Doubting the Existence of a few Orioles Crown Autographs

Orioles autograph collectors are lucky that the Crown Gasoline card set was issued in 1991 to commemorate the final season that the team played in Memorial Stadium. The set included every single player who appeared in even a single game for the team from their introduction in Baltimore in 1954 through the early '91 season. In many cases, the Crown card is the only baseball card made of those players, and certainly the only Orioles card that exists for quite a few others.

The set can also be a bit of a curse to someone like me, who would be happy to have any autograph of many of these players if not for the Crown set picturing them as Orioles. As I can attest, it is much easier to find any random signature of a player as opposed to trying to find a specific card that is signed. Which leads me to this post.

As I said, the Crown set came out in 1991, so any player that passed away before that time and is included in the set obviously never signed their card; 32 former Orioles players died before the set came out so there are no signed Crowns of those guys. Another five died during 1991, and as the set was available for sale in four parts (May 18, June 29, August 11, & September 16) most of those five passed away before they feasibly could've signed their Crown cards.

Finally getting to the main point of this post, the list of Orioles autographs I have been chasing after is at a scant 15 players I have been trying to track down upgrades for; and of those 15, 8 are only pictured as Orioles on their crown cards, John Anderson, Stan Jefferson, Ed Lopat, Chuck Oertel, Carl Powis, Joe Taylor, Valmy Thomas, and Marv Throneberry. Of that group, Stan Jefferson is still alive, so I can hold out hope that one day he will sign his Crown card, or I will come across a signed copy. Of the others, I have seen signed copies of Taylor's Crown, and have been told of other collectors who have Lopat & Thomas in their collections.

Which leaves us with John Anderson, Chuck Oertel, Carl Powis, & Marv Throneberry. I recently came across the story of an older gentleman who has collected autographs of this set since it came out in 1991. And he doesn't have any of those four signed Crowns, among a few others. Which leads me to believe that those signed Crowns might simply not exist. And if that's the case, I'm going to remove them from my need list. 

If anyone out there owns, or has ever seen a signed Crown card of any of those four, please let me know, because I am at the point where I am seriously doubting their existence. Anderson and Powis largely fell off the map after their playing careers ended, and their autographs seem to be extremely limited. I don't know much about Oertel's post playing career, but his autographs are also quite limited. Throneberry was a Miller Lite spokesman after his career, but passed away in 1994 after battling cancer, so it's possible that he was too ill to sign once the set came out. 

Again, if anyone knows if these signed cards do in fact exist, please let me know. Because after almost a decade of trying to track them down, I think they might just not be out there.

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Eddie Lopat

Ed pitched in the Majors from 1944-55, and is best remembered for being a member of the Yankees starting rotation that won five consecutive World Series from 1949-53. He earned the nicknames "Steady Eddie" and "The Junkman" during his career, but now-a-days, the "Steady Eddie" moniker has been usurped by another former Oriole.

Eddie earned his keep by being a junkballer; he could never throw the ball particularly fast but kept the hitters guessing. I found this Casey Stengel quote about him particularly amusing: "Lopat looks like he is throwing wads of tissue paper." I guess that gives you a decent idea about how hard he must have been to hit against.

Ed spent the latter half of the 1955 season, the last of his career, with the Orioles and was 3-4 with a 4.22 ERA over ten games with the Birds. Over his 12 season career, Lopat had a 166-112 record with a 3.21 ERA. He led the A.L. with a 2.42 ERA in 1953, made the 1951 All-Star team, and received MVP votes four times. After his playing career, he was a pitching coach for the Yankees, Twins and KC A's, and managed the A's during the 1962-63 seasons. 

My autograph of The Junkman obviously depicts him as the A's manager. Any of his signed Yankees cards are significantly more expensive since they are what Yankee collectors want for their collections. But it works for me since I don't want any stupid Yankees cards in my collection anyway, if it's avoidable of course. 

For me Orioles Autographs > Other teams autographs > Yankees/Red Sox autographs > No Autograph

Eddie's only Orioles card was his inclusion in the Orioles Crown set. The set was released over the course of the 1991 season, and Eddie passed away in June of 1992, so there wasn't much time between it's release and his passing for him to have signed any of these cards. I certainly have never seen one, but I'm holding out hope that there might be one (or more) out there. 

RIP Ed.

Some Great Trades

I was able to make two trades prior to my vacation but am behind on posting and had to combat some internet issues at my house over the weekend. Well, combat might be the wrong word; I had no internet connection over the long weekend for some reason so that equaled no new posts. I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend!

The first trade I was able to make netted me a Bob Chakales signed Orioles Crown card and an unsigned John Miller card from Russell, who I met through the Yahoo Autograph group I have mentioned a few times.

Bob Chakales (1954)

Bob "the Golden Greek" Chakales pitched for the O's during the 1954 season, amassing a 3-7 record with a 3.73 ERA while he was 37 years old. OK, that's a lie, he was 26 during the '54 season, but wouldn't that have been a funny coincidence? This is the only card that shows Bob in an Orioles uniform.


The following autographs came to me in a trade from Marck AKA Collective Troll who runs the well written Collective Troll blog, dealing, at least partially, with the Tampa Bay Rays. He also sent me a large box of unsigned Orioles cards in exchange for a number of 08 Topps Heritage cards he needed to help fill out his master set. Marck is a great writer and has had some very interesting experiences in regards to the Orioles. He is also very generous with his trades so I think you should check out this blog.

Ed Lopat 1955 (d. 1992)

Ed "Steady Eddie/The Junk Man" Lopat won 5 World Series with the dynastic Yankees in the late 40's and early 50's. He received MVP votes 4 different times, made one All-Star team and also led the AL in W/L % and ERA in 1953 going 16-4 with a 2.42. He finished his career with the Orioles, pitching the latter half of the '55 season for the Birds.

Curt Blefary 1965-68 (d. 2001)

Curt "Clank' Blefary played LF, RF, 1B and C for the Orioles and was not very effective at any of those defensive positions thus earning his nickname from Frank Robinson. He was the 1965 AL Rookie of the Year due to his bat, when he hit .260 with 22 HR and 70 RBI. Curt was on the '66 World-Series champion Orioles club and also caught a no-hitter thrown by Tom Phoebus during the '68 season. Curt died in 2001 at the young age of 57 and his last wish was to have his ashes scattered at Memorial Stadium. Unfortunately the stadium was mostly demolished by then but The Babe Ruth Museum was kind enough to supply home plate from the last game played there for the ceremony.

I've been weighing how to classify this signature. Since it's an incomplete auto, should I keep Curt listed under my needed list? I certainly would like an on-card auto or complete signature but am happy with what I have, especially since Curt has passed away.

Thanks again Marck & Russell, you guys are great.