Happy Birthday Tippy & Joe

Two former Orioles are celebrating birthdays today as Tippy Martinez turns 61 and Joe Orsulak hits 49.

 

Thanks to both of them for being nice enough to personalize cards for my collection!

Happy Memorial Day

I know that many of us have been busy and away from computers this weekend, but I just wanted to write a quick post to thank all of the veterans out there for everything they've done to protect our country and our freedom. There are also many civilian military and government employees who play very important roles in protecting our country. Thank you everyone, including my dad, who have served our country!

 

There are many former Orioles who have served our country (mainly during WWII), but I've selected Jim Busby as a representative for these heroes, at least partially because I've never shown off this autograph of him. 

Jim spent three years in the Army during the second World War and later went on to spend thirteen seasons in the major leagues, including four with the O's from 1957-58 & '60-61. One of his career highlights was being selected as an All-Star in 1951, during his time with the White Sox. After his playing career ended he spent 16 years as a coach at the major league level.

Jim passed away in 1996, but I want to thank his family for his service. And thank you to everyone else who is serving or has served our country. Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Jim Pyburn

Sadly, another former Oriole passed away over the past week; Jim Pyburn died at the age of 78. After Duane Pillette's passing two weeks ago, it seems that we've reached another unfortunate streak of ex-Orioles' deaths.

I'm glad that I've had Jim's autograph in my collection for quite some time. I received it via a trade with one of my frequent Orioles autograph trade partners, but, sadly, I never got around to sending out a TTM request to him, or I might've had a personalized autograph in my collection.

One thing that I read about Jim that surprised me is that after his baseball career ended, he became a Georgia football assistant coach for 16 seasons.

RIP Jim.

The Forgotten Britton

When I was writing about Zach Britton and his changed signature yesterday, it made me think a little bit about the other Britton who has played for the Orioles.

A few weeks ago, I quizzed a friend who is as hardcore an Orioles fan as I am about the other Britton and he couldn't come up with his name, even after being given the hint that he shared a last name with a current Orioles starter.

Now that I've built up the suspense, who am I talking about?

None other than Chris Britton, who pitched in 52 games for the O's in 2006. 

I do question the name of this autograph set though. I think in Chris's case, it should have been called the "Path to McDonald's" as he tips the scales as one of the heaviest players in baseball history. But he did make it to the Major Leagues, so I guess it worked for him, at least for a short amount of time.

Zach Britton's Autograph Evolution

Most of the time, as a player rises from the Minor Leagues to the Majors, his autograph degrades from a decent signature to some random squiggles.

Example Derrek Lee...

1994 Signature Rookies (Certified)

2011 Topps Heritage (In-Person)

However, Zach Britton appears to have gone the opposite way with his autograph.

In his early years in the Orioles farm system, this is how his signature looked...

It was pretty much big Z scribble, big B scribble.

But then sometime over the past year or so, this is how he started to sign...

That's a pretty legible Zach Britton signature.

If I hadn't got all three of these autographs in person, I would definitely think that I was being duped, but I watched Zach sign these cards, so I know they are 100% authentic. I don't think that I've ever seen another example of a player's signature improving as he has become more successful or famous. Maybe the next time Zach is signing, I can try to ask him what prompted the change. I'm certainly intrigued.

Nate Smith

Recently, a dealer I'm acquainted with has been trying to put together a signing with Nate Smith, who is a pretty tough Orioles autograph to track down. I bought my copy off another collector on Sportscollectors.net, and to date, it is one of the more expensive autographs I've had to buy for my collection. Luckily I had some Paypal money built up at the time, so it didn't hit me too hard out of pocket. 

Nate's MLB career lasted all of five games covering 10 days at the end of the 1962 season. In nine at-bats, he had two hits, including a double, and scored three runs. And that was it.

Since his brief time for the O's, Nate has proven tough to track down. He is another Drungo Hazewood type, although Drungo was much more heavily hyped; they both had very short stints with the Orioles and now seem adverse to signing autographs. There are a few signatures to be found out there, but they are few and far between.

Oriole #898- Ryan Adams

On Friday night, Ryan Adams made his MLB and Orioles debut, getting the start at second base against the Nationals. I scored some amazing seats for the game so was able to take a few pictures with my phone. They aren't as clear as I would've liked, but you can sort of tell that they are him.

 

Here he is at second base in the top of the first, technically making his debut

 

That's him on deck in the bottom of the second

 

And here he is on first base, after singling to left in his second AB in the bottom of the fourth

All-in-all, he had a decent debut, going 1-4, scoring a run and helping to turn a double play in the field. Unfortunately, the game was a clunker for the O's who lost by twelve runs to the offensively challenged Nationals. It figures that Friday was the only game I made it to over the weekend, since the O's put the Nats away on Saturday and Sunday to win the series, even though they were still outscored in the series due to Friday's blowout. 

Since Adams has played at every level of the Orioles farm system, I've had the chance to get his autograph a number of times over the past three seasons.

 

 

Along with the Bowman Certified auto at the top of the post, I've gotten these cards of his signed, probably along with a few others that I never scanned. If any of you Orioles collectors would like to trade for one, just let me know. I think I will be adding the bottom Bowman Heritage card to my Orioles autograph binder.

Since it sounds like B-Rob might be out for a little while, I hope that Ryan gets a chance to show what he's got for the O's. Good luck to him.

The 2011 Orioles Walk-Up Song Project Update #3

Since I know you were all wondering when I would update this again...

Here's what I've updated this time around- I finally locked down Mark Reynold's song and it seems pretty fitting. JJ Hardy seems to using something completely different from earlier in the season. And blog reader and O's fan Matthew helped me out with the song Troy Patton used in what might be his only Orioles appearance this season. Also had to add Brandon Snyder to the list, but have no idea what song he's using.




So I don't know about any of you, but I've always been interested to hear what walk-up songs different players have when they come up to the plate or enter the game. I feel like it can tell you something about the player or at least gives the fans some insight into what music the player likes. I've also heard that some players just have a member of the team staff select their walk-up/entrance songs, but I like to think those guys are a minority.

My goal is to figure out all of the walk-up songs for the Orioles' hitters and entrance songs for all O's pitchers.
I've done this to some extent in the past just for fun, but this year I'm being assisted by my iPhone's Shazam app, which "listens" to any music that is being played and tells you what the song is and who performed it.

Here's what I have so far, with YouTube links to the songs if available. As you might guess, some links might contain explicit lyrics, you can probably figure out whether you want to click them or not.

Brian Roberts- "Don't Waste Your Life "Lecrae ft. Cam & Dwayne Tryumf
Nick Markakis- "Deliverance" Bubba Sparxx
Derrek Lee- "All The Lights" Kanye West & "The Second Coming"  Juelz Santana
Vladimir Guerrero- "Calabria"  Enur ft. Natasja
Luke Scott- LUUUUKE Intro or "Rock You Like a Hurricane"  The Scorpions
Adam Jones- "I'm Illy" T.I., 5/10 "Welcome to Jamrock" Damian Marley
Matt Wieters- "Kick It" Manafest
Mark Reynolds- "Hillbilly Deluxe" Brooks & Dunn
Robert Andino- "Black N Orange" Dboi Da Dome, E' From Da Wic, Jay Luv & "BMF" Rick Ross
Felix Pie- "Hasta Abajo" Don Omar
Jake Fox- "I Use What I Got" Jason Aldean
Cesar Izturis- "Hypnotize"  Notorious BIG
JJ Hardy- "Driven to Tears" The Police, 5/10 "Gin & Juice Instrumental" Snoop Dogg
Brandon Snyder- ???

Jeremy Guthrie- "Never Say Never" Justin Bieber ft. Jaden Smith (this one hurts, Gut)
 Brian Matusz- "God's Gonna Cut You Down"  Johnny Cash* (As of 2010, hasn't pitched in 2011 yet)
Jake Arrieta- "Bad Company" Five Finger Death Punch
Chris Tillman- "For Whom The Bell Tolls"  Metallica*
Brad Bergesen- ???
Jason Berken- "Right Now" Van Halen
Mike Gonzalez- ???
Jeremy Accardo- "Sad But True" Metallica
Josh Rupe- ???
Clay Rapada- "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" AC/DC
Chris Jakubauskas- ???
Jim Johnson- "The Pretender"  Foo Fighters
Koji Uehara- "Sandstorm" Darude*
Troy Patton- "Stop If You Think You've Heard This One Before" The Smiths

Kevin Gregg- "TNT" AC/DC





I'm not positive about these, but the songs have been played for the players at least once

Zach Britton- "Seven Nation Army" The Oak Ridge Boys

* Indicates song info came from list on O's website and I haven't confirmed that it's still correct

I plan to keep updating this throughout the season and will add more songs as I figure out who uses what songs.

Orioles Bobblehead of the Week- Adam Jones

While I don't think Adam will ever be one of my favorite Orioles, he has had a decent season so far, at least compared to most of the rest of the team, so I figure it's about time to show off his bobblehead.

 

The Orioles honored him with a bobble on Wednesday June 17, 2009 on the night of an inter-league game against the Mets. It's a pretty cool design; I know that it's hard to tell from this picture but his feet aren't on the ground. His body plugs into the back wall by a medal rod, attached around the small of his back, to picture him jumping to make a catch at the wall. The inclusion of the 410 distance marker is nice too. Conceptually, it's a pretty cool design for the O's. 

I have to admit that Adam can make some amazing catches in centerfield. His "trademark" seems to be blowing a bubble during the play, as paid homage to on the bobble. While the picture the O's used on the box is an impressive shot, I feel like finding one of him making a catch while blowing a bubble wouldn't have been too much to ask for. He does it about once a series, so there should be some photographic evidence of it!

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Howie Fox, My Favorite Wedding Present

As one of my few family members or friends, besides my wonderful wife, who understands my autograph collecting ways, my dad has happily supported my hobby since I was a little kid. He would take me early to games to try to get autographs and I remember waiting with him for hours after an Orioles game in the 2131 era Cal autograph lines inside Camden Yards more than once .

So it's fitting that someone who understands me and my collection so well was the one who added such an important piece to the puzzle. My dad's wedding gift to me, among other things, was this AMAZING Howie Fox autograph.

 

Howie, along with Tom Gastall whose autograph I tracked down over the winter, were honestly two guys' autographs who I thought I would never obtain when I started my project. Both have been dead over 50 years, and the likelihood of adding their autographs to my collection just seemed too remote. Well, now I've scratched them both off of my want list and I couldn't be happier. I've also learned that a few other deceased former Orioles' autographs might be even harder to track down than these two, but I'm not going to let that take away from this milestone.

Fox pitched in the Major Leagues for nine seasons between 1944-54 with the Reds, Phillies and Orioles, spending seven of his nine seasons in Cincinnati before single season stints in Philadelphia and Baltimore at the end of his career. It's possible that Howie would have pitched a few more years in the Majors, but his life was cut tragically short in October 1955. I've read conflicting accounts about the events leading up to his death, but it's a fact that he was stabbed to death in a Texas bar. Some accounts state that he was involved in a fight while others say he owned the bar and was trying to throw out some trouble-makers when things took a bad turn. Either way, Howie was only 34 when he died of his injuries from that day.

The fact that he died almost 56 years ago makes his autograph rather hard to track down, as you might imagine. But since he did pitch in the Majors for almost ten seasons, there are a few of them floating around, but they aren't cheap. Fox was included in the 1954 Topps set as an Oriole, so theoretically there might be a signed copy of that somewhere, but I doubt I will ever see one.

One of my favorite parts of this postcard, besides the autograph of course, is the back of it. I don't know how well you can see it in the scan but it's outstanding.  From the two cent "stamped" stamp featuring Benjamin Franklin, to the August 21, 1954 postmark, to the plea of "Don't Wait Join Civil Defense Now", looking at this is like stepping back in time. And I applaud the forward thinking Jim Davidson for putting together this Orioles postcard so that I could eventually add it to my collection.

Some Recent Orioles Autographs

So far this year I've gotten less autographs than in past seasons. I've had less time than I've had in previous years but I guess getting married will do that to you. At least the quality of the autographs has made up for the decrease in quantity.

My favorite additions to the collection have been upgrading my Vlad, D-Lee and Hardy autographs to Orioles cards.

  

The biggest thrill by far was getting Vladdy to sign his first and only O's card. I even got to mention to him that I had seen him play with the Senators in the mid-90s and he commented that was "a long time ago."

 

Adding Derrek Lee not five minutes after I got Vlad was pretty exciting too.  Although his signature leaves a bit to be desired. 

 

Hardy signed for a bunch of fans on his first day back from his DL stint. And he's had a pretty good week at the plate too.

 

I don't have much nice to say about Gonzo at this point. But I am glad to finally have his only actual O's card signed.

 

 I didn't really know what to say to Simon. "All that murder accusation business over?" sounded a little heavy. He seemed happy to be back in Baltimore though. 

 

 I remember being a huge fan of this card when this set came out 15 odd years ago, so it's cool to have it signed now.

 

I'm confident that I haven't heard Russell say a word to anyone during the two times I've seen him sign. How quintessentially '80s is this card? Awesome. 

 

I was shocked to see JJ sign, he doesn't seem to enjoy it too much. 

Thank You Kalina!

In an odd turn of events, Kalina went to a baseball game without me this past weekend. Now, don't get me wrong, she is a huge baseball fan and there are times she might fly solo to an O's game with some of her friends, but it doesn't happen often.

This past weekend, she happened to be visiting her grandpa in Pennsylvania without me, and the Orioles AAA affiliate, the Norfolk Tides, just happened to be playing the Phillies' AAA team, the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs, not too far away from his house. And in a good example of why I love her so much, she volunteered to go to the game and get some autographs for me. That's right, she is amazing!


She got eight total autographs from the Tides for me, including Nick Green and John Hester, who are new additions to my collection. Now if they get called up to Baltimore, I can add them to my have list, as opposed to the dreaded need list additions.

 

Her favorite signers were two guys she has enjoyed watching on their rise through the O's farm system, Nolan Reimold and Tyler Henson, as well as John Hester, who she seems to think is cute or something.

All in all, she had a great time and I really appreciate her going and getting those awesome autographs for me. Overall, graphing is more bold activity than she generally likes to get into at games, so I'm thankful she stepped outside of her comfort zone to help me out. Thanks again Kalina!

Nelson Simmons

*This is the post that blogger lost last Thursday. It's alive!

I'm at the point in my collection where it's getting really difficult to find any autographs I need. There are only thirteen former O's who I don't have an autograph of, and 38 others who I'm still looking to upgrade to Orioles cards. Many of those who I need to upgrade are similar to Nelson Simmons. They are mostly players who only have one or two Orioles cards, so it's not that their autographs are hard to find, just that their signed Orioles cards are few and far between.

I had an autographed copy of Nelson's 1986 Topps Tigers card in my collection for some time but recently got lucky and was able to upgrade by adding a signed copy of his only Orioles card.

Nelson's signature is a sort of strange print/cursive hybird which I haven't come across too often. It's admittedly more legible and preferred to many current players' chickenscratch autographs, but odd nonetheless.

A Case of the Sundays- Luis Rivera

 

So, I know that Luis was some sort of prospect with the Braves and later the Orioles, but there are a few things that confuse me about this card.

1) It is in the 2002 Select set; Luis had appeared in just 6 games for the Braves and O's in 2000, not even playing in American professional baseball after that season. So how is he included in this 2002 set?

2) He was a pitcher, not an outfielder as listed on the card.

3) His signature looks like hieroglyphics and I don't think I see any part of Luis or Rivera in there.

I will say that I'm glad Luis was included in some certified autograph sets as an Oriole. Otherwise, his signed O's cards would be very hard to track down since he's been playing in Mexico since 2001. I don't need another Luis Garcia situation here.

Orioles Bobblehead of the Week- Buck Showalter Preview

The Orioles have released an image of the Buck Showalter bobblehead giveaway on June 25. Sorry the pictures not any bigger, but I can only work with what they have on the website, and if you make it larger, it gets all fuzzy and distorted.

 

It's a classic "manager leaning on the dugout railing" pose that I've seen before, but I don't think the Orioles have ever made a bobblehead with this specific pose, so I'm excited to add it to my collection.

The O's still haven't released any images of the Brian Matusz bobble that will be given away on August 6, but I hope they post one soon. Maybe they're waiting for Matusz to actually appear in a game before releasing the image. And I'm still holding out hope for a late addition to the promotional schedule of an O's Vladdy bobble, but knowing how the team does these things, I'm not gonna hold my breath. 

One thing the O's changed this year is that both bobbleheads are being given away on Saturdays, whereas in past years, they normally gave away bobbles on weeknights to bring more people out to the Yard. I feel like this will result in a lot more people with bobbleheads who don't particularly want one, so maybe I can snag a few extras that are left behind at the end of the game. I just hope that they aren't coming out of the boxes broken like many of last season's mini-bobble giveaways. 

See you at the Yard on June 25th and August 6th!

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Duane Pillette

Like many of you, Blogger seems to have eaten my post that was supposed to have been up yesterday. In my few years of using the program, this is the first time that's happened to me. It was a relatively unimportant post, but I will try to re-write it sometime next week.

This week's unpossible autograph is of Duane Pillette, who unfortunately passed away last Friday.

 

In the Spring of 2009, when I first really got back into my Orioles autograph collection and sending out TTM requests, Duane was one of the first players I sent to because I already had his card. That was back before I used autograph resources like Sportscollectors.net and also knew other graphers who I could talk to about who signed and who didn't. This was also before I asked for players to personalize my requests, and I had intended to send Duane another request to get a personalized autograph, but I missed out on that opportunity. To Duane's credit, he was always a great signer and asset to the hobby and returned this signed card in only six days.

Duane was a second generation Major League pitcher, following in his dad Herman's footsteps. He pitched in the Majors from 1949-56 with the Yankees, Browns, Orioles and Phillies and has the distinction of being the losing pitcher in the final game of Browns' history and the winning pitcher in the first victory for the Orioles franchise. I don't think many other players have had the opportunity to accomplish something like that.

A fellow SCN member also mentioned how Duane was with the Browns for the infamous Eddie Gaedel- midget pinch hitter game. That's one of those classic, yet ridiculous, baseball stories and I wish I had known he was a part of his when I sent my request.

RIP Duane, thank you for having made many of your fans happy over the years.

The 2011 Orioles Walk-Up Song Project Update #2

UPDATE- This time around, I've added updates for Jonesy & Dino, confirmed a few from the information on the O's website and figured out the songs that Rapada and Accardo are using.


So I don't know about any of you, but I've always been interested to hear what walk-up songs different players have when they come up to the plate or enter the game. I feel like it can tell you something about the player or at least gives the fans some insight into what music the player likes. I've also heard that some players just have a member of the team staff select their walk-up/entrance songs, but I like to think those guys are a minority.

My goal is to figure out all of the walk-up songs for the Orioles' hitters and entrance songs for all O's pitchers.
I've done this to some extent in the past just for fun, but this year I'm being assisted by my iPhone's Shazam app, which "listens" to any music that is being played and tells you what the song is and who performed it.

Here's what I have so far, with YouTube links to the songs if available. As you might guess, some links might contain explicit lyrics, you can probably figure out whether you want to click them or not.

Brian Roberts- "Don't Waste Your Life "Lecrae ft. Cam & Dwayne Tryumf
Nick Markakis- "Deliverance" Bubba Sparxx
Derrek Lee- "All The Lights" Kanye West & "The Second Coming"  Juelz Santana
Vladimir Guerrero- "Calabria"  Enur ft. Natasja
Luke Scott- LUUUUKE Intro or "Rock You Like a Hurricane"  The Scorpions*
Adam Jones- "I'm Illy" T.I., 5/10 "Welcome to Jamrock" Damian Marley
Matt Wieters- "Kick It" Manafest
Mark Reynolds- ???
Robert Andino- "Black N Orange" Dboi Da Dome, E' From Da Wic, Jay Luv & "BMF" Rick Ross
Felix Pie- "Hasta Abajo" Don Omar
Jake Fox- "I Use What I Got" Jason Aldean*
Cesar Izturis- "Hypnotize"  Notorious BIG

Jeremy Guthrie- "Never Say Never" Justin Bieber ft. Jaden Smith (this one hurts, Gut)
 Brian Matusz- "God's Gonna Cut You Down"  Johnny Cash* (As of 2010, hasn't pitched in 2011 yet)
Jake Arrieta- "Bad Company" Five Finger Death Punch
Chris Tillman- "For Whom The Bell Tolls"  Metallica*
Brad Bergesen- ???
Jason Berken- "Right Now" Van Halen
Mike Gonzalez- ???
Jeremy Accardo- "Sad But True" Metallica
Josh Rupe- ???
Clay Rapada- "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" AC/DC
Chris Jakubauskas- ???
Jim Johnson- "The Pretender"  Foo Fighters
Koji Uehara- "Sandstorm" Darude*

Kevin Gregg- "TNT" AC/DC

I'm not positive about these, but the songs have been played for the players at least once

JJ Hardy- "Driven to Tears" The Police


Zach Britton- "Seven Nation Army" The Oak Ridge Boys

* Indicates song info came from list on O's website and I haven't confirmed that it's still correct

I plan to keep updating this throughout the season and will add more songs as I figure out who uses what songs.

A Case of the Sundays- Russ Ortiz

Russ might have been good alright for some other teams during his career, but his time with the Orioles was UGLY. Go ahead, I dare you to look at his stats. They weren't pretty!

Orioles Bobblehead of the Week- Bowie Baysox Brad Bergesen

This week's bobblehead is from the O's AA affiliate Bowie Baysox. They gave away this Brad Bergesen bobble to the first 1,000 fans on Thursday June 17, 2010. 

It's a decent bobblehead, but at this point, I'm never very excited to see Bergesen take the mound. He has his good starts, but I would say that overall he might have more success as a long relief/swing-man out of the bullpen. And in a perfect world, if Matusz & Duchscherer & Simon can get and/or stay healthy, I bet Bergy heads back to the 'pen.

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Billy Goodman

There are a handful of guys who played in some games for the Orioles, never had a card made featuring them with the O's and passed away before the Orioles Crown set came out in 1991. Since that set included a card of every single player who had appeared in even a single game for the Birds, every Oriole from 1954-early 1991 has at least 1 card featuring him as an O, albeit a few players are pictured wearing another team's hat. There are a lot fewer pictures from back in the day than there are now, apparently not everyone was able to take pictures with their cell phones or something.

Billy Goodman is among those players who passed away before the Crown set came out, so this is the autograph that's in my collection.

His service in WWII delayed his professional baseball career but he still played in the Majors from 1947-62 and really started his career with a bang. From 1948-54 during his time with the Red Sox, Billy was consistently one of the best hitters in the league, and even led the American League with a .354 average in 1950. He consistently received MVP votes over those years and made the All-Star team in 1949 & 1953.

In the middle of the '57 season, the Red Sox traded to him to the Orioles who then flipped him to the White Sox at the end of the year, so Billy's Orioles career lasted all of 73 games. He was traded early enough in the offseason that his '58 Topps card pictures him as a member of the Sox.

He impressively finished his career with an even .300 batting average. Not too shabby!

Billy passed away in 1984 at only 58 years old. He was posthumously inducted to the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2004. RIP Billy.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

To celebrate, here are the nine former Orioles who are either Mexican or are of Mexican heritage.

 

I have to start with Fernando-mania, who was near the end of his career by the time he pitched for the O's but is still the biggest name of the bunch.

Next up is the only current Oriole with a Mexican background. Mr. Sporadic, Mike Gonzalez.

Rodrigo was the O's #1 pitcher for a few consecutive seasons. Which doesn't necessarily mean much considering the competition, but still, he was their Opening Day starter in 2005 & 2006.

Aurelio, like Fernando, had a long career but was an only an Oriole for the tail-end of it. He tragically was killed by an out-of-control driver while walking down a Detroit street in 2000. He was only 52 at the time of his death.

Jerry is one of the many Hairston men in his family who have played in the Major Leagues. When I was getting back into following the O's in the early-mid 2000's, I remember that he and B-Rob were in battle for the starting second base job. I think the Orioles made the right decision.

 

Most of what I remember about Karim isn't particularly positive, so I'm not going to look up anything about him. Suffice it to say that his heritage is why he's included here.

 

I've already featured these last four cards at some point, but they are the only autographs I have of these guys, so they're getting rerun.

Geronimo earned an F for his autographs skills, or lack thereof.

While Carlos, Andres, and Sergio were grouped together in a post highlighting difficult foreign autographs. I don't have anything to say about them that wasn't already said in that post, maybe besides pointing out that they are all Mexican, which you knew if you've been following along.


Hope that everyone celebrates some Mexican freedom and heritage in the American style of drinking a margarita or Corona. But not too many since you probably still have to go to work tomorrow!

Not Like It Matas

But I was able to upgrade the Frank Mata autographs in my collection thanks to some help from a fellow SCN grapher. Frank spent his 2011 Spring Training with the Marlins and didn't make the team so is now pitching for their AAA team in New Orleans. My SCN counterpart graphed all the Florida Spring Training sites and was able to take care of Frank for me.

Frank is Oriole #879 and you can read about him in the post I wrote last year. After he was sent back to Norfolk for the remainder of the season, he was included in the O's postcard set, 

as well as the 2010 Tides set, but I never made it to Norfolk to get either signed myself. 

I consider both upgrades over the Twins autographed card that was in my collection. Because the postcard is the only thing to show him in and O's uniform but I prefer signed cards, they will both be staying in my collection.

If anyone needs an autograph of Frank, this signed Twins cards is now available by trade, check or money order.