My Strange Journey with Don Welchel

Out of all of the autographs in my collection to this point, my experiences with Don Welchel have probably been the most interesting. For a long time, both my dad and I needed Don's autographs for our collection; my dad for his 1983 Orioles World Series team project and me for my overall collection.

I then traded a fellow Orioles collector for this Crown card, which was a start but personalized to Steve, so I sent a TTM request to Don, even though he had a low signing percentage on SportsCollectors.Net.

My dad then found this postcard on ebay, so he gladly picked it up to add to his collection. But he was still hoping for a 1983/84 Rochester Red Wings signed card, so he sent off a TTM request every 4 months or so over the course of a year.

At this point, we both had Welchel autograph's in our collections, but also were hoping to get our TTM requests back even though Don was about a 25% signer. He wasn't getting many requests since he only pitched in 13 games for the Orioles over the '82 & '83 seasons, but along with a few other collectors on SCN, we waited and hoped.

Then one day, I got one of my TTM envelopes back in the mail from Texas. Who could it be? You guessed it, Don Welchel!

He even personalized it as I had asked him to do. BUT there was a problem. I had put the card in a protective sleeve (a habit I have since quit). You see that line through the s & t in best? Yes, Don had signed half on my sleeve and half on my card.

AAAAHHH! At first I was fairly pissed, but in the end, it makes for a good story and I have a personalized Welchel card in my collection. It's not perfect but like I said, it might be the most interesting story behind any card in my collection.

But my dad still hadn't got any of his 3 requests back. He had to wait 2 days after I got mine, but then he received 3 SASE envelopes in the mail, and had a pretty good idea of what they were.
He got his Rochester Red Wings Welchel cards back! He gave me the two extra cards to trade and kept the other for his collection.

So we went from 0 Welchel autographs to 6 in a short amount of time. It was a pretty entertaining journey and I'm glad that I now can move on to the next "Don Welchel".

Thanks for signing our cards Don, it was very nice of you. One of the other collectors on SCN got his card back after a 1199 day wait! That's like 5 postage rate increases ago. Thank goodness for Forever Stamps.

The Elusive Don Welchel

Don Welchel 1982-83

I received this card in a trade from fellow Orioles collector, Tim, and I was very pleased to add Don to my collection. I know the card is personalized to Steve, and I'm no Steve, but Welchel is such a tough autograph to track down that I don't even care. My dad has been searching for a Welchel auto on one of his cards from between '82-'84 for much longer than I, and he hasn't had any luck so far. It's like his autographs almost don't exist. He is a good example of a player who had a short time with the Orioles but is now a tough signature to track down. I've never seen an autograph of his on eBay and Tim had the only autograph for trade on SCN. He doesn't seem to sign TTM any more either. If anyone out there has an extra autograph of Don, please let me know so I can try to help my dad out. Thanks!

Don was drafted by the Orioles in 1978 and steadily rose through the Minor League system until he made his Major League debut on September 15, 1982 against the Yankees; picking up his first, and only, big league win. He ended up appearing in relief in 13 games over the '82-'83 seasons. Although he continued to pitch until the 1988 season, Don did not make it back to the Bigs after 1983. His Orioles stat line is a 1-2 W-L record with a 5.88 ERA in 31 innings. He only gave up one HR and also finished three games, so he had a decent run.