Who's Your Favorite Bad Oriole?

[Spaceman Spiff]

Where is Curtis Goodwin?? He might not have qualified, but he had a 2004 Newhan-like start to his time here. Yikes- did I just doom Newhan to be on here next year?!

I liked Hulett. He gets my nod.

Oh man, I remember Goodwin's start. He was hitting like .360 or .370 something when we went to go to see O's vs Mariners one night. I was all excited to see him.

Well it just so happened that Randy Johnson was pitching that night and made Goodwin his *****. I think Goodwin struck out in all 4 at bats and just looked awful, I mean he had no chance. I remember looking up at the scoreboard, back when they used to tell you what the batter had done in previous at bats:

Struck out swinging

Struck out swinging

Struck out swinging

Struck out swinging

All lined up, just like that. Hilarious. Goodwin sucked from there on out.

As for my favorite bad Orioles there are a few...Gonzo #88. I remember hearing that him and Brady used to live together in the offseason...always wondered what was going on there after I heard that

Also I gotta say Billy Ripken, too. Hell of a glove man though, which makes me want to say he didn't totally suck. We used to call him "Big lumber Bill"

Had a good time hating Manny Alexander. Does that count for anything?

Ryan Minor was fun to watch strike out.

Doug Drabek! Loved screaming obscenities at the TV when he was pitching. Couldn't believe we brought him in.

Anyway, this thread brought back a lot of funny memories. Good reading!

And Orsulak didn't suck at all!

[morgan208]

i remember seeing Tommy Shopay walk out onto the field at the last game at Memorial stadium. It brought back memories of tommy playing catch with us kids in the bleachers during bp. A real nice guy.

[CumberlandFan]

This goes way back, he was a real early catcher. His nickname was "Old ScrapIron", which kind of says it all. Paul Richards brought him to the O's. This was when we were making 20+ player trades with the Yankees. Courtney big weakness was popups, he simply couldn't catch them. I remember when we were playing the Yankees in Baltimore one summer night and winning in the the ninth inning by one run. Yogi Berra came up to bat and pop-up. A real major league pop-up. He danced around under this ball for about 30 seconds and the ball hit the ground 10 feet behind him. It would have been the third out. Yogi gets another chance, and promptly puts in the right field seats. There was one guy on base, so naturally the Yankees won.

[calunitas1]

Not even close...my favorite was Rayford. With the exception of one season, he couldn't hit all that well and fielding...well lets just say he was special in the field. But he was always smiling and did the best he could. He is the last non-pitcher I remember wearing a warmup jacket on base. Everybody in the stadium knew he wasn't going anywhere.

[weams]

I had to go with Billy Ripken. Nevermind that he was a fantastic fielder; he really couldn't hit a lick (save for 1990 -- were he hit exactly a lick). He was one of the first players (along with Randy M and Fruit Loops boy) that I recall causing me to truly analyze the game. "How is he a full-time player?" I would exclaim. I don't think that I ever came up with a good answer to that question.

-m

Cal said that by far he was the best second baseeman that he ever played with.

[weams]

That only makes me hate him more.

-m

Jillian?

Is that her?

[Nuclear Dish]

Jillian?

Is that her?

Yes indeed.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7585820707#ebayphotohosting

[jeff ballard]

Yeah I'm going to have to go with my namesake, Jeff Ballard....Although one could make a case that he was actually an oriole great, being that he led the team in wins 2 years in a row before falling from greatness (going 2-11 in 1990). Although this achievement is a bit misleading being that the first of his 2 "great" years he (along with the great dave schmidt) led the glorious '88 squad with 8 victories....But man was he a gem in the why not year.

[DrungoHazewood]

Yeah I'm going to have to go with my namesake, Jeff Ballard....Although one could make a case that he was actually an oriole great, being that he led the team in wins 2 years in a row before falling from greatness (going 2-11 in 1990). Although this achievement is a bit misleading being that the first of his 2 "great" years he (along with the great dave schmidt) led the glorious '88 squad with 8 victories....But man was he a gem in the why not year.

Ballard was possibly the luckiest pitcher of the last 20 years in 1989. Don't get me wrong, I was a huge fan of his back then. But it just defies logic and physics to have 2.59 K/9 and 18 wins in 215 innings. In modern baseball that just doesn't happen. Since 1989 no one has even won 15 games with a K rate less than 3.00. That year was truely a testament to the power of having five or six legit gold glovers on the field at all times.

[jeff ballard]

He may have been a tad lucky on the mound but in the batter's box he was just a machine. Lifetime OPS of .847 with the Pirates.

[BalHkprk17]

two of my favorites where Chris Richard and Jesse Garcia.

Chris Richard wasnt really that bad, it was that he just got injured alot, but he did have a smoth swing when he could get a hold of one.

I also like Jesse Garcia, I always thought he would be a good Utility Infielder, but we ended up trading him to the Braves. While listening to the announcers on the Braves Network they seemed to like him alot as an Utility Infielder.

Also thought Lenny Webster and Jeff Reboulet were good team players.

[Danielos38]

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.

There aren't many spanish-speaking Jews at my synagogue! I would have never guessed that! It's amazing your boss knew that.

[knuckler]

From this list, definitely Tim Hulett. I remember him hitting a walk off homerun that year to win a game, though I don't remember much else about it. The only thing else I can remember is that I think the O's had already added Moreland by then because I vaguely remember him hitting a double in that game too.

There were a couple of guys on that team that weren't great ballplayers, but because of the nature of that team, I have fond memories. Stan Jefferson, Jamie Quirk(remember that Friday night game in the SkyDome where he didn't block the pitch), Traber, etc.

[caesarod]

I thought about this for a while, and I guess I'll vote "other", because the guy I come up with is Jesse Jefferson. Bad. Well, compared to guys like Palmer, McNally and Cuellar. Lanky righthander, '73-'75, a young pitcher I recall hoping could break into the rotation. I remember him as one of those guys who seemed to have talent but never put it all together.

The thing I remember most about him is something that was pointed out by someone, a color commentator on TV or maybe Chuck Thompson or Bill O'Donnell on radio. He tipped his pitches. Apparently he was cocking his wrist when throwing the curve and got lit up as a result. I don't know if he ever did fix that.

Until I looked it up, I didn't realize he stayed in the majors as long as he did, though, bouncing around with the White Sox, Blue Jays, Pirates, and Angels, and the O's brought him back in the spring of '82. They cut him before Opening Day, and that was that.

[Smedrock]

What about Dan Ford and that crazy batting stance and those horrible basket catches? Speaking of crazy, what about the closer before there were closers Don Stanhouse. That guy was a nut and he had that sweet hair do.