Orioles Hall of Fame Week- Palmer & Aparicio

I haven't covered any of the other Orioles Hall of Famers nearly as much as I've wrote about Jim Palmer, and I bet he likes it that way. I'm kidding, but if you've ever heard Jim call an Orioles game, he just can't help but weave in a few stories about the success he had during his career. And honestly, if I was as good as he was, I probably would do that same thing!

Cakes was an amazing pitcher over the 19 seasons he pitched for the Orioles, and was especially dominant from 1969-79 when his ERA never crept over 3.30 for a season. He also won three Cy Young awards, played in six All-Star games, won three Gold Gloves, and received MVP/Cy Young votes most seasons over that stretch. That's some serious dominance.

 

One of the reasons that I've covered Jim as much as I have is that he has remained a presence around the O's over the years, mainly because of his color commentating duties with MASN. Because of that, he typically signs at Fan Fest and can be seen around the ballpark every summer. It's nice for us autographs collectors to have a Hall of Famer who remains relatively accessible. 

 

Jim was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1990, but they had to throw away three plaques before they found one that got Jim's approval. Gotta get that face just perfect, ya know.

 

I got this card on ebay back in the summer of '09 and covered Luis at the bottom of the linked post. The sticker pops in the scan but isn't nearly as obvious in person and I'm a big fan of this card and how he's wearing the old school Baltimore jersey. 

Little Louie was one of the best fielding shortstops of his era and he was terror on the basepaths too. He played with the Orioles from 1963-67, but is best remembered for the ten years he spent with the White Sox. He was elected to the Hall of Fame on his sixth ballot in 1984.

Today is your last chance to enter my contest to win the Earl Weaver autograph. Entries won't be accepted after midnight-ish. Good luck everyone!

Post #200-My Christmas Gifts

I apologize for the delay with this post but I wanted it to be something special and a little different since it is number 200. I know that at some point these mini milestones don't mean as much but for now they still do to me. So I figured that this would be the perfect place to showcase my baseball related Christmas gifts from my awesome girlfriend and parents.

First off is a sweet photo tab card notebook that Kalina made for me that I can use for my Orioles' team set.
I first saw one of these when Zach, from the excellent Autographed Cards blog, was in town for an Orioles game. But this wasn't on my list, Kalina came up with the idea on her own. I'm freaking lucky to have a girlfriend who supports my auto habits so much! In the past, I have always used the clear plastic containers which forced me to flip quickly through and miss players at times. Now, I shouldn't have that problem!

Kalina also got me some sweet Mike Gonzalez cards to get signed this season.

And she even knows enough about autographs to get the low gloss cards!

My mom and dad (mainly my dad) hooked me up with a few new autographs for my collection, including a deceased HOFer.

Hoyt Wilhelm 1958-62 (died 2002)

I don't even know where to start with Hoyt, there's so much to say about him. He was elected to the HOF in 1985, he made five All-Star teams, he's regarded as one of the best knuckleballers of all time which led to his being the first pitcher to appear in over 1,000 games (he made it to 1,070), he won 124 games as a reliever (a record that is still standing), and he pitched in the Majors until he was almost 49 years old.

I could really say so much more about Hoyt's time with the other 8 other teams he pitched for over his other 16 years in MLB but I am going to focus on the 4+ seasons that he spent with the O's.

The Orioles selected him off of waivers from the Indians on August 23, 1958 which led to one of the best stretches of his career. On September 20th of that year, he no-hit the Yankees while pitching against Don Larsen, which was no small feat. He led the American league with a 2.19 ERA and made the All-Star team in 1959. He also made the All-Star teams in 1961 &'62, and received MVP votes for his dominating 1961 season. Interestingly, Hoyt made 43 of his 52 career starts with the O's. On January 14, 1963 he was traded along with former ROY Ron Hansen, Dave Nicholson and Pete Ward to the White Sox for another future HOFer, Luis Aparicio, and Al Smith.

Hank Foiles 1961
I really like that Bird logo on his left arm!

Hank backed up Gus Triandos on the '61 Orioles squad and played in 43 games during his only season with the O's. The Birds took him in the 1960 Rule V draft from the Tigers.

Overall, he spent 11 seasons in the Majors and played for 7 different teams, highlighted by his 1957 All-Star appearance while playing for the Pirates.

Unpossible Autograph: Al Smith

Al Smith 1963 (d. 2002)

Al Smith is probably best remembered in Orioles lore as being one of the players involved in a trade of HOF players between the O's and White Sox than for anything he did on the field for the Birds. He came to the Orioles along with Luis Aparicio on January 14th, 1963 in return for Hoyt Wilhelm, Ron Hansen, Dave Nicholson and Pete Ward.

Don't get me wrong, he was no throw-in in the trade though. He had received MVP votes in the previous three years, including a 6th place finish in 1960; he was also an All-Star for the second time in his career that season. His best season had been 1955 when he led the league in games, plate appearances and runs which earned him a third place MVP finish .

He appeared in 120 games for Baltimore, mostly in RF, and batted .272 with 17 doubles, 10 HRs, 45 runs and 39 RBI. He played in only that one season for the O's and it was definitely the twilight of his career as he only lasted one more season in the Big Leagues after it.

Al is arguably most famous for a picture that was taken during the 1959 World Series when his White Sox were taking on the Dodgers. As he tracked a ball to the outfield wall that ended up sailing out of the field of play, a fan who was going for the ball accidentally spilled his beer all over Al. It was a lot different than the intentional dousing that Shane Victorino received this past season at Wrigley Field but it was a lasting memory for him nonetheless. Al estimated that he signed that picture around 200,000 times in his life.

Finishing off my TTMs

Here are the last three TTM autos I have to show for now. I recently sent out a bunch more requests so I hope to have some new returns soon.

Chuck Estrada 1960-64

Chuck chose to sign this card at an interesting spot, didn't he? He gave himself a little handlebar-looking mustache when he personalized this card to me. Good stuff Chuck.

He was a member of the Orioles' Kiddie Korps pitching staff in the early '60s and had an amazing rookie season in 1960, when he tied for the league lead in Wins with 18 and had a very respectable 3.58 ERA. He was rewarded by being named to the All-Star team, receiving MVP votes and coming in 2nd place in ROY balloting. (Side note-3 Orioles players received all of the 1960 AL ROY votes; Ron Hansen won the award, and Estrada and Jim Gentile tied for second place with 1 vote each. Maybe the 2009 or 2010 O's can sweep the ROY voting again!)

Estrada always had some control problems (think Daniel Cabrera) and things started to unravel for him quickly after his great rookie season. He was among the league leaders in wild pitches, walks and hit batters in 1961 & 62 and led the AL with 17 losses in 1962.

Chuck was out of baseball by age 29 in 1967 , but served as a pitching coach for the Rangers (1973) and Indians (1983) since his playing days ended.

Don Ferrarese 1955-57

Don played for 5 different organizations over 8 seasons in the Majors. He pitched in 183 games, and made 50 starts. He played for the Orioles for 3 seasons, his most with any franchise, and went 5-11 with a 4.85 over 50 games.

Since his playing career ended, he has started the Don Ferrarese Charitable Foundation which helps California youths obtain school scholarships. Way to be, Don.

Tito Francona 1956-57

Tito was another Orioles rookie who nearly nabbed the AL ROY; he came in second behind eventual Oriole, Luis Aparicio. He played for 9 teams over 15 seasons and made the All-Star team in 1961 and came in 5th in MVP voting in 1959.

He is the father of current Red Sox manager Terry Francona.

Fun with Ebay in June & July

Since I want to build my collection mainly through trades, TTMs, and getting guys to sign for me at games; I try to avoid buying anything. But try as I may, I come across some cards every month that can help my collection and the Ebay listings draw me in either due to their low price or scarcity.

Here are those cards from the last two months:

Stick with me as I am ramping up from the peons to the big guns...

Kris Foster 2001

Here is a guy that I do not remember at all. He pitched 7 games for the 2001 edition of the Birds, and I am really happy the he even has a card in an Orioles uni. He came to the Orioles from the Dodgers on 7/31/01 with Geronimo Gil in exchange for Mike Trombley. And if you're a footnote in the Gil-Trombley blockbuster, I wouldn't say that's a good thing.

Rocky Cherry 2007-08

Beyond having one of the greatest, most ice-cream-sounding names ever, Rocky didn't contribute much else to the Orioles. The Cubs traded him and Scott Moore to the Orioles in exchange for Steve Trachsel at the end of August 2007, presumably so that the human rain delay (Trachsel) could somehow stall for them to make the playoffs. The Mets took him from the O's in the Rule 5 draft after the 08 season and consequently released him after the O's decided they did not need him back. He's currently in the Red Sox system. Do you notice how I avoided telling you about his 0-3 record and 7.02 ERA for the Birds....whoops I was trying to avoid those stats...that's why this card was only fifty cents!

Steve Stone 1979-81

This guy has some interesting stats. If you take away his 1980 Cy Young season (in which he threw more than 50% of his pitches as curveballs, reportedly) he had a sub .500 career record. But somehow, in one magical season, he went 25-7 with a .781 winning percentage and pitched 9 complete games. He is easily the most forgettable O's Cy Young winner, as he was out of baseball a year after he won the award and only pitched for the O's for 2.5 seasons. Sadly, he is also the last Orioles pitcher to win the Cy Young.

He has been a broadcaster for the Cubs and White Sox since his playing career ended and also posed for Playgirl. Now that's a great visual!

Dwight "Dewey" Evans 1991

Dwight is mainly known for his 19 stellar seasons with the Boston Red Sox, during which he won 8 Gold Gloves, appeared on 3 All-Star teams, and finished in the top 11 in MVP votes 5 times. He is the only player to hit at least 20 HR's every season from 1980-89 and hit 256 homers during the '80s, more than any other player. I'm not entirely sure why he left the Sox at the end of his career to play one season with the O's. Does anyone know?

Luis Aparicio 1963-67

Now here is a famous Oriole, one that's in the HOF even!

Luis, a slick-fielding Venezuelan shortstop, had an amazing career that started when he won the 1956 AL ROY with the White Sox. Throughout his 18 season in the Majors that spanned 3 decades, he was a 10 time All Star, a 9 time Gold Glove winner, and received MVP votes 10 times! He also was on the '66 Orioles World Series championship team and was the first player from South America elected into the Hall of Fame.

A few other facts about Luis that jumped out at me were that he led the AL in stolen bases for 9 consecutive seasons to start his career, and when he retired he held records for most games played, assists and double plays as a shortstop. That is quite an amazing career.


So there you have it, from Kris Foster to Luis Aparicio, my recent Ebay acquisitions. That is also the only time in the history of baseball that those two guys will be mentioned in the same sentence.

Pol comes through again! 2 of 2

Here are the rest of the Orioles autographs that Pol sent me.

Johnny "Bear Tracks" Schmitz 1956

This is the second time that Johnny has been featured on my blog. I had previously received a Dodgers autographed card from Aaron but since Johnny is wearing the black and orange (in black and white) on this Crown card, it immediately slides into my collection. The Dodgers card is now up for trade if anyone is interested.

Johnny pitched in 18 games for the O's at the end of a fairly long career. He had led the NL with 135 strikeouts in 1946, been elected to two All-Star teams and received MVP votes after three seasons. He earned his nickname due to the combination of his shuffling gait and size 14 feet.

Lou Sleater 1958

Lou pitched for 6 teams over 7 seasons of his career and threw his last pitch in the majors for the '58 O's. Lou hit a walk-off HR in 1957 while pitching for the Tigers, a very uncommon feat for a pitcher.

Hal Smith 1955-56

Hal started his career for the O's and later played for the same 1960 World Series Champion Pirates team that Gino Cimoli played for. Hal hit a HR to give the Pirates a short-lived lead in the 8th inning of game 7 of that series but is overlooked since Bill Mazeroski hit his famous blast in the next inning to win the game and the series. Another interesting fact is that during the 1960-61 seasons, Hal was one of two NL catchers named Hal Smith. That's even more confusing than keeping track of the catching Molina brothers!

Gene Stephens 1960-61

Gene patrolled all three outfield positions for the Orioles for almost exactly one season between June 9, 1960 and June 8, 1961. He was traded to the O's by the Red Sox for Willie Tasby in 1960 and was later flipped to the Royals for Marv Throneberry in 1961. On June 18, 1953 while on the Red Sox, Gene was the first player since 1900 to have 3 hits in one inning, a record that has since been duplicated by Johnny Damon in 2004.

Jerry Walker 1957-60

Jerry started his Orioles career at age 18 without ever having thrown a pitch in the minor leagues, one of a very few players to have ever accomplished that and also was one of the youngest of that exclusive group. He was one of the "Kiddie Corps" Orioles pitchers of the late 50s and, at 20 years old in 1959, was the youngest pitcher ever to start the All-Star game for the AL. He was out of baseball by age 26 but has stayed involved with the game up until this day. He served as the Tigers general manager for one season in 1993 and is currently a vice president and special assistant to the GM for the Reds.

Pete Ward 1962

Pete only played in 8 games for the O's in September of 1962 before being traded to the White Sox as part of the Luis Aparicio deal the following off-season. He had a great '63 season for the White Sox coming in second, to teammate Gary Peters, for the Rookie of the Year award and finished ninth in MVP balloting. He had an even better year in 1964 when he had the sixth most MVP votes, but the rest of his career wasn't quite as successful. Pete is in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and both the Oregon & Chicagoland Sports Halls of Fame.

Wally Westlake 1955

Another player that was an Oriole at the tail-end of his career, Wally only amassed 24 at-bats for the O's over 8 games in the '55 season. He was on the NL All-Star team in 1951 when he played for the Pirates & Cardinals.

Dallas Williams 1981

As the Orioles first-round draft pick in 1976 (20th overall) Dallas was initially a highly-regarded prospect but never was able to live up to his lofty draft status. He appeared in only two games for the O's in the 1981 season. I saw Dallas in Norfolk recently as he is the Tides field coach.

George Zuverink 1955-59

George pitched in 197 games for the Orioles, appearing in all but five of those games as a reliever. During the 1957 season, along with Frank Zupo, he formed the only "Z" battery in Major League history. To clarify, he is the only pitcher, whose last name begins with Z, to throw to a catcher, whose last name also began with a Z. And that is some hard hitting news that you won't find almost anywhere else.