Orioles "Bobblehead" of the Week- Frank Robinson Statue

Prior to the Orioles' game against the A's on Saturday, April 28, the team honored Frank Robinson with a large statue in the centerfield picnic area. It was the first of six statues that will be debuted over the course of the season to honor the six Orioles Hall of Famers who have their numbers retired by the team. The team is calling it the "Orioles Legends Celebration Series" and you can find more information about it by clicking the link. 

To coincide with the full size statues, the team is giving away miniature replica statues. And they are nice. Check out the Frank.

I can't wait to add the other five to my collection. Brooks was to have had the statue unveiling today but it has been pushed to the end of the season due to his recent health issues.

An Overdue Christmas Thank You

I've somehow neglected to display all of the autographs I received for Christmas, so it seems like I better do it now that as it's already been two and a half weeks since the holiday. So here we go... (Don't worry, Paul, I haven't forgotten about you!)

I've already displayed two of the three unpossible autographs that my dad gave to me, but he also gave me a few other autographs.

I have a small-scale collection of signed Hall of Fame plaque cards, and I specifically try to collect the players and/or executives that have any connection to the Orioles. I don't have them all yet, but I have a majority of the HOFers who have ties to Baltimore.

The only player enshrined as an Oriole who was missing from my collection was Frank Robinson. You might remember that he's not my favorite person, but he was a great player who had some of his greatest years with the Orioles. My dad knew I was still trying to add this plaque card to my collection; it's pretty impressive how he can keep up with my need lists!

He also gave me a few assorted Orioles autographs to add to my collection or trade for something else I need. He knows that it's pretty hard to find any Orioles autographs that I still need. (Bert Hamric anyone?)

There are a very few collectors/bloggers who I have exchanged Christmas cards with over the past few years. Fellow Orioles autograph collector, Pol, is one of those people. This year, I sent him a card with no autographs or cards in it. Big mistake! Because in my card, I found these three signatures. 

The highlight of the three was definitely this Bob Feller signed HOF plaque card. I had a similar one of these but this one seems to be a different version or issue of the plaque card, so it's staying in the collection.

 He also included a cool Jack Fisher signed black and white photo/postcard deal. 

AND an autograph of Tommy John, who I mostly know for having the arm surgery named after him. But it turns that he pitched in the Majors for 26 seasons for six different teams. It certainly seems like the surgery worked for him!

Thank you so much Dad and Pol, I really appreciate the awesome additions to my collection! Merry belated Christmas!

Thanks Kirk!

I recently completed a trade with Kirk, a fellow Orioles autograph collector who is behind Eutaw Street Cardboard. Here is my haul...

Not the most exciting autographed card ever of Robbie, but definitely an upgrade over my logos-removed Nabisco autographed card from the early '90s.

This card, with it's imperfect autograph, and rather boring posed shot, is almost perfect for my collection based on my feelings about Frank. You can click on my link above to find out how I feel. And if you clink the link to Kirk's site at the top, you can check out his side of the trade.

Orioles Hall of Fame Week- Frank Robinson

Frank Robinson might be the best all-around player to ever wear the Orioles uniform, but to me, he will always be the jerk who refused to sign a sheet of paper for me at a Minor League baseball game when I was about 8 years old. I'm not a big fan of the man nor of the autographed card of his that's currently in my collection.

It's a certified autograph and all, but it's not an Orioles card per se, so I would like to upgrade it one day. I just have a hard time justifying paying a lot of money for the autograph of a player I don't care for.

Now here's my story. I know that some of you might feel like I should get over the snub and appreciate how great Frank was during his six seasons in Baltimore. Honestly, Frank's playing career was finished six years before I was even born, so while I appreciate and enjoy the World Series Championships that he helped to bring to Baltimore in 1966 & 1970, my only personal experience with him was decidedly negative.

I was at a AA Harrisburg Senators game with my dad sometime during the summer of 1991. There were normally scouts at the games, but the O's must have been off that day, because we spotted their current manager at the game. It was none other than Frank Robinson!

I didn't really do the autograph thing way back then, I was generally too shy, but this was a Hall of Famer. Now I don't remember their being too many more than 500 people at the game because it was really hot and we seemed to be the only two who knew Frank was sitting in the stands. He was wearing a large sun bonnet-sombrero type hat to try to hide his face a bit, but we spotted him anyway. The only thing I had to get signed was the autograph page in the Senators' program but luckily the souvenir stand sold sharpies. I waited until between innings and walked over to Frank and quietly asked if he would sign my paper. "No". And that was that. The other guys he was sitting with, including the O's GM at the time, Roland Hemond, kindly signed my paper, but it was no consolation. Frank had refused my request and I dejectedly went back to my seat and told my dad that he refused to sign. I think my dad considered asking Frank to step outside to teach him some etiquette and/or manners. Now my dad isn't the violent type, so you know he had to be pissed.

About twenty years later, that is still what I think of when I think about Frank, and I probably always will. He's one of my least favorite Orioles because of that and maybe I'd feel different if I was around for his playing days, but I wasn't. As Night Owl commented in my post about Brooks Robinson, his brother had a negative experience with Brooks and it's stuck with him over the years. While that seems to have been uncommon considering Brooksie's typically pleasant demeanor, Frank has a reputation as a curmudgeon. And I'm here to tell you it's true, at least in my experience with him.

If you want to read about Frank's career you can go here or here. Apparently he was pretty good.

 

Don't forget to enter my contest. Tomorrow is your last chance to win a certified autograph of Earl Weaver.

HOF TTM Success: Robin Roberts

Robin Roberts 1962-65 (HOF 1976)

I recently realized that my site is severely lacking in regards to some of the most famous former Orioles. Very little action on Cal, Eddie, Brooks, Frank etc. But the problem is that I don't have any of their autographs scanned as of today. So today, I share with you my Robin Roberts autograph. Robin is nice enough to sign TTM for a small fee ($10 for cards, not sure the cost for other items) and he signed my card this past fall and also included a nice signed HOF Induction card as well.

Robin had an amazing career; his achievements and accomplishments are numerous and impressive. I'm going to share some of them with you, but can't come close to including everything. Most of his greatest accomplishments came during his time with the Phillies from 1948-61. He was inducted to the HOF in 1976 and received 86.86% of the vote.

Robin went to 7 consecutive All-Star games from 1950-56 and also received MVP votes in all of those seasons. He led the NL in wins 4 times, games started 6 times, complete games & innings pitched 5 times, strikeouts 2 times, and shutouts once. With all of those games and innings pitched he also led his league in some not so good categories such as hits & HR allowed 5 times, earned runs 3 times and losses 2 times. With the good comes the bad I suppose but his positives far outweighed the negatives.

During his three and a half seasons with the Orioles, he was 42-36 with a 3.09 ERA in 113 games (109 starts).

His career record is 286-245 with a 3.41 ERA in 676 games totaling 4688 innings pitched.


Here are some random, interesting facts about him that I found:

-He allowed 505 HRs, the most in MLB history

-The Phillies retired his #36 in 1962, while he was still an active player, it was the Phils' first retired number, and the first time an active player had his number retired since the Yankees did it with Babe Ruth

-He coached the USF Bulls baseball team from 1977-85 and led them to their first NCAA tournament appearance

-July 21 is Robin Roberts Day in Vermont- an honor he received since he played there in the Minor Leagues in the 1940s

-Has the 27th most Wins in baseball history

-Has written two books about his baseball experiences

-His hometown of Springfield, IL named their baseball stadium after him





Matt, an eagle-eyed reader of this site, brought up that Robin was not listed either on my have or need lists. I obviously have his autograph but have to thank Matt for helping me to keep my lists as updated as possible. Anytime you see something that needs fixed, please let me know. I seem to have a hard time keeping up with what I have!

Rolling on with the TTMs

I spent last night at Orioles Park with Zach who runs the awesome Autographed Cards blog. He was in town visiting a friend and we decided to meet up at the ballpark. We got O's Alumni autos and then worked both the Rays and the Orioles dugouts before the game. It was a good time and was cool to meet a fellow blogger. Thanks for the Orioles cards too Zach!


Now on to my TTMs: interestingly enough, I traded for Knowles & Mirabella earlier this year but neither were on O's cards but I was able to remedy that since they both sign TTM.

Ernie Johnson 1959

Ernie pitched his final MLB season for the Orioles in 1959, going 4-1 with a 4.11 ERA. He appeared in 31 games, 30 of those in relief.

He was a member of the 1957 Milwaukee Braves World Series championship team and spent the majority of his 9 seasons in the Bigs with the Braves franchise; the '59 O's were the only other team he played for. He served 3 years in the USMC and fought for the US in Okinawa during WWII before he started his baseball career.

Ernie is probably best known for his post-playing broadcast career. He was the Braves' play-by-play broadcaster for TV & radio from 1962-1999 and was inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame in 2001. Here is a cool site about him.

You might have also heard of his son, Ernie Johnson Jr., who is famous for covering basketball on TNT along with Charles Barkley & Kenny Smith.

Darold Knowles 1965

Darold Knowles started his long relief pitching career with the O's in 1965 but he only appeared in 5 games for the Orioles before he was traded with Jackie Brandt to the Phillies for Jack Baldschun on 12/6/1965. That trade was a precursor to the trade that brought Frank Robinson to the Orioles which occurred on 12/9/65 and sent Baldschun, Milt Pappas and Dick Simpson to the Reds for Frank. Now that was a franchise-changer, and was somewhat started by Mr. Knowles.

Darold had a very successful career in his own right; he saved 143 games over 16 MLB seasons for 7 different teams*, and has a career ERA of 3.12. He made the 1969 All-Star team, won a World Series with the 1973 Oakland A's (appearing in all 7 games) and averaged one pick-off'ed runner for every 24 innings he pitched, which is the highest rate of all time!

*He didn't save a game for the O's, but they were the 8th team he played for.

Darold is currently the pitching coach for the Dunedin Blue Jays and signed from the team address.

Paul Mirabella 1983

Paul only pitched in 3 games for the O's in the 1983 season and didn't really contribute to the eventual World Series championship Birds. He had a 5.59 ERA and allowed 9 hits and 7 walks in only 9.2 innings.

Overall, he pitched 13 seasons for 6 teams, appeared in 298 games and had a 4.45 ERA.

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.