quien es oreste marrero?

the easy answer is that oreste marrero (not orestes destrade) is this guy featured as a dodger on a 1997 pacific baseball card:

that's about all i knew about him until i looked around at baseball reference.  there, i learned that marrero signed with the dodgers as a free agent in february of 1995.  he had appeared in 32 games for the expos in 1993, but spent all of 1994 in their minor league system.

in 1995, marrero spent the year in double-a san antonio, with a cup of coffee in triple-a towards the end of the year.  the dodgers called him up in june of 1996, and he promptly hit an rbi double in his first at bat.  that hit came at wrigley field, and was hit to right field.  it could well be that the image on the card above is from that at bat.  actually, there's a 50/50 chance as marrero had two other at bats at wrigley during that series, and in those plate appearances, he popped out to short and then singled to right.

at any rate, marrero also appeared in a few games in september for the dodgers and finished the season with a .375 average (3 for 8).  he was not on their post season roster, and never got the call to return to the big leagues in 1997.

here's to you oreste marrero - i'm glad we at least have the 1997 pacific card to remember you by.  or learn about you, in my case.