Oriole #782- John Halama

John Halama pitched in 262 games over nine MLB seasons for seven different teams, with almost half of those appearances coming over his four seasons with the Mariners. In addition to the Orioles, he also played for the Astros, A's, Devil Rays, Red Sox, and Nationals.

John made his Orioles debut on April 6, 2006, and he spent the final 17 appearances of his time in the Majors with them, over which he had a 3-1 record but a 6.14 ERA before being released on June 16th. He would continue to pitch professionally, mainly in the independent Atlantic League, through the 2012 season before finally retiring at the age of 40.

After his playing career was over, he immediately became the pitching coach for the York Revolution (also in the Atlantic League) for the 2013 season. Since York is right in my area, I figured I would go catch a game and try to get him to personalize a card for me.

I briefly wrote about John way back in 2009 when we was one of my first TTM successes, so I figured that since he signed TTM, that he probably would gladly sign in person at a game, especially since he was a coach in an indy league and likely not bothered often.

I was wrong, he was pretty surly and definitely did not want to sign, even though I caught him as he was first coming out on the field to set up the mound area for that day's starter. He denied me on the way out and tried to walk past me before the game started but I called out to him and he came over. It kind of makes the "best wishes" inscription mean a little less to me, but at least he did sign. So thanks for that John!