Unpossible Autograph Friday- Earl Williams

Sadly, another former Oriole passed away this past week when former catcher, Earl Williams, died from complications of leukemia on Thursday.

Earl played with the Orioles during the 1973-74 seasons and was a former N.L. Rookie of the Year. I wrote about him in 2011, and used his story to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. day that year. I don't have much to add about him since then, but after his passing, I've read some stories about him after his playing days, and it sounds like he was a pretty great guy.  RIP Earl.


To briefly explain the misspelled/made up title of these weekly posts: Every Friday, I profile a former Oriole who has passed away. I've substituted the word unpossible for impossible as an homage to a line from "The Simpsons". Young Ralph Wiggum, who is not very smart, says "Me fail English? That's unpossible." 

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Harry Byrd, Oriole #52

Harry Byrd pitched in the Major Leagues for seven seasons between 1950-57 and played for five different teams during that time. His best year was his rookie season in1952, when he went 15-15 with a 3.31 ERA for the Philadelphia Athletics and won the A.L. Rookie of the Year award for his efforts.

Harry came to the Orioles as part of the massive 18 player swap between the Orioles and Yankees prior to the 1955 season. He made his Orioles debut on April 16, 1955 and went on to appear in just 14 games for them before moving on to the White Sox, who selected him off of waivers from the O's.

This 1955 Bowman card is the only "Orioles" card that came out during his lifetime, so it is a permanent member of my collection. Harry is clearly wearing the Yankees pinstriped jersey, but at least Bowman made the effort to put the Oriole bird on his cap.

After his baseball career ended, Harry returned to his native South Carolina where he worked as a construction foreman before passing away at age 60 in 1985 due to lung cancer. His hometown of Darlington named a road after him that has since been renamed for fellow major leaguer Bobo Newsom.

RIP Harry.


To briefly explain the misspelled/made up title of these weekly posts: Every Friday, I profile a former Oriole who has passed away. I've substituted the word unpossible for impossible as an homage to a line from "The Simpsons". Young Ralph Wiggum, who is not very smart, says "Me fail English? That's unpossible." 

Why Not...Again?

Since the 2012 Orioles are in a bit of a slump right now after starting out the year at such a torrid pace, I'm hoping that showcasing a few autographs of key players on the 1989 Why Not Orioles team might bring the current Birds some luck during their weekend series in Tampa. (I know that my actions on the blog have nothing to do with the team, but maybe this will make me feel better at least!)

I've limited this post to just players who I would consider "full-time" type players for the '89 squad, because when I went to pick out autographs for this post, I quickly realized that I haven't covered this era of Orioles baseball very well at all.

Starting catcher Mickey Tettleton (Oriole #453) made a huge contribution during his second season in Baltimore and led the team with 26 home runs. 

Second baseman Billy Ripken (Oriole #436) continued to prove solid defense in the middle of the diamond alongside his brother Cal, who you might have heard of before. And somehow, this is the first mention of Billy (F&#* Face) Ripken in the history of my blog. That ain't right.

Rookie Craig Worthington (Oriole #449) manned the hot corner with authority and held his own at the plate too. He came in fourth in the A.L. Rookie of the Year voting, losing to a teammate, whom we will soon cover, and finishing directly behind some kid named "Griffey". 

Center-fielder Mike Devereaux (Oriole #469) provided some highlight reel caliber catches during his first season in Birdland and became a fixture in Baltimore over the following six seasons. 

I'm using this 2010 Shorebirds coach card for this post since I've never used it on the blog before, but I'm sure this card is a much better representation of how we all remember Devo. 

Mark Williamson (Oriole #426) was the team's primary set-up guy out of the bullpen and won an insane 10 games without having made a single start. 

Brian Holton (Oriole #465) was another one of the team's primary relief pitchers but also spot-started 12 games.

His name came up recently in a collecting conversation about players who don't seem to sign TTM requests and his signature seems to be relatively tough to come by, at least on Orioles cards.

Wrapping up this post is likely one of my most egregious blogging omissions from the past four years. It seems as though this is my very first mention of the Orioles' lock-down Rookie of the Year closer, Gregg Olson (Oriole #457). It's pitiful really, how could I have never mentioned this guy before today? It is what it is, I suppose.

Anyway, Gregg was lights out during his first full season in Baltimore; he pitched in 64 games, finishing 52 of them, and amassed 27 saves while maintaining a tidy 1.69 ERA. He ran away with the 1989 A.L. Rookie of the Year award (receiving 26 of 28 first place votes) and also came in 6th in Cy Young voting while also receiving some MVP consideration.

Gregg was an All-Star in 1990 and went on to compile 160 saves over his five plus seasons with the O's. It also appears that Gregg is nearly a 100% TTM signer, so I might need to send out a request for a personalized card sometime soon. And I'm just writing about him for the first time today. Shameful.

Thanks Kirk!

I recently completed a trade with Kirk, a fellow Orioles autograph collector who is behind Eutaw Street Cardboard. Here is my haul...

Not the most exciting autographed card ever of Robbie, but definitely an upgrade over my logos-removed Nabisco autographed card from the early '90s.

This card, with it's imperfect autograph, and rather boring posed shot, is almost perfect for my collection based on my feelings about Frank. You can click on my link above to find out how I feel. And if you clink the link to Kirk's site at the top, you can check out his side of the trade.

Spring Training Contest Winner- Congratulations Alvin!

Happy Opening Day everyone. The O's don't play until tomorrow, so today doesn't feel 100% right to me, but I'm still very excited to be watching some "real" baseball.

The Spring Training contest came down to the last few games but the Royals edged out the Giants by a half game to take home the title of the best ST team. The four teams with the best record were all Cactus League teams (Royals, Giants, Rockies, Brewers) and the Astros were the big losers with a 11-24 mark.

Congrats to Alvin who correctly predicted that the Royals would come out on top. He almost nailed their record too by guessing they would go 21-11; they were actually 20-10 which I guess means that they had two ties in there.
Alvin- get in touch with me and we can work on your winnings.

To honor the Royals' dominance, here's a Royals/Orioles mash-up card of Lou Piniella. 

 

 

Lou made his Major League debut with the O's in 1964, only appearing in four games with the team, so I guess no one could drum up a picture of him sporting the Baltimore uniform. His first full season was with the Royals in 1969 and he won the A.L. Rookie of the Year. Not too shabby. 

 

Sweet Lou went on to represent KC in the '72 All-Star game, win two World Series with the Yankees as a player & another as the Reds' manager, and win two N.L. & A.L. Manager of the year awards. He's had a long and successful career in baseball and is currently working as a special advisor for the Giants. 

Congrats again Alvin!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Today is one of my favorite holidays of the year. It doesn't involve a whole lot except sharing some Irish food, green beer and/or car bombs with friends. Very low stress, high fun kind of day. I know some people even take off of work to "celebrate" all day, but I will just have some fun later on. That's enough for me these days.

To observe St. Patty's Day, I decided to show off the greenest cards in my Orioles autograph collection. I know that many cards feature pictures that feature plenty of grass on the field but my focus was the color of the card design. There have been plenty of green colored sets over the years and these are my best representatives.

This '91 Donruss Ron Kittle card is probably the closest color to what I think of as Irish green, it's a little too dark but it's close.

In his rookie year with the White Sox in 1983, Ron won the A.L. Rookie of the Year award and also made the All-Star team. In 1990, he played in 22 games with the O's near the end of his time in the Majors. Ron currently makes some awesome benches out of baseballs, bats & bases. If you have an extra $2500, it might be a nice addition to your house.

This '92 Fleer set is a nice green at the top of the card before fading to white at the bottom. Overall not a great looking set, but a decent green representative.

Roy pitched in the Majors from 1984-91 for the Indians, Twins & Orioles, mainly bouncing between AAA & the big leagues. He appeared in 17 games, including 14 starts, for the '91 O's, going 5-4 with a 5.60 ERA. After he retired in 1993, he has been a scout and Front Office executive for the Pirates, Dodgers, and Mets.

I waffled about including this '91 Score card. It's green and all, but definitely more teal than an Irish green. But screw it, it's a party type of day, not a day for decisions, so here it is.

Tim played for the White Sox, Orioles, and Cardinals over his 12 MLB seasons. He was the O's utility IF from 1989-94 and appeared mainly 3B and 2B.

He has been the manager of the Rangers' Lo-A affiliate, the Spokane (Washington) Indians for the past five seasons and guided them to the 2008 Northwest League championship. He somehow also coaches High School baseball in Louisiana and has led Evangel Christian Academy to state titles in 2006 & 2009.

Tim's son, Tug, has played in the Majors with the Mariners and Royals over the past few seasons.


Have a great day everyone and enjoy a green beer for me. Erin Go Bragh!

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!

Orioles Hall of Fame Week- Frank Robinson

Frank Robinson might be the best all-around player to ever wear the Orioles uniform, but to me, he will always be the jerk who refused to sign a sheet of paper for me at a Minor League baseball game when I was about 8 years old. I'm not a big fan of the man nor of the autographed card of his that's currently in my collection.

It's a certified autograph and all, but it's not an Orioles card per se, so I would like to upgrade it one day. I just have a hard time justifying paying a lot of money for the autograph of a player I don't care for.

Now here's my story. I know that some of you might feel like I should get over the snub and appreciate how great Frank was during his six seasons in Baltimore. Honestly, Frank's playing career was finished six years before I was even born, so while I appreciate and enjoy the World Series Championships that he helped to bring to Baltimore in 1966 & 1970, my only personal experience with him was decidedly negative.

I was at a AA Harrisburg Senators game with my dad sometime during the summer of 1991. There were normally scouts at the games, but the O's must have been off that day, because we spotted their current manager at the game. It was none other than Frank Robinson!

I didn't really do the autograph thing way back then, I was generally too shy, but this was a Hall of Famer. Now I don't remember their being too many more than 500 people at the game because it was really hot and we seemed to be the only two who knew Frank was sitting in the stands. He was wearing a large sun bonnet-sombrero type hat to try to hide his face a bit, but we spotted him anyway. The only thing I had to get signed was the autograph page in the Senators' program but luckily the souvenir stand sold sharpies. I waited until between innings and walked over to Frank and quietly asked if he would sign my paper. "No". And that was that. The other guys he was sitting with, including the O's GM at the time, Roland Hemond, kindly signed my paper, but it was no consolation. Frank had refused my request and I dejectedly went back to my seat and told my dad that he refused to sign. I think my dad considered asking Frank to step outside to teach him some etiquette and/or manners. Now my dad isn't the violent type, so you know he had to be pissed.

About twenty years later, that is still what I think of when I think about Frank, and I probably always will. He's one of my least favorite Orioles because of that and maybe I'd feel different if I was around for his playing days, but I wasn't. As Night Owl commented in my post about Brooks Robinson, his brother had a negative experience with Brooks and it's stuck with him over the years. While that seems to have been uncommon considering Brooksie's typically pleasant demeanor, Frank has a reputation as a curmudgeon. And I'm here to tell you it's true, at least in my experience with him.

If you want to read about Frank's career you can go here or here. Apparently he was pretty good.

 

Don't forget to enter my contest. Tomorrow is your last chance to win a certified autograph of Earl Weaver.

Orioles Hall of Fame Week- Cal Ripken Jr.

One reason that I think I have held off on profiling many of the big-name Orioles Hall of Famers is that I don't feel qualified to write about them. I can blog about the Ramon Nivars and Barry Shetrones of the Orioles past all day and feel like I've done a good job, but trying to summarize Cal Ripken Jr. and what he has meant to me and my love of baseball is a whole different monster.

I was born in 1982 and my love of baseball really started to take shape in the late '80s as I was playing tee-ball and later little league. At that time, I honestly felt like I would make it to the Major Leagues. That obviously never happened, not even close, and I had actually stopped playing by the age of 13 or so, but my love of baseball remains to this day. It's my #1 favorite sport by far; I spend a good part of every day thinking, breathing and day-dreaming about baseball. And if you asked me which one player pops into my head at any given time, it would be Cal.

Now I know that most '92 Fleer cards wouldn't be your first choice to get signed, but I love that this card has the date that the streak started and 2130 on it. Outside of any possible Orioles' World Series Championships in the coming years, I don't think anything can rival "The Streak" and 2131 in my baseball memory hierarchy. Seeing video clips of that game gets to me even to this day. The lead up to 2131 was so amazing. Could Cal stay healthy? Would it benefit the team if he took a day off now and then? How would he handle the pressure?

Well, the "Iron Man" obviously passed Lou Gehrig's record of 2130 consecutive games played and extended the record to 2632 straight games played. My dad took me to a bunch of games in the lead up to 2130 & 2131 and we watched the numbers change of the warehouse count up towards those magical numbers. He tried to find tickets to those two games but the cost was astronomical, I think in the thousands. It just wasn't gonna happen, but I appreciate that he tried so hard. Honestly, it was pretty awesome to see it on TV. I didn't know her back then, but my fiance, Kalina, was lucky enough to have some family friends that took her to 2131. She was standing in line for her "I Was There" t-shirt when Cal homered. Cool stuff, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous, but I am glad that one of us got to be there for it. I was lucky enough to have been at the final game of Cal's career on October 6, 2001.

Kalina gave me this awesome card. 

It didn't scan well because it's in a screw-down case and I was too lazy to take it out for the scan.

Most of you know that Cal was the 1982 AL ROY, won the AL MVP in 1983 & '91, caught the final out in the O's '83 World Series victory, made 19 All-Star teams, won 2 Gold Gloves, 8 Silver Sluggers, was the All-Star Game MVP in 1991 & 2001, and won the '91 Home Run Derby. He has won countless other awards and honors over his illustrious career, too many to list.

Cal's #8 was retired by the O's in 2001 and he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2007, his first year of eligibility. Thanks for everything Cal!

I have to plug my HOF week contest. Some of you have been earning a bunch of bonus entries. I won't comment on how you can earn them, but there are some clues in previous posts.

Orioles Hall of Fame Week- EDDIE

HOF week (don't forget to enter the contest) rolls on with one of the greatest switch-hitters of all-time, Eddie Murray.

Eddie played in the Major Leagues for 21 seasons from 1977-97, and is best remembered for the twelve seasons he spent with the O's at the start of his career. Over that time, Eddie was one of the most feared hitters in all of baseball. He won the 1977 AL ROY, was voted into eight All-Star games, received MVP votes for nine seasons, and won three Gold Gloves and three Silver Slugger awards during his career, the majority of those honors coming between 1977-86. While not the worst trade in Orioles history, when the Orioles sent Eddie to the Dodgers in 1988 for Juan Bell, Brian Holton and Ken Howell, it was probably the worst trade in O's history at that time. Frankly put, Eddie's bag of bats would've been a fairer trade for those three.

Later in his career, Eddie reached the 3000 hit and 500 HR plateaus, and appropriately hit his 500th HR during his second stint with the Orioles in 1996. He is one of only four players to ever reach both of those magical numbers, the others being Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Rafael Palmeiro. Eddie was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in 2003. I took this picture of his plaque on my trip to Cooperstown with Kalina during our Cooperstown-Niagara Falls-Toronto road trip in 2009.

I will always remember the EDDIE-EDDIE-EDDIE chants echoing through Memorial Stadium and later Camden Yards.

Happy MLK Day

I'm off work today and I'm guessing that some of you are, too, so I'll keep this short. I think that it's important to remember the work of Civil Rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., who fought to make and keep our country equal for all people, regardless of race. Without his continued work and determination, along with players like Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby who broke baseball's color barrier, a guy like Earl Williams might never have had the chance to play in the Major Leagues. I can't imagine splitting up players and segregating the league just because of the color of the players' skin.

Earl was the 1971 National League Rookie of the Year while with the Braves. If the Majors hadn't been integrated, an inferior white player would have won that award, and that doesn't seem right to me. It bothers me that all-time greats like Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell never had the chance to play professionally against the white players of their day. But you obviously can't go back in time to change anything; I'm just glad that today's players are only judged based on their talent level.

Unpossible Autograph Wednesday- Walt Dropo

(I'm moving this week's unpossible autograph feature up from Friday since I don't think it seems right to do a sad post on Christmas Eve)

The Orioles family painfully lost another former member when Walt Dropo passed away on Friday, December 17 of natural causes after a long battle with Alzheimer's. It has been just under a month since Tom Underwood died and I examined how bad 2010 has been in regards to former O's passing away. Walt is the 13th former Oriole to die this year, further extending the record number of former Oriole deaths in a single calendar year.

Walt played for the Red Sox, Tigers, White Sox, Redlegs & Orioles over his 13 season MLB career from 1949-61. The highlight of his career was being selected the 1950 A.L. Rookie of the Year and leading the league in RBI and total bases, also making his only All-Star team. He would never find that level of success again, but forged a solid career as a first base platoon player.

Walt earned the nickname "Moose" because he grew up in Moosup, Connecticut where his parents had emigrated to from Yugoslavia. He was a three sport star at UConn, also excelling in football and basketball, before he decided to pursue a career in baseball.

RIP Walt. Let's hope that 2010 ends without anymore sadness in Birdland.

Albie "Little Man" Pearson

Albie Pearson 1959-60

Albie was the smallest baseball player of his era, and possibly of all time (outside of any stunts that Bill Veeck might have pulled) but he was able to have a pretty good career anyway. He was listed as being only 5'5" and 140 pounds which earned him the nickname "Little Man" from Ted Williams among others.

He is probably best remembered for being the 1958 AL Rookie of the Year while with the Washington Senators. He was traded to the Orioles in the middle of the '59 season in exchange for Lenny Green. While with the O's, he played all three outfield positions and was a regular member of the lineup for the rest of the 1959 season. He also started 1960 in Baltimore but was sent to the Minor Leagues in the middle of the season before being called back up in September. The expansion Los Angeles Angels (yes, they were briefly called that upon their inception before changing the moniker to the California Angels in 1965) drafted Albie away from the Orioles following the 1960 season. He had the best year of his career with them in 1963 and earned his only All-Star berth as well as a few MVP votes.

After he retired from baseball, Albie became an ordained non-denominational minister and has started numerous churches around the world. He also started the Father's Heart Ranch for abused or neglected boys. Nice work Albie.