Remembering Earl

I know that I'm very late on this post, and that Earl passed away nearly five days ago, but I feel like I needed to write something about the passing of the greatest manager in Orioles' history. I guess late is better than never, especially since I'm in the middle of moving, and my time seems to be exceptionally limited in recent weeks. But Earl certainly deserves it. 

While I'm too young to have any in-person memories of watching Earl manage, I've seen the same videos and heard the same stories that many of you are likely familiar with, so I'm not going to rehash them here. But he was obviously quite a character and holds a very special place in Baltimore and with the Orioles.

I was lucky enough to have met Earl at least two times over the years. I got the '82 Donruss card signed at one of his paid appearances years back with my dad. And then I got this picture with him at another one of his Baltimore-area card show appearances a few years ago. From what I recall, I made a last-minute decision to attend the more recent card show, or I likely would have purchased an autograph ticket to have had Earl sign, and hopefully personalize, something for me, but I blew that opportunity, and won't have another shot at it. But he was still nice enough to pose for a picture with me.

I wish that I had a funny story to pass along about Earl, but since both of the times I had the chance to cross paths with him were at card show signings, our interactions were extremely brief, and chiefly consisted of pleasantries.

RIP to the "Earl of Baltimore". I'm extremely glad that you were still around to see your statue unveiled at Camden Yards last summer. Thanks for all of the memories, and the success that you brought to the Orioles franchise.

Orioles' Managers

My Orioles' managers & coaches autograph collection frequently takes a back seat to my Orioles' players autograph collection, and for good reason, as I put a lot more time and effort into the players collection. But I recently added a few new autographs of some past Orioles Managers and I now have a signature from all of them, so I figured I would do a quick rundown post to mention each of the 19 men who have skippered the O's since 1954. Here we go...

Jimmie Dykes (1954)

Paul Richards (1955-61)

Lum Harris (1961)

Billy Hitchcock (1962-63)

Hank Bauer (1964-68)

Earl Weaver (1968-82, 85-86)

Joe Altobelli (1983-85)

Cal Ripken Sr. (1987-88)

Frank Robinson (1988-91)

Johnny Oates (1991-94)

Phil Regan (1995)

Davey Johnson (1996-97)

Ray Miller (1998-99)

Mike Hargrove (2000-03)

Lee Mazzilli (2004-05)

Sam Perlozzo (2005-07)

 Dave Trembley (2007-10)

 Juan Samuel (2010)

Buck Showalter (2010-current)

Orioles Bobblehead/Figure of the Week- Oriole Weaver

Last Saturday, the Orioles unveiled the second "Orioles Legends Celebration Series" statue in the center-field flag court at Camden Yards. This time around it was Earl Weaver, the Earl of Baltimore, who was honored with a sculpture. 

Once again the team gave away replica statues to all fans in attendance. I didn't get a chance to snap a picture of the full size statue, but here are some shots of my figure. 

I like the pose, but thought the design might feature one of his classic hat backwards arguments with an umpire looks. 

Here are a few more views of the statue, including images of the box.  

Well done O's!

Orioles Bobblehead(s) of the Week- Earl Weaver & Jim Palmer

Here is my Earl Weaver/Jim Palmer dual Orioles bobblehead that was given away on July 19th, 2004. I love this bobblehead since it features two Hall of Famers and they both look reasonably like themselves, outside of the lack in height differential at least. 

I'm sure that other teams have done dual bobbles but this is certainly the only one the O's have produced.

I don't remember if this bobble was given away in conjunction with anything, and as far as I know it's the only SGA bobble the Orioles have produced for either of these HOFers. 

For some reason, my camera phone wasn't cooperating well for the close-ups of their faces, but you get the idea of what they look like.

 Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Contest Winner Announced

The Earl Weaver autograph giveaway celebrating my Orioles Hall of Fame week was an amazing success. It was by far the most popular contest I've held and it led to record site traffic and a huge number of contest entries. 241 to be exact.

How in the world were there that many entries considering that only 46 people were in the contest? Well, on Monday, I wrote this:
If you comment on this post, you get an entry. If you are a follower and comment on this post, you get a second entry. If you have your own blog and spread the word about my contest, you get another entry, just share the link in the comments below. There is also a bonus way to earn entries, but I'm not going to say what it is. (Hint- Participate throughout the week.)

Many of you picked up two or three entries immediately. That was the easy part. But those of you who commented on my posts throughout the week picked up two bonus entries for every comment you left. I was only accepting relevant comments, but everyone stayed on topic, so they all counted. If anyone had commented on any of the older posts that I linked to throughout the week, they would have scored ten bonus entries, but that didn't come into play. I wanted to reward everyone who was leaving comments, because it helps me to know what you all think about my posts.

I know that at least a few of you figured out how to score bonus entries. dawgbones cracked the mystery early on and racked up a ridiculous 35 entries. But unfortunately for him, it wasn't enough.

Without further delay, here's the results of the Earl Weaver autograph contest via Random.org

 

Congratulations to Paul of Paul's Random Baseball Stuff.  He wins the Earl Weaver autograph and a stack of Mets cards. Thank you everyone who entered. I hope that you all enjoyed the contest and Hall of Fame week.

Contest Entries- Final Update

Here's what I have so far, including the number of entries for everyone. If you said you will plug the contest on your blog, but haven't done it yet, I will add your extra entry once you've done it, just copy the link in a comment.


Check it over to make sure it's correct.

BA Benny x11
dawgbones x35
JNP624 x1
The Dimwit x2
Hackenbush x4
randombaseballstuff.com x11
Dustin x13
Matthew x14
TheAngelsInOrder x3
AlbuqwirkE x2
Alvin x2
Mark A. x3
Play at the Plate x3
zman40 x16
Greg Zakwin x21
cubsfan731 x9
Cuby x3
CPD x2
Matt H x2
Nathan x2
TheBrooklynMet x3
night owl x13
dodgerbobble x2
Aaron x4
Carl Crawford Cards x3
IkesCards x2
Derek x2
Eric L x2
Collective Troll x3
Photos and Graphs x2
Fuji x4
William x3
Mariner1 x3
unclemoe x13
AdamE x2
Jonathan @ RGB Cards x2
Drew x2
Matt Pederson x2
pete27
JoesAutographs
Mark x2
Chris Mays x3
Offy x2
Beardy x2
Johngy x2
Baseball Nut x2

If you don't know what any of this is about, check out my post from yesterday.
You can win this card (I scanned mine last night, so this is the actual card you can win), and a bunch of other cards of your favorite team.

Good luck everyone!

Orioles Hall of Fame Week- Earl Weaver & Contest Info

Over the past 22 months, this blog has featured thousands of autographs depicting hundreds of past, present, and possibly future Orioles players. I've mostly scanned autographs as I've obtained them, so you might have seen a bunch of obscure players, some whose careers lasted only a single game. Partially due to laziness, and partially because scanning hundreds of cards takes up a lot of time, many of the autographs that have been in my collection for many years remained in my binders, unscanned and unacknowledged. Well, that's about to change. Two weeks ago, I finally scanned the rest of the cards in my collection. So to celebrate, this week I'm focusing on all of the former Orioles who are in the Hall of Fame.

Embarrassingly, here's the break-down of how poorly I've shared my autographs of the nine modern-day Orioles who are in the Hall of Fame and the number of autographs I've shared on the site. 

Jim Palmer- 3
Hoyt Wilhelm- 2
Luis Aparicio, George Kell- 1 each
Cal Ripken Jr., Eddie Murray, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Earl Weaver- 0 (!)

Pitiful.

 

I've decided to start the week off by showing off my Earl Weaver autographs. The "Earl of Baltimore" is the only modern era Oriole to be elected to the Hall of Fame without ever having played in a Major League game. He managed the Orioles for 17 years, from 1968-82 & 1985-86, winning four AL pennants & the 1970 World Series. His managerial approach focused on pitching, defense and three-run home runs but he is probably best remembered for his explosive arguments with umpires. Footage from some of his blow-ups are still regularly played on baseball blooper shows.

 

I obtained this autograph at a card show signing when I was a kid. Unfortunately, I don't remember meeting or speaking with Earl, but I was probably too young to have had much to say. I certainly didn't know enough to talk baseball strategy back then. 

Many of you probably want to know about the contest I mentioned in the title of the post. Well, it's really easy to enter. If you comment on this post, you get an entry. If you are a follower and comment on this post, you get a second entry. If you have your own blog and spread the word about my contest, you get another entry, just share the link in the comments below. There is also a bonus way to earn entries, but I'm not going to say what it is. (Hint- Participate throughout the week.)

The winner will get this Earl Weaver autograph and a stack of cards from the team of their choice. 

Disclaimer- the picture below is borrowed from ebay, but I have a copy of the card. It's a 2005 Topps Chrome Uncirculated Autograph. Good luck everyone!

My Experience at the National-Brought to You By Drungo Hazewood

Yes, Drungo Hazewood is a real person, I didn't make him up, I'm not nearly creative enough to come up with a name that unique.  That's him on this Orioles Crown card, and while the Crown card is not new to me, the addition of the autograph sure is.  Drungo wasn't signing at the National, but I did meet a dealer who had his autograph for sale. This is the first time I have EVER seen an autograph of his available ANYWHERE, so I had to add him to my collection.  He's regarded as one of the tougher living Orioles to get an autograph of, so I was extremely happy to add him to my collection.  From what I understand, he doesn't understand why anyone would want his autograph, so is just a very tough signature to track down.  This Crown card is his only Orioles card and he also appeared in a few of the AAA Rochester Red Wings team sets.  As the O's first round draft pick in 1977, think how many cards would have been made of him as a first-rounder nowadays. 

Drungo played in only 6 games for the O's during the final month of the 1980 season and had 5 at-bats, going  0-5 with 4 strikeouts and a run scored.  He tore the cover off the ball during spring training in 1980, hitting at a .583 clip and Earl Weaver felt bad that he had to cut a player who was hitting that well, but there just wasn't a roster spot for Drungo at that time.  In the Minor Leagues, he hit a bunch of homers, but also struck out a lot as he had trouble hitting breaking pitches. 

Moving on to my impression of the National, it was flat out amazing, and actually overwhelming at times.  There were hundreds of dealers who were selling almost anything sports related item that you could dream of.  If I had an unlimited budget, I could have purchased some truly one-of-a-kind Orioles memorbilia.  Since that's not the case, I focused on Orioles autographs.  Surprising, right? 

I came across a few dealers who were right up my alley, specifically, the one who had this Drungo card.  I bought a few signed Crown cards from him, and plan on staying in touch with him for other hard to get O's autographs.  There were probably 5-6 other dealers who specialized in non-certified signed cards that I also focused on.  I have a pretty good idea what many former Orioles' autographs look like, so it serves as a decent barometer for what's legit or not.  Luckily, all of the autograph dealers I came across seem like they were selling authentic autographs.  All told, I added 13 autographs and upgraded another 5 to Orioles cards.  I will be posting them all here over the next few weeks.

I'm Back from my Trip, also my 100th Post!

Now that I am back from my week away from computers, blogging, fantasy baseball, and the rest of my normal routine, I am ready to share where I went and what I did. Since I took a lot of pictures and have a lot to talk about, I will split this up into at least 2 posts.

I took a trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, traveled through Niagara Falls (which has nothing to do with baseball so I won't really cover that) and caught the Orioles' series against the Blue Jays in Toronto.

In this post I will share some pictures and thoughts about the HOF. This is my third time visiting it, but my first time in nearly ten years and I definitely appreciated it more this time than I did when I was younger.

This is a shot of part of the exterior of the Hall. As far as I know this was the original wing which has been greatly expanded over the years.

It was also my first chance to see Cal's plaque, which was a major thrill.

I think I did a lame little jump when I spotted it.


Since the Orioles have only been around for 50 years and don't have the history that many of the other baseball teams do, there aren't all that many O's displays in the Hall. Here are a few of the better ones...


This was by far the most extensive collection of Orioles jerseys/memorabilia in the entire Hall. It's nice to have some representation alongside the greatest collection of baseball artifacts in the world.

There was also an Orioles locker (disclaimer: it was shown with lockers from the other 29 teams).


And here are the other Orioles that are in the HOF. I only took pictures of the players that are shown representing the O's.

The Earl of Baltimore

Brooks!

EDDIE

Cakes

and Frank

All-in-all the Hall of Fame is a place that every baseball fan should visit at least once in their life. My pictures don't do it justice, as there are thousands of things to see and check out while you are there. I highly recommend it. The town also has many baseball related memorabilia shops and other baseball themed things to do.