I'm Back? Spring Training & Travis Snider

Oh, hi there, fellow Orioles autograph collectors. Wow, where did the time go? I have no idea where the past four months went, but I certainly did not plan to go without posting for so long. 

Obviously, I'm not nearly as active with this blog as I used to be, thanks in large part to my amazing, now six-month old little boy. He is my world now, and my autograph collection has taken a much deserved backseat. But I don't intend to let my collection, or this site, completely fall by the wayside. Especially with the baseball season rapidly approaching, I hope to at the very least cover the new Orioles debuts, with additional posts on other past Orioles from time to time. 

While I was not able to make my (typically) annual trip to Spring Training, my parents spent an entire month in Sarasota, and my dad had some amazing autograph successes with the team. I believe that he got an autograph of nearly every player in the Orioles camp, besides Darren O'Day, who sounds like he was being a real piece of work. He's never been an easy autograph to get, but sounds like he stepped up his ignoring-the-fans shtick. 

Not only did my dad spend a good chunk of his trip watching the Orioles practices and games, but he even used some of his free time to continue to produce his Old Man Cards of players new to the Orioles organization. While I know he had a great time making the cards and getting the autographs, at the end of the day he gave them all to me to add to the collection. He's a really great guy, and while I know that he had fun with the whole thing, it's really nice that he used his vacation time to help out me and my collection. Thanks old man!

I will be showing off his autographs over the next few weeks leading up to Opening Day, with a focus on the new players who will likely break camp with the Orioles. 

Starting out today is one of the last players that my dad got to sign for him on the trip, Travis Snider. It sounds like my dad only saw Travis sign one time and that was these three cards for him. 

I would say that Travis is likely the best "lock" to make the Orioles Opening Day roster out of all the new players in camp. Wesley Wright is likely 1b in this category, and Everth Cabrera is pretty likely to be in Baltimore as well, but Travis is the one I'm most confident will break camp with the O's. 

This card is heading for my collection as soon as Travis appears in a game. Personalized, inscribed, awesomeness. 

It sounds like Travis was so impressed by my dad's efforts with the OMCs that he took the time to sign all three at once. So these two are available for trade if anyone is interested. My scanner decided to cut the borders off the card above, as well as many of the others I scanned (super), but what can you do?

Thanks again to my dad for all the time and effort he spent making the cards and getting the autographs, but knowing him, he had a blast with all of it. And I'm sure the combination of the Florida weather and the Orioles were a pretty perfect combination for him!