SCN trade-Raul Casanova

Raul Casanova 2002

This is another card that came my way from SCN user michaeland. There are probably 10 more cards from this trade to show, but I am trying to limit my posts to one card at a time.

Raul's career with the Orioles was a mere blip on the radar; it lasted all of 2 games and one at-bat (a strikeout) at the end of September 2002. Do you remember it? I sure don't. He doesn't have any cards featuring him in an O's uni so this Tigers card works for me.

Outside of his brief time with the Orioles, he has played for 5 other MLB teams, mainly the Tigers and Brewers. Raul is what I would describe as a AAAA player who has had some success in the minor leagues that rarely translates to the big league level for any period of time. He is a back up catcher though, and that's a position that normally lifts a middling player onto a major league roster.

For now, Raul played his last game in the Majors for the Mets in June 2008. The most recent information I could find on him shows that he played the '09 season in the Mexican League for the Broncos de Reynosa.

Unpossible Autographs-Frank Zupo

Frank "Noodles" Zupo 1957-58, 61 (died 2005)

The man with the best, bushiest eyebrows in Orioles history played in only 16 games for the Birds over the course of three seasons. While he didn't do much of note at the plate or behind it , he managed to form the only "Z" battery in MLB history, along with George Zuverink, in his catching debut. That's kinda cool. He was also the third youngest player in the Majors over the '57 & '58 seasons.

I couldn't find out how he got his nickname "Noodles" either. So I like to think he got it for having a very weak arm, or liking to eat spaghetti.

TTM Success-Aubrey Huff

I know that I've complained in the past on here about Aubrey Huff and his signing habits at the ballpark (or lack thereof). In my many games this season, I did not see him sign one thing for anyone at an Orioles game. The only two times I saw him sign over the past two seasons were an O's-Nats game in DC and an O's-Rays game in Tampa Bay. Both times he signed for about 5 people and I missed the cut. And say what you will about this, but I am more likely to cheer for a guy who signs for fans than one who doesn't. Aubs frequently would give little kids a cold shoulder too. That ain't cool LoveSponge!

Well anyway, it turns out that Huffy is a decent TTM signer so I sent this off to him shortly after he was traded to the Tigers. It came back in about 3 weeks, which is a quick turnaround since he would've been on a road trip or two during that time. So I'm now happy that Huff Daddy is going to make the playoffs with the Tigers; as long as they hold off the Twins. It seems like I like him more now that he is on the Tigers.

Aubrey did provide me one of my best baseball memories when I had the pleasure to be at the O's game on June 29, 2007 when he hit for the cycle. It was very exciting to see in-person and was the first time a player hit for the cycle at the Yard.

SCN trade-Brian Falkenborg

Brian Falkenborg 1999

I got this card in a trade with SCN user, michaeland. It's Falkenborg's only Orioles card, or so I choose to believe, and since he doesn't sign TTM, I was happy to pick it up.

Brian only appeared in 2 games for the O's in 1999, and pitched a grand total of 3 innings. He allowed 2 hits, 2 walks and struck out one. He kicked around the Majors from 2004-08 and pitched for 3 different teams during that time. He is currently keeping the dream alive with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in the Japanese Professional League.

I know this wasn't a very inspired post but I just watched my Nittany Lions suck against Iowa for the second year in a row. I think it's time for bed.

A trade with Beardy

I recently was able to work out a trade with fellow O's blogger and infamous trader, Beardy of Beardy's Baseball Blog. He was extremely easy to trade with and even threw in a bonus O's card that he thought I would like; and I do. That bonus card is a Brian Roberts Allen & Ginter game used bat card that I neglected to scan. Oops.

Since I know that Beardy collects everything Orioles related, pretty much as do I, we have some conflicts of interest as far as our collections go. But he specifically collects Markakisisis and he's not so much into autographs, so we had something to go on. I sent him a few Kakes Jr. cards and I received a few sweet O's autographs in return.

Doug Jones 1995

Doug was a long time closer who played for 7 teams over his 16 year career, most notably the Indians, Brewers and Astros. He amassed 303 saves, good enough for 12th place all-time upon his retirement after the 2000 season, and interestingly, at 43 years old, he was the oldest player in the Majors during his last season. Doug also was named to 5 All-Star teams and received MVP votes 4 times over his career.

Unfortunately, his one season with the Orioles wasn't what I would call a success. He went 0-4 with 22 saves and a 5.04 ERA in 52 games. That was his highest ERA for any team he played for; not the highest in a season but still, not good. I was really into the O's when he was on the team though and I will always remember his sweet mullet and long 'stache combo.

Scott Kamieniecki 1997-99

A starter for his first two years in Baltimore, Scott morphed into a middle-reliever/mop-up guy in 1999. Overall, he went 14-16 and had a 4.71 ERA for the Birds; those numbers were right in line with his career stats. He was regarded as having a very good pickoff move and I like to remember him as being the winning pitcher in game 5 of the '97 ALCS against the Indians, the most recent Orioles playoff win in 12 seasons. It's been a long time...

Kalina helps me remember how to spell his last name by pronouncing it Kam-ean-eyecki. Or something close to that. You get the idea.

Anyway, thanks for the awesome trade Beardy!

Unpossible Autographs-George Bamberger

So I'm starting a new recurring feature on the blog today; it's called "Unpossible Autographs" and will detail autographs that I buy or trade for featuring Orioles players who have passed away. Hence they are unpossible to get TTM or in person now. (And I know it's actually impossible, but unpossible is a Ralph Wiggum-ism from the Simpsons, and that kid makes me laugh.)

George Bamberger 1959 (died 4/4/04)

I recently bought a small lot of deceased O's autographs and will lead things off with Mr. Bamberger.

George is probably best known as the Orioles pitching coach from 1968-77. His tenure produced an amazing total of 18 20-game winners, which included 4 on the same 1971 staff. Now that's an effective pitching coach! He later was the Manager of the Brewers (78-80, 85-86) and Mets (82-83).

It seems as if George was better at teaching others how to pitch than doing it himself. He had a very brief MLB career, and appeared in only 10 games over 3 seasons; 7 of them coming with the NY Giants in '51 & '52. He pitched in only 3 games for the Orioles and racked up 1 start, 1 save and a 7.56 ERA, which really wasn't that bad for him as he amassed a cumulative ERA of 9.42. George spent 15 years in the minors, mainly in the PCL (Pacific Coast League) and won 213 games over that time.

Wikipedia features a quote that he is reported to have said and that I really like; "A triple play will take you out of an inning real quick-like." I think I am going to start using real quick-like.

An Awesome Auto from Paul

Willis Otanez 1998-99

Paul who runs the awesome blog, Paul's Random Stuff, which focuses mainly about his experiences with the Newark Bears and the rest of the Independent Atlantic League, offered to try to get things signed for fellow bloggers earlier this baseball season. So of course, I had to take him up on the offer. He had taken care of Ryan Bukvich for me earlier this season, so I knew I could count on Paul. I sent him a Hector Carrasco card and this Otanez card. Carrasco abruptly got himself suspended and eventually released, so there wasn't any way for Paul to help me get his autograph. Otanez was another story.

Paul got this card signed on the Bears' Meet-the-Team day at the end of the season. I was psyched since Otanez rarely signs through the mail and has bounced around the Independent and Mexican Leagues for years. This was the only card I have of his and it's really hard to replace random Minor League cards from the mid 90's without buying complete sets, if they are even available. Paul reported that Willis and his teammates enjoyed seeing such an old card of his, and that his teammates were making fun of his hair, as he now wears it long and unkempt.

Willis only played for the O's over 32 games, 2 in '98 and the other 30 in '99, but that is about half the time he spent in the Bigs; he also played 42 games for the Blue Jays in '99.

He played RF, 3B, 1B & DH in his brief stint with the Birds and hit .212 with 2 homers, and 11 RBI in 85 ABs. It's cool that he is still playing and, I would assume, trying to make it back to the Big Show.

Thank you Paul, and good luck to the Bears in the Playoffs.

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Markakis trade

I'm in a bit of a blogging slump right now. I have a bunch of new autographs that I need to scan but haven't found the motivation recently. It has something to do with another dismal season ending with the O's at the rear of the AL standings. I don't have too much that's good to say about a team that's only better than the Pirates and Nationals. Hey, at least we will get a great draft pick!

Nick Markakis 2006-forever hopefully

I got this in a trade with another Ryan. It is currently my favorite Kakes Jr. auto, but that's not exactly a huge accomplishment since my only other autograph of him is his Topps rookie card that is plagued with Adam "traitor" Loewen.

I'm torn about how to feel about Nick Markakis. On one hand, he is arguably the best player on my favorite team. He is young and consistent and should be good for years to come. He should be in Baltimore through at least 2014, hopefully a veteran leading a young Birds team to their 2nd straight World Series. (I'm not a dreamer at all, I swear)

On the other hand, Markakis is about the worst signer on the team. He is one of very few players that has been on the roster all year that I don't have an in-person autograph from. And it's not like I have just missed him a few times. I don't think I have seen him sign more than 10 autographs all season at the Yard; and I don't count when an Orioles employee grabs him after BP to make him sign for some family or group. It really grinds my gears that he doesn't sign more.

So if you are still following my rant, I support Nick because he does seem to have the most Superstar potential of the Birds but I don't count him amongst my favorite O's since he doesn't look out for his fans or autograph seekers.

Finishing off my TTMs

Here are the last three TTM autos I have to show for now. I recently sent out a bunch more requests so I hope to have some new returns soon.

Chuck Estrada 1960-64

Chuck chose to sign this card at an interesting spot, didn't he? He gave himself a little handlebar-looking mustache when he personalized this card to me. Good stuff Chuck.

He was a member of the Orioles' Kiddie Korps pitching staff in the early '60s and had an amazing rookie season in 1960, when he tied for the league lead in Wins with 18 and had a very respectable 3.58 ERA. He was rewarded by being named to the All-Star team, receiving MVP votes and coming in 2nd place in ROY balloting. (Side note-3 Orioles players received all of the 1960 AL ROY votes; Ron Hansen won the award, and Estrada and Jim Gentile tied for second place with 1 vote each. Maybe the 2009 or 2010 O's can sweep the ROY voting again!)

Estrada always had some control problems (think Daniel Cabrera) and things started to unravel for him quickly after his great rookie season. He was among the league leaders in wild pitches, walks and hit batters in 1961 & 62 and led the AL with 17 losses in 1962.

Chuck was out of baseball by age 29 in 1967 , but served as a pitching coach for the Rangers (1973) and Indians (1983) since his playing days ended.

Don Ferrarese 1955-57

Don played for 5 different organizations over 8 seasons in the Majors. He pitched in 183 games, and made 50 starts. He played for the Orioles for 3 seasons, his most with any franchise, and went 5-11 with a 4.85 over 50 games.

Since his playing career ended, he has started the Don Ferrarese Charitable Foundation which helps California youths obtain school scholarships. Way to be, Don.

Tito Francona 1956-57

Tito was another Orioles rookie who nearly nabbed the AL ROY; he came in second behind eventual Oriole, Luis Aparicio. He played for 9 teams over 15 seasons and made the All-Star team in 1961 and came in 5th in MVP voting in 1959.

He is the father of current Red Sox manager Terry Francona.

TTMs, the Week of Insanity Continues...

Are you getting bored with these TTM successes? I hope not since I have to get through a few more today and tomorrow...and then I will move onto something else. Today I am focusing on some of the more recent players that have signed for me.

Roberto Alomar 1996-98

Alomar is definitely the best TTM success I have had so far who doesn't charge to sign. You can get all kinds of HOFers and stars to sign but they pretty much all expect something in return, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Robby signs.

He is regarded as one of the best all-around 2nd basemen of all time and has myriad awards and accomplishments to back up that claim. Some of them include: 12 straight All-Star teams, 10 Gold Gloves (an MLB record for a 2B), 4 Silver Sluggers (2nd most all-time for a 2B), 2 World Series Championships, and 2,724 hits (51st on the all-time list). He will likely make it into the HOF next year.

Unfortunately, Robby's time in Baltimore was marred by a nasty incident with umpire John Hirschbeck. He was ejected from a game for arguing a called third strike when Hirschbeck either used a racial slur or called him a fa#@ot. Alomar responded to that by spitting in Hirschbeck's face. Ugly stuff man, people were mad at Robby after that.

He was with the Orioles the last time they were relevant and helped the team make it to back-to-back ALCS's in 1996 & 97. Honestly, I could have the meanest 25 jerks ever put together on a roster right now and still be fine with it if we won a World Series. I am that desperate at this point.

Alberto Castillo 2007

OK, this gets a little confusing so stick with me. This is not the Alberto Castillo currently on the Orioles. The current Alberto is a pitcher who was born in Cuba, I did a post about him a while back.

This Alberto Castillo is the catcher who backed up Ramon Hernandez between April 3-June 21 of the 2007 season. I can't say I remember him very well, so don't really expect anyone else to either. He appeared in only11 games and batted .161 so it's easy to forget about a guy like that.

He has kicked around the Majors since 1995 and although he hasn't played in the Bigs since his time with the Birds in '07, he signed from the Newark Bears' address and was still trying to make it back to the Show as of earlier this season. Alberto has played with 8 teams over 12 Major League seasons, but only appeared in 418 games; still that's not too bad. I couldn't even make it past Little League!

More TTMs

Bobby "the Staten Island Scot" Thomson 1960

Bobby is best known for hitting the "Shot Heard 'Round the World"; a game-winning HR for the New York Giants that defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers for the 1951 National League pennant. It definitely ranks up there as one of the most famous, highly publicized homers of all-time. There's much more information about it online but it's too much for me to write about here. This is a link to a detailed description if you want to learn more about it.

"The Staten Island Scot" (he was Scottish and from Staten Island, get it?) only played 3 games for the Orioles at the tail end of his career. He had 6 ABs for the Birds and went 0-6 with 3 strikeouts and 1 GIDP, and played his last game on July 17, 1960.

His stats for the Orioles do not really give you a good idea of how productive Thomson was earlier in his career. As a 3 time All-Star who batted .270 with 264 HRs over 15 seasons, Bobby was very successful at the big league level. He also received MVP votes in 1949, '51 & '52.

Fred Valentine 1959, 1963, 1968

Fred made his Major League debut for the Orioles in 1959 at age 24 but was then sent back to AAA for the next few seasons until once again cracking the O's roster in 1963. It's kind of strange that he was sent back to the minors for that long since he hit .316 in the 12 games he played in 1959. I'm sure there was some good reason why it happened.

After a few good seasons with the Washington Senators, including his '66 season for which he got 4 MVP votes, Fred wrapped up his playing days with the Birds in 1968.

It's kind of funny that I sent this card to be signed TTM as Fred has since been one of the former players at the O's Alumni tent on Eutaw St. Hey, I'm not complaining, I'm happy with my autograph, it's just an interesting coincidence, that's all.

Ernie Whitt 1991

Ernie spent the first half of the '91 season with the O's and appeared in 35 games for the Birds before he was released on July 5. That was the end of the road for Ernie's Major League career.

Prior to coming to the Orioles, Ernie is best known for his long tenure with the Blue Jays. He caught over 1200 games for them over 12 seasons and is regarded as as the franchise's all-time best catcher. When he left the team after the 1989 season, he was the last player from the 1977 inaugural team who was still with the organization. Whitt has written an autobiography about his playing days called "Catch: A Major League Life". The book title is linked to Amazon.com if you have any interest in buying the book.

Ernie is currently the manager of the Clearwater Threshers, the Phillies FSL affiliate, and signed from the team address. He also has had success managing Team Canada in the Olympics and WBC.

Rolling on with the TTMs

I spent last night at Orioles Park with Zach who runs the awesome Autographed Cards blog. He was in town visiting a friend and we decided to meet up at the ballpark. We got O's Alumni autos and then worked both the Rays and the Orioles dugouts before the game. It was a good time and was cool to meet a fellow blogger. Thanks for the Orioles cards too Zach!


Now on to my TTMs: interestingly enough, I traded for Knowles & Mirabella earlier this year but neither were on O's cards but I was able to remedy that since they both sign TTM.

Ernie Johnson 1959

Ernie pitched his final MLB season for the Orioles in 1959, going 4-1 with a 4.11 ERA. He appeared in 31 games, 30 of those in relief.

He was a member of the 1957 Milwaukee Braves World Series championship team and spent the majority of his 9 seasons in the Bigs with the Braves franchise; the '59 O's were the only other team he played for. He served 3 years in the USMC and fought for the US in Okinawa during WWII before he started his baseball career.

Ernie is probably best known for his post-playing broadcast career. He was the Braves' play-by-play broadcaster for TV & radio from 1962-1999 and was inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame in 2001. Here is a cool site about him.

You might have also heard of his son, Ernie Johnson Jr., who is famous for covering basketball on TNT along with Charles Barkley & Kenny Smith.

Darold Knowles 1965

Darold Knowles started his long relief pitching career with the O's in 1965 but he only appeared in 5 games for the Orioles before he was traded with Jackie Brandt to the Phillies for Jack Baldschun on 12/6/1965. That trade was a precursor to the trade that brought Frank Robinson to the Orioles which occurred on 12/9/65 and sent Baldschun, Milt Pappas and Dick Simpson to the Reds for Frank. Now that was a franchise-changer, and was somewhat started by Mr. Knowles.

Darold had a very successful career in his own right; he saved 143 games over 16 MLB seasons for 7 different teams*, and has a career ERA of 3.12. He made the 1969 All-Star team, won a World Series with the 1973 Oakland A's (appearing in all 7 games) and averaged one pick-off'ed runner for every 24 innings he pitched, which is the highest rate of all time!

*He didn't save a game for the O's, but they were the 8th team he played for.

Darold is currently the pitching coach for the Dunedin Blue Jays and signed from the team address.

Paul Mirabella 1983

Paul only pitched in 3 games for the O's in the 1983 season and didn't really contribute to the eventual World Series championship Birds. He had a 5.59 ERA and allowed 9 hits and 7 walks in only 9.2 innings.

Overall, he pitched 13 seasons for 6 teams, appeared in 298 games and had a 4.45 ERA.

Focusing on TTM Successes

This week I am trying to catch up on the TTMs that I received over the past few months. I haven't posted very many of these recently so I think it's time to share them.

Dave Huppert 1983

Dave's time with the Orioles was very brief; extremely short really. He appeared in only 2 games for the O's, both as a defensive replacement in the late innings of an O's loss. His overall Major League career was very short as he only appeared in only 15 other games, all for the '85 Brewers, and collected a grand total of 1 Major League hit in 21 ABs. At least the hit was off of future HOFer Phil Niekro.

Since his playing career ended in 1985, Dave has been a coach and manager for various organizations. He is currently the manager of Philly's AAA team, the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, and signed my card from the team address.

Some highlights of Dave's post-playing career include being the third base coach for the 2005 Nationals, their inaugural season in DC, and managing 3 different minor league teams to league titles. Also, I was interested by the fact that Dave was the manager of the 2002 Harrisburg Senators, the minor league team I grew up watching.

Dick Hyde 1961

Before I say anything else about Dick, I have to mention what he did on this card. I am very appreciative that he signs TTM, but do wonder why he chose to test his pen on the card he signed for me. You can see the big pen swirl on his right cheek. Oh well, it's still a lot better than not getting my card back or having someone refuse to sign it, but it does look like he has a large Cindy Crawford-esque beauty mark.

Dick was a relief pitcher for the '61 O's who appeared in 15 games. Things didn't go so well for Dick, as evidenced by his 5.57 ERA, and that season was his last in the Majors. Before coming to the Birds, he was on the Washington Senators for 5 seasons where he maintained a 3.41 ERA over 154 games. He led the AL with 44 games finished in 1958 and came in 12th in the MVP voting that year.

Don Johnson 1955

Don only spent one season with the Orioles, and pitched mainly out of the bullpen. He appeared in 31 games and only 5 of those were starts. His season didn't go too well, as his 2-4 record and 5.82 ERA will attest. But he looks pretty happy in the picture on the card at least!

A Few More Orioles Alumni Autos & a SCN trade

Here are a few autographs that somehow slipped through the cracks when I last posted about my O's Alumni autographs with a bonus SCN trade if you make it to the end of the post!


HOFer Dick Williams has definitely been the highlight of the year. Also, from what I hear he normally charges like $35 an auto so getting it for free was awesome.

1960 AL ROY Ron Hansen has also been a nice addition to the collection.

Fruit Loops! Yes, people brought boxes of the cereal for him to sign. Baltimore doesn't forget.

I have too many Krivda autos, does anybody want or need any?

Bob Bailor 1975-76

This auto came to me in a SportsCollectors.Net trade with user cook4888. Even though it's not on an Orioles card, I didn't have Bob's auto so I was happy.

Bob only played in 14 games for the Birds over the '75 & '76 seasons, so there isn't much to say about his time in Baltimore. He was blocked by a few players you might have heard of; Brooks, the Blade, and Bobby Grich. Understandably, Bob wasn't going to displace any of those guys.

He was a utility player (as you can see by the card broadly listing his position as "infield-outfield"), and stuck around the Majors for 11 seasons. As the Blue Jays first selection in the 1976 expansion draft, Bob made his way into the Jays' record books by hitting the first leadoff HR in team history.

Bobby B. was also regarded as being very tough to strike out, as evidenced by him only whiffing 164 times in 3206 plate appearances: Bob only struck out in 5% of his at-bats! I think he could teach a thing or two to the Mark Reynolds and Ryan Howards of the world who seem to strike out 75% of the time.

After his playing career was over, Bob became a Minor League manager in the Blue Jays system and eventually was a coach on the Blue Jays from 92-95, earning World Series rings in '92 & '93.

Who the Henn is pitching tonight?

Sean Henn made his O's debut last night, which makes him the 871st different player to hit the field for the Orioles. He came to the O's organization earlier in the day yesterday in a trade from the Twin for a PTBNL.

He is being used as a situational lefty out of the bullpen, and essentially auditioning for that open spot on next year's team. He made his Orioles debut in the bottom of the 8th inning and started out his Orioles career well, by striking out J.D. Drew on 4 pitches. He then gave up back-to-back bloop singles to Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz and was replaced in the game by Cla "the Claw" Meredith. Meh. Coulda been better, or worse. Welcome to Dave Trembley's relief pitching carousel.

Sean has played for the Yankees, Padres, Twins and now the Orioles since 2005 and his career numbers are on par to Chris Lambert's.
In 55 Major League games, Henn is 2-9 with a 7.47 ERA and 1.979 WHIP.


All of the pictures and cards that I could find of him featured him in a Yankees uniform so I don't feel like including them in my blog. There is plenty of coverage elsewhere about that team.

3 New Orioles to add to the list

Three players made their Orioles debuts in last night's O's game in Boston. I don't want to talk about the game at all except for mentioning the new Birds. I have very little good to say about the game last night, it was total crap.

In order of appearance:

The Orioles claimed Chris Lambert off waivers from the Tigers on August 20, 2009 and he made his O's debut last night with 2 outs in the bottom of the third inning with one runner on.

His stats for Detroit in 11 games over the past two seasons: 1-3, 7.90 ERA, 2.049 WHIP

His stats for the O's last night: 13.50 ERA, 1.500 WHIP, 1 HR, 1 BB, 2 ER in 1.1 innings pitched. Only 12 of his 23 pitches were strikes

Chris Lambert does not give me a good feeling in my belly. He might only be an Oriole for a brief amount of time. And yes, Core Contrarian did warn me.



Justin Turner came to the Orioles in the Ramon Hernandez trade this past offseason. That automatically makes him OK in my book. He made his major league debut in the top of the 7th inning last night, replacing Melmo in the lineup and at third base. He went 0-2, striking out swinging in his debut AB and lining out softly in the ninth. Hey, that's still better than Ramon Hernandez, and probably Ryan Freel, combined!




Guillermo Rodriguez or G-Rod as we referred to him as at Bowie this season, made his Orioles debut as a defensive replacement for Matt Wieters in the bottom of the 6th inning. He also struck out to end the game (and the misery) in his only plate appearance.

He played 39 games for the '07 Giants in his only other Major League action to date. He is a minor league veteran who has played in 852 minor leagues games over the past 14 seasons so it's always nice to see a guy like him make it to the Bigs.


As you can see I was able to get G-Rod's autograph a couple of times while he played for the Baysox, so I am happy to add him both to the list of players who played for the O's and to the list of players that I have autographs of. It's always ideal for me to be able to do that since it makes my project so much easier.


*I stole the scans of the Lambert & Turner cards from Ebay. I try to avoid this but i had no choice as I had no pictures of either.

Recent Auto's at O's Games

Here are some cards that I have been able to get signed at recent O's games. My current definition of recent is within the past month or so. So, yes, that means that I am about a month behind on everything I am trying to do. Oh well, baseball season is almost over and then I can finally catch up on things. Sorry to anyone that I owe packages to, they will be on their way soon enough.

And I start off my post by lying to you. I got this Bruce Chen autograph when he was in town with the Royals in late July. So I'm like 6 weeks behind on showcasing this card. Wow, that's pretty bad.

But I do have a funny story about this autograph; if you read my previous post about Bruce, it really seems like he is a very nice guy. And at this O's-Royals game, he once again came through for the fans by being the only Royal to sign for the fans after BP. He signed everything for everyone, and used my sharpie for most of the signing but I didn't care as he was, like I said, the only player signing. He signed a couple of dollar bills for some guy and then the usher told him that he didn't think that was legal so I doubt Bruce will do that again.



This is now my favorite autograph of our slick-fielding shortstop. I like these O-Pee-Chee cards for autos.



Melmo came through again. And seeing as I got this signed shortly after my trip to Toronto; I got Mora's signature twice in one week and not another time for the rest of the season. At least to this point. It seems as though he is a streaky signer.



Bergy was around for his t-shirt giveaway game in mid-August. Not only did he sign this card for me but I was also able to get my t-shirt signed. Sweet!



I do not like that Moeller is featured in a Yankees uni on this card. I try to avoid getting Yankees or Red Sox cards signed whenever humanly possibly but I didn't have any other cards of his. But since I got my 09 Tides set for my birthday, this situation has been rectified.





That's it on Orioles autographs but I found out last weekend that the Indians are a very good signing team. I just missed out on Grady Sizemore twice but I did get a few decent autos.


Travis Hafner, although he's not the player he was a few years ago, is still a cool autograph to get at a game. He signed for a ton of fans too.


Aaron Laffey was talking to some friends/family in the stands and was signing while doing so. Interesting note about his autograph- he signed Laffey first, and then added the A. I've never seen a player sign backwards like that before.


Chris Perez signed for me for the second time this season. The first time was a Nationals-Cardinals game in DC when Perez was still playing for St. Louie.


Wyatt Toregas, a rookie catcher signed this team card for me. I think he was trying to leave some room for others to sign the card. That, or he has a tiny signature.


Finally, Eric Wedge. I like the way his signature looks; it's all over the place.

Recovered from the Birthday Weekend and an Internet Outage

So I'm back; it's not that I intended to neglect the blog all weekend but after celebrating my birthday I faced an internet outage at my house-hence the 5 days away.

I should have a more interesting post later today but wanted to account for my absence, in case anyone was worried.

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend!

It's my birthday so...

I'm going to a Frederick Keys game to get some autographs. Lou Montanez is rehabbing there so I hope to get him to sign a few times.

I will also drink more than 3 but less than 10 beers, and promise not to drive.

And that is all for this post. It's my birthday so I don't feel like putting much effort in today.

Nats Picnic in the Park And Get Well Nyjer!

I wanted to lead with something about Nyjer Morgan but couldn't make it sound right, but I promised Kalina that I would post about Nyjer, our pictures of him, and his ill-timed injury this week.

This post is going to showcase the pictures and autographs that I got two Saturdays ago at the Nats Picnic in the Park autograph/meet the team event, highlighted by Mr. Morgan.

Who's that guy? It's Nyjer!

He was very cool and even knew a little bit about baseball cards; mentioning both Upper Deck and Topps to us as the Nationals assistant next to him kept trying to get us to have his Nats program card signed.

I decided to have him sign my 08 Heritage rookie card.



Ron Villone (with his son) was at the table with Nyjer,



and did a double-take at the 15 year old card I had of him.



Another highlight was getting Adam Dunn's autograph...



on this sweet Topps Trading Card History card.



Dunn was at a table with Jorge Padilla, who I didn't have a card of.
But he made this funny face at Kalina when she took his picture.



Rob Dibble was showing off his crazy tattoos.



Saul Rivera and Ronnie Belliard (obviously pre-Dodgers trade)



This is one of the cards the Nats have been giving out in their game-day programs all season.



Ronnie was really cool to the fans.



JD Martin(on the left) and Mike MacDougal were at a table together.



J.D. needed a new sharpie.



I'm a big fan of Mike's autograph for some reason.



We ran into Elijah in a hall on the club level.



Jason Bergmann representing the Nats




And finally, Marquis Grissom was signing for everyone. Did someone say mid '90s Braves?