Jesse Orosco is on the Hall of Fame ballot that came out today, joining such baseball luminaries as Mo Vaughan, Greg Vaughan, and Ron Gant. The big O played 24 years of big league baseball across four decades and spent seasons 9, 22, and 23 as a Dodger. That 9th year was 1988, the last time the Dodgers won the World Series.
Despite a pretty respectable 3.17 career ERA and a passing resemblance to actor Danny Trejo, Jesse Orosco won’t be elected to the Hall of Fame this or any year. His legacy will be that of sturdy longevity, kind of like Tony Bennett or a Honda Civic.
My personal memory of Jesse Orosco is mostly befuddled amusement at his late-career incarnation as a lefty-specialist. Lefty specialists didn’t even exist in 1979 when Orosco’s career began, but by the time he made his second pass through the Dodger organization in 2001 and 2002, they were ubiquitous. The 44 year old Orosco would come out in the top of the eighth, strike out Larry Walker or Barry Bonds on a big loping curveball, then smile his way off the field to a standing ovation. I think he was as befuddled as I was.
But one Orosco-related incident stands out. It was at some otherwise unmemorable Dodger game in 2002. I don’t know who they were playing or if the game was early or late in the season. The Dodgers were down by a run in the later innings and then-manger Jim Tracy called for Jesse Orosco from the pen. Seemed ordinary with runners on base and a left-handed hitter coming to the plate. But the man in front of me disagreed.
Before Orosco made it from the bullpen to the mound, the guy got up and sighed an exasperated sigh. He looked at his watch, down at his friend, and gulped the last sip of his beer.
“Orosco sucks,” he said as if it were some universal truth like gravity or the infield fly rule. “Let’s go home.”
And his friend got up. And they went home. And the Dodgers lost again.
