The rest of the new TTMs

Here are the other TTMs that have been returned to me in the past 2 weeks:

Funny thing is that I received a Mark Corey card from Pol while I was waiting for this to come back to me. I just wrote about Mark last week.

Jim Marshall 1958

Jim played for the O's at the beginning of his career during the first half of 1958. He later was the manager of the Cubs from 1974-76 and the A's in 1979. He is mainly known for being the first ever Mets 1B when the team debuted in 1962 and for being part of the first interleague (non-waiver) trade in baseball history when the Cubs shipped him to the Red Sox in 1959. He is now a scout for the Diamondbacks.

Ron Moeller 1956, 58

When I first saw this card, I said to myself "Ron looks really young." While I was doing my research on Ron, I discovered that he was only 17 when he debuted for the Orioles in 1956, so I would think this picture was taken then. And I also theorize that has to be the youngest Orioles debut ever, but I don't know how or where I could check that. It's amazing to think that guys played in the majors in their teens at one point. I think Justin Upton did that recently but Chris Tillman is currently the youngest O's prospect close to the Bigs and he is 21 years old.

Something I found really interesting is that Ron had exactly a 4.15 ERA in each of his two seasons with the O's. He pitched in four games in both 1956 and 1958 allowing four ERs in 8.2 IP in '56 and gave up 2 ER in 4.1 IP in '58. Weird, right?

Ron was drafted away from the Orioles by the Angels in the 1960 expansion draft.

Bob Oliver 1974

Bob played in 9 games for the O's towards the end of his career. Darren Oliver, currently a reliever for the LA Angels, is Bob's son and interestingly, they were both teammates of Nolan Ryan; Bob with the California Angels from 1972-74 and Darren with the Rangers in 1993. The Angels traded Bob to the O's for cash in 1974 and the Orioles sent Mickey Scott to the Angels to complete the trade.

Mickey Scott 1972-73

Speaking of Mickey, here he is. Mr. Scott was born in Weimar, Germany and I believe that he is the only Orioles player to have been born in Germany, and possibly in all of Europe.

Tom Patton 1957

Tom caught one game for the O's and went 0-2 at the plate; but he did well behind it. He had 6 total chances, and recorded 4 put-outs and 2 assists, also helping turn a double-play. Tom also seems like a really nice guy and added this note along with the autographed card he sent me. Thanks Tom!

Bob "Bullet" Reynolds 1972-75

Bob earned the nickname "Bullet" for regularly throwing over 100 MPH. He played for the O's for the majority of his Major League career and earned all of his 14 wins while pitching for the Birds. He was traded to the O's from the Brewers prior to the '72 season for Curt Motton and was shipped to Tigers for Fred Holdsworth early in the '75 campaign.

Billy Smith 1977-79

Billy was to have been Bobby Grich's heir to be the starting second baseman at the beginning of the '77 season but never performed well enough to hold down the job, eventually losing it to Rich Dauer.

Pol comes through again! 1 of 2

Last week I received another amazing package from Pol. This time he not only sent me a bunch of his of extra TTM returns, but also added an almost completely signed 2009 Frederick Keys set! It was only missing the guys who were released from the organization or have already been promoted to Bowie. For today, I'm going to focus on the guys who have already played for the O's but will probably show off the Keys autos soon.

Gino Cimoli 1964

Gino was an outfielder who appeared in only 38 games for the O's towards the end of his career. He was a member of the 1960 World Series Champion Pirates; that was the series that featured Bill Mazeroski's walk-off series winning HR in the bottom of the ninth inning in game 7 against the Yankees. He also led the AL in triples on the 1963 KC Athletics.

Mark Corey 1979-81

Mark had 57 ABs in 59 games over 3 seasons for the O's. I can't really find any other information about him. He looks like a guy named Larry that I went to high school with.

Angie Dagres 1955

Angie/Angelo played in 8 games for the O's during September in the 1955 season.

Dick Drago 1977

Dick had a fairly long career, appearing in 519 games, mostly as a reliever. He was on the O's for most of the 1977 season after being traded by the California Angels for Dyar Miller. Dick finished fifth in the 1971 AL Cy Young voting while he was a member of the KC Royals and gave up Hank Aaron's 755th and last career home run in 1976 while pitching for the Red Sox. I think his name sounds like a character in one of the Double Dragon video games.

Jim Pyburn 1955-57

Jim played all three OF positions, 3B and even caught one game for the O's over 158 games spanning 3 seasons.

Art "Artie" Quirk 1962

Art pitched in 7 games for the O's, going 2-2 with a 5.93 ERA, so I guess he got some decent run support. He was traded after the '62 season along with Marv Breeding & Barry Shetrone to the Washington Senators for Bob Johnson & Pete Burnside.

Jeff Rineer 1979

Jeff appeared in one game for the Orioles, pitching 2/3 of an inning and retiring both batters he faced. It is people like Jeff that make my project so difficult, but I am glad I have his autograph.

Ken Rowe 1964-65

Ken was a middle reliever for the O's who appeared in 12 games over 2 seasons. He is currently the pitching coach for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, the New York Penn League short season A ball affiliate of the Indians. The Scrappers gave away liposuction at last night's game. Really.

Art Schallock 1955

Art finished his 5 year career with the Orioles after pitching the majority of his years with the Yankees. Art was on the 1953 Championship Yankees team.