Graphing at the Yard in 2014

After my Orioles Alumni Autograph post from the other day, I figured I would naturally segue into my other graphing expereinces at Oriole Park thus far in 2014. And then I realized that they were pretty limited; as in, I think I've only gotten 2 non-alumni autographs in Baltimore so far this season. Which is already 1/3 over, so I should probably step my game up.

My main issue has been time or a lack thereof, but I know that we all struggle to balance real life with the fun stuff so I won't dwell on that point. I have been able to make it out to a few games but for various reasons I haven't been able to get there early enough to grab some autographs. Oh, and I was thwarted by a few little league days, which consist of a parade of approximately 10,000 (my estimate) local little leaguers walking around the warning track prior to some Sunday games. It's an awesome experience for the kids, but not so much for a grapher who has the kids between himself and any chance at accessing the players.

So here are the two autographs I've managed to add to my collection at Camden Yards so far in 2014. I got these both signed the same day, prior to an Orioles-Royals game.

My big haul was getting long-time Oriole Jeremy Guthrie to personalize a card for me. I had gotten Jeremy's autograph a number of times over the years he spent in Baltimore but wasn't doing the personalized autograph thing quite as much back then. When he was with the O's and was asked to sign his Indians cards, he always added "Go O's" to those signatures, so I wasn't sure if I could expect a "Go Royals" inscription from him. But he obviously didn't add it, and I guess that means he probably doesn't have any animosity towards the Orioles. Or something along those lines.

The other card I got signed that day was this amazing old card of the Orioles pitching coach, Dave Wallace. I'm pretty sure it's a 1986 ProCards card commemorating his time as a coach with the Albuquerque Dukes. I bought it in the offseason, since he has very few mainstream cards out there, and before I realized that I would have Old Man Cards of him in an Orioles uniform in hand. But I forgot it on my Spring Training trip and was happy to get it signed. Dave was walking past most of the fans, but generally, with an older guy like him, when you flash a 30ish year old card in front of his face, it seems to slow a guy down and make him much more likely to sign. In my experiences at least.

So that's it for my 2014 OPACY success thus far in the season. I need to get out there and try to add some autographs to my collection as I currently have nothing signed by Nick Hundley, and could use personalized upgrades for Caleb Joseph and Preston Guilmet.

Chen & Hammel

While I was able to get a boatload of O's autographs on my Spring Training trip earlier this month, there were a few new players who eluded me, including a couple who are very likely to be on the Opening Day roster. 

The two main players I missed out on were Wei-Tin Chen and Jason Hammel, who were the starters of the two games I attended, which likely had something to do with how or why I wasn't able to get their autographs. Luckily, I ran into a fellow SCN grapher in Sarasota who ended up being able to help me out with both of them. Thanks Matt!

I'll start with Chen since I'm pretty sure that this is the first autograph in Kanji (I believe that's the correct term) that I have in my collection. I know that Koji Uehara would occasionally sign in Kanji, but he always signed "Koji" for me.

 Chen's signature is very unique and he will likely be one of the Orioles top pitchers this season, so I'm excited to be in a position to scratch his name off of my need list once he makes his debut.

 The other guy I missed who is a near lock for the Opening Day roster is Jason Hammel, who was acquired from the Rockies, along with Matt Lindstrom, in the Jeremy Guthrie trade. Jason signature is kind of hard to make out, but I think I see a J, an H, and an L in there.

Adios Jeremy

One of the first things that I read online this morning was about how Jeremy Guthrie had been traded to the Rockies for two pitchers, starter/swingman Jason Hammel and reliever Matt Lindstrom. At this point, I honestly don't know what to think about the deal. Guthrie's stats were frequently not pretty and he led the American League with 17 losses in 2011 and 2009, but he was a consistent bet to pitch around 200 innings, and has been the only reliable starter for the Orioles over the past three years. 

Being the O's #1 starter for the past few seasons, he was subjected to some tough match-ups against other team's stronger aces, and was often a victim of poor run support, at least in part to the O's hitters difficulties against some of baseball's best pitchers. As the seasons went along, and he wasn't always facing other top pitchers, I can't explain the continued lack of run support for Jeremy, but it was a consistent problem for him in Baltimore. I hope that he doesn't have similar problems in Colorado.

I'm not surprised that Guthrie was traded, as he was set to become a free agent after the 2012 season, and it  has been a frequent topic of discussion around Baltimore over the past season and a half, but I am surprised the trade went down when it did. I didn't expect any trades to happen this close to Spring Training, but all I can do is hope that Dan Duquette has a good plan of action in mind. While it would have been nice to receive some prospects in return for Guthrie, it sounds like that just wasn't an option. 

From an autograph standpoint, Guthrie at times was very personable and open, while other times he seemed to go out of his way to avoid signing for fans. He did sign for me a handful of times over his five years in Baltimore and I'm grateful for each of his signatures in my collection. Good luck in Colorado Jeremy!

The 2011 Orioles Walk-Up Song Project

So I don't know about any of you, but I've always been interested to hear what walk-up songs different players have when they come up to the plate or enter the game. I feel like it can tell you something about the player or at least gives the fans some insight into what music the player likes. I've also heard that some players just have a member of the team staff select their walk-up/entrance songs, but I like to think those guys are a minority.

My goal is to figure out all of the walk-up songs for the Orioles' hitters and entrance songs for all O's pitchers.
I've done this to some extent in the past just for fun, but this year I'm being assisted by my iPhone's Shazam app, which "listens" to any music that is being played and tells you what the song is and who performed it.

Here's what I have so far, with YouTube links to the songs if available. As you might guess, some links might contain explicit lyrics, you can probably figure out whether you want to click them or not.


Nick Markakis- Deliverance Bubba Sparxx
Vladimir Guerrero- Calabria  Enur ft. Natasja
Adam Jones- I'm Illy T.I.
Robert Andino- Black N Orange Dboi Da Dome, E' From Da Wic, Jay Luv

Jeremy Guthrie- Never Say Never Justin Bieber ft. Jaden Smith (this one hurts, Gut)
Jake Arrieta- Bad Company Five Finger Death Punch
Jason Berken- Right Now Van Halen


I'm not positive about these, but the songs have been played for the players at least once

Brian Roberts- Kick It Manafest or Don't Waste Your Life Lecrae ft. Cam & Dwayne Tryumf
JJ Hardy- Driven to Tears The Police
Felix Pie- Hasta Abajo Don Omar

Zach Britton- Seven Nation Army The Oak Ridge Boys


I plan to keep updating this throughout the season and will add more songs as I figure out who uses what songs.

Continuing with My Spring Training Successes

Wow, what a start to the 2011 Orioles season. The home opener was a bunch of fun and the O's are only the 4th team ever to start a season 4-0 while allowing no more than 1 run per game. Crazy! 

Before I get too wrapped up in the regular season, I want to finish showing off my autographs from Spring Training. 

 

I was happy to get Nolan's Tides orange uniform card signed. Since poor Nolan got demoted to Norfolk yet again, it looks like a road trip is in the books for this summer.

  

Jim Presley is the O's new hitting coach. Here he is pretending to hit off a tee for a craptastic Fleer card. I chose this card to get signed because it's so awesomely bad. 

The next two guys have a chance to appear in a game for the O's at some point this season.

 

While Ballard has a pretty cool and stylized autograph (I especially like the k)...

Jakubauskas relegates his last name to a flying bird shaped squiggle. But I guess I might too with a last name that long.

 

I've been lucky to get Tillman's autograph a few times over the years, but this card looks really nice with the signature and I might have to stash it in the collection.

 

 

I got Adams & Snyder's autographs at Friday's game (actually all of these are from that game) which is good because they were both sent to Minor League camp on Saturday morning. 

This is Snyder's first card showing him playing in a game for the O's and it's probably ticketed for the collection too. 

 

I got this card signed for a fellow SCN member. From what I remember, Guts signs all his non-Orioles cards this way. Pretty cool. I would actually like if he signed his O's cards like this too. 

 

Fox tore up Grapefruit League pitching by smashing ten round-trippers. It's good to see that he still had some time for the fans too. 

 

Josh was nice enough to sign next to the dugout after the game. 

Friday was definitely the better of my two autograph days in Sarasota. I'll wrap everything up tomorrow. 

Orioles Autograph Year in Review- Hit or Miss Signers

If you've been enjoying my review of the 2010 O's signing habits, there are four more posts about it after this one. If you think it's been boring and don't care about it, it's halfway done. So that should keep everyone happy.

Today, I'm going to cover the players who didn't seem to often, but when they did, they signed a lot.

 

After Jake was called up, he seemed to sign pretty frequently, and for a number of fans. As the season went on, I feel like I saw him signing less and less. So that's why he's in this category!

Josh seemed to sign for most people down the right field line when he did sign. Like Jake, he seemed to sign more frequently around the time he was called up, and less so as the season went along. I also got his autograph at a private signing, and the pen he was using wasn't great, but at least I have him on an O's card now. 

Chris bounced back and forth between AAA Norfolk and Baltimore this season, so that might have affected his signing habits this year. Last year, I ranked him among the best signers, so I hope that his signing regression isn't permanent.  

Jeremy always seems to have an interesting attitude towards the fans. He seems fairly nice, but also a little cocky or stuck up, if that makes any sense. Well, when he signs, he will cover quite a few people, but other times he will avoid the fans like a plague. He's pretty hard to read, but for being the O's #1 pitcher, I have a number of autographs from him. Last season, I rated him as a kind of good signer.  

 

Corey didn't sign with much frequency, but he would also sign for a lot of people once he started. I'm not sure if it's like "once I start, I'll just keep going, but then not do it again for a month", but he always seems very nice when he did sign.  

 

I'll wrap this group up with the player who I would say had the strangest signing habits on the team. Julio signed for me pretty early in the year, but then I came across an Orioles postcard that I wanted to get signed, and it took me like three months to get it done. And it's not that he wasn't signing, but that he seemed to sign around me a few times. I'm not someone who he would recognize since I'm not one of those people who are at every game and then go sell their haul. I graph an average of once a week, so who knows what it was, but I finally got my postcard, and this card, signed in July.

Some Recent Orioles Autographs

Since I've been behind with almost all my collecting related activities for this entire baseball season, I haven't been able to scan or show off my current Orioles autographs as I've been getting them at games. So I am going to dump them all into this one post. Sounds like a plan to me. So here we go!




My new thing is trying to get these O's postcards signed, specifically by players who don't have any Orioles cards, like Ohman and Castillo (who has been sent to AAA Norfolk since he signed this for me). Berken's only Orioles card is from the 2010 Topps When They Were Young insert set, so I only give that card half credit as an O's card since the picture of him as a kid dominates the card.

And speaking of guys who are no longer with/on the team...

I intended to have this card scanned for my "Goodbye Dave" post. That obviously didn't happen, but here it is now. I wonder what Dave is up to these days?

Tillman is currently biding his time with the Tides. I was happy to get him to sign this card for my orange uniform collection.

Jeff Datz, the O's bench coach, signed for me for the first time all season. I don't think he's a tough signer, but he is just always in the dugout. I have a few more copies of this card, which is his one and only MLB card, and hope to get another signed since this J turned out very dry.

I got my first in-person C-Pat autograph too. I've seen him sign one or two other times but was in the wrong place to get him then.

Ty signed for me for only the third time since he's been with the O's. He's a tough autograph to get most of the time, and in retrospect, I don't really know what I chose this card to get him to sign. It's pretty blah. Oh well.




It's possible that any of these three guys are sent to Norfolk (or released in Albers' case) to make room for the starting pitcher needed for this Saturday's game. Garrett Atkins would be the most logical guy to get rid of in my opinion, but what do I know?

Luke was the man once again. I know that this is an 08 Heritage short print, and that I probably should have just kept it with my set and all, but look at all that orange! It needed to be signed. And now it's going with my orange uniform autograph collection. I know he's not wearing an orange uni, but it's orange enough for me. It's my collection so I get to make the rules.

Both Cesar and Julio Lugo signed at the same spot the day I got this card autographed. Since this is my 5th Cesar and I still need Lugo on my Orioles postcard, I would gladly have switched up which autograph I got, but that's not how it works. I hope to get Julio sometime soon though.

Guthrie continues to be a good signer. Again not sure why I chose this boring card to get signed, but I did. Can't do anything about it now.



I continue to get lucky with Jonesy. I've heard others say that they've had trouble getting him to sign but I seem to get him 4-5 times a season. I like how he looped his #10 in with his signature on the top card. Oh, and Kalina, I put Jones at the bottom of the post just for you. Let's just say that Kalina doesn't appreciate his "attitude", "hustle" or constant focus on chewing gum/blowing bubbles.

Wrapping Up the Spring Training Autos

And it only took me a week and a half. Not bad considering I always seem to get behind with things; 10 days isn't half bad for me. Without further delay, here are the final autographs that I got in Spring Training.


Palmer was at both of the O's games that I went to. He was there to throw out the first pitch on Tuesday and looked like he just wanted to shoot the breeze on Monday. Luckily for me, he was in a signing mood too and signed this Crown card and also a ball for me. He included "HOF 90" on the ball without even being prompted.


Pena was the only Ray who signed for me, but since I was camped on the Orioles side of the field, I would say that I got lucky even getting him. Anytime you happen to be in the right place at the right time to get the reigning AL HR champ's autograph seems like a good place to be at.


Luke kept telling people at the game that he would sign as he was leaving the parking lot. I figured that we had all heard that one before so wasn't expecting much. But as Luke was leaving the lot, he pulled over and graciously signed and talked to everyone who was outside the lot. Granted there weren't more than 10 of us at that point but he was with his family and considering the number of players that drove by without acknowledging our existence, it was a nice change. Luke has always seemed like a very cool and down to earth person. I really hope he can stay hot at the plate for a full season this year. LUUUUUKKKEEE.


If you have been reading the blog for a while, you probably already know this, but I like sidewinding pitchers. Which makes Cla a pretty obvious choice to be my favorite reliever. You can't really see his pitching motion on the card, which I don't like, but it's a great card for an autograph and Cla did a nice job signing this, even adding his number.


This is probably the most illegible Guthrie autograph that I have, but he still seems to be a good signer. Now if he started having some success on the mound this spring...that would be nice.


Chris signed another card for me. This orange jersey beauty will go with my orange jersey mini collection.


Michael has had a "lost" spring training with various minor injuries and ailments robbing him of playing time and at-bats. I got his autograph when he was leaving the parking lot and really like the way this card looks now that it's signed.

Orioles Autograph Year in Review: The Kinda Good Signers

These players all signed for me multiple times over the course of the season. They seemed to sign willingly, at least at times so they get bonus points for that.


I love this card. These Ginters really make the black sharpie pop. This is one of 3 Jonesy autos I got this season so he signs pretty well for a budding star. At least one of the times he signed, he came over on his own accord so that was really cool. He does seem to sign better on the road than at home as I got 2 of my 3 autographs in DC & Toronto.



Hail Cesar! This was the second Orioles card I got Cesar to sign but it looks really nice. He signed it on the white jersey so the signature really stands out. All in all I think I saw him sign six or seven times over the season. He was always the first player in the dugout so he normally had a few extra minutes to sign. I dropped the ball at least once when I forgot to put Cesar's card back in my team set when Zach from the excellent Autographed Cards blog was visiting Camden Yards. I think I ended up with 3 or 4 of his autographs so I'm not complaining.



Guts is a pretty good signer but he won't hesitate to mess with fans that continuously call his name even after he tells them that he will come over. He was especially bad with doing that in Toronto but he did eventually come over to sign for the fans. I'm pretty sure I got his autograph twice this season but I saw him sign a few other times but was too slow to get him.


Michael Aubrey spent most of the season at Norfolk before being called up in September and pretty much becoming the everyday first baseman. He contributed to the walkoff win at the last game of the season and is a pretty slick fielder. Not a bad signer either.