"To Ryan"

As some of you already know, I prefer my Orioles autographs personalized to me whenever it's possible. Getting autographs can be tough enough and adding the extra personalization request can further complicate things at times. But it lets the players know that I have no intent of flipping the autographs I receive and I really like how it makes the autographs unique to my collection.

Over the years, I've added personalized autographs to my collection in a few different ways.

The two most common have been:

Public Signings/Appearances- especially when there is a small number of attendees and/or you can pay a little extra for personalization. Some of these autographs are probably 15 years old at this point.

 

Every Orioles fan has an Al Bumbry autograph if they really want one. Dude is always around town.

 

I was a Pirates fan when I was younger. Drabek later played for the O's, so this card has stuck around.

 

 I have an abnormally large amount of Rick Krivda autographs, even for me. 

I remember something about a private signings with very few attendees, many years back.

 

Dave is another guy who lives in the Baltimore area and has appeared around the vicinity for many years.

To the best of my recollection, Tackett is one of very few Orioles to have appeared during his playing days at the mall "card show" in my relatively small hometown of Carlisle, PA. Demand was pretty low for him too.

Sheets is yet another omnipresent former Oriole.

Singleton might have also made the trek to Carlisle, but I can't say for sure.

 

I got this one done through a signing on Sportscollectors.net. 

Probably the method that is responsible for the most personalized autographs in my collection is TTM requests. Players who sign autographs through the mail generally are happy to personalize as well..

 

I was really happy to come across this oddball Orioles issue of Pete Smith, even happier to see 

that he signs TTM, and happier still when he returned this to me after over 250 days.

Dave charges to sign TTM, but at least he signs.

Kelly was even nice enough to add "Best Wishes"

At just under a year, this one took a long time to get back, but I'm always happy to get those envelopes!

The third most effective way to add personalized autographs is in-person, which is easiest when the players are in the minor leagues. 

 

As is the case with former Oriole and current AA Bowie Baysox member, Armando Gabino.

 

Devo is currently a coach with the hi-A Frederick Keys; he was nice enough to personalize earlier this year.

You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

On Tuesday, the Orioles announced that righty reliever Jim Hoey was added to their 40 man roster, presumably to protect him from the Rule V draft. Jim pitched for the O's in parts of the 2006-07 seasons and has been fighting his way through various injuries since then. I would certainly expect that there will be more additions and subtractions to the O's 40 man over the coming weeks and my guess is that Matt Albers, Armando Gabino, Chorye Spoone, Pedro Viola, Pedro Florimon and Rhyne Hughes are the most likely to be removed, but time will tell. 

The O's also allowed a number of players to become Minor League free agents, including...

 Mike Hinckley

 Chris George

 Joel Guzman

 Scott Moore

and Dennis Sarfate.

Hinckley, George, and Guzman were all signed as Minor League free agents before the 2010 season and never made it to Baltimore.  

Moore and Sarfate both played for the Orioles at times over the past three seasons.  

None of these moves surprised me besides letting Sarfate go. The O's have a pretty deep bullpen and he didn't crack the 2010 Major League roster but he saved 20 games and had a 2.73 ERA for the AAA Tides. 

Orioles Autograph Year in Review- The Small Sample Good Signers

Rolling on with my review of the O's signing habits, today I'm covering the players who seemed to sign pretty frequently at the games I attended, but they weren't with the team long enough for me to decide whether they always signed a lot, or I just got lucky. 

 

Rhyne played in 14 games with the Orioles from late April through mid-May and spent the rest of the season with AAA Norfolk. He was only with the O's for a handful of games, but I saw him signing at both games I attended during his time in the Bigs. I dropped the ball and didn't have anything for him to sign those times, but I did get his autograph in Spring Training and was able to trade for this O's postcard recently. His first Orioles card was included in the just released 2010 Topps Update set, so I now need to get that signed for the collection.

Armando started the season in AA with the Baysox, was promoted to AAA Norfolk after about a week in Bowie, and eventually worked his way up to Baltimore towards the end of the season to become Oriole #883. I got his autograph in Spring Training, Bowie, and again in Baltimore, so I really consider him to be a good signer, but with only 5 games as an Oriole under his belt, he's here in the small sample category. 

 

Oriole #885 Brandon Snyder is someone whose autographs I've been able to steadily add to my collection over the past three seasons during his time in Frederick, Bowie, and now Baltimore. B-Snyde appeared in 10 games with the O's after getting called up in September and I recall seeing him sign at least twice over his time in Birdland. I'm at the point where I don't have many unsigned cards of his so, assuming he's back in Baltimore next year, I would guess he will be listed in the good or best signer category. 

 

Rick, Oriole #884 for those of you keeping track, was a fairly valuable swing-man for the O's after being acqured from the Marlins for Will Ohman at the trade deadline. He was a regular Sunday signer and seems like a decent guy to boot, so I'm rooting for him to make the team next season. 

Sunday Pictures

A couple of days ago in my post about Rick Vanden Hurk's Oriole debut, I posted some pictures I had taken while getting autographs on Sunday.  Well here are a few more...

Mark Hendrickson was the first player out on the field and the first guy signing autographs

This is a pretty cool shot of Guthrie warming up with bullpen catcher Ronnie Deck.   Gut avoided all the autograph seekers after his session though...boo!

Mike Gonzalez signed for some fans.  I'm not sure what's going on with the girl's yellow hair in front of me.

Here's Armando Gabino making some sort of slapping/smacking motion while talking to Vanden Hurk and Matt Albers.

And here's Armando signing for the fans

Oriole #883* -Armando Gabino

In last night's 14-8 Orioles victory over the Indians in Cleveland, Armando Gabino made his Orioles debut, coming out of the bullpen to pitch the 9th inning.  He wasn't particularly sharp, giving up a single, a home run, and a walk in his inning.  He threw 20 pitches, only 10 for strikes, but he retired one of this blog's least favorite players, Matt LaPorta, to end the game.  (LaPorta was one of the key Akron Aeros responsible for taking out the Baysox in the '08 Eastern League playoffs.  The Indians organization also conveniently rehabbed Travis Hafner in AA during those playoffs.  BOO Indians!) 

Last night wasn't Armando's MLB debut as he pitched in two games for the Twins late last season.  Unfortunately, the results were about the same and his ERA sits at 17.36 after 3 big league appearances. 

I've written about Armando a few times and was able to get his autograph at both a Spring Training and a Baysox game this season, so I'm able to add him to my have list as well as my overall Orioles player list.  I had a good experience with him at a Baysox game this April, if you missed that post, just click the link if you want to check it out.  Armando was a great guy both times that I got his signature, so I'm really hoping that he can pitch better the next time he takes the bump for the Birds. 

It's always fun to see when a player who signs his number on cards appears on different teams and signs the corresponding number he wore on that team.  Armando wore 61 in Spring Training and 83 as a member of the Baysox.  He is currently wearing 41 with the O's, so I would like to get a card signed by him now with a 41 on it!

* Thanks to eagle-eyed blog reader, Orioles collector and trade partner Russell, I figured out that Armando is actually the 883rd player to appear as an Oriole, as opposed to the 884th that I listed yesterday

Baysox Autographs

Here are just a few of the Baysox autographs that I was able to get at last Saturday's game.


I now have a few autographs from Zach, but this is my first on an "Orioles" card and he's even wearing the orange uniform as an added bonus. He is the Orioles #3 prospect this year according to Baseball America and should have a bright future.


On Monday, I wrote about the the cool experiences I've had with Armando in Spring Training and again in Bowie. Well, as of yesterday, he has moved up to the Tides, so I wont see him again anytime soon. He was moved up to fill Kam Mickolio's spot, which was vacated when Kam was called up to the Orioles to fill Gonzo's roster spot. So thanks a lot, Cobra; get your mind right soon so that I can give Armando his 2010 UD card sometime soon! This is the Finest card that Armando hadn't seen and I had two, so I gave the other to him.


The card on the left is the other one that I referenced in the post linked above. It's from a pretty rare set that was produced for the 07 Hawaii Winter League Sharks team. Phillip hadn't seen the card for a while and was very animated when he talked to me about it. Interestingly, he said that he wouldn't have liked it much in that league if it hadn't been in Hawaii. And to tease a future post, you will be seeing more cards from that set soon.

A Good Autograph Weekend and the Return of the Orioles Alumni Autograph Series

I had a pretty good autograph weekend; I would actually call it great if the freaking O's had managed to win a game. I haven't had a chance to get anything scanned yet but I spent time getting autographs at both the Baysox-Flying Squirrels game on Saturday and the O's-Blue Jays game yesterday.

At Saturday's Bowie Baysox game, I got a total of 14 Baysox players to sign 17 cards for me, and I especially enjoyed talking to new backup catcher, Phillip Britton and new reliever Armando Gabino.

I brought a Hawaii Winter League card of Britton that he hadn't seen for a while and he went on and on about it. He seems like a really nice, talkative guy and I'm looking forward to watching him on the Baysox this season.

I had a cool experience with Gabino in Spring Training, when I had a Twins minor league card of his that I don't think that he had seen for a few years. He showed it to a few other players in the dugout in Sarasota and seemed like a nice guy. In Bowie, Armando again seemed like a cool person and was talking to everyone as he went down the line signing. Earlier on Saturday, I had picked up 2 of his 2010 Topps Finest cards to get signed. He mentioned that he hadn't seen the card before, so I offered one of them to him and he was very appreciative of it. In retrospect, I probably could have asked for a ball or something, but I'm glad that he liked the card. I saw him pull it out of his pocket and look at it at least twice once he went to the bullpen area. And I now have a favorite member of the 2010 Baysox, you're the man Armando!

Luckily, the Baysox are one of my team's that know how to win, and they pulled out a back and forth game with an 8th inning three run homer from Joel Guzman, who seems like he will be a tough signer, and a rocky yet successful save from a favorite of this blog, Wilfrido Perez.


Sunday's continue to be the best time to get autographs of the members of the Orioles bullpen and I got 10 different autographs from members of the 25 man roster. I got my first autograph of Will Ohman, my first Orioles cards signed of Cla Meredith, Mike Gonzalez, and Brian Matusz and was also able to get my first in-person Miguel Tejada autograph. Pretty exciting stuff and I will be posting the scans and pictures over the next week or so.


Tonight also marks the return of the Orioles Alumni Autograph Series to Camden Yards. If you don't know or don't remember, former O's will be signing autographs at the MASN tent on Eutaw Street before every Monday and Thursday home game. JACKPOT! I just hope they are able to bring in some different players than last year, but I won't complain about getting some guaranteed autographs any day! No list of signers have been posted yet, but I hope to get an idea of who is signing sometime soon.

Spring Training Successes- Non Roster Invitee Autographs

Some of you particularly astute Orioles fans might note that a few of the autographs that I showcased yesterday are also non-roster invitees in the O's camp. But the difference between them and these guys is that I don't have Orioles cards of anyone in this post. Some of them have been featured in various Orioles Minor League releases but none of them yet have an Orioles card, outside of possibly Jake Arrieta.


And speaking of Jake, here is the card he signed. Kalina also got a card signed by him and he was definitely the first player she noticed shagging fly balls at the first game we went to. That's weird, since it's not like he is her favorite prospect or anything (he unequivocally is).


Armando Gabino was, by far, the most excited I have ever seen a player to see a card of his. I asked if he would sign and tossed this card to him, which he excitedly showed off to Alberto Castillo and Frank Mata. He was speaking in Spanish but seemed to be saying something like "See I told you that I actually have a baseball card!".
When the Orioles selected Gabino off of waivers from the Twins in the offseason, I searched online and found literally 2 cards of his for sale anywhere. They were both Twins Minor League cards and this one looked like it would look better signed. I know that he now has a card in the 2010 UD set, but I wasn't able to get it before my trip.


I don't know much about Chris, but I know that the combination of this card, his uni in the shot, and his autograph look pretty good together.


Caleb is now my mom's favorite player. In full disclosure, I'm not positive that she has had a favorite to replace, at least since Cal was around, but she was standing next to me when Caleb signed this card and he said something about it being the first card he had signed at Spring Training. She liked that, and thinks that he seems like a nice guy. I agree, Caleb seems pretty cool.


Frank is another player that I know little about, other than that he clearly spent time in the Twins organization. I guess it really doesn't Mata what I know about him. And you know I just had to go there, it was way too easy.


I saw Josh pitch at Bowie last season, and I believe he spent part of the season as the Baysox' closer. His last name is pronounced Per-oh, as opposed to how it looks, Per-alt.


Tuck is one of my favorite Minor Leaguers. He has always been a great signer, he hustles on every play, and I have seen him make a few outstanding catches. He also plays multiple positions, which is backed up by the card listing his position as INF/OF, and has spent most of his time in LF and at 3B. Scrappy is also a pretty small guy for a baseball player and is listed at 5'8'' which either means the he is actually 5'7'' or that he's one of the few honest players about his height. Either way, he is having a good Spring Training and I know that he has caught Trembley's eye once or twice.


On my trip to Norfolk last year, I incorrectly thought that Ross was Bob McCrory. While they do look a little bit alike, I'm normally good with faces, so I felt bad when I handed Ross the wrong card. I finally made up for it this spring when I boldly called out his name and he came over to sign. Again in full disclosure, McCrory is no longer with the O's so that boosted my confidence level.