Al Bumbry: Too 'Elite' for the Padres?

No one believes he wasn't a Baltimore lifer

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1990 Elite Senior League Al Bumbry (#94) - Card of the Day

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If it hadn’t been for Brooks Robinson and Cal Ripken, Jr., Al Bumbry might have had some claim to the title of “Mr. Oriole.”

Well, OK, if it hadn’t also been for Jim Palmer.

And Earl Weaver.

And maybe Scott McGregor. Or Chris Hoiles. Or RichDauer.

Oh, right — and if it hadn’t been for that fateful day in March of 1985 when Bumbry signed as a free agent with the San Diego Padres.

You say you don’t remember Bumbry as anything but an Oriole? Well, you’re probably not alone in that. His 1986 Topps card (#583) keeps us honest on that one, though:

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Bumbry also had Padres cards in the 1985 Topps Traded, 1985 Fleer Update, and 1986 Fleer (base) sets. And, since he spent just one season in San Diego, those 1986 cards are career-cappers. See?

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That snapshot gives you at least a glimpse of Bumbry’s importance to the O’s during the 1970s and early 1980s. What it doesn’t show you is that he lined up as their primary centerfielder for both their 1979 and 1983 World Series teams, the latter of which won the crown.

Or that he was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1973 and an All-Star in 1980, also the only year in which he received MVP votes.

That card back does show you, though, that Bumbry came within 68 games and 95 at-bats of retiring as a career Oriole, just like all the guys who led off this post. Just doesn’t seem right, does it?

Apparently, Elite felt the same way.

Huh?

Well…

Four years after Bumbry played his last major league game, he was back in action as a member of the Winter Haven Super Sox. The Sox, in case you don’t remember, were one of eight teams who christened the Senior Professional Baseball Association (SPBA) in 1989.

Alas, the Super Sox folded before the league’s second season in 1990, and the league itself followed them into oblivion less than halfway through their 1990 schedule.

In between the two campaigns, though, multiple card companies fired up the presses to produce SPBA cards of old favorites like Bumbry in their new uniforms. You can see Bumry’s “Elite” card at the top of this post. He was one of 126 subjects on a checklist that included luminaries like commissioner Curt Flood, Pelicans manager Bob Tolan, Dave Kingman, Weaver, Fergie Jenkins, Rollie Fingers, George Foster, and tons of other names you’d recognize.

The backs of the Elite cards feature two columns of stats: Senior League totals from 1989 and major league totals from each player’s career. Here’s what Bumbry’s card back has to say:

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Cool beans.

And maybe even more so when you really study those major league totals (“CUM. MLT”) and realize that they don’t include Bumbry’s short run with the Padres.

See? No one else could believe The Bee played for anyone other than the Orioles, either.

Today, Alonza Benjamin Bumbry — a U.S. Army Bronze Star recipient who came about as close to being a Baltimore lifer as a man can get — turns 78 years old.

A.L. East Mashup

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Bumbry shared his 1973 Topps rookie card (#614) with could-be Hall of Famer Dwight Evans. While Bumbry was busy making a career of it — almost completely — with the Orioles, Dewey was doing the same with the Red Sox. Perhaps foreshadowing the denouement of Bumbry’s own career, Evans signed a free agent deal with the O’s before his last season, joining his former card mate in Baltimore in 1991.

And, as would be the case with Bumbry later in the decade, there is cardboard evidence of Evans’ dalliance with “the other team.” Read all about it right here.

Oh…don’t forget Charlie Spikes there at one end of that RC up there — he’s the one wearing a radioactive Indians uniform and cap, and a fine player in his own right. Spikes also made a cameo appearance in this here post.