Baltimore All-Stars

Way back in 1959, Jerry Walker & Billy O'Dell were two of the five Oriole representatives in the All-Star game; Hoyt Wilhelm, Gus Triandos, and Gene Woodling also made the squad. Ah, to have 5 All-Stars...it must be nice.


Jerry still holds the record for being the youngest All-Star game starter in history; he was only 20 when he took the hill for American League squad. Jerry outdueled Don Drysdale over three innings and earned the win. That's pretty impressive stuff right there.



Billy was appearing in his second consecutive (and final) All-Star Game in '59. He earned a hold for pitching an inning of relief, and preserving Walker's win.

The NL lineup that Walker & O'Dell shut down was pretty menacing and featured future Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, Stan Musial and Frank Robinson.

Somehow, I doubt that Ty Wigginton will have the opportunity to dominate tonight's ASG like Walker and O'Dell did in '59, but we can hope that he has the chance to jack a pitch out of the park. Or at least can avoid embarrassing Baltimore. Make us proud Ty!

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Gordie Sundin 1956

Here is my Gordie Sundin autographed card.

What? You don't think it's a signed card?

Well it sure is, just not on the front.

I have seen a few players do this with these Crown Cards since most of the light areas on the card faces are concentrated on the faces and some players don't seem to like signing on their face. But then again, some others don't seem to mind signing all over the facial region.

Gordie's Major League career lasted all of one very brief and unsuccessful appearance when he was only 18 years old. With the O's trailing 8-1, he entered the 8th inning of the game on September 19, 1956 in a mop up role but it seems that he forgot his mop back in the bullpen. He walked two batters and did not record an out before being pulled from the game. Billy O'Dell came in after Gordie and allowed one of those walked batters to score. Gordie never made it back into another Major League game, so his career stat line is left with an ERA and WHIP of infinity.

Kevin at the awesome Orioles Card "O" The Day blog did a post on him last fall and reports that Gordie married a member of the 1956 US Figure Skating after his baseball career, so at least that's something good!