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Friday, December 30, 2011

Former long-time Oriole Melvin Mora announces retirement

Melvin’s salud of a thousand delights!

According to a report out of Venezuela, former long-time Oriole Melvin Mora announced his retirement from Major League Baseball on Thursday while in his home country.

Mora, who will turn 40 in February, was released by the Arizona Diamondbacks last June after hitting .228 in 127 at-bats for the Diamondbacks. He said earlier this winter that he wanted to play again if he could find the right opportunity, but apparently that did not happen.

Mora was traded to the Orioles by the New York Mets in July 2000 as part of then-GM Syd Thrift’s fire sale. He played for the Orioles for the next 9 ½ seasons spanning 1,256 of his 1,556 career games. He made two all-star teams for the Orioles and, in 2004, batted .340 with 27 homers and won a Silver Slugger and Most Valuable Oriole honors.

Repoz Posted: December 30, 2011 at 05:48 AM | 33 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: history, orioles

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1. Benji Posted: December 30, 2011 at 06:06 AM (#4025610)

Yeah but we got the thrill of Mike Bordick's overmatched performance in the 2000 WS.

2. Earvin 'Gold Stars' Johnson Posted: December 30, 2011 at 06:12 AM (#4025612)

Holy cow - Mora broke into MLB at 27, yet still got 13 seasons and nearly 1,600 games in his career?

3. Der_K is feeling better now. Posted: December 30, 2011 at 06:18 AM (#4025615)

Well, quintuples are a form of PEDs. Granted, the effects wear off after eight years or so...

4. RollingWave Posted: December 30, 2011 at 07:12 AM (#4025660)

here's to the most successful former Taiwan CPBL player in the bigs :P

5. RollingWave Posted: December 30, 2011 at 07:52 AM (#4025661)

here's to the most successful former Taiwan CPBL player in the bigs :P

6. The Gurus DO NOT BourbonSamurai Posted: December 30, 2011 at 04:55 PM (#4025752)

A very good return for Baltimore in the Mike Bordick deal. I remember him stealing 4 bases in one game- did that actually happen or am I having one of those old man baseball story moments?

7. escabeche Posted: December 30, 2011 at 05:01 PM (#4025756)

Every time I start to pout about the way apparent future stars like Nick Markakis, Brian Matusz, and Matt Wieters have underperformed for the Orioles, I take a moment to reflect on how much more we got from Melvin Mora than we had any right to expect. (Same goes for Jeremy Guthrie.)

8. Jim (jimmuscomp) Posted: December 30, 2011 at 05:31 PM (#4025784)

Well, quintuples are a form of PEDs. Granted, the effects wear off after eight years or so...

He has triplets, not quints. I know because I too am living with triplets. I envy that he got out of the house for six months of every year. Lucky bastard.

9. Dag Nabbit apealing [sic] his own check swing Posted: December 30, 2011 at 05:38 PM (#4025790)

Fun fact: Melvin Mora was the guy on deck when Robin Ventura hit his walk-off grand slam / single in Game Five of the 1999 NLCS.

10. David Nieporent (now, with children) Posted: December 30, 2011 at 05:40 PM (#4025792)

No, he .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

11. Heinie Mantush (Krusty) Posted: December 30, 2011 at 05:48 PM (#4025800)

This is probably a good place to ask: has there ever been a career path similar to Melvin Mora's? He didn't hit the majors till 27 and waited till 31 to break out. There has to be a late bloomer or two (WWII guys?) who had a similar career path?

12. Shock Posted: December 30, 2011 at 05:51 PM (#4025804)

I remember him stealing 4 bases in one game- did that actually happen or am I having one of those old man baseball story moments?

Sorry

13. Crispix Attacks Posted: December 30, 2011 at 06:01 PM (#4025808)

This is probably a good place to ask: has there ever been a career path similar to Melvin Mora's? He didn't hit the majors till 27 and waited till 31 to break out. There has to be a late bloomer or two (WWII guys?) who had a similar career path?

Gavy Cravath springs to mind, albeit from 90 years earlier. There were probably many other potential stars in that situation, tied to a minor-league team that didn't want to sell them.

14. Ziggy Posted: December 30, 2011 at 06:06 PM (#4025813)

Jayson Werth is also sort of similar, though less extreme.

15. Misirlou's got a busy day, he's wearing a vest Posted: December 30, 2011 at 06:12 PM (#4025817)

This is probably a good place to ask: has there ever been a career path similar to Melvin Mora's? He didn't hit the majors till 27 and waited till 31 to break out. There has to be a late bloomer or two (WWII guys?) who had a similar career path?

Hank Sauer and Davy Lopes are similar if not perfect comps. Sauer had cups of coffee in 1941, 42, 45, before breaking out in 1948 at age 31, and then won the MVP at age 35, and had his best year offensively at age 37.

Lopes got a cup of coffee at age 27, got regular playing time at 28, had his best year at age 34, and was a remarkable 47/51 stealing at age 40.

16. Shock Posted: December 30, 2011 at 06:15 PM (#4025820)

Also there's this guy on the HOF ballot... :)

17. base ball chick Posted: December 30, 2011 at 07:13 PM (#4025862)

so mora was yet ANOTHER guy to come out of the astros venezuelan academy

i could sit here all day and think of guys in the astros Organizations who were career minor leaguers who the astros didn't want to give a chance to.

and then i think about benny zobrist, too - which i try not to do because it is bad for my Blood Pressure. there are a lot of guys who got seriously screwed, especially once drayton mclane got seriously into his obsession with not having rookies on the team (except for pitchers, i mean). i feel for jason lane and chris burke, too.

as for quintuplets - all i can say is twins are lots of work. and i read david's link - you notice that mrs mora had LOTS of help. i canNOT imagine taking care of 5 infants all by myself. i don't know how you could actually do it alone

18. Spivey Posted: December 30, 2011 at 07:42 PM (#4025881)

Hell of a career for Mora. 2 year peak of 10.1 WAR, 4 year peak of 17.5 WAR, 5 year peak of 20.2 WAR.

19. Dag Nabbit apealing [sic] his own check swing Posted: December 30, 2011 at 07:47 PM (#4025884)

He's in the top five all-time in HBP.

20. Shock Posted: December 30, 2011 at 07:50 PM (#4025886)

Top 50, you meant. You gasted my flabber for a second there.

21. Dag Nabbit apealing [sic] his own check swing Posted: December 30, 2011 at 08:14 PM (#4025899)

Yeah, top 50. Wasn't thinking there.

22. Walt Davis Posted: December 31, 2011 at 12:47 AM (#4026028)

Jeff Fassero is kinda the pitching equivalent of Mora. If a hitter had Fassero's career in that time frame, everybody would be howling steroids. Ages 33-35, Fassero was better (by ERA+ and IP) than Leiter, Glavine, Finley, Moyer (107 more IP for Fassero) and maybe Pettitte. For 96-98 he was tied for 13th in ERA+ with 690 IP, better than prime Mussina and Hentgen.

23. Jim (jimmuscomp) Posted: December 31, 2011 at 12:52 AM (#4026030)

No, he has quintuplets.

Yikes. My bad.

24. OCF Posted: December 31, 2011 at 01:09 AM (#4026034)

One classic late-bloomer career was Jose Cruz, but it's somewhat different. Cruz made it to the majors at age 22 and was playing about half-time from 23 through 28. He became a full-time regular at age 29 and may have been at his best at around 36-37.

In Cravath's case, he did have some big years in his 20's - in the American Association or Pacific Coast League.

25. Fenderbelly, now in Terms of Enrampagement Posted: December 31, 2011 at 01:50 AM (#4026047)

The Davey Lopes mention got me browsing the stolen base records and totals at bref. There is a striking pattern of stolen base spikes in the '70s, '80s and '90s. And the ' could stand for 18 or 19. I never knew that base stealing was such a major part of early baseball.

26. Social media assassin (Templeusox) Posted: December 31, 2011 at 02:05 AM (#4026052)

Mora used to inexplicably try to reach base via bunt single all the time. That will be my lasting memory of him.

27. madvillain Posted: December 31, 2011 at 02:54 AM (#4026067)

Mentioned by Jimmy Mcnulty's kids on season 1 of the Wire. Truly a great career!

28. Lassus Posted: December 31, 2011 at 03:15 AM (#4026072)

Melvin's flipping throw from the outfield is still one of my all-time favorite Mets moments. I was very unhappy we never kept him.

29. Ray (RDP)

Posted: December 31, 2011 at 03:22 AM (#4026079)

I will always remember him for being traded despite being a better player than St. Rey -- even before Mora's breakout.

30. Benji Posted: December 31, 2011 at 04:34 AM (#4026109)

The Leiter-Franco cabal badgered the nitwit front office to dump Mora and bring in Bordick. That's why no matter what gets said about Minaya he'll always be my hero for getting rid of them as soon as he took over.

31. Fenderbelly, now in Terms of Enrampagement Posted: December 31, 2011 at 10:04 AM (#4026157)

Nice catch, Matt H.

32. shoewizard Posted: December 31, 2011 at 03:17 PM (#4026188)

Casey Blake sort of fits the profile as late bloomer. Not coincidentally, Morea is Blakes most similar player at bref.

33. Don Lock Posted: December 31, 2011 at 05:42 PM (#4026251)

Always wondered what would have happened if the O's left him at Shortstop and he continued to develop as a hitter. He would have been something.

MelMo always seemed to want more respect than he got. He wanted a 5 year contract extension at $10 million a year. He wouldn't move from 3rd to the outfield in the World Baseball series for Miguel Cabrera. He fought with Dave Trembley about playing time at the end of his career in Baltimore. Mora lived in the area with all his kids and chose to leave town for Colorado and Arizona to keep playing.

If he had kept his mouth shut and accepted the change of status, he could have finished his career as a sub in Baltimore where he was a fan favorite. When Elrod Hendricks died, he was the only current player who came to the funeral.

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Former long-time Oriole Melvin Mora announces retirement

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