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.