Matt Wieters is hardly the first Orioles rookie to set foot on the field amid great expectations. Wieters, the heralded 23-year-old catcher due to make his major league debut tonight at Camden Yards, joins a host of Orioles wunderkinder, past and present, who began their careers with the baseball world watching.
BROOKS ROBINSON (Sept. 17, 1955):
The good news? He got two hits and an RBI in his first game and fielded third base flawlessly.
The bad news? The Sun referred to him the next day as "Bobby" Robinson, and he went hitless the rest of the year.
Promoted three months after his high school graduation, Robinson, 18, traveled from York, Pa., (the Orioles' Class B farm club) that morning, stroked two singles and helped the last-place club defeat the seventh-place Washington Senators, 3-1.
"I was flying high," he recalled. "I thought, 'This is my cup of tea.'
"Then I went 0-for-18 and struck out 10 times."
JIM PALMER (April 17, 1965):
In retrospect, he might be the only Hall of Famer who, in his major league debut, relieved another Hall of Famer. Palmer was just 19 when called from the bullpen to bail out Robin Roberts, who was twice his age and being rocked by the Boston Red Sox.
"It was a ticklish situation for the kid," The Sun reported. "Shakily, he walked [Carl] Yastrzemski, then fanned Tony Conigliaro" on three pitches.
Palmer recalls the game clearly.
"I was so nervous that I brought the warm-up ball in with me from the bullpen," he said Thursday. "I thought, 'Go with your instincts' - and mine was to rely on my fastball."
In two innings, Palmer allowed one hit and walked a pair.
CAL RIPKEN JR. (Aug. 10, 1981):
If he didn't make headlines his first time out, Ripken's bat surely did. Tied at 2 with the Kansas City Royals in the 12th inning, the Orioles called on the 20-year-old rookie to run for aging Ken Singleton, who had doubled. John Lowenstein followed with a liner to right, scoring Ripken - son of the club's third base coach - with the winning run.
Afterward, Lowenstein confessed to using one of Ripken's bats.
Ripken's debut was a moment he'll not forget.
"Standing at second base was like standing, wide-eyed, on a stage," he said Thursday. "The weird part was that when I scored, everyone celebrated by tapping me on the helmet. I thought, 'I didn't do anything except to physically run around the bases.' "
BEN MCDONALD (Sept. 6, 1989):
