Don’t you hate to play the “What coulda been” game? I grew up in Midlothian, Virginia, one of the biggest Baltimore Orioles and Cal Ripken Jr., fans in all of the Western Hemisphere. I ate, drank and slept the Orioles. Seriously, we are talking Orioles plates and spoons, glasses (some saved from gas stations and Hardee’s) and bed sheets. I loved the Orioles. My dad would take me out of school to go watch the O’s on Opening Day. Three hour drive to Baltimore? So what! The Orioles’ season is starting! Two particular trades helped make the Orioles into what the franchise was in the late 90s and prevented it from being what it could have been in the late 90s.
Looking back I don’t remember the first trade when it happened but I certain remember the second trade and being at first excited and then incredibly disappointed. The first trade happened in 1998 when the Orioles traded a two-time Opening Day Starter and 1984 all-star Mike Boddicker to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for Curt Schilling and Brady Anderson. Boddicker was a strong pitcher for the O’s in the early 1980s, winning 79 games and helping the team win the 1983 World Series. After he left Baltimore, he was only able to win 55 games in six years before retiring. He did win a Gold Glove in 1990, but so what?
On the flip side, Brady Anderson (and his sideburns) became a mainstay for the Birds, as he starred in centerfield (and later leftfield as age crept up on Anderson), slugging and swiping bases with regularity. Anderson made three all-star teams while hitting 209 home runs (a high of 50 in 1996) and stealing 307 bases (a high of 53 in 1992). Anderson never stole less than 12 in a season while stealing at least 21 seven times, 30+ three times. Other than Cal Ripken, Anderson was by far the most popular Orioles player during the 1990s.
The other part of that Boddicker trade was quickly flipped in a trade that could have benefited the Orioles more if the Baltimore GM had dialed Houston incorrectly or the Astros GM not picked up. Curt Schilling was with the Orioles just three years before being sent to the Astros in a deal for Glenn Davis. Schilling was 1-6 with Baltimore and had ZERO starts in 1990, his final with the club. The coaching staff apparently was trying to use Schilling as a bullpen arm. OK. Good thing Schilling went on to win 215 games with other clubs, including three World Series titles (plus another appearance in the Fall Classic), make five all-star teams and finish in the top-four of Cy Young voting four times. Glenn Davis meanwhile played in just 185 games over three seasons for the Orioles, hitting .247, slugging 24 home runs and driving in 85 runs. Yeah…..(But let me stop hating on the former Georgia Bulldog now.)
So the Orioles traded Curt Schilling for a washed-up Davis, just think about what the club could have had with Schilling in the rotation alongside Ben McDonald and Mike Mussina and later Scott Erickson. Wait, what? There was more in that Davis trade? Steve Finley AND Pete Harnish were included? Finley who would win five Gold Gloves and make two all-star teams after leaving Baltimore? Finley who would hit at least 28 home runs five times and steal at least 30 bases three times, including 34 the year after he was traded to Houston and 44 the year after that? Pete Harnish, the 1987 first-round pick that won 11 games the year after you traded him and was an all-star in 1991? Crud.
You are telling me that Steve Finley wouldn’t have looked better in rightfield over the 39-year-old one year part-timer Dwight Evans? Finley wouldn’t have looked better in leftfield than Joe Orsulak? Anderson eventually took over the leftfield spot but the offense could have benefitted from Finley in there over the next decade. The Orioles eventually won the Wild Card in 1996 and the AL East in 1997, appearing in the ALCS both seasons but could not sustain the good fortune. The team hasn’t had a winning record since 1997. Schilling meanwhile took the Phillies to the World Series in 1993, won a World Series MVP in 2001 plus two more rings in Boston in 2004 and 2007. Finley helped the Padres to the World Series in 1998 and won a championship with Schilling and Arizona in 2001. Finley would make the post-season seven times in his 19 seasons.
As good as the Orioles are and as much as the franchise profited from the Mike Boddicker trade, the team suffered after acquiring Glenn Davis due to the players surrendered. Those two trades turned the Birds into the team I followed growing up. It is crazy to think about the team’s path if that second one never happened…
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