Orioles Victory Card Number Nine (1987 Season Edition): Regressing back to their bad ways

Baltimore Orioles Victory Number 9: 3-0 over the Kansas City Royals

2007 Upper Deck Brady Anderson Long Distance Connection

With the sporting world on hold due to the novel coronavirus shutting down the world for a few months we here at The Hopeful Chase are going to our rain delay programming. For the last two seasons we've posted a baseball card following every Baltimore Orioles victory (I know, talk about the minimum commitment required). It's fun and keeps us writing about baseball and collecting. Rather than sit back and stare forlornly at the outside world we've decided to continue the series with a season from the past.  The season of choice - 1987. Please enjoy.


It was a rough week back in 1987 for the Baltimore Orioles. Following their extra inning win against Texas on Wednesday the Os dropped four in a row, including another sweep at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers (who finally lost prior to the Orioles series, but have a sparkling 16-1 record on the season).

For Baltimore some of the things they had thought they had cleaned up reared their ugly heads again - starting pitching and defense. Remember how the big off season signings (Ray Knight and Rick Burleson) were brought in to help with the defense and it seemed to be working early in the season? Well, that's out the door.

Following a 9-4 loss to Texas they were up to 13 errors in 16 games which put them on a pace for 131 for the season. The good news is that they had 135 the previous year so I guess it's a bit of an improvement. Not quite the improvement Cal Ripken, Sr. was looking for and giving their opponents extra outs really taxed their pitching staff.

And that brings us to the second and more important issue, pitching. As in lack of. The two veterans that they were hoping to return to form, Scott McGregor and Mike Flanagan, have struggled. As in 0-6 with a 5.07 ERA struggled. At least McGregor was eating up innings having worked into at least the seventh inning in each of his last three starts.

Not helping matters is that Ken Dixon started giving up home runs at a Dylan Bundy-esque pace. In the young season he's surrendered 7 home runs in 19 innings. Despite having some of the better stuff on the team he can't seem to figure out how to work through a major league line-up. His latest outing (1 IP, 6 hits, 7 runs, 1 home run allowed) would be his last start until mid-June.

The senior Ripken (along with GM Hank Peters) decided it was time to move him to bullpen. It was a move that Dixon didn't quite agree with, telling the press that with 30 starts left he still had a shot at 20 wins. Confidence can be a dangerous thing.

What's a team to do when they can't get consistent starting pitching? Turn their five-man rotation into a four-man rotation, of course. With a couple of off days spread over the next week it made sense. There was some rumored talk of possibly bringing up one of their young starters who were off to good starts in Rochester, namely Jeff Ballard or John Habyan, but for now they were going to go with just four.

Another benefit of a four-man rotation is that they get to start Mike Boddicker more often. Following his 1-hit shutout the team was 5-0 in games that he started in 1987. Unfortunately for him he got credit for two of those wins.

A lack of offense in his starts was a concern as were the slumps the heart of the order was going through. Eddie Murray was hitting .161, Fred Lynn .181 and nursing a sore shoulder, and Ray Knight was down to .338- impressive, but quite a comedown from the .571 he was hitting a week earlier. Knight also suffered what sounds like a concussion in the 3-0 win when he got clocked in the head by Buddy Biancalana's knee during a play at second base.

After a promising start to the season, their recent struggles pushed them to a 9-11 record, 8.5 games behind the Brewers. Their manager was optimistic they could turn things around, after all Milwaukee couldn't keep winning at an .895 clip, right?

Orioles Victory Card Number Eight (1987 Season Edition): Back into the win column

Baltimore Orioles Victory Number 8: 3-2 over the Texas Rangers

2017 Topps All-Time All-Stars Eddie Murray

With the sporting world on hold due to the novel coronavirus shutting down the world for a few months we here at The Hopeful Chase are going to our rain delay programming. For the last two seasons we've posted a baseball card following every Baltimore Orioles victory (I know, talk about the minimum commitment required). It's fun and keeps us writing about baseball and collecting. Rather than sit back and stare forlornly at the outside world we've decided to continue the series with a season from the past.  The season of choice - 1987. Please enjoy.


One of the best things about blogging in the time of Covid is that I can lay out when I'm going to post. During a normal season I don't know when the wins are coming (although I can assume they won't be coming frequently). By covering a past season I know how long I have between wins (hint, we have a little space between victories right now). That feeds into my natural writing laziness.

Normally I would have to write and post between the end of a win and the beginning of the next game so that I don't fall behind. This season I can wait a bit. For instance this win, the eighth of the season for the Orioles, is surrounded by seven losses. Sweet.

Of course, the opposite is true. I can look ahead and see that the Orioles have a stretch of ten wins in twelve games. If we're not back into the regular season by July there is an eleven game winning streak that may kill me.

Anyway, back to the game. Once again Mike Boddicker was cruising along until he was sidelined by a minor injury. In his fourth start of the season (second against Texas) he went 7 1/3 innings, struck out three and scattered seven hits. The only reason he left the game was due to a cracked fingernail on his pitching hand.

This is where the lack of a closer hurt the team. With Don Aase still on the DL (he reported no soreness in his shoulder following a second cortisone shot and some light throwing) rookie Mark Williamson was brought in to close the game out. He was trying to rebound from a rough previous outing. In the second game of a good old day/night against Cleveland he gave up five runs on five hits and three walks in just two innings.

That was life back in the day of the four person bullpen. It was pretty obvious in that outing that he didn't have his best stuff. He couldn't throw strikes and when he did, he got hit hard. He was left in mainly because there wasn't anyone else the senior Ripken trusted. Dave Schmidt had thrown almost four innings in relief the day before. His other options were Tony Arnold (who had worked an inning in the opening game) and Mike Kinnunen had already worked in the game.

That's why Williamson was left in the game and turned a 5-3 Orioles lead into a 8-5 deficit (the final run scored by Cleveland was courtesy of a Mel Hall home run. In true Mel Hall fashion it took him roughly a week and a half to round the bases. A ninth-inning home run by Floyd Rayford would make the score a little more respectable, but still a loss.

 His hope for a rebound in his next outing started off smoothly. He took over for Boddicker in the eighth with a 2-1 lead. He worked around a walk and a stolen base by Jerry Browne to get out of the inning. It was in the ninth that he ran into trouble. Mainly a home run by Pete Incaviglia. Another blown save.

Following a single and an intentional walk, Williamson's night was done. Dave Schmidt took over and got Geno Petralli to fly out. Luckily the Rangers bullpen was worse than the Orioles. Greg Harris walked Eddie Murray to load the bases, struck out Fred Lynn, and then walked Ray Knight to drive in a run.

Schmidt worked a scoreless bottom of the tenth and the Orioles picked up their first win on their eight-game road trip.

Through the first couple weeks of this project the handling of pitching staffs has been the most glaring difference between how baseball was played in in 1987 and today. Well, that and the shift. Although, there was plenty of shifting back then as well. The aforementioned loss that Williamson took against the Indians is actually on Youtube.

What is phenomenal about this game is that the Indians started 48-year-old Phil Niekro. The Hall-of-Fame pitcher was in the final season of his 24 year career and did alright. He was relieved after 4 2/3 innings by 42-year-old future Hall-of-Famer Steve Carlton. Earlier in the season the duo had hooked up to become the first pair of 300-win pitchers to pitch for the same team in the same game and win.

With Niekro on the mound flinging up knuckleballs, the Indians played a pretty intense shift against a couple of hitters, most notably Ken Gerhart. The Orioles also had a shift on from time-to-time. Several times second baseman Alan Wiggins popped up on the left side of the infield.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Orioles Victory Card Number Seven (1987 Season Edition): A Trade Post

Baltimore Orioles Victory Number 7: 16-3 over the Cleveland Indians

1993 Donruss Mike Mussina

With the sporting world on hold due to the novel coronavirus shutting down the world for a few months we here at The Hopeful Chase are going to our rain delay programming. For the last two seasons we've posted a baseball card following every Baltimore Orioles victory (I know, talk about the minimum commitment required). It's fun and keeps us writing about baseball and collecting. Rather than sit back and stare forlornly at the outside world we've decided to continue the series with a season from the past.  The season of choice - 1987. Please enjoy.

Oh man, thank God for the Cleveland Indians, huh?  The Orioles offense definitely righted their offense against five Cleveland pitchers (including future Oriole Doug Jones). Cal Ripken, Jr. busted out of a mini slump by going 3-5 with a home run and 4 RBI. Even newcomer Nelson Simmons (called up due to Lee Lacy going on the DL with a strained hamstring) went 1-3 and drove in a run. Ray Knight had another 3 hits and is hitting .513 on the season. Surely that's maintainable (spoiler: it wasn't).

Eric Bell picked up his second win as he worked into the sixth inning. He wasn't quite as sharp as his last outing, but he did pitch around 3 walks and 7 hits to limit the Indians to only 3 runs. Dave Schmidt picked up the old-fashioned save by shutting them out over the last 3.2 innings.

Who cares about all that. Today's post is about a card trade. Well, a lot of cards were traded. In fact with roughly 390 cards being exchanged it's the largest deal I've conducted on the Trading Card Database so far. 

User DukeyDevil proposed the deal in two parts and it required me to part with a bunch of 1994 Topps Archives (no problem, still have a bunch) dupes along with a bunch of hockey from the mid-90s that I was dumping. So, really the hardest thing for me was finding a way to ship them out (USPS small box flat rate turned out to be the best).

In exchange I picked up some 93' Donruss Orioles including the Mussina pictured above. Little known fact, the O's actually drafted Mussina in the 11th round of the 1987 draft but he ended up going to Stanford. I think that worked out for him.

There were also a ton of mid-90's Lightning cards (there are so many out there to collect!) including this 1995-96 Upper Deck Paul Ysebaert card. Look, he's happy. Kay Whitmore....not so much.

The bulk of the trade came in the form of 1993 Upper Deck. Again, it's one of those sets that I have on my "want list" that never seems to end. Even with over 100 cards coming in this trade, I'm still only at 61% complete, yet it takes up almost an entire row in one of my sorting boxes. Damn these early 90's sets that I have too many dupes of!

Trading is still going strong despite the quarantine rules in place in most states and the seemingly impending doom of the USPS. I have made one concession. With the exception of this trade I've pretty much limited myself to PWE trades. Does that make it tougher to achieve my goal of getting rid of an extra 2,020 cards this year? Yes, but it also keeps me from plunking down $4.00 a shot to mail out bubble mailers every day. 

And it's been pretty much a daily trip to the post office these days. For some reason we don't have an outgoing mail slot at our apartment complex, or, more likely, I'm too lazy to find it. The post office is only about two hundred yards away as the crow flies, but thanks to the way the apartments and streets are laid out here, it ends up being about a two block walk. Which isn't the worst thing in the world. It gets me out of the apartment for a few minutes at least.

With pre-printed stamps I don't have to talk to anyone of get within six feet of them so I'm not violating any social distance rules (yea me!). So I'll keep doing it as long as there are traders out there.

Thanks to DukeyDevil and everyone else that has sent cards to Utah over the last couple of months. It's kept me somewhat sane.

Orioles Victory Card Number Six (1987 Season Edition): Back in the win column

Baltimore Orioles Victory Number 6: 4-1 over the Cleveland Indians

1987 Topps Don Aase

With the sporting world on hold due to the novel coronavirus shutting down the world for a few months we here at The Hopeful Chase are going to our rain delay programming. For the last two seasons we've posted a baseball card following every Baltimore Orioles victory (I know, talk about the minimum commitment required). It's fun and keeps us writing about baseball and collecting. Rather than sit back and stare forlornly at the outside world we've decided to continue the series with a season from the past.  The season of choice - 1987. Please enjoy.


Thank you to the Milwaukee Brewers for knocking a little bit of realism back into the season for the Baltimore Orioles. Nothing like getting swept (and no hit) to deflate a little early season optimism. While outscoring the Orioles 20-7 in the three game series, the Brewers ran their record to 9-0, not a bad way to start the season.

It was all bad for Baltimore as their starting pitching wasn't actually that bad. Scott McGregor worked into the 8th in the first game while Mike Flanagan was solid for most of the third game. Ken Dixon did have some trouble with the long ball as he gave up four home runs in five and two-thirds innings during the middle game. The offense just kind of disappeared against the Brewers.

Along with the home runs allowed in the 7-4 loss on Tuesday, the Orioles lost the one sure thing they had in the bullpen - closer Don Aase. After appearing in limited work during the opening week of the season he faced two hitters to close out the top of the ninth inning. While he worked his usual magic and didn't allow a run, he wasn't able to lift his arm the following day - not a great sign for a pitcher. 

Diagnosed with tendonitis of the right shoulder he was put on the disabled list and instructed not to throw a ball for ten days. Again, not exactly what you want out of your closer. There had been some hope that the Orioles wouldn't have to lean on him as much as they did last year. In fact, one of the major criticisms of Earl Weaver's final season in Baltimore was that he used Aase (only two years removed from major elbow surgery) way too much.

The big right-hander appeared in 66 games for the O's, including 46 of the team's first 106. That doesn't include the times Weaver would have him warm up and not use him. He was effective over that stretch with 28 saves, a 4-3 record and a 2.02 ERA. That workload did seem to take its effect on him, though. His final 20 appearances (which coincide with the Orioles rapid descent) produced a 2-4 record with a 5.32 ERA and only six saves.

The hope for 1987 would be that he wouldn't have to work quite as much hence the off-season flirtation with Ron Guidry. Thanks to his early season injuries it seemed like that plan would work out. Just not in the ideal way the Orioles would have hoped. 

The team called up left-hander Mike Kinnunen to replace him in the bullpen. To be honest I never heard of that man in my life. Kinnunen had been signed by the Orioles as a free agent prior to the 1986 season and appeared in nine games. According to his stats he shows up in 18 games in 1987 for the Orioles, pitching a total of 20 innings without recording a win or a loss. In fact, in 48 major league games between the Orioles and the Minnesota Twins (his original team) he never factored in a decision. Ahhh...the life of a left-handed reliever.

Aase's injury didn't really factor in any of the losses the Orioles suffered against the Brewers, after all you don't need a reliever if you're never ahead (insert meme of guy knowingly pointing to his forehead). It did, however, make a questionable bullpen even more so. Rookie Mark Williamson moved into the closer/short relief role while Kinnunen joined Tony Arnold (9.00 ERA so far) and Dave Schmidt as the middle relievers.

First of all, can we talk about how different the 80s were? A freaking four-person bullpen. Could today's managers even handle that? Five starters and four relievers don't even get teams out of a doubleheader theses days. Right along with a 92 MPH fastball being considered "hard stuff" that may be the most mind-blowing differences between baseball in 1987 and today.  Oh, and the pitch counts as well. Juan Nieves no-hitter against the O's only took a tidy 128 pitches.

Anyway, back to the ballclub. Having seen their offense sputter, manager Cal Ripken, Sr. finally started to tinker with line-up. Defensively John Shelby had been fine in the outfield. Offensively, not so much. Following that home run we talked about last time he had struck out in five consecutive at bats. Insert veteran Lee Lacy.  Rick Burleson and his constantly dislocated shoulder were scheduled to be benched, but his replacement, DH Alan Wiggins was left out of the line-up due to a boil on his back that needed to be lanced. Wiggins's absence did open up a spot for Larry Sheets (hitting .455) in the order.

Thank god the Cleveland Indians came into town. Mike Boddicker took the mound and did something he hadn't in his last 15 appearances - he won. He gave up five hits over seven innings while striking out seven and walking only one. Williamson took over and worked two hitless innings and the Orioles were back in the win column.

The offense was sporadic but effective with the team generating only five hits, but they were timely. Tom Candiotti walked four and hit a batter so it provided enough runners for the Orioles to scratch across four runs. It was a scrappy win for a team that's starting to look a little thin roster-wise.

Orioles Victory Card Number Five (1987 Season Edition): Rookie Eric Bell impresses in his first start

Baltimore Orioles Victory Number 5: 7-1 over the Cleveland Indians

1987 Donruss Eric Bell

With the sporting world on hold due to the novel coronavirus shutting down the world for a few months we here at The Hopeful Chase are going to our rain delay programming. For the last two seasons we've posted a baseball card following every Baltimore Orioles victory (I know, talk about the minimum commitment required). It's fun and keeps us writing about baseball and collecting. Rather than sit back and stare forlornly at the outside world we've decided to continue the series with a season from the past.  The season of choice - 1987. Please enjoy.

Remember how just a day ago I said the Orioles were going to need a nice outing from one of their starters in order to save the bullpen? Who would have thought it would have come from their youngest starter in the rotation - rookie Eric Bell?  (I guess anyone who has actually looked at the 1987 schedule would not only have thought that, but actually known that).

At 23-years-old, Bell was not only the youngest starting pitcher on the team, but the youngest player over all. Despite making a few starts at the end of the 1986 season (including a win against the Yankees) Bell wasn't a sure thing for the rotation in 1987. First off, the Orioles cleared a spot by trading Storm Davis to San Diego for Mark Williamson and Terry Kennedy. Then, after some initial interest, they decided against signing free agent Ron Guidry to a contract.

Still, despite those openings, Bell still needed to have a strong spring in order to lock down the fifth spot in the rotation. He did just that, despite a rough final outing in spring training he still had a 3.43 ERA after five appearances (it was a much more impressive 1.49 after the first four starts).

Bell wasn't an overpowering pitcher. Much like Mike Flanagan and Scott McGregor (and to a certain extent current Orioles ace, John Means) he relied on his off-speed pitches more than his fastball. He was also a left-hander that didn't mind working with runners on base. Never much of a strikeout pitcher he worked around hits and walks (his minor league WHIPs were usually in the 1.3-1.5 range) but still managed to get people out. He never had a losing season in the minors and was the organization's most prized pitching prospect heading into the 1987 season having won a combined 28 games over the previous two seasons in the minors.

He had been drafted in the Orioles in the ninth round of the 1982 draft and steadily worked his way up through the minors by mixing speeds and getting people out despite not having overly impressive "stuff". The club was still pleased enough with his progress that in 1985 they actually called him up from "A" ball to appear in a few games with the Orioles.

There was hope that he would continue the tradition of home-grown pitching talent that had been a hallmark of Oriole pitching for the previous two decades. Some in the organization thought he would be a key part of the rotation for the next fifteen years (spoiler, he wasn't).

His first outing in the 1987 season (with a comfortable 10-days rest) was a bit of an anomaly to his usual starts. He worked 6 1/3 innings, struck out 7, walked only 2, gave up only 3 hits. The lone run surrendered on the day came off the bat of former Oriole Rick Dempsey who had joined the Indians via free agency that winter.

Bell didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning, by which time the Orioles had built a 6-0 lead thanks to a three-run home run by Eddie Murray, a RBI single by Ted Williams  Ray Knight (average now at .571) and back-to-back RWI (Runs Walked in) by Lee Lacy and Cal Ripken, Jr. (the Indians staff did not have their best day).

After a little more than a 100, pitches Bell was removed from the game in the seventh following a one-out walk to Brook Jacoby. Williamson entered the game and retired all eight of the batters he faced. Not a bad season debut for the number five starter in the rotation. Also, not a bad start for the Orioles as they finish their first week with a 5-1 record. Now back to Baltimore to face off against the undefeated Milwaukee Brewers.

Orioles Victory Card Number Four (1987 Season Edition): That's three in a row for the Birds!

Baltimore Orioles Victory Number 4: 7-3 over the Cleveland Indians

2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces Cal Ripken, Jr.


With the sporting world on hold due to the novel coronavirus shutting down the world for a few months we here at The Hopeful Chase are going to our rain delay programming. For the last two seasons we've posted a baseball card following every Baltimore Orioles victory (I know, talk about the minimum commitment required). It's fun and keeps us writing about baseball and collecting. Rather than sit back and stare forlornly at the outside world we've decided to continue the series with a season from the past.  The season of choice - 1987. Please enjoy.


It hasn't been a pretty start to the year, but it's been effective. Five games into the season and the Baltimore Orioles have won four times. The last two wins haven't exactly been masterpieces (see what  did there) but they have been entertaining. The Orioles opened their three game set with the Indians on Friday by blowing a 4-0 lead, but coming back to win 12-11 in extra innings with rookie Mark Williamson picking up the win.

On Saturday the offense kept rolling along. There are some echos of good ol' Oriole Magic at work. Saturday's hero was veteran Lee Lacy. He lost his starting outfield to John Shelby at the beginning of the season. Getting a start against Cleveland due to Shelby's offensive woes (one-for-fourteen) Lacy homered to lead off the top of the eighth inning to break a 3-3 tie. Then Shelby, inserted into the line-up as defensive replacement, homered in the ninth to extend the lead.  

While the record is nice, there are some worrisome trends developing. The Orioles starting pitchers are muddling about with a 4.74 ERA and only one win. Mike Flanagan and Scott McGregor failed to get out of the third inning in their starts and Mike Boddicker was trying to pitch through a knee issue on Saturday. The bullpen has been surprisingly effective (except for the Friday game when no one knew how to pitch), but have been way too busy this early in the year.

Free agent Dave Schmidt worked four innings in the 7-3 wins just a few days after he worked 4.2 against Texas on Wednesday. It's rarely a good sign when a long reliever has more innings under his belt than half of the starting rotation combined. With closer Don Aase dealing with a little stiffness in his back the bullpen desperately needs a long outing from a starter soon.

Of course, they could just keep relying on an offense that is hitting .298 through five games. It seems Ray Knight is adjusting just fine to American League pitching as he's slashing .588/.682/1.799 so far in the orange and black. His partner on the left-side of the infield, Cal Ripken, Jr. is rolling along with 2 home runs already and a .391 batting average.

Things are going to pretty well. It looks like keeping Alan Wiggins on the roster is paying off. The DH/outfielder/infielder was able to fill in at second base in the absence of Rick Burleson. The veteran popped his shoulder out of place stretching in the dugout Friday night and wasn't available to play. Burleson doesn't seem to troubled by it, noting that it's something that he's dealt with since dislocating his shoulder two years ago.  

Manager Cal Ripken, Sr. seems to pushing all of the right buttons so far in his first shot at leading the club, but if the starters don't get their act together soon, he's going to start running out of options. There isn't a lot of depth in the bullpen and things can turn in a hurry with the red-hot Milwaukee Brewers coming to town after the Orioles wrap up their series with the Indians.

Orioles Victory Card Number Three (1987 Season Edition): Future Stars

Baltimore Orioles Victory Number 3: 12-11 over the Cleveland Indians

1979 Topps Orioles Prospects Mark Corey, John Flinn, Sammy Stewart


With the sporting world on hold due to the novel coronavirus shutting down the world for a few months we here at The Hopeful Chase are going to our rain delay programming. For the last two seasons we've posted a baseball card following every Baltimore Orioles victory (I know, talk about the minimum commitment required). It's fun and keeps us writing about baseball and collecting. Rather than sit back and stare forlornly at the outside world we've decided to continue the series with a season from the past.  The season of choice - 1987. Please enjoy.

Remember just yesterday when I wrote about how this year's series was going to be a more in depth treatment of the season and follow the plotlines of the team throughout 1987? Well, yeah, we're ditching that pattern for at least today.

Instead, we're going to talk about the card pictured above - the 1979 Topps Orioles prospects card.  I love prospect cards, especially of the Orioles. After all the most famous Oriole card of my generation is a prospects card (hint it will be featured below). Sadly, for much of my life there haven't been too many rookies to get excited about as a fan of Baltimore baseball.

There was a good run with Ripken and Murray. Mike Mussina and Ben McDonald provided some interest in the early 1990s. Then there was Nick Markakis and Matt Wieters more than a decade later. For the most part we've had to deal with the Larry Bigbie's and Matt Riley's of the world. Exciting to us for their potential which they never live up to. The good news is that their rookie cards can usually be picked up quite cheaply.

Topps' run from 1979 to 1982 of putting a trio of prospects from the same team on the same card seemed like a good idea. They rarely nailed it, most of the time just one of the players would turn out to be better than marginal. The O's weren't immune to this trend.

OK - non-Baltimore fans, how many of you remember any of three shown above? Now, for the Orioles fans - other than Sammy Stewart who do you remember off of that card?  Yeah, me too. Stewart was signed as an amateur free agent by the Orioles in the summer of 1975. He was a starter in the minors, piling up 28 complete games between 1976 and 1978. In Baltimore, though, he would be a mainstay of the bullpen from 1979 to 1985. He appeared in two World Series (1979 and 1983) without giving up a run, in fact, in 12 post-season innings total he never allowed anyone to cross the plate.

Following the end of his career "The Throwin' Swannanoan" returned to his native North Carolina and fell on some hard times before passing away in 2018.

While Steward may have been the most famous Oriole on this particular card, it was Mark Corey that drew my attention when I picked up this particular piece of cardboard in a trade earlier this year. I had seen his name before on another card. So I checked my small collection of 1980 cards and what should I see, but:

That's right he also appeared on the 1980 Topps Orioles Future Stars card along with Dave Ford (5 career wins) and Wayne Krenchicki (58 career games with the Orioles).  However, that wasn't the card I was thinking of.  There's no way Topps would put him on yet another Future Stars card would they?  I think we know the answer that's coming:

Yup, there he is surrounded by a couple of Baltimore legends in Mike Boddicker and Floyd Rayford. Two players, I might mention, that appeared for the Orioles in the 1987 season. So, in a way, this post is kind of about our featured club.

So who was Mark Corey? In short, he was a very good prospect who had his career derailed by some injuries. Corey was a second round pick in the January 1976 draft (back in those days there were three drafts - June was the big one, but there was a January draft for high school and college players who graduated in the winter as well as an August draft following amatuer summer leagues).

He immediately went to Bluefield in the Appalacian league and ripped up rookie ball pitching. In 70 games he slashed an incredible .400/.446/.670 with 17 home runs and and 14 stolen bases.  Not bad for a 20-year-old.

In his second season (1977) he was bumped up to AA and kept hitting to the tune of a .310/.381/.476 line. The power numbers were down a bit, but the average was good enough to lead the league. The young outfielder from New Mexico was on his way to the big leagues.

It looked like 1978 was going to be the year he made the club. Unfortunately a knee injury sidelined him for much of the season and when he came back he was assigned to Rochester (AAA). He did well enough to remain one of the clubs top prospects (.324/.405/.468). It didn't look like he'd be much of a power hitter, but a gap-to-gap hitter who played a decent outfield would be welcome in Baltimore.

The next year did see a late-season callup for him, but once again he was dealing with injuries. During his September in Baltimore he hit .154. He was still just 23-years-old and considered one of the top prospects in the system.

In 1980 he was in Baltimore for 36 games, filling in for an injured Gary Roenickie. Between that and a September call up he hit a decent .278 with a home run and a couple of RBIs. Unfortunately by this time the Orioles outfield was starting to solidify with Roenickie and John Lowenstein in left, Al Bumbry in center and Ken Singleton or Jim Dwyer in right. John Shelby was being groomed as Bumbry's replacement in center along with top draft pick Dallas Wiliams.

Time just seemed to pass Corey by. With just ten at bats in the Orioles in 1981, Corey's major league career would end. He spent some more time in the minors and a few games in Japan before calling it a career in 1987.

By 1982 Topps had moved on to a few different prospects to put on their card. Perhaps you recognize one of them.

Orioles Victory Card Number Two (1987 Season Edition): Why 1987?

Baltimore Orioles Victory Number 2: 8-6 over the Texas Rangers

2001 Topps Archives "Orioles Celebrate"


So, why the 1987 Baltimore Orioles season? It would seem to make sense that if I was going to write about an O's season while we wait (hopefully) for the current one to get under way, why not one with a little more fun, maybe a few more wins? Well, I think that pretty much answers itself. More wins = me having to write more posts. COVID-19 or not, I am still an inherently lazy writer and more work has never been something to entice me.

That's one answer.  The other - 1987 was a really interesting season for the Orioles and baseball in general. The previous year, 1986, had seen Baltimore finish in last place for the first time since their strong run from 1966 to 1983 (3 world series titles, 6 world series appearances, and  15 first or second place finishes).

Whether it was from free agency, poor drafting, or just the normal cyclical nature of sports, this organization had landed in the cellar with a resounding thump. The whispered rumors of  the death of "The Oriole Way" - a focus on pitching and fundamental baseball - were getting louder despite the man responsible for teaching a generation of Orioles those very fundamentals, Cal Ripken, Sr. was finally in charge of the big league club.

Fans used to seeing the team have success like they did during the days of Frank Robinson and Davey Johnson (pictured above celebrating their 1969 sweep of the Minnesota Twins in the ALCS which started a run of three straight world series appearances) were now treated to a team that couldn't field (135 errors in 1986), hit (708 runs scored, below league average), or pitch (760 runs allowed, 5th worst in 1986).

The crash of 1986 (the O's were 2.5 games out of first on August 5th before going an abhorrent 13-42 the rest of the way) sent the legendary manager Earl Weaver back to the race tracks and golf courses of Florida. There were still vestiges of the last world series team on the ball club. The heart of the order, Cal Ripken Jr. and Eddie Murray, were still there as was the nucleus of the starting rotation (Scott McGregor, Mike Flanagan, and Mike Boddicker) that was so dominating against the Phillies in 1983.

Surrounding those guys, though, was a collection of past their prime athletes and not ready for the big league young players. While this was before teams talked about "rebuilds" openly, the Orioles were kind of undergoing one. They freely admitted that two of their free agent signings (Rick Burleson and Ray Knight) were basically one-year placeholders until some of the kids at Rochester were ready for the next step.

Speaking of the kids, the seeds of the "Why Not?" miracle season of 1989 are planted in 1987. Of course Ripken, Jr. is manning shortstop every day, but youngsters like Jeff Ballard, Mark Williamson, and Billy Ripken who would be so important to that crazy summer of hope made their Orioles debut.

As for major league baseball, what a great time to be a fan. Don Mattingly, Roger Clemens,Wade Boggs, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds were all young superstars (and steroids weren't being mentioned).  The league itself was wide open as there were no real dynasties left. Even following the Orioles abysmal 1986 season, they were only a couple of question marks away from contending.

This may also have been the peak of my time as a baseball fan. As a 10-year-old, baseball pretty much consumed my life. Playing it, watching (or listening) to it, reading about it, and collecting cards and stickers pretty much made up my day (with the occasional few hours of schooling, of course). There was no football in Baltimore. Hockey and basketball was relegated to Landover, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. So baseball and more importantly the Baltimore Orioles were the number one game in town.

As a kid you don't worry about the non-playing aspects of the game. I was blissfully unaware of the possibility of owner Edward Bennett Williams moving the team unless he got a new stadium. Nor did I care that free agency in baseball was pronounced all but dead as Williams and the rest of the owners spent the better part of three seasons colluding to drive down the cost of free agent salaries. None of that mattered. Hell, the National League only mattered around the All-Star break and World Series.

So, in a nutshell that's why we're going with the 1987 season.

Unlike the past two incarnations of this series, I'll probably spend a little more time going over the history of that club and the actual box score / on-the-field action. It's really an interesting club from the baseball lifer who finally gets his shot to manage in Ripken, Sr. to the brash young speedster trying to reclaim his role as an everyday ball player in Alan Wiggans, to a Hall of Famer in the prime of his career in Ripken, Jr.

Hopefully you'll enjoy this ride no matter how long it lasts (I figure we're not seeing live baseball until the Fourth of July at the earliest). If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to fire them off to me. 

Orioles Victory Card (1987 Season Edition): Opening the season with a win!

Baltimore Orioles Victory Number 1: 2-1 over the Texas Rangers

2006 Topps Opening Day Opening Day Insert Set (talk about repetitive)

With the sporting world on hold due to the novel coronavirus shutting down the world for a few months we here at The Hopeful Chase are going to our rain delay programming. For the last two seasons we've posted a baseball card following every Baltimore Orioles victory (I know, talk about the minimum commitment required). It's fun and keeps us writing about baseball and collecting. Rather than sit back and stare forlornly at the outside world we've decided to continue the series with a season from the past.  The season of choice - 1987. Please enjoy.

After a decidedly topsy-turvey spring training that seemed to raise more questions then it answered it's nice to see the Orioles start things off with a win. Not only a win, but an old-fashioned pitching and defense win. New skipper Cal Ripken, Sr. has to be happy with the three double plays and Eddie Murray backing up a relay throw that missed the intended cut-off man. Murray was able to gather up the bad throw and still make the relay to home to cut down Bob Brower at the plate.

Not only were they fine in the field, they took advantage of miscues by the Rangers to score both runs. First it was Fred Lynn scampering home after the ball got past catcher Don Slaught on a Ray Knight strike-out. Those things happen when a knuckleballer like Charlie Hough is on the mound. The game-winning run came on a sac fly by Larry Sheets. Rene Gonzales was on third because he was able to go from first to third following an errant pick-off throw from reliever Greg Harris.

Ripken Sr. has steadily preached fundamentals throughout the spring, something that the Orioles got away from last season. It wasn't the only reason they finished in last place in 1986,but it was a major reason. The bats weren't exactly on fire to start the season as they only managed five hits against Hough and Harris, but the home squad did take advantage of the few chances they had and won the game.

Even more encouraging was the performance of Mike Boddicker. Coming off a second-half of a season where he was beleaguered with injuries the Orioles ace looked like his old Cy Young self as he worked 7 2/3 innings. His only run allowed came off of a Oddibie McDowell first-inning home run. After that auspicious start, the crowd of 51,650 watched Boddicker keep the Rangers off balance with his usual array of breaking stuff and sneaky quick fastball.

The new guys may not have delivered much offense but Rick Burleson and Ray Knight were solid in the field which, to be honest, is why they're on the club. Knight, the reigning World Series MVP, should solidify a third base spot that saw the Orioles churn through ten different players and commit more than 35 errors last season. Burleson, a stop gap veteran signed to buy time until youngsters Billy Ripken and Pete Stanicek are ready for the big leagues, handled all seven chances that came his way and started two of the three double plays.

So, the new skipper was elated with the result right? Well, that would mean the hard-nosed baseball lifer was capable of elation, which seems to be a question at this point. He told the Washington Post,

"Listen, we played a good game," he said. "We talked all spring about executing and doing the little things, and we did them today. But we could have done them and lost. That other team didn't play badly. The point I'm making is that this is a 162-game schedule, and you can't get too high or too low. Everything worked fine today, but everything is not always going to be that way." 

For at least one day the Orioles practiced what their new manager was preaching. In a wide open American League fundamentals may just be enough to catapult this squad into contention.