Vintage Fridays: Jim Palmer, 1975 Topps #335

As I alluded to yesterday, the combination of weeks or possibly months quarantined at home with no new baseball to watch is our new and unwelcome reality in 2020. I'm interested in hearing how others are coping. I find myself watching old games on MLB.TV and YouTube. Yesterday, I watched parts of a handful of games from MLB's "Opening Day at Home" promotion - the second half of the Brewers' 10-inning walkoff win over the Rockies in Game One of the 2018 NLDS, the first few innings of an Angels-Yankees tilt from May of 2018 (can't go wrong with Trout and Ohtani), and as I finished my blog post last night, I used the first few innings of Game Two of the 2014 ALDS (the Delmon Young game) as my soundtrack. I would've gladly watched even more archived baseball yesterday, but I was trying to keep my three-year-old son placated while I worked from home, so we switched over to "Bluey". Earlier this week, I found a 1976 ABC Monday Night Baseball game between the Orioles and the Royals on YouTube in its entirety...even commercials. I was only able to get a few innings into that one before Finn requested cartoons, but it's on my to-do list.

In case you haven't seen it, I will also share a minute-long video that the Orioles released yesterday, narrated by Jim Palmer himself. I found myself welling up as I watched it; the sweeping shots of an empty Oriole Park inter-cut with clips of both Baltimore fans and players celebrating throughout the years, while the Hall of Fame pitcher and broadcaster who has spent all 55 years of his adult life linked to this team and city delivered a message of hopeful longing. There will be baseball again, when all is said and done. We will gather and raise our voices.

Jim Palmer, 2003 Topps Record Breakers #RB-JP

Today I had a medium-sized USPS box waiting for me when I got home from work, with the return address of longtime reader Randy. I've had the good fortune to clink glasses (okay, cans) with him at Camden Yards, and I'm sure he won't take it personally when I mention my wife's response to this package full of Orioles cards: "His timing couldn't be any worse." Yes, we're in the process of packing all of our possessions before the big move. No, I didn't let that stop me from ripping the box open and unwrapping all of the carefully-arranged team set bags within. As always, I am grateful for Randy's generosity, and this time in particular he gifted me some real doozies that will make for interesting blog material in the coming weeks and months.

Randy even managed to provide exactly what I was looking for tonight: a new Jim Palmer card to post on the grand occasion of the Hall of Famer's 70th birthday. Not only were Jim's American League-leading ten shutouts in 1975 a team record, but his career total of 53 shutouts are also still 16th-most in MLB history. Just to drive the point home, the O's haven't had ten complete-game shutouts in the past decade...total. Jim Palmer was a once-in-a-generation talent, and it's a different kind of game now. Happy birthday, Cakes, and many more.

Jim Palmer, 1981 Kellogg's #2

I really should be wringing my hands and venting spleen over the ongoing horrors of the Orioles' July meltdown, but I'm busy helping my wife Janet celebrate her birthday in style. So just stare at this 3-D-ish 35-year-old rendering of Jim Palmer...why? Janet's initials before we got married were J. P. That's good enough for me.

Jim Palmer, 2013 Topps Allen and Ginter #293

Okay, I'm back from a quick weekend trip to Charlotte, and I'm glad that the Orioles were kind enough to take two of three in Toronto while I was away. For the sake of my blood pressure, I'm also grateful that I didn't have to witness those games live. But as long as the O's have a night off in Boston, I'll show off the one and only Oriole that I pulled from a discounted box of 2013 A&G while on a Target excursion in the Tar Heel State. If you're only going to get a single Oriole in a box of 48 cards, it may as well be 'Cakes. Besides, there were plenty of other great vintage players in that blaster: Stretch McCovey (mini and base), Bob Gibson, Mike Schmidt, Wade Boggs, Catfish Hunter, Robin Yount, and a mini A&G back Spahnie. I also got a mini Bud Selig, but that's why God invented the Sharpie.

Vintage Fridays: Jim Palmer, 1972 Topps #270

Today's home opener was less than good for the Orioles. If you like a chilly, gray, 12-5 whuppin' at the hands of the Blue Jays, that's your prerogative. As always, however, the team did a first-rate job with the pregame festivities. The highlight was a ceremony celebrating Jim Palmer, as April 17 will mark the 50th anniversary of his major league debut with the O's. He was presented with a cake and a $50,000 donation in his honor to autism research; Palmer's son Spencer is autistic. Finally, he was asked to throw out the first pitch to his longtime battery mate Rick Dempsey. Naturally, Jim threw from the pitching rubber atop the mound, and he delivered the ball on a line to Dempsey's glove, eliciting a rousing ovation from the sellout crowd. Some things never change.

Vintage Fridays: Jim Palmer, 1976 Crane Potato Chips Discs #NNO

When I found this flat, circular food premium a few weeks ago at Orioles FanFest, I had to buy it. It's literally all that and a bag of chips. The 40-year-old snackfood was not included, actually, but I couldn't resist a bit of terrible wordplay. The Crane logo on the back is almost as great as Jim Palmer's blank-faced cap and the two-tone baseball design, so I'll share that with you as well.

Vintage Fridays: Jim Palmer, 1975 SSPC #380

I guess a full week is long enough to leave you hanging. Here's the card that I had signed by Jim Palmer last Saturday at FanFest. It's a classic 'Cakes card, in that he's posing without a cap, the better to air out his luxuriant chestnut locks. I made a remark to Palmer in that vein, and he told me that once he posed for a photo while wearing former pitching coach Ray Miller's cap. He assured me that "the Rabbit" had a huge noggin, hat size eight-something, so it was a funny visual. (To be fair to Miller, a quick check online for game-used memorabilia suggests that he wore a seven and a half, barely bigger than Palmer's seven and a quarter cap size.) I likened it to the time that Adam Jones swiped the Oriole Bird's oversized headgear and tried it on for himself. So that's the context for these photos, helpfully snapped by my sister. From left to right, Brian Matusz, Caleb Joseph, and Palmer are seated at the autograph table.

As for the signature, I'm glad that Jim appended the "HOF 90" inscription without being asked. I'm sure he takes a lot of pride in his first-ballot selection to the Hall of Fame, but it makes the autograph that much more special to me.

Jim Palmer, 1984 Donruss Champions #35

Here's one of the three Jim Palmer oddball cards I picked up at FanFest yesterday. It's from the Champions (Yesterday & Today) set that Donruss released in 1984, with 60 postcard-sized cards (3.5"x5") featuring 10 retired "Grand Champions" and 49 current stars who were chasing their records. The Grand Champions cards featured artwork by Dick Perez. The back of Palmer's card compares him to Cy Young, whose 511 career wins outpaced Jim's 268 by just a bit. Interestingly, it also notes that "Cakes" and his contemporary Phil Niekro were tied in wins after the '83 season. Of course, Palmer hit the wall in the very next season and was released after five winless games, and Niekro rode his knuckleball to another 50 W's in the following four years. But Jim still made it to the Hall of Fame seven years before "Knucksie", proving that pitcher wins don't tell the whole story.

Jim Palmer, 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #70

We're only two weeks away from Orioles FanFest, and now I've got my autograph voucher. I was able to grab a ticket for the 2:00 PM session with Caleb Joseph, Brian Matusz, and Jim Palmer. I couldn't turn down a chance to add a Hall of Famer to my modest assortment of O's autographs, as tempting as it was to lock down one of the sessions with Larry Bigbie. Maybe next year.

Jim Palmer, 2014 Topps Heritage Baseball Flashbacks #BF-JP

It's Jim Palmer's 69th birthday. The Orioles couldn't possibly get swept out of the ALCS on their greatest pitcher's birthday, could they? This season has been so much fun. I'm not ready for it to end. Not yet.

Jim Palmer, 2003 Topps Tribute World Series #120

In his storied career with the Orioles, Jim Palmer was on the winning end of four postseason sweeps. Most notable was the four-game upset of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale's Dodgers in the 1966 World Series, which included Palmer's four-hit shutout in Game Two, several days shy of his 21st birthday. However, the Birds also dominated the American League Championship Series in the earliest days of division play, sweeping away the Twins in 1969 and 1970 and then dispatching the Athletics in three straight games in 1971. Coincidentally, Jim was the winning pitcher in the Game Three clincher in all three series. Each time, he tossed a complete game, because that's just how damn good he was.

Palmer's nine-inning effort on October 5, 1971 in Oakland was an exercise in perseverance. He walked three, struck out three, and allowed seven hits. The A's actually hit three solo home runs off of the future Hall of Famer - Reggie Jackson had a pair and Sal Bando also went deep. But the O's made it hold up, as the offense reached opposing starter Diego Segui and a young Rollie Fingers for five runs. Don Buford had three hits from the top of the order, Brooks Robinson drove in a couple, and the Birds were bound for their third straight World Series. As fate would have it, that was the most recent postseason series sweep by an Orioles team.

Tomorrow is October 5, wouldn't you know? Bud Norris will take the mound at Comerica Park in Detroit with an opportunity to clinch an ALDS sweep for Baltimore against the Tigers. This would please me, and Jim Palmer would probably approve of it as well. Stay tuned.

Jim Palmer, 2014 Topps Archives #25

Jim Palmer threw 53 complete game shutouts in his career, so it was sort of old-hat for him. But tonight Miguel Gonzalez got the first shutout of his own young career, dispatching the Reds on 117 pitches (83 strikes). He tied a season high with eight strikeouts and allowed one walk and four singles. It was the team's second shutout by a starter in this amazing season, following Chris Tillman's five-hitter at Kansas City on May 16. This is the first time in a decade that the O's have had multiple complete-game shutouts in one season. Back in 2004, there were four: Sidney Ponson had two, and Rodrigo Lopez and Daniel Cabrera had one each. If you ever need a refresher, look at those names and realize that the Orioles of Buck Showalter and Dan Duquette are a major league caliber team.

Jim Palmer, 2001 Topps Stars Progression #P6

There are so many weird things about this card, the least of which is the fact that it combines an Orioles legend, a former one-year Oriole, and a future Oriole. The writeup on the back begins, "Palmer and Brown earned reputations for their good looks and hard heat"...have you ever in your life heard someone fawn over Kevin Brown's physical appearance? Lastly there's the hindsight weirdness of touting Kurt Ainsworth as a potential future Cy Young Award winner. The righty's injury-shortened career ended with a 6-8 record, a 5.19 ERA, 90 strikeouts, and 61 walks in 126.2 innings across four seasons. But he's probably more pleasant to be around than Kevin Brown.

Vintage Fridays: Jim Palmer, 1970 Topps #449

In the storied career of Jim Palmer, the dates of May 16 and 17 represent beginnings and endings.

On Sunday afternoon, May 16, 1965, the Orioles hosted the Yankees at Memorial Stadium. A Curt Blefary homer off of New York starter Jim Bouton staked Dave McNally to a 1-0 lead, but the O's lefty was chased from the game in just the third inning after allowing five straight hitters to reach base with one out. With Mickey Mantle on first base following a two-run single, a 19-year-old Jim Palmer was called in from the bullpen to make his seventh career big league appearance and hopefully to stop the bleeding at 4-1. He did just that, inducing a double-play grounder from Hector Lopez to end the inning. Meanwhile, "Bulldog" Bouton gave up a couple more home runs, and with them, the lead. First baseman Norm Siebern took him deep with the bases empty in the bottom of the third, and an inning later Palmer himself delivered the equalizer, a two-run shot for his first major league home run. Jim blanked the Yanks in innings four and five, but dug himself a hole with a pair of walks and a Tony Kubek RBI single in the sixth, putting New York on top 5-4. Palmer was removed for pinch hitter Russ Snyder in the bottom of the sixth; Snyder struck out against reliever Pete Mikkelsen, but Paul Blair walked ahead of a Luis Aparicio two-run homer to put Baltimore's rookie pitcher in line for the win. A Blefary run-scoring double provided an eighth-inning insurance tally, and Don Larsen and Stu Miller kept the Bronx Bombers from crossing the plate in the late frames. On the same day, Jim Palmer had his first career home run (of three) and his first career win (of 268).

A less auspicious day in mid-May - May 17 - reared its ugly head 19 years later. It was early in the 1984 season, and the defending champion Orioles were already 10.5 games behind a red-hot Tigers club. One culprit was the 38-year-old Palmer, who had been demoted from the starting rotation to the bullpen after three brief and unsightly April appearances. Things had not gotten better from there; in his most recent outing, Jim coughed up four runs in a two-inning mop-up detail in Oakland on May 12. For the season, he had allowed 19 runs (18 earned) on 22 hits and 17 walks in 17.2 innings, while striking out only four batters. His ERA was 9.17, and the league was batting .319/.443/.507 against the future Hall of Famer. When the end came for Jim Palmer, it came quick. The Orioles could not convince him to retire, so they found themselves in the unenviable position of releasing the greatest pitcher in team history. The ax fell on Thursday, May 17, 1984. He refused to take an off-field job with the team, hoping to continue pitching elsewhere in the major leagues. No other team picked Palmer up, and that was all she wrote. Thankfully he eventually returned to the team as a TV analyst, a position he maintains to this day.

Jim Palmer, 2011 Topps Kimball Champions Mini #KC-88

I've owned this card for a couple of years, and I was so put off by the waxen Photoshop-filter grimace of older Jim Palmer on the top half of the card that I completely failed to notice the awesome action scene below. It's a tableau from Game 4 of the 1970 World Series, with a younger Palmer in his home whites reaching back for a little heat as Boog Powell tries to hold the Cincinnati runner (Lee May? Looks like a pretty big dude) close to first base. Sure, Palmer ran out of gas in the eighth and Eddie Watt blew the O's lead - and the game - behind him, but Baltimore clinched the Series a day later behind Mike Cuellar, so it's all good.

Jim Palmer, 1982 Fleer #175

Jim Palmer, rocking and firing, Memorial Stadium, Baltimore. Sometimes that's all you need.

Last week, my mother was going through some of my grandma's old photos and found a few that she thought would be of interest to me. I'll share them with you in the coming days, starting with a scenic postcard of Memorial Stadium:

I don't quite have the encyclopedic knowledge of the old haunts on 33rd Street to pinpoint the date that this lithograph was made, but maybe some of you can help me. I think that's the Schaefer Beer sign on top of the right field scoreboard, and the electronic left field scoreboard isn't there yet. That should narrow it down. Any hints?

Jim Palmer, 2005 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic #42

It's Jim Palmer's 68th birthday today. He won exactly 268 total games as a major leaguer. He had an earned run average of 2.68 in 1971, when he made the All-Star team and was one of the American League Champion Orioles' record four 20-game winners. He also earned 68.1 WAR (Wins Above Replacement) over his career as a pitcher, 35th-best all-time. From 1965 through 1984, the only season in which Palmer didn't appear in a single game with the O's was 1968, when he was rehabbing from surgery. He came back better than ever in 1969: 16-4, 2.34 ERA in 26 games.

What does this all mean? Nothing, probably. But what if it does?

Jim Palmer, 2003 Topps Gallery Hall of Fame #28B

Say, here's a really lovely portrait of Jim Palmer mid-pitching delivery on a sunny afternoon in Memorial Stadium. But what's with the letter "B" appended to the card number, you may ask? Well, the Topps Gallery Hall of Fame set had 74 base cards, but each had a one-per-hobby-pack variation insert. For Jim Palmer, the base card featured the white-paneled Orioles cap. This is the variation, with black-and-orange cap. I assure you that all of the other "variations" are just as pointless, if not more. Earl Weaver is pictured at night, instead of in the daylight. Brooks Robinson has a green background, rather than a yellow one. Frank Robinson swaps his wood-grain bat for a black bat.

This hobby really is a silly thing at times.

Vintage Fridays: Jim Palmer, 1976 Topps #202

Jim Palmer was such a showoff in these 1970s Topps sets. "Ooh, look at me, I have the lowest ERA! Whaddaya know, I had the most wins last year! Huh!" You will note that the first and second runners-up to 'Cakes for the 1975 American League ERA title both eventually joined him in Cooperstown. Of course, you probably know Jim Hunter as "Catfish". Hunter was from Hertford, North Carolina, which is...not terribly close to Charlotte. It's so far north it's practically in Virginia, actually. What am I rambling about? I'm getting ready to leave for a last-minute holiday trip to Charlotte with Janet to visit her folks. So the blog will be going dark until Tuesday. Until then, enjoy this hunky triumvirate of Hall of Fame pitchers!

Jim Palmer and Frank Robinson, 2001 Sunoco Dream Team #5

I've heard from a few readers who enjoyed this week's oddball cards, so here's another! It's got some telltale signs of oddity: corporate sponsorship (in this case, Philadelphia-based oil company Sunoco) and lack of a Major League Baseball license. So we get "Baltimore" splashed up at the top of the page in a Microsoft Word font...Forte, maybe? I'm not much of a font wonk. Frank Robinson and Jim Palmer are wearing plain uniforms with some simple striping and numbering. Go Team Gray, White, Orange, and Black! Team G.W.O.B. all the way!

All jokes about design and budget limitations aside, this is a nice concept for a set. There were 12 cards in all, each featuring a pair of retired greats from one team. There were only nine clubs featured, so it's an extra feather in the cap for the O's to make the cut. The others were the Indians (Lou Boudreau/Bob Feller), Mets (Tug McGraw/Gary Carter), Phillies (Mike Schmidt/Steve Carlton and Robin Roberts/Richie Ashburn), Pirates (Willie Stargell/Bill Mazeroski), Red Sox (Luis Tiant/Carlton Fisk and Fred Lynn/Jim Rice), Reds (Tony Perez/Joe Morgan), Tigers (Sparky Anderson/Al Kaline), and Yankees (Don Mattingly/Yogi Berra and Roger Maris/Catfish Hunter). I can't quibble much with the checklist, though you're left wondering why they chose a mix of guys who were teammates and players who weren't contemporaries at all. Then there's the inclusion of manager Sparky Anderson on the Tigers card, which is a real curveball. I'll also just note that of the 24 men featured in this set, most are currently in the Hall of Fame, as you might expect with a "Dream Team" set. McGraw, Tiant, Lynn, Mattingly, and Maris are the only five who are on the outside of Cooperstown looking in, and all were very good players.

I'm certain that I've got an extra copy of this card stashed somewhere in my collection, if anyone would like it. First come, first served.