This week, Camden Chat is kicking off its Top 50 Greatest Orioles of All Time series. Tomorrow, we’ll start our countdown with No. 50, but today, we want to give some recognition to a few of the notable Orioles who didn’t make it onto the list.
I’ll kick things off by lamenting that we couldn’t find room for Tippy Martinez in our top 50. The left-hander was a mainstay in the Orioles’ bullpen for over a decade, and he pitched in more games as an Oriole (499) than anyone except Jim Palmer. Acquired from the Yankees in a 10-player trade in 1976 (along with Rick Dempsey and Scott McGregor, who will appear in our top 50), Martinez’s workload steadily grew year after year, culminating in a sensational All-Star campaign in 1983 in which he worked 103.