Juan Bell, 1990 Topps #724

Nothing seems more fitting today than a crappy card of a crappy player from a crappy set. I'm beyond disgusted with the Orioles today. I've been watching them lose and lose and lose for my entire adult life and then some, and somehow this team is on pace to be the worst of the bunch. After drafting and trading for an entire rotation's worth of highly-acclaimed young pitchers, they're no closer to contending. Every pitcher has encountered injuries and/or a startling regression in ability. The pitching stinks. The hitting stinks. The defense stinks. The manager's lineup decisions are often confounding. The general manager spent $25 million on three past-their-prime players (Kevin Gregg, Vladimir Guerrero, and Derrek Lee) that were unwanted elsewhere, and all three have performed below even the rock-bottom expectations that my pessimistic side had for them. Same general manager has waved a white flag when it comes to signing Latin American prospects, essentially widening the talent gap between the Baltimore organization and its rivals. The fan exodus from Camden Yards continues unchecked. Player development is apparently broken as well, given the lack of fruit borne by the farm system and the repeated failures of the few players who do make it to the major leagues. I can't remember ever feeling this hopeless as a baseball fan.

Something has to give. I'm shutting the doors of this blog for the first time in the 44 months since I began posting. I plan to take a week off. No scanning, no writing, no trying to come up with something to say about a team and a franchise that just don't seem to be worth the effort. See you in a week.

Juan Bell, 1989 Classic Travel Purple #170

Juan Bell represents a dark moment in Orioles history, as he was the centerpiece of the trade that sent Eddie Murray to Los Angeles after twelve memorable seasons in Baltimore. The first of many pretenders to Cal Ripken's throne, George Bell's little brother hit .167 in 113 games as an Oriole and was an ex-Bird by 1992. I'm talking about him tonight to remind myself (and any other O's fans out there) that things have been worse than they are now, in the wreckage of a brutal week of baseball:

-Since they claimed first place with two straight wins in Texas to improve to 6-2, the team has lost five straight.

-In five of their seven losses, the O's have given up ten or more runs.

-The offense has started to sputter, scoring a single run in each of the past two games.

-On Friday night, the team's best starting pitcher (Jeremy Guthrie) was handed a seven-run lead in the second inning. He'd given it back by the fifth inning, and the Birds lost 10-8.

-In the last week, the following players have suffered injuries: Melvin Mora and Adam Jones (hamstring strains), Alfredo Simon ("degenerative" elbow), and Ryan Freel (probable concussion). The mythical Matt Wieters also strained his hamstring in a game for AAA Norfolk this weekend. Though the Powers That Be are doing some serious damage control, he should still miss a handful of games.

-Adam Eaton (11.25 ERA) is still with the club. Though his days are likely numbered, there's no telling how long Felix Pie (.147/.216/.235) will take to convince the Orioles that he's not a major leaguer.

I'm trying to look on the bright side. Nothing is expected of the Birds in 2009. We're only 13 games into a 162-game season. Brad Bergesen (15-6, 3.22 at AA Bowie in 2008) makes his major league debut tomorrow against the White Sox, a sort of soft launch of the youth movement. Matt Wieters could literally be promoted at any time. The New Yankee Stadium, for all its opulence and phony grace notes, is no Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The Nationals are still the true laughingstock of Major League Baseball.

When the waiting gets to be too much, there's always schadenfreude.

Juan Bell, 1992 Score #646

SoI posted this entry about Juan Bell on Tuesday. A few nights later, I was looking through some cards that I still have to enter into my computer inventory and I found the card above. I'll repost the 1992 Donruss Juan Bell below, so you can look at them one on top of the other:

So the plot thickens. Was there a rogue photographer with Score who was secretly working for Donruss? Or vice versa? I never imagined that there could be double agents amidst the growing number of card companies that were vying for an ever-larger piece of the pie in the early 1990s. This makes me wish that I still had my cards organized alphabetically, rather than by year and brand, so that I'd be more readily able to spot cool trends like this. As always, if you have any more examples of things like this, let me know...

Juan Bell, 1992 Donruss #479

The above is a great action shot of Juan Bell leaping over Carlos Quintana as the Red Sox first baseman barrels into second base to attempt to break up the double play by interrupting Bell's throw to first. But it gets even better. Below is Quintana's card (#609) from this set, with a photo taken mere seconds later at a different angle. I first learned of this phenomenon in an issue of Beckett Baseball Card Monthly over a dozen years ago. I carried that pointless knowledge somewhere in the recesses of my brain until the day that I came into possession of both cards, the pair representing one of the neat little quirks that make collecting small rectangles of cardboard a reward unto itself.