Jay Gibbons, 2003 Fleer Tradition #252

I haven't posted a Jay Gibbons card since last October. Since I don't know what this blog would be without Jay Gibbons, here's the former outfielder wearing sunglasses on top of his cap and an especially doofy expression on his face. This has been Jay Gibbons card number 12 on Orioles Card O' the Day. In conclusion, Jay Gibbons.

Roger Marquis, 1991 Crown/Coca-Cola All-Time Orioles #276

Who is Roger Marquis? He's the first of the true "Cup of Coffee" Orioles, those hearty men whose major league experience lasted all of one game appearance. "Noonie" was a Holyoke, MA native who signed with the O's out of high school at about the same time that the club inked young Brooks Robinson to a deal. With Paul Richards going full-tilt on a rebuild, Marquis became one of 54 players to get a look during the 1955 season. The 18-year-old entered the September 25 game against the Senators in the bottom of the eighth inning, replacing Angelo Dagres (himself only 20) in right field. Washington went 1-2-3 and no ball left the infield, so Roger's glove went untested. In the top of the ninth, he led off against reliever Bob Chakales and grounded out to shortstop. He was replaced in the field by Cal Abrams for the bottom of the ninth, and his place in the baseball encyclopedia was etched in stone. After batting .225 and slugging .308 in the glamorous Class D locales of Thomson, GA and Paris, TX (he also took the mound for six games with Thomson), Marquis retired from baseball at age 20. Don't feel too badly for Noonie, though. He returned home to Holyoke and eventually started an oil business that he was able to sell in the 1980s. He passed away at age 67 in 2004, survived by his wife Alice, two sons, and four grandchildren.

If you're curious about the rest of the Orioles' half-dozen one-game wonders, here's an up-to-date list. If I keep at this silly blog long enough, I will probably feature each and every one of them:

• Roger Marquis, RF: September 25, 1955
• Gordie Sundin, P: September 19, 1956
• George Werley, P: September 29, 1956
• Tom Patton, C: April 30, 1957
• Jeff Rineer, P: September 30, 1979
• Radhames Dykhoff, P: June 7, 1998

Eddie Murray, 2005 Upper Deck All-Star Classics #83

This is a great card, largely because of one of the best late-career photos of Eddie Murray that I've seen. In his road grays, #33 literally stands in the twilight and eases into that familiar crouch one more time. His face is hooded in shadow, but you can still see the laser-focused gaze of his eye toward the pitcher. You almost pity the unseen opponent of Eddie Murray.

Gregg Olson, 1991 Studio #8

The Orioles really missed the boat in the early 1990s when it came to merchandising. Take a look at the brooding, steely masculinity of this Gregg Olson portrait and tell me that you wouldn't have bought a team-branded cologne endorsed by the Otter. "Eau de O", anyone?

Well, it would've been a damn sight better than that Yankee fragrance.

B. J. Surhoff, 1997 Collector's Choice #43

I've never really given it all that much thought, but I suppose it's not common for a baseball card action photo to depict its subject making eye contact with the camera. Now that I've seen B. J. Surhoff's icy stare boring holes straight through me, I think I know why. I didn't mean anything by it, B. J.! Don't hurt me!

Eric Davis, 1997 Pinnacle New #143

It was only once he'd attempted to use the so-called "invisible bat" in a game situation that Eric Davis realized the awful truth: he'd been had. $300, down the drain. He suspected that he'd never see the traveling salesman again.

Vintage Fridays: Don Stanhouse, 1979 Topps #119

If it seems like I mention High Heat Stats frequently on this blog, that's only because it's a fascinating source of baseball analysis and trivia. The latest factoid that caught my eye came from this post by Raphy (presumably not the former O's first baseman). There have been 19 players in major league history whose only career home run was a grand slam. Only one of those players performed the feat as an Oriole: utility infielder Frank Baker, who put the cherry on top of a Memorial Stadium record-setting 18-4 rout of the Indians on September 28, 1973 with his bases-loaded clout off of future Birds' pitching coach Dick Bosman. Baker actually had a team-high 6 RBI off of the team's bench, including the only Baltimore home run that day. He was only in the game because of a first-inning injury to starting second baseman Bobby Grich. If you check out the box score, you'll also see a great stat line from Andy Etchebarren: 4-for-4 with a walk, 3 runs scored, 3 RBI, and a caught stealing! Even better, it seems that Cleveland pitcher Milt Wilcox had Etch picked off, but the unibrowed catcher reached second base safely when Tribe first baseman Chris Chambliss committed an error.

There have also been a trio of one-time Orioles pitchers who drove in four on their lone career homer: Kent Mercker (as a Cardinal), Erv Palica (as a Dodger), and...Don Stanhouse (as an Expo). Yep. Good ol' Fullpack victimized veteran Cubs starter Bill Bonham on July 6, 1977, and naturally he did it at Wrigley Field. I guess the wind was blowing out. Of note: Chicago won anyway, 8-6. One of the runners who scored on Stanhouse's four-bagger was rookie Andre Dawson, playing in his 88th career game. There's always something new and surprising to be found in an old box score, don't you know.

Brady Anderson, 1998 Stadium Club #188

Brady Anderson just keeps climbing the ladder in the Orioles organization. It was only 13 months ago that the former outfielder was named (deep breath) Special Assistant to the Executive Vice President for Baseball Operations. This past Tuesday, he was promoted to Vice President of Baseball Operations. In addition to having a much more concise job title, Brady will have a "new and expanded role" per front office honcho Dan Duquette. No specifics yet, but the expectation is that he will still be dealing primarily in player relations and development as well as physical training. When I was watching Brady Anderson do his thing in the O's outfield back in the 1990s, I don't think I ever imagined that he would have a significant role in the team's front office some day. At any rate, better him than Mike Pagliarulo.

Brian Roberts, 2006 Topps Heritage #190

Hooray, baseball is back!

Well, in a manner of speaking. The Orioles had their first set of intrasquad exhibitions today, or as I phrased it to my girlfriend, they decided to play with themselves. Ahem. Anyway, despite the fact that none of this counts, not even for Grapefruit League standings, I couldn't help but carefully read the flurry of tweets from O's beat reporters. I drank in the names, so familiar: Jake Arrieta. Zach Britton. Brian Matusz. Chris Davis. Nate McLouth. Brian Roberts.

Though this was little more than a glorified practice session, it was especially encouraging to learn that Roberts began the spring on a positive note, stroking a single off of Britton to score McLouth. Last year, the post-concussed second baseman didn't play in a single preseason game. He made it back to the field at Camden Yards in mid-June, and saw action in 17 games before hip surgery ended his season prematurely and unsatisfyingly. He's still no sure bet to stay healthy, and even beyond that, there's bound to be some rust. You won't find many people bullish on the potential performance of a 35-year-old infielder who has totaled 115 games in the past three seasons, but even a long-shot comeback story has to start somewhere.

Pat Hentgen, 2003 Topps Total #661

A tip of the hat to Craig "Flip Flop Fly Ball" Robinson, who noted on his Tumblr that there have been only nine players in MLB history who played for all three "Birdy Teams": Orioles, Blue Jays, and Cardinals. Those players are Alberto Castillo (the catcher, not the pitcher), Pat Hentgen, Cesar Izturis, Paul Kilgus, Mike Morgan, Corey Patterson, Nerio Rodriguez, Mike Timlin, and Tom Underwood. At present, Hentgen is the only player with the distinction of suiting up for only those three teams. Eat your heart out, Mark Fidrych.

Adam Jones, 2012 Topps 1987 Mini #TM-29

There are numerous reasons why I am glad that Adam Jones will be an Oriole for the foreseeable future. Reason number 76 is the prank that he pulled on Kevin Gausman last week. Gausman was the Orioles' first-round draft pick last year, a pitcher out of Louisiana State University. The young righthander has a reputation as something of a flake, thanks in part to his game-day superstition of eating four Hostess powdered mini-donuts after each inning. So Jones welcomed Gausman to Spring Training by filling the youngster's locker with 1,500 powdered donuts. Camden Chat has the photo evidence. It takes a true team leader to keep his teammates supplied with sugary baked goods.

Jim Palmer, 2013 PunkRockPaint Old Hoss 100 #89

I can't help myself. I'm going to share another card from the Old Hoss 100, because it features one of the meaner comments in the set. Mean, but still funny. Hopefully Jim Palmer isn't the litigious type.

Oh, nuts.

Brooks Robinson, 2013 PunkRockPaint Old Hoss 100 #43

Yesterday my very own complete factory set of the Old Hoss 100 arrived. As I was flipping through the cards, it dawned on me that my very first purchase of a 2013 card product wasn't Topps, but the hard work of a very talented fellow blogger. That makes me quite happy, especially since it's a legitimately well-done and entertaining set.

A little background: PunkRockPaint is the sporadically-updated blog of Travis, a Padres fan and an excellent artist. Old Hoss refers to the parody Twitter account of Charley "Old Hoss" Radbourn, the Hall of Fame 19th-century pitcher who was famous for his 59-win, 73-complete-game 1884 season with the Providence Grays. Hoss was also a famed raconteur, and the @OldHossRadbourn account plays it to the hilt. He's usually scoffing at the sissification of the modern game, making offhand references to his scores of illegitimate children, or skewering sports media coverage. In that vein, "Hoss" spent last December commenting upon ESPN's Hall of 100, a list of the purported 100 greatest baseball players of all time. Travis was inspired to create a limited-edition set of cards featuring those 100 players, with "Radbourn"'s comments on the card backs. As you can see, it's a beautiful sepia-toned set, similar in size and presentation to the old tobacco cards. It doesn't even suffer for the Photoshopping that removes or distorts cap and jersey insignias, in my opinion.

I'm glad that I was quick enough on the draw to snap up a set, as they're sold out now. The box that the cards were packed in is serial numbered 8 of 84. It promises a complete 100-card set plus 5 "rarities". The rarities include randomly-inserted and serial-numbered cards of ESPN's 25 honorable mentions, as well as alternate photo parallel cards of base set players. My rarities were #104 Dave Winfield, #106 Whitey Ford, #110 Harry Heilmann, and #122 Edgar Martinez (each numbered to 10), as well as #72 Bert Blyleven modeling his "I Love to Fart" shirt (numbered to 5). Glorious.

There are four Orioles in the set. In addition to the Brooks Robinson card I'm showing here, you've got #31 Cal Ripken, Jr., #65 Eddie Murray, and #89 Jim Palmer. (Frank Robinson is pictured with the Cincinnati Reds.) I'm glad to add them to my team collection. I'll let Old Hoss have the final word:

Vintage Fridays: Merv Rettenmund, 1973 Topps #56

As of today, full-squad Spring Training officially begins for the Orioles down in Sarasota, Florida. Of course, nearly all of the position players reported early this year. It's almost as if they're more eager to play in 2013 after the excitement of a 93-win season in which they fell two runs short of the American League Championship Series. Funny how that works.

Though it's starting to look like the cost of airfare is obscene enough to keep me away from Ed Smith Stadium this time around, I can still look at cards like this one and think warm thoughts. As is the case with several Topps cards from the 1970s, Merv Rettenmund's 1973 Topps photo shows him taking his practice cuts down south at Spring Training. Since he's wearing his road grays, I'm not sure that the Birds are being photographed at their old base of operations in Miami. But I see a blurry palm tree in the background, and a bunch of black and orange gear scattered in the grass, and both things make me happy in a simple way. Sometimes that's all that it takes.

Brian Holton, 1990 Score #177

In a quick search of my archives, I discovered that I've already commented on these dorky black turtlenecks twice before. I just can't help myself. The only thing that looks worse than a plain black turtleneck on a ballplayer is a turtleneck with thin orange stripes around the neck. I guess I should just be grateful that the Orioles didn't pair the striped turtleneck with the 1970s-1980s era polyester uniform pants and striped elastic waistbands. The O's came perilously close to being engulfed by horizontal stripes. The horror...

Vladimir Guerrero, 2011 Topps Diamond Duos #DD-23

These Diamond Duos cards aren't bad by recent Topps insert standards. Some of them fall flat for me - matching Brooks Robinson with Ryan Zimmerman is borderline blasphemy - but when they hit on a good match, it works. Here you've got Big Papi and Vlad, a pair of American League East designated hitters from the Dominican Republic who have a shared legacy of beating the ever-loving snot out of the ball. Of course, Guerrero was just about cooked by the time he landed in Baltimore in 2011. I was surprised to learn that Vlad is just nine months older than Ortiz, who still seems to have something left in the tank. If I believed in jinxes, I'd start talking up Papi's chances of bouncing back from injury in 2013 and leading the Red Sox out of the cellar...but that's not my style. No sir.

Ted Gray, 1991 Crown/Coca-Cola All-Time Orioles #162

Since I wrote a bit about journeymen on Friday, I thought I'd share this fun post by Doug over at the High Heat Stats blog. He searched Baseball Reference to find the players who did the most team-jumping over short spans of time. There were a few ex-Orioles on the various lists: Jose Bautista, Bruce Chen, Jorge Julio, Todd Zeile, Hoot Evers, Eddie Robinson, and Ted Gray. Gray is something of an interesting case, a World War II vet and an early-1950s mainstay of the Tigers pitching staffs. His ERA+ got steadily worse throughout his career, falling from a high of 119 (3.51 ERA) in his sophomore season of 1949 all the way down to 70 (5.38 ERA) in 1954. So after spending parts of his first eight big league seasons in Detroit, Ted was traded to the White Sox in a six-player deal that also involved future O's Walt Dropo and Bob Nieman. From there, here's the sad transaction history of 1955 for Ted Gray:

May 23, 1955: Released by the Chicago White Sox.

June 15, 1955: Signed as a Free Agent with the Cleveland Indians.

June 29, 1955: Released by the Cleveland Indians.

June 30, 1955: Signed as a Free Agent with the New York Yankees.

July 20, 1955: Released by the New York Yankees.

July 26, 1955: Signed as a Free Agent with the Baltimore Orioles.

September 17, 1955: Released by the Baltimore Orioles.

When the Orioles cut Ted loose, it definitively brought an end to the 30-year-old's career. While pitching for half of the clubs in the American League that season, the southpaw had only racked up 14 appearances totalling 23.1 innings. He gave up 38 hits, 15 walks, and 30 runs (25 earned), struck out only 11 men, and served up 4 home runs. The final tallies: a 9.64 ERA and a 42 ERA+ (again, 100 ERA+ is league-average). Somewhere in that mess, he managed to win a single game for the Orioles, tossing a scoreless ninth inning against the crummy Athletics and benefiting from a walkoff two-run double by Bob Hale.

Now that's how you rack up some mileage in style.

Paul Winterling, 2008 Bowman Chrome Prospects #BCP173

Nope, never heard of him.

But that's my fault, not Paul Winterling's. I can look at the back of the card, and see that he's a local boy: McDonogh High School and Johns Hopkins University. Signed with the O's as an undrafted free agent in 2005, and batted .231/319/.393 in four minor league seasons, topping out at high-A Frederick. Bowman's Scouting Report notes that Paul "aspires to coaching", and indeed he is apparently available to train folks in baseball in the Baltimore area. Call now!

Mike Mussina, 1993 Studio #202

One exciting outcome from my weekend of sorting miscellaneous 1993 cards was the discovery that I nearly have a complete set of 1993 Studio, one of my favorite card sets of all time. I only need 18 more cards to finish it off - I've put the rest in a binder and everything. So if you have the inclination, go check out my 1993 Studio want list here. Drop me a line and maybe we can make a deal!

Damon Buford, 1993 Upper Deck #691

Because I really know how to have a good time, I've spent the bulk of my weekend thus far sorting a few thousand 1993 baseball cards. On the plus side, I've been able to get reacquainted with the magnificence of the 1993 Upper Deck set. Just look at this card, which zooms in on Damon Buford dancing away from the base. The photo is tight enough that it's just Damon and the infield dirt. He could be on the beach in Ocean City, if you use your imagination. I'm also really drawn in by Buford's shadow mirroring his movements from below. This is a baseball card aspiring to be art.