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. 

Trade Post.... One deal and three sets are completed

I primarily consider  myself a set collector. The only problem with that - I'm horrible at actually finishing off sets. My attention is usually diverted by something else roughly 85% of the way through any given set. One of my goals this year is to clean some sets up and finish them off, especially any set that I'm at least 90% of the way through.

With that in mind I made an offer on TCDB to user mfeik for a 2003 Topps Ichiro Award Winner card which was the last one I needed to complete that wonderfully blue-bordered set. While building the trade I noticed he also had the one last 1990 Donruss card (it's always been one more card with that damn set).  I had some random Tigers cards he needed so we worked out a deal.

Yesterday they showed up in the mail.

I appreciate any Ichiro card that I can add to my collection. He may not have been the best baseball player I've ever watched live, but he is definitely the most graceful. Everything he did had a casual elegant smoothness to it. He never seemed hurried or our of sorts. God damn, he was fun to watch.

A card I didn't even know I didn't have until I started paging up The Red Menace. That was not a great collecting day. There are over 2500 1990 Donruss cards under my roof right now and not one of them was of the first (only?) man to strike out 5,000 major league hitters. It's quite satisfying to finally put that set to rest.

Wait...the title said three sets were completed? Which one was the third?

Well, mfeik was gracious enough to throw in a few extras. Along with three 2006 Topps cards I needed he knocked off the last three 1988 Topps cards I needed. Yup, that one only took 32 years to finish/ Along with Julio Franco (#683) and Jim Acker (#678) came this card:

The Bash Brothers in their prime bashing years. Twelve-year-old Justin would have been stoked to pull this card out off a pack. 

Thank you mfeik for helping out. According to TCDB I have 17 more sets that are over 90% complete.  Hopefully I can focus on them for a bit and knock that list down a bit more.

Trade Post...and a return to a more active site?

Well now. It seems it's been a month of Sundays* since I last posted. Time just kind of gets away from folks from time to time I guess. The good news is, as a member of the hospitality trade, I'm gearing up for a bunch of free time. That's bad for my bank account, but good for those of you who enjoy rambling trade posts and other random things.

We'll get back into the swing of things with a nice basic trade post. Things have been going well in that department as I'm shuffling cards around on a consistent basis. I usually have two or three trades in the works at a time which makes checking the mail a fun event. It's also helping with that goal of getting 2,020 cards out of the door.

Let's check in with the card-o-meter:

-443

That's 443 more cards out than in so far in 2,020. It seems like a good number, right? Unfortunately at the beginning of the month it was at -870. Then Heritage was released (had to get a box of that, right?). And along with that box, Dave and Adam's had a really good deal on 2002 Upper Deck Vintage - the original 1971 throwback set. So had to buy a box of that.

It's a process. 

On to the trade!

A few weeks ago I sent a blind trade request to user 3bCollection at the Trading Card Database. He saw some additional Braves inserts that weren't on my trade list. Being that I had no need for them, we reswizzeled things a bit and came to an agreement. The inserts and a pile of 2001 Topps dupes went to Georgia and in return came these cards:

1982 Orioles Team Leaders

Yup, another Eddie Murray card for the personal collection. That makes for 284 different Murray cards or 6.8% of the listed cards on TCDB. 10% or bust!

The best part of the card was the back. I love it when checklist cards were actually used for checking off cards in the collection. I'm also in the middle of adding my regular 1982 collection to the database and noticed all the checklist cards I had marked up back when I was a little kid.  Ahhhh memories.

1985 Baltimore Orioles Topps

The 1985 design has really grown on me lately. I'm not sure I'm going to start building it, but I'll at least finish off the Orioles that I need. Lowenstein's combination of sunglasses and mustache is peak level 1980's baseball while Cruz magnificent quaff of hair should never have had to have been contained by a hat or helmet.  

 

2019 Bowman Prospect Hall and Mountcastle

We don't know when baseball will start in 2020, but when it does, it'll be that much closer to the next generation of Orioles taking the field. Mountcastle and Hall are hopefully a big part of that. 

 

2019 Topps

I'm never going to finish this set. TCDB tells me I'm 99.4% complete. I don't believe it. Every time I get a card, the set size will increase by one card. I know that's what is happening.

Thanks 3bCollection!