Personalized Upgrades

As many of you probably know by this point, my preference is to have the Orioles autographs in my collection personalized to me. I feel as though it adds a personal touch to each autograph, knowing that it was specifically signed for me. It also alleviates some player's concerns that I might try to flip their autograph for a profit, which is not what I do.

I obtain my personalized autographs in a variety of ways, including at Orioles games...

where I was able to get Jason Hammel and Robert Andino to kindly personalize for me,

Orioles Alumni signings...

where I knocked out Dave Ford, Kiko Garcia, Glenn Gulliver, and Jeffrey Hammonds in one shot at a recent signing,

and at minor league games...

where sometimes the instructors like Butch Davis, and players like Rhyne Hughes, are in the O's farm system,

while other times the former O's are members of other team's farm systems, like Scott Erickson and Steve Luebber, who are both pitching coaches in the Hi-A Carolina league.

I have to say thanks to my dad for helping me upgrade the Scott Erickson autograph at a recent Frederick Keys game that we attended together.

2012 Orioles Postcard Autographs

As is typical, many of the new Orioles' players have team issued postcards produced of them in an Orioles uniform before they receive any cardboard love from Topps. The only notable exception this year is Endy Chavez, who made his way into 2012 Topps Heritage as an Oriole before I saw one of his postcards.

Anyway, here are some of the Orioles postcards that I have obtained so far, either in-person or purchased online.

I'll start with my favorite autograph, Wei-Yin Chen. It's my favorite for two reasons: 1) it was a gift from Kalina, & 2) I'm still not used to the Kanji (I think that's right) signature. It's very cool.

I'm pretty sure that Chen will have his fair share of Orioles cards released in the coming years, but it's nice to have his autograph on an O's postcard for now.

These two are my only in-person postcard successes thus far. I'm surprised to see that both of these guys seem to be solid signers thus far. Many times with veterans, that is not the case. Johnson obviously was nice enough to personalize while Betemit cited the language/alphabet barrier when he opted to not inscribe the autograph to me. 

Since Betemit is signed for two years, I'm betting that he gets an Orioles card or two, but Johnson will need to start hitting soon to stick around long enough to be included in a set as an Oriole. For my collecting purposes, the worst thing is when a player receives an Orioles card after they've left town. 

Hammel has been lights out so far this season, and has been a very nice addition to the club. He will certainly get some cards as an Oriole.

Since Flaherty is a Rule V guy and probably the 25th man on the roster, I doubt that he will be included in any sets as an O. The only factor that might help his inclusion is his rookie status, because we all know that Topps loves rookies!

These four have been claimed by Kalina and include some of her current favorite Orioles, with the notable exception of Nick Markakis.

Here's another Hammel, Strop (with his crazy cockeyed hat), Patton, the team's only lefty reliever, and O'Day who has been excellent so far. And as someone who enjoys wacky pitching motions, I hope to see a lot more of O'Day this season.

And here's the Paulino that I featured yesterday, Endy's second "card" as an Oriole, and another Johnson and Betemit.

Oh, and heres' one more Flaherty.

Obviously there are some duplicates here, as well as a few players whom I don't currently need for the collection, so some of these will be up for trade once I get my act together.

My 2012 FanFest Autographs

So I spent about four hours at Orioles FanFest at the Baltimore Convention Center on Saturday and was able to get autographs from almost everyone I wanted, thanks to some major help from Kalina and my parents. I think that everyone in my group had a pretty good time, I know that I sure did! Thanks for your help guys!

Since I added so many autographs to the collection, this will be an information short and scan heavy post.

Probably the coolest autograph that we got all day was this Markakis struck foul ball that my dad snagged at a game late last season.

And he also got Kakes to sign this orange uniform card for me!

I also added signed items of many of the new Orioles to my collection. Since I like to have signed cards as well as postcards of the players, I got both whenever possible. 

A few other players had their first Orioles postcards available...

My dad was able to get a few cards personalized to me...

I was able to add a few more autographs of my favorite Oriole...

And I was able to add some trade stock too... the following are all available for trade (minus the Patton minor league card which was obtained for a fellow collector)

 

   

I will share some stories, trade items, and pictures tomorrow.

Thank You Orioles!

Warning: Red Sox fans probably want to avoid this post

I haven't covered the end of the Orioles season nearly as well as I should have, but I honestly was/am at a loss for words. Wednesday's win over the Red Sox made me as proud to be an Orioles fan as I have felt in a decade. In case you haven't noticed, the O's are a somewhat perennially downtrodden franchise, the almost yearly A.L. East doormat. But not this year...well not exactly at least.

In case you missed how the Orioles wrapped up their 2011 season...

While the Orioles win alone didn't eliminate the Red Sox from the playoffs, moments after the O's won, the Rays held up their end of the bargain and walked off against the Yankees to steal the Wild Card from the Sawx. If not for a long rain delay in Baltimore and extra innings in Tampa, the games would have not ended at almost exactly the same time, but they did and it was outstanding. It was probably my favorite five minutes of baseball from the past 10-12 years. MAGIC! All those Red Sox fans who always show up at Camden Yards to harass the small Orioles fan-base were going home with their collective tails between their legs. Adios fools! Baltimore won't miss ya!

Thank you to Robert Andino and the rest of the team for playing hard through the end of game 162 when it would have been so easy to lay down and be the punching bag that everyone else expected you to be. I have no idea if that passion and excitement will carry over to next season, but I love it and will count down the days to the start of the 2012 season with renewed passion for the Orioles. Let's Go O's!

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.

Orioles Autograph Year in Review- The Best Signers

This will wrap up my review of the 2010 O's signing habits, which I started just about two weeks ago. Last year I included 8 players in this best signers group; this year it's down to 7, but it's still about 15% of the players who played for the O's this year which isn't bad. 

Luke is once again the player who signed the most over the course of the season. I'm pretty much at the point where I try to let other fans get his autograph since I've got his signature so many times. He always seems like a nice guy and talks to the fans while he's signing. I listed Luke in this category last season too, but he really deserves his own category. 


The following three relief pitchers signed almost every Sunday during the season (Sunday's are the day pitchers can warm up on the field since there's no batting practice).

Albers has been inconsistent on the mound over his time in Baltimore, but he's typically been a good signer at least.

I put Hendrickson in the good signers category last year, but this year he took his signing to the next level.

Ohman was sent to the Marlins at the trade deadline, but he signed very frequently before being sent to Miami. I think he signed every card I had of him before the trade, so I was fine with it.

I've heard that some other people had trouble getting Cesar's autograph this year, but not me. He was always the first player to come back to the dugout after B.P. and would normally sign early on. Cesar really upped his signing game this season; I listed him in the kinda-good category last year.      

 

Dino only spent the last month of the season in Baltimore, but he signed enough over that time to get listed here. He was in this category last year too, making him the second back-to-back best signer.  

 

Bergy was the rare Orioles starting pitcher who signed regularly this season. He would sign on some Sundays and in between his starts too.  

I hope that everyone enjoyed the review and I will now get back to my regular blogging schedule, whatever that might be.