Unpossible Autograph: Roger Freed

Roger Freed 1970 (died 1996)

Roger played in only 4 games for the Orioles at the end of the 1970 season but was such a highly regarded prospect that the O's were able to trade him to the Phillies for Grant Jackson and two other players in the offseason. He never lived up to the lofty early expectations that were placed on him but did play parts of 8 seasons for 5 different clubs.

He unfortunately died at the young age of 49 due to heart problems in 1996. It's always sad to read about guys that die early. I guess that no one knows what the future has in store for them, but I hope to make it into my 70's at least.

I think that this card would look really good double-signed but Adamson is not a good TTM signer and there aren't any confirmed successes from him since 2008. I do have Adamson's autograph on this exact same card, so maybe I could splice them together. Scissors aren't one of my strong points though; I failed scissors class in elementary school.

The Beginning (updated with pictures!)

So here I go...

Don Aase (85-88)
What a great last name, how is it supposed to be pronounced? I just always say ass, or ace, one of the two must be correct.


Mike Adamson (67-69)


Manny Alexander (92-96)
For some reason, I always think that Manny was better than he actually was. I think it has something to do with the fact that he was the big prospect during the early 90s, when I was really getting into the O's. He turned out to be a .231 career hitter who managed to smack 15 HRs with 6 teams over 11 MLB seasons. Upon further review, it looks like Manny was out of the bigs for three years from 01-03 and then made an improbable end of career return to the majors to get 73 more at bats over 3 seasons and continue to not hit. At least he stuck with it I guess.


Roberto Alomar (96-98) Auto on Padres card
As good as he was, I will always remember him spitting in the umpire's face. You don't mess with the Roberto!


Brady Anderson (88-01)
Always awesome in centerfield and I think he holds the O's single season HR record with 50. But there's no way he was juicing. None. He was still in great shape at his O's HOF induction a year or two ago and I think he still wants to play. But he mainly seems to "play" at clubs in LA and show up on TMZ.com from time to time.
He was also just a little cocky about his looks, a fact that I'm reminded of by my girlfriend's personalized autographed poster. Brady is only wearing his compression shorts in this poster, and she was a teenager when he gave this to her as a gift assisting his business manager. She keeps the poster in the back of her closet. It's something she likes to have but not to see.


Danny Ardoin (06) Royal Rookies auto
I had no idea who he was when the O's signed him. I found out that his name is pronounced "Ard-wah" And that is pretty much all I know about him. This is what wikipedia says about his time with the O's "He appeared in only five games with Baltimore and recorded one hit in 13 at bats before being released in September." Maybe that's why I don't remember him very well.