[Topnotchsy]

A few months ago, a collection which came from former Orioles bench coach (amongst other roles) Chuck Cottier hit the auction block. The lineup cards were from the 1995 season, when Ripken tied and set the all-time consecutive games streak.

The lot indicated that the lineup cards were likely used for 'internal purposes' (whatever that means) based on the fact that the collection had home Orioles lineup cards for both home and away games. I imagine another factor is the fact that another lineup card from the record setting game sold a few years back at Robert Edward Auctions and originated from Pitching Coach Mike Flanagan's personal collection

Given the provenance of where the lineup cards came from (Cottier) and the fact that it seemed clear that Cottier was the one who wrote the lineup cards out (both record setting lineup cards had the same handwriting and it matched the other 50+ in this collection), I had a feeling that the listing might not be fully accurate. I also knew that managers and teams often did not follow exact protocol on lineup cards. I've seen lineup cards that say Spring Training used during the regular season, and ones with the wrong year or team printed on it.

Yesterday, with the help of an individual who does photomatching, I was able to confirm that my lineup card (and not the one that was sold at Robert Edward Auctions) was on the wall during the record-setting game. The image that I matched against is literally titled "Baltimore Orioles Manager Phil Regan in Dugout Checking... News Photo" so there's no question where he is when he is examining the lineup card.

My suspicion is that the lineup card that Robert Edward Auctions sold was from the bullpen. This fits the fact that Flanagan was the pitching coach. In the past I bought a collection of 2003 World Series lineup cards that came from the Marlins pitching coach. He had called them dugout lineup cards but I was able to determine with a high degree of certainty that they were from the bullpen. I assume these were similar.

Note that the image in the dugout was before the lineup card was marked up. The match is the shape and placement of the letters. (The examples are cases where REA's one looks different enough to be very confident).

Sorry for the long post, but really happy to have been able to make this determination.