Tuesday, August 24, 2010

An Awesome Envelope From Jamie

About two weeks ago, I got an email from blog reader Jamie; he's a huge Orioles fan who lives in Rochester, NY.  Some of you might be able to guess where this is going...the Orioles' AAA team was the Rochester Red Wings from 1961-2002.  Jamie regularly attended Red Wings' games from the late '80s until the O's dropped their affiliation, and he was smart enough to bring cards for the players to sign.  He checked my want list and sent me some truly awesome additions to my collection.  All 5 of these guys are tough signers and I have tried to track them down for some time now.



You all know about Albert Belle, he was crazy.  Crazy good with the bat, and just plain crazy in real life.  He was also an Oriole, so I needed his autograph.  Surprisingly, he doesn't sign TTM requests.  So getting him in this trade was great.  I wonder what he was like when he was signing for fans.  Did someone have to force him to do it?


Orange Uni alert!
Francisco de la Rosa pitched in 2 games for the Orioles during the 1991 season, he had a 4.50 ERA in 4 innings pitched.  He has pretty much disappeared, likely to his native Domincan Republic, after his playing career ended, so his autograph is very tough to track down.  There isn't much demand for his autograph outside of some crazy Orioles collectors like myself, so I doubt I will ever see a private signing with him.  He does have a pesky '92 Stadium Club card showing him in an O's uniform (also orange), so I will still keep my eyes open for that one.  He appeared too late in the '91 season to be included in the Crown set.


Why the shifty look Paul? Is someone trying to copy your curly hair/awesome stache combo?
Paul appeared in 38 games for the '91 O's and had an 0-2 record with a 5.08 ERA, including 14 games finished with one save.  It sounds like Paul might have filled the mop-up role for that squad.  Overall, he pitched for 5 different teams over his 6 year MLB career.  Interestingly, he signs the same percentage(zero) of TTM requests that Albert Belle does; I wonder what Paul has against his fans? 

Paul appeared early enough in the '91 season to be included at the very end of the Crown set.  He also has a few other Orioles cards, so again, I will try to track down his autograph on one of them.  



Mark played for the Giants and O's over his 6 season MLB career from 1990-95. His one season in Baltimore was in 1993, during which he only played in 10 games, and was sandwiched by his time with the Giants from 90-92 & 94-95.

He only appeared in 168 games over his 6 big league seasons, highlighted by 64 games for the '91 Giants; he was typically used as a reserve outfielder.  Mark doesn't have any Orioles cards, which is good because he also seems to be allergic to signing  TTM requests.  What is it with these guys? 



Kevin pitched 5 games for the the O's in 1993 and had a 5.94 ERA.  Pretty much all of his stats over those 5 games weren't very good, yet he also doesn't like to sign.  


Thanks again for the great autographs Jamie!  I really appreciate your helping the Project along!

5 comments:

SAinPA said...

Pretty neat post - Especially the Albert Belle

zman40 said...

Would you be surprised that I got a Belle card signed TTM in the early '90s?

Looking back on it now, I'm surprised to have one.

Anonymous said...

Nice pickups!

I'm guessing that Albert Belle didn't really feel like signing considering the placement of his autograph on that card.

Anonymous said...

Belle participated in Orioles fan fest when he was playing there... he signed and took pics with fans. He wasn't always angry ;)

Orioles Magic said...

Sals- thanks, I was happy to cross him of my list.

zman-It's almost hard to believe that he EVER signed TTM, but nice work getting him back then.

Paul-thank you, and I would agree.

Anon-I'm pretty sure that all the players are contractually obligated to sign/pose for pictures at Fanfest, but you do have a point. I don't think that Jamie got these signed at fanfest though.