Pick four: The players that mean a lot to you

You know how everyone has a Twitter challenge or question for you these days. I got this one recently. Twice actually. Pick four players who mean and/or meant a lot in your life.

I could pick many more than four but the four that jumped out at me were Brooks Robinson, Earl Weaver, Mike Martin and Andy Etchebarren.

Brooks is an obvious one. My all-time favorite player and No. 1 for many around Birdland. An all-time great person. A Hall of Fame player and person. Not much more needs to be said, but we are so lucky that he made it from Little Rock, Ark., to Baltimore and stayed for 23 seasons.

I could never think about the greatness of the Orioles from the good old days without thinking about Brooks. His career started before I was born, but I saw him play often as a kid, tried to emulate his greatness on youth fields and later got to meet him as an adult. I covered his Hall of Fame ceremony as a young reporter. It was a career highlight then and now.

I take a liberty with Earl, who gained famed as a manager, of course. He played in over 1,400 minor league games, mostly as a second baseman. But he never made the majors as a player. I remember when some felt that hurt someone like Dave Trembley for instance. But Earl never made the bigs.

I believe it was Jim Palmer or maybe Mike Flanagan who once said, "The only thing Earl knew about pitching was he couldn't hit it." But the players would come to realize that he pushed them to be great and Earl pointed out often later in his life that the players helped make him great. What a wonderful two-way street for Birdland.

He motivated in some ways that probably would be very discouraged today. Flanagan told me that many times in the moments before he would take the mound to start a game he'd hear Earl say, "We're gonna need a lot of runs tonight, boys." Funny, but true.

What a great manager. Ahead of his time with notecards with stats on how a player hit each pitcher. It let him know Mark Belanger could actually hit Nolan Ryan. He knew enough to platoon John Lowenstein and Gary Roenicke. He got the most out of his bench and kept his players ready at all times.

But his arguments with umpires were legendary and he got ejected nearly 100 times. He got us fans fired up whenever he ran out on the field. I'm glad they didn't have video replay in his day or we would have missed some great shows. He's a Hall of Fame skipper and I was honored to be in Cooperstown as a fan in 1996.

Some O's fans may not know who Mike Martin even is. But he was the legendary head coach of the Florida State Seminoles and for two years I was his radio broadcaster. That was for the 2005 and 2006 seasons.

Martin, a former Seminoles player, retired after the 2019 season. He left the game with 2,029 wins over 40 seasons as the winningest coach in NCAA Division I college baseball history. By the way, they are head coaches, not managers, in the college game. His team made the NCAA tourney every year of his tenure. The Seminoles made the College World Series 17 times, but they never won the big one.

I learned so much from coach Martin. What a gentlemen. What a great baseball guy. But if you know anything about FSU baseball, you know that no one calls him coach. They all call him "11" - his uniform number. As in, "How you doing, 11?" or, "What time is BP, 11?" or, "Congrats on a great win, 11." It sounds strange the first few times you hear or even say it, but you get used to it. He's 11.

And 11 was great to me for two seasons. I wish I had been there longer, but only a chance to come back to work in my hometown of Baltimore got me away from his program in Tallahassee. He's a wonderful family man and his program was a family. I found that out quickly. Fans and members of the team alike often said to me, "You're one of us now." And I was always proud to be that. I love that man, wish him the best in retirement and I'll always root for FSU baseball.

There are rare times in one's career when you know are around greatness right then and there. The first time I met 11 I knew I was talking with a legend.

I have some very warm memories and feelings about Etchebarren, the former O's catcher who died in October. Etchebarren managed the short-season Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds for several years and I was the radio broadcaster for two of them, in 2005 and 2006. Yep, in the same calander years I was living and working in Tallahassee between January and June and then would return north when Aberdeen's season started in mid-summer. Lucky to work with both 11 and Etch in the same years.

Etch had a gruff exterior but was a softy on the inside. He was fiercely loyal to the Orioles and I admired him for that and so many other reasons. I would go his office day and watch him chain smoke, but also dispense advice and wisdom about life and baseball. I couldn't wait to get to the park to talk to him each day.

So there are four for me. How about you?

The sheriff retires: I believe it was Jeremy Conn from 105.7 The Fan who called him "The Sheriff," and it stuck. Mark Reynolds was "The Sheriff" and Chris Davis "The Deputy." They bashed homers to lead the 2012 Orioles to the playoffs.

Reynolds became the "Sheriff of Swattingham."

And it was not just any playoff berth. But the first for the Orioles since 1997. The club won 93 games that year to end a 14-year run of losing. They beat Texas in the wild card game before losing in five games to the Yankees.

But the 2012 club is probably special to many in Birdland. They ended the losing and started the winning. A five-year run where the O's led the American League in wins.

A key member of that team has retired. Reynolds told MLB Network Radio yesterday that he won't play again. For the 2012, Birds he hit .221 with 23 homers and 69 RBIs. But he came up big down the stretch as the Orioles went 38-18 to end that year. Reynolds hit 15 homers the last two months with a .983 OPS in August and a .772 OPS in September. He also produced a .903 OPS and hit 17 of his home runs versus AL East opponents.

There was a lot of fan reaction on Twitter when I mentioned his retirement yesterday. I think the fans liked "The Sheriff" and appreciated what he meant to the club in his relatively brief time as an Oriole.

Tonight we #LightItBlue in support of our healthcare workers, first responders, essential workers, and everyone on the front lines. 💙 pic.twitter.com/DT1OmgbnbZ

-- Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) April 10, 2020