Senators Saturday - John Orsino, 1967.

According to the back of card 207 in the 1967 Topps set, John Orsino spent most of 1966 on the Disabled List. Apparently he wasn't fully recovered by the time 1967 rolled around and missed the majority of the season once again.

Johnny spent most of his season with the Triple A Hawaii Islanders. That meant he played in 16 games there and made 52 plate appearances. He posted a .217 batting average and a .288 on-base percentage.

Orsino did get a short stint with Washington in 1967. He pinch-hit in one game and struck out. It was the final at-bat of his Major League career.

To start 1968, John found himself in Double A with the Savannah Senators. He managed to get one game in with the Triple A Buffalo Bisons before the season ended.

On January 8, 1969 the Senators sold Orsino's contract to the Yankees. On June 12, 1969 the Yankees sent him to Cleveland in a trade. John never played above Triple A for either club and hung up his spikes at the end of the season.

Beltre collects another Silver Slugger.

Adrian Beltre, shown here on 2012 Bowman card 95, was awarded his fourth Silver Slugger award yesterday. It puts him the company of Matt Williams, Mike Schmidt, and Wade Boggs as the only third basemen to win the award four or more times.

It is particularly nice to see Beltre win a Silver Slugger this year. Of course, the whole season was a real downer so it helps a little with that. It's also great that he could pull it off with little to no support or protection in the lineup. Imagine what he could have done if he had a decently big bat behind him. A batting title perhaps?

Well, it's early November and Christmas is still a long ways off it seems. It'll be here before you know it though and that's why I'm starting to think about my end of year team giveaway packages. Same as last year, I have no Rangers, Royals, or A's available. I also don't have any Pirates, Dodgers, or Angels right now. Pretty much all of the rest of the teams are available. Would really like to see somebody claim the Giants, Orioles, and Cardinals in particular. If you're interested in free cards of your team, just let me know. Drop me an email or leave a comment with your name, address, and team preference. I'll try to make sure there's no doubles in the lot but it will be a pretty varied lot as far as years and brands. Same as last year, if you want to sign up a friend or fellow collector that is fine but only for teams they really want. No having me send Yankees to a Red Sox man.

Young moves to the front office.

Michael Young has officially returned to the Texas Rangers. Young helped interview managerial candidates earlier this year and has been assisting in various roles. Yesterday the team announced his appointment as a special assistance to General Manager Jon Daniels. This is a real job and Young is probably going to be helping with player instruction as well as other assignments.

Good to see Michael back in the Texas fold. Apparently he was able to think things over after being traded and decided to patch it up with Daniels. Smart move on both sides.

Posting this 2005 Studio Master Strokes game-used card of Michael Young today to celebrate the news of his official entry into the front office side of baseball. This card is numbered 186/250 and was part of the lot recently sent to me by Matthew over at Bob Walk the Plank.

Also in the news is former Ranger Alfonso Soriano's announcement of his retirement as a player after 16 seasons. Soriano never really impressed me but he was a pretty good player for the better part of his career. Problem was, he knew he was good. Perhaps the biggest thank-you Rangers fans owe Soriano was that he replaced Alex Rodriguez on the team.

Roster and Radio news.

The Rangers activated nine players from the 60-day Disabled List on Monday. That they had so many players to activate is a reminder of how rough the 2014 season was.

Prince Fielder, Matt Harrison, Yu Darvish, Martin Perez, Alexi Ogando (shown here on card 96 of the 2012 Gypsy Queen set), Tanner Scheppers, Mitch Moreland, Jurickson Profar, and Shin-Soo Choo all came back to the active 40-man roster. That fills the roster for now.

Of course there will be more changes. The Rule Five draft is coming up and Texas will want to protect four or five minor leaguers. Somebody's gonna have to move off the 40-man for that to happen.

Fielder, Choo, Darvish, and Moreland are all expected to be ready for Spring Training. Profar might be as well but he'll have to fight to keep from starting the 2015 season in the minors. Martin Perez is still recovering from Tommy John surgery and probably won't make an appearance until mid-season. Ogando and Scheppers are real question marks. Both had a lot of promise but have suffered injuries recently and may or may not be able to regain their previous forms. It's doubtful Matt Harrison will ever pitch again in the Majors.

The loss of Harrison and the possible loss of Colby Lewis to free agency have the Rangers looking for starting pitching this off-season. Could be Moreland finds himself on the trading block if the club thinks Fielder is looking good. I would be sorry to see Mitch go. However, if the team was able to get a decent starter for him, and Prince came back online, it would be a good move.

The Rangers also announced recently that they will be switching their radio broadcast carrier starting with the 2015 season. A new contract gives the games to CBS radio at 105.3 FM here in the metroplex. I have no idea if this change is related to the fact that the south-western part of the metroplex could not receive the signal from ESPN 103.3 FM but I wouldn't be surprised. Complaints were rampant from fans who could drive to the ballpark in less than an hour but couldn't tune in to hear the games. I didn't air my grievances to the Rangers but I was in the frustrated fans camp. Hopefully this new station addresses the problem.

1978 Topps - Ken Henderson.

By the time Ken Henderson appeared on the front of his 1978 Topps card #612 he was no longer a Texas Ranger.

Primarily a rightfielder, Henderson arrived in Texas as part of the Jeff Burroughs trade on December 9, 1976. Ken lost large chunks of the 1977 season to injury. He missed three weeks in May with a pulled hamstring and then five weeks later in the season with bruised ribs. Those injuries managed to bring his total number of games for the season down to just 75. Henderson also saw dips in all of his offensive numbers.

On March 28, 1978 the Rangers sent Ken to the New York Mets to complete a trade made on December 8, 1977. Tom Grieve and a player to be named later went to the Mets in that trade. Henderson was named later. The Rangers also sent Tommy Boggs, Adrian Devine, and Eddie Miller to the Braves; and Bert Blyleven to the Pirates as part of the trade. Texas got Nelson Norman, Al Oliver, and Jon Matlack in return.

Ken Henderson's time as a Texas Ranger was finished after just one year and there wasn't much to stand out in that year. Perhaps Ken's most notable role on the team was the part he played in the Randle incident in Spring Training.

Minor League Monday - Marv Rockman, 1990 ProCards Tulsa Drillers.

Marvin Ward Rockman shows off a unique pose for pitchers on card 1152 of the 1990 ProCards Tulsa Drillers team set. There's several more pitchers throughout the team set posing with both a glove and bat but I don't think I've seen that anywhere else.

The Rangers drafted Rockman in the 27th round of the 1987 draft. They immediately sent the 23-year-old to the Rookie League Gulf Coast Rangers. He did well there in 14 appearances and moved up to Single A with the Charlotte Rangers. A rough ten appearances there meant Marv started 1988 still at Single A, this time with the Gastonia Rangers. He did well in 43 games and made a late-season jump to Double A Tulsa where he posted a 1.08 ERA over six games. That earned him a Double A start to the 1989 season and he posted a 3.06 ERA over 40 appearances with Tulsa. Not good enough for another promotion. The brass decided Rockman would get one more season start at Double A to see if he could earn a ticket to Triple A Oklahoma City.

Strictly a reliever for his whole pro career, Marv made 24 appearances for the Drillers in 1990 and pitched a total of 38 innings. Both were lower numbers than the previous season. Unfortunately for Rockman, his 3.79 ERA and 1.553 WHIP were not lower numbers than in 1989.

By the end of the 1990 season Marv Rockman was 26 years old, over two years older on average than most of his teammates. His age combined with his failure to earn a promotion in two seasons is likely what led to his career ending when the season did.

Senators Saturday - Mike McCormick, 1967.

Card number 86 in the 1967 Topps set is an interesting one. Of course you can always play the ball/no ball game with Mike McCormick posing for the picture, but there's another aspect as well. On the front of the card McCormick appears in a Washington Senators uniform and is listed as a member of that team. Turn the card over and Mike is listed as a member of the San Francisco Giants. The write-up on the back also talks about the trade that sent McCormick to the Giants.

Mike hadn't had a bad 1966 season but Washington was starting to develop pitching and needed offense. On December 13, 1966 the Senators sent McCormick to San Francisco. In return Bob Priddy and Cap Peterson arrived in Washington.

Back with his original team, McCormick led the National League in wins in 1967 with 22 victories while posting a 2.85 ERA and 1.147 WHIP. That performance was good enough to earn him the NL Cy Young award and some MVP consideration. It was the high point of his career. Mike played for the Giants until midway through the 1970 season when they traded him to the Yankees. The Yankees released him after the 1970 season and he was signed by the Kansas City Royals. In June of 1971 the Royals released him and his Major League playing days were over.