the slightly tweaked "Baltimore" script on the road jerseys. The old tapered wordmark didn't bother me too much, but the new uniformly-sized letters do look cleaner. The orange Saturday special jerseys are right in my wheelhouse. Orange is my favorite color, and it'll be nice to see it back in the rotation for the first time since 1992. It's loud without being an eyesore in my opinion. Lastly, a big thumbs up to the new-old Oriole bird. I know it's a fierce topic of debate in Baltimore, but the stodgy ornithologically-correct bird had a couple of decades to do his thing, and it's time to have a little fun with a familiar smiling face. As I mentioned previously, it looks especially great on the black and orange road caps. And although I don't much care for the "O's" cap logo, it's a solid addition to the bird's cap. It's at least an improvement over the indiscriminate blob of color on the cap of the bird's 1960s-1980s predecessors.

Of course, as many other Orioles fans have suggested amid the buzz of the new uniforms, these threads will look a lot better if the guys wearing them are able to win 15 or 20 more games.

Rich Dauer, 1985 Donruss #106

If you watched ESPN's pregame coverage of the Rockies-Cardinals game last night, you witnessed a scary moment. Rich Dauer, currently Colorado's first base coach, was in the midst of pregame fielding drills when he was struck in the face with an unexpected throw from infielder Chris Nelson. Dauer immediately crumpled to the ground, his legs writhing. Fortunately, he was soon able to leave the field under his own power, albeit with a bloody face. The former Orioles second baseman suffered a broken nose, but he was medically cleared to fly out of St. Louis later in the evening with the rest of the team. This certainly isn't the way that anyone would want to make the news, but I'm glad Rich is okay.

Rich Dauer, 1982 Fleer #161

All things considered, this isn't a bad photo by 1982 Fleer standards. It's a fairly dynamic shot of Rich Dauer trying to turn the double play as Carlton Fisk barrels into him at second base, kicking up a plume of dirt. There's also some product placement for Coca-Cola, which I'm sure they didn't mind.

By the way, now that I'm officially on Pacific time for the weekend, this still qualifies as a Thursday blog entry - it's 10:40 here.

Rich Dauer, 1985 Fleer #173

It's nice to see Rich Dauer smiling. On most of my other cards of the longtime O's second baseman, he either looks forlorn or he's grimacing with exertion. But here we see Rich taking time out from a Spring Training or early season warmup to flash the photographer his warmest smile. In another year, he'll play in his last major league game. But for now, life is good. He's still playing every day, sandwiched between Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken, Jr. in the Oriole infield. As you can see from the patch on his left sleeve, he's suiting up for the defending World Champions. The windbreaker under his jersey indicates that Rich Dauer is a fashion plate.

You can't keep #25 down. Rich has logged several years as a minor league manager and major league coach with the Indians, Brewers, and Royals. He's currently the minor-league infield coordinator for the Colorado Rockies. If you ask him very nicely, maybe he'll put on the windbreaker for old time's sake.