Part VII – The Mount Rushmore of … Orioles/Nationals

Know Your Medal of Honor Recipients:

Farrier David Larkin (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on September 29, 1872, at Red River, Texas. His citation reads:

Gallantry in action.

Corporal James W. Larrabee (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on May 22, 1863, at Vicksburg, Mississippi. His citation reads:

Gallantry in the charge of the "volunteer storming party."

Lieutenant Clyde Everett Lassen (US Navy) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on June 19, 1968, in the Republic of Vietnam. His citation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as pilot and aircraft commander of a search and rescue helicopter, attached to Helicopter Support Squadron 7, during operations against enemy forces in North Vietnam. Launched shortly after midnight to attempt the rescue of 2 downed aviators, Lt. (then Lt. (J.G.)) Lassen skillfully piloted his aircraft over unknown and hostile terrain to a steep, tree-covered hill on which the survivors had been located. Although enemy fire was being directed at the helicopter, he initially landed in a clear area near the base of the hill, but, due to the dense undergrowth, the survivors could not reach the helicopter. With the aid of flare illumination, Lt. Lassen successfully accomplished a hover between 2 trees at the survivors' position Illumination was abruptly lost as the last of the flares were expended, and the helicopter collided with a tree, commencing a sharp descent. Expertly righting his aircraft and maneuvering clear, Lt. Lassen remained in the area, determined to make another rescue attempt, and encouraged the downed aviators while awaiting resumption of flare illumination. After another unsuccessful, illuminated rescue attempt, and with his fuel dangerously low and his aircraft significantly damaged, he launched again and commenced another approach in the face of the continuing enemy opposition. When flare illumination was again lost, Lt. Lassen, fully aware of the dangers in clearly revealing his position to the enemy, turned on his landing lights and completed the landing. On this attempt, the survivors were able to make their way to the helicopter. En route to the coast he encountered and successfully evaded additional hostile antiaircraft fire and, with fuel for only 5 minutes of flight remaining, landed safely aboard U.S.S. Jouett (DLG-29).


If you saw Sonny’s post this past Friday, you saw him take an unprovoked, unnecessary cheap shot at me. Friends, I don’t know what brought on this rather unbecoming hostility from my upstate brother but I am sure when he has a second to settle down he will see that his low reading skills have simply caused him to mistake my words as an insult to him when really they were just meant to cause laughter at his expense. His rash actions this past Friday are very similar to those of that young fella in charge of North Korea. Have you seen that he’s cancelled the 1953 armistice that stopped the fighting in the Korean War (the Korean guy, not Sonny)? I’m interested to see how the US responds. I don’t know how the previous administration would have responded, but I like to think President Bush would have gone on TV and said something like, “Now you listen here you little Asian midget… You keep up that talk about shootin’ a nuke at ‘merica, I’m gonna bitch-slap you all the way back to the stone ages. I’ve had just about enough of your mouth. Even the Chinese aren’t backing you on this one, so why don’t you just be a good boy and go sit in the corner while the grown-ups have a beer and talk about this Mt. Rushmore stuff going on over at I’m just sayin… and Sonny’Side. I tell ya, that Greg fella just cracks me up. I pretty much start all of our meetings asking Condi and Donny and Dickie if they’ve seen the latest posts…”

Anyway, that’s how I like to imagine his response would be.

Speaking of North Korea… have you seen this picture (I’d usually save it for my other blog, but it’s too good not to share here).

I don't care who you are, that's funny right there...

Thanks to Wikipedia for the info…

The Mount Rushmore of the Baltimore Orioles

Cal Ripken, Jr. – While little brother typically out shines big brother in my family, things are a little different in the Ripken family. Cal Ripken, Jr. played for the Orioles from 1981 – 2001. During this time, he played a team record 3,001 games (which included a MLB record 2,632 consecutive games). He was a 19 time All-Star (1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001), 8 time Silver Slugger Award winner (1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994), two time Gold Glove Award winner (1991, 1992) and two time AL MVP (1983, 1991). Ripken was named the American League Rookie of the Year in 1982. He owns 14 Oriole records and a number of MLB records. He is given credit for helping save baseball after the owners and players tried to kill the sport in 1994. His #8 was retired by the Orioles in 2001. He was inducted into the Orioles Hall of Fame in 2003 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007. He received the highest percentage of votes ever for a position player with 98.53%. This leads me to ask the question every baseball fan should ask… Have voting privileges been taken away from the 1.47% who it seems were too stupid to vote for an obvious hall of famer? I sure hope so.

Brooks Robinson – Brooks Robinson played for the Orioles from 1955 – 1977. He was an 18 time All-Star (1960 (x2), 1961(x2), 1962(x2), 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974), a 16 time Gold Glove Award winner (1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975) and two time World Series champion (1966, 1970). Brooks was the AL MVP in 1964 and the World Series MVP in 1970. His #5 was retired by the Orioles in 1977 and he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983. He is considered by many to be the greatest player in franchise history (with Cal being the other player usually in the conversation). He is a charter member of the Orioles Hall of Fame with Frank Robinson.

Frank Robinson – While also a star for the Cincinnati Reds, I’ve got Frank on this list because of the great job he did while playing for the Orioles from 1966 – 1971. While with the Orioles, Frank was a 5 time All-Star (1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971) and a two time World Series champion (1966, 1970). He was the AL MVP and World Series MVP in 1966… the same year he won the Triple Crown. His #20 has been retired by the Orioles and, as I mentioned above, he is a charter member of the Orioles Hall of Fame with Brooks Robinson. Frank was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. I know this is a “players only” list, but I have to mention that Frank Robinson was the first black manager in MLB (and was AL Manager of the Year in 1989).

Jim Palmer – Palmer played for the Orioles from 1965 – 1984 (making him the only player on this list to play with all the other players on this list). He was a six time All-Star (1970, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1978), three time AL Cy Young Award winner (1973, 1975, 1976) and four time Gold Glove Award winner (1976, 1977, 1978, 1979). In a 19-year career, Palmer compiled a 268–152 record with 2,212 strikeouts, a 2.86 ERA, 521 games started, 211 complete games, and 53 shutouts in 3,948 innings. He never allowed a grand slam in his major-league career nor did he ever allow back-to-back homers. In six ALCS and six World Series, he posted an 8–3 record with 90 strikeouts, and an ERA of 2.61 and two shutouts in 17 games. Jim Palmer is the only Oriole to have played in every single World Series six total in the team's history (66,69,70,71,79,83). His #22 was retired by the Orioles in 1985. He was inducted into the Orioles Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990.


The Mount Rushmore of the Washington Nationals

Before they were the Washington Nationals, they were the Montreal Expos… so most of my list is made up of former Expos.

Andre Dawson – “The Hawk” played for the Expos from 1976 – 1986. While with the team he was a three time All-Star selection (1981, 1982, 1983), five time Gold Glove Award winner (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985) and three time Silver Slugger Award winner (1980, 1981, 1983). He was also the 1977 NL Rookie of the Year. While with the team, he set many single season records. His #10 was retired by the Montreal Expos. Andre was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010. One measure of a player is how his teammates feel about him. After he played with the Expos, Hawk went to play for my Cubs. His former Cubs teammate Ryne Sandberg campaigned for Dawson's induction during his speech at his own Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2005: "No player in baseball history worked harder, suffered more or did it better than Andre Dawson. He's the best I've ever seen. I watched him win an MVP for a last-place team in 1987 [with the Cubs], and it was the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen in baseball. He did it the right way, the natural way, and he did it in the field and on the bases and in every way, and I hope he will stand up here someday." I don’t know if anyone could say it better than that right there.

Gary Carter – Carter played for the Expos from 1974 – 1984 and 1992. He was a seven time All-Star (1975, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984), three time Gold Glove Award winner (1980, 1981, 1982) and three time Silver Slugger Award winner (1981, 1982, 1984) while with the Expos. He was a great catcher whose youthful love of the game earned him the nickname “Kid”. His #8 was retired by the Montreal Expos. Gary was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003.

Tim Raines – Tim played for the Expos from 1979 – 1990. During that time he was a seven time All-Star selection (1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987) and a Silver Slugger Award winner (1986). At one point he owned about 10 different Expos records (he may still own them, my research budget didn’t allow me to check). The Expos retired his #30.

Ryan Zimmerman - So the Expos and Nationals only really have three great players in their history… which means I’m going to have to dip into the pool of current players. For this, I’m going with Ryan Zimmerman. Zimmerman is a current member of the Washington Nationals (joining the club in 2005) and is a leader on the team. In his short career, he already has 1,110 hits (including 153 home runs) and 593 RBIs. He is an All-Star (2009), Gold Glove Award winner (2009) and two time Silver Slugger Award winner (2009, 2010).


Don’t forget to check out Sonny’Side to see if he picked the same guys as me or if he just picked the wrong guys…

Friday we’ll take a look at the A’s and the Diamondbacks.


Picture Tuesday

Mary Ruth having a little snack (and some cake) at Wyatt's birthday party over at The House of Kevin

Daniel and Mary Ruth swinging at the party

Daniel having a little fun in the train that they had there

Daniel on a big boy swing

Susie and Daniel having some fun at the party... no, they are not twins

Susie LOVED the swing

This is the splinter that I pulled out of The Wife's finger the day after the party... You would have thought her finger was about to fall off

We went out to lunch with some friends from our Sunday School class... I was sitting talking to Danny (yes, that Danny) when it was brought to my attention that something was going on on the other side of me... Susie was feeding Daniel her applesauce and, like a good boy, he was eating it

One last pic from the party... This one of Susie, Daniel and Mary Ruth playing together