Who's Your Favorite Bad Oriole?

[DrungoHazewood]

When I say bad, I don't mean guys like the real Drungo Hazewood, who only played a few games. I mean guys who stuck around for a while, and still were just plain terrible. Everybody on the poll played in at least 154 games in the field or pitched in 30 games.

[Nuclear Dish]

First of all, by favorite, do you mean you really liked this person, or do you mean he was really the worst?

And I went with other. I chose Chito Martinez, who played 158 games for us over 3 seasons between 1991-1993.

I liked that Chito wore my number (14). I liked that he had a .514 SLG for us in '91. And I liked that he is the only player in Major League history to be born in British Honduras (and always will be - British Honduras has since been renamed Belize).

In terms of actual personalities, I knew Pennington and Hulett personally when I worked for the team. Unfortunately, Hulett lost his son while I was there, and it was a real tough time for us all. He was really a class act, and you hate to see anyone go through that.

Pennington was a nice enough guy, but even off the field I sometimes wondered what was going on in that 2-cent head.

[Nuclear Dish]

Oh, one other interesting note.

When I first got to the O's in 1991, my boss, Charles Steinberg (who is Jewish, as am I) called me into his office and told me he had a trivia question for me. He said to make it interesting, he'd ask me the question, then give me the chance to bet him $10 as to whether or not I'd get the answer in 5 guesses. I couldn't imagine that I'd have too much issue with that. 5 guesses sounded fair.

He then asked the question: which current member of the Orioles' 25-man roster is Jewish?

I then figured that with a 5-in-25 chance, I should certainly make the bet. How hard could it be to narrow down the list to a few who could potentially be Jewish? So I made the bet.

I then guessed 5 Orioles, and was wrong on each of them. He then offered me double or nothing on another 5 guesses. Of course I took him up on it.

Wrong on all 5.

He offered me double or nothing on the $20 I owed him already on another 5. I accepted.

Wrong on all 5.

He offered me one last chance. He wouldn't take more than $50 from me, so he said he'd give me 5 more guesses for a $10 bet. My odds were 50-50!

Wrong on all 5.

I was left with Billy Ripken, Cal Ripken, Jose Bautista, Juan Bell, and Leo Gomez.

It was Jose Bautista.

[DoobyDoo]

I went with Reboulet due to his ability to somehow hit Randy Johnson.

[Orioles Jim]

I met Reboulet at an ESPN Zone in Baltimore. He was tight. I also remember him hitting a HR in the 1997 Division playoffs off of Randy Johnson.

[mweb]

I'm not sure if my guy will qualify, but I always liked Sam Horn. The guy had bigtime power. And even though I don't think Jeffrey Hammonds was bad at all, he was a big dissapointment, but I loved him anyways.

[Objectivity]

Is Leo Gomez a bad Oriole? I know he left us, played for the Cubs one year and was gone. The same path taken by Delino DeSields a few years later.

[Wally Bunker]

How about Al Worthington. One of the many third baseman to follow Brooks, had decent numbers in the minors, believe he even had a decent first year up but did nothing after that.

[Nuclear Dish]

Is Leo Gomez a bad Oriole? I know he left us, played for the Cubs one year and was gone. The same path taken by Delino DeSields a few years later.

Leo Gomez was one of the better 3B to play for us. If you were ranking O's 3B, you'd go Brooks, DeCinces, Cal, Gomez, and if he continues Mora.

Gomez had a so-so rookie season with us (but still managed to win the Sporting News AL Rookie of the Year Award); a great second year (.781 OPS, 17 HR); a horrific, injured 3rd year, then an outstanding 4th year (.868 OPS, 15 HR in 285 AB). But when he started slowly in his 5th season, that was it.

The guy had 2 very good seasons and a 3rd that was good for a rookie. I can't see placing him in the category of bad Orioles.

[Nuclear Dish]

How about Al Worthington. One of the many third baseman to follow Brooks, had decent numbers in the minors, believe he even had a decent first year up but did nothing after that.

You mean Craig Worthington. Al Worthington was a pitcher for (primarily) the Giants and Twins in the 50's and 60's.

Craig Worthington had a great rookie year for us (.718 OPS, 15 HR, 70 RBI), then had a poor second season. He was replaced by Leo Gomez after that, and never had more than 86 AB in a season for anyone thereafter.

He's an OK candidate, but he did put up a strong rookie campaign that makes me want to disqualify him from this.

[sonderweg]

It was Jose Bautista.

I pulled up the 1991 roster before I looked at your answer. I got it correct, but only because I had read it somewhere else. I certainly wouldn't have answered it correctly in 1991.

[BaltimoreTerp]

I voted other: Jeff Tackett

To see why, look at his first section of stats. Not too many catchers start with that

[scOtt]

I went with Rebo only slightly over Tim Hulett. Both weren't much, but they were gritty hard working players. No matter what you asked, sacrifice, hit behind the runner, hit and run, play any position in the infield, they did it and did it as hard as they could.

[cindyluvsbrady]

I feel so sorry for Tim Hulett. It was awful what happened to his son.

[Nuclear Dish]

I voted other: Jeff Tackett

To see why, look at his first section of stats. Not too many catchers start with that

A good choice, except he doesn't qualify with enough games played. he only played in 136 (or maybe 137) games for us, and the limit was 150.