Unpossible Autograph Friday- Ryan Freel

During the time that I took away from this blog around Christmas, I heard the very sad news that Ryan Freel had passed away. Then a day or so later, I read that he had committed suicide. It is always very sad to hear when something awful like this happens, and I don't honestly feel very qualified to say much about the situation other than comment on how tragic it is for his family. But I will try.

Freel was known for playing the game without regard to his own well-being, frequently crashing into walls and diving into the stands in pursuit of a ball. While this is an admirable, and at times, necessary, way to play in the Majors, it unfortunately also led to his having by his own estimation, nine or ten concussions over the course of his playing career. Now, I haven't heard of a direct connection between the concussions and his passing, but based on the amount of head trauma research being done about football players, I don't feel like it's too much of a stretch to theorize that they could have been at least a contributing factor in his decision to take his own life.

While I don't have many memories of Freel during the nine games he played in for the Orioles early in the 2009 season, the final image that O's fans have of him is of him lying on the ground at second base in Boston after being hit in the head with an errant pickoff throw while diving back to the bag, possibly causing one of those concussions.

Unfortunately, I also don't have any personal autograph memories from during his time with the O's since a friend got this card signed for me prior to the 2009 season at Orioles Fanfest.

RIP Ryan, you left way too soon.

Orioles Autograph Year in Review: Inconclusive players

So I've been thinking about how I should go about my project regarding the '09 Orioles players signing habits. I am going to start by addressing the players who played less than 20 games for the O's and who I didn't get a good feel for their signing habits. So this post will mainly focus on bench players, injured types, and players who weren't cut out to wear the orange and black.

I will start with a few guys who played in less than 10 games for the O's due to injury or poor play.



Alfredo's 09 season lasted all of 2 starts. Well, that's not even very accurate. His season lasted 1 bad start and a second start in which he was pulled in the second inning due to injury. I think it was a shoulder injury that he was initially to have been able to rehab from, but that never happened.

His season ended (and the starting rotation began to fall apart) on April 14. I have seen that some people have had success with him signing TTM with items sent to the Orioles offices. He is one of only 2 players on the '09 roster that I don't have an autograph of, but this is the card I want signed.


I got this card signed at the last game of the season. I tried to call Chris over to sign at a few other games but he never seemed too excited about signing. In a way, he seemed shocked that anyone knew who he was when I called out his name. He only appeared in 4 games in the mop-up role, so he didn't factor into the season very much.

Chris did manage to rack up some decent strike out numbers during his appearances and was the bullpen rookie backpack bearer for the last month of the season.




I got these card's signed by Bob at the Tides game I went to earlier this season. He seemed pretty good at signing there but I don't believe I saw him sign once in Baltimore.

Bob's time with the Orioles organization is likely over. He has appeared in 15 games over the past two seasons and has a 16.46 ERA. He has NOT allowed a run in only 5 of those games, and four of them were last season. Not good.



Adam signed this card for me after shagging fly balls during O's batting practice.
Most of you are probably aware that his time in Baltimore didn't go that well (2-5 record, 8.56 ERA) but he seemed like a decent signer. The O's released him on May 22 and the Rockies picked him up on June 6, and eventually released him on September 9.

After he was released by the Orioles, Allen & Ginter released a card of him in an O's uniform that I really want to get signed.




Radhames only appeared in 2 games for the O's this season and I don't recall seeing him sign during his brief stint with the Birds. I was able to get him to sign in Norfolk and Bowie this season, but he did seem to have a "big-league" attitude while with the Baysox. By that I mean he seemed like he was a little above signing for the Bowie fans.



I didn't really enjoy Freel's time with the Orioles. I wasn't a big fan of his attitude or his view of what his playing time should be. Apparently neither did the Cubs, Royals or Rangers who all designated him for assignment during the '09 season after his time with the O's.

A friend (shout out to Meghan!) got this signed for me at FanFest. I don't think he signed much outside of that time.

3 New Orioles to add to the list

Three players made their Orioles debuts in last night's O's game in Boston. I don't want to talk about the game at all except for mentioning the new Birds. I have very little good to say about the game last night, it was total crap.

In order of appearance:

The Orioles claimed Chris Lambert off waivers from the Tigers on August 20, 2009 and he made his O's debut last night with 2 outs in the bottom of the third inning with one runner on.

His stats for Detroit in 11 games over the past two seasons: 1-3, 7.90 ERA, 2.049 WHIP

His stats for the O's last night: 13.50 ERA, 1.500 WHIP, 1 HR, 1 BB, 2 ER in 1.1 innings pitched. Only 12 of his 23 pitches were strikes

Chris Lambert does not give me a good feeling in my belly. He might only be an Oriole for a brief amount of time. And yes, Core Contrarian did warn me.



Justin Turner came to the Orioles in the Ramon Hernandez trade this past offseason. That automatically makes him OK in my book. He made his major league debut in the top of the 7th inning last night, replacing Melmo in the lineup and at third base. He went 0-2, striking out swinging in his debut AB and lining out softly in the ninth. Hey, that's still better than Ramon Hernandez, and probably Ryan Freel, combined!




Guillermo Rodriguez or G-Rod as we referred to him as at Bowie this season, made his Orioles debut as a defensive replacement for Matt Wieters in the bottom of the 6th inning. He also struck out to end the game (and the misery) in his only plate appearance.

He played 39 games for the '07 Giants in his only other Major League action to date. He is a minor league veteran who has played in 852 minor leagues games over the past 14 seasons so it's always nice to see a guy like him make it to the Bigs.


As you can see I was able to get G-Rod's autograph a couple of times while he played for the Baysox, so I am happy to add him both to the list of players who played for the O's and to the list of players that I have autographs of. It's always ideal for me to be able to do that since it makes my project so much easier.


*I stole the scans of the Lambert & Turner cards from Ebay. I try to avoid this but i had no choice as I had no pictures of either.

Chris Tillman debuts! Or Ryan Freel makes his long awaited return to Camden Yards

Sorry if the title of the post confused anyone; I had to make the joke since Freel (on his third team this season) is in town with the Royals.

But, seriously, Chris Tillman made his big league debut last night against KC. He didn't do too well or poorly but kept the Orioles in the game and left to a nice standing "O"vation from the fans who waited through a 45 minute rain delay to see his debut. Chris pitched 4.2 innings and allowed 3 earned runs, which were all solo home runs, so I can make the argument that he really only threw three bad pitches. He did throw 58 of his 93 pitches for strikes and while that is a lot for 4.2 innings, at least he was keeping it in the zone.

Here are some of my pictures and autographs of Tillman:


I have to start with the shot of Tillman and me at the Tides game I attended earlier this season. You can read about the trip here if you missed the post.




The Tides have one player sign on the concourse when the gates open and I was lucky enough that it was Tillman! You can even see that he is smiling in this picture although he appears to prefer being photographed straight-faced.



I got this Tillman card signed last year while he was at Bowie. He was a consistently good signer and I was able to get him a few times.




Here is Tillman in the dugout before the game. I like to think he was visualizing a W.



And here is Chris Tillman's first Major League pitch. Here's to hoping that there are many more pitches and victories in his future with the Birds. And I won't complain if he mixes a few Cy Young trophies and World Series rings in too.

But the Keys Lost 2/2

Here are the rest of the autographs I got at Friday's Keys game:



The cards on the left and right are very similar but Nate switched in up in the 06 Ironbirds card in the middle.



Here Ryan Rodriguez makes another appearance. These cards are proof of his brief time in Bowie but he is back in Frederick, where he probably belongs.


Kennie Steenstra is the Keys' pitching coach and has been for the past two seasons. Somehow I never got his autograph before and had been toting this card around for 1.5 seasons. He is normally in a rush to get to the field to work with his pitchers. Come on Kennie, what's more important, signing an auto for me or making your pitchers better?



Bobby Stevens is fielding in this picture. I don't know much about him and have no insight to share. Sorry for the poor effort here.



Jake Stevens was drafted by the Braves in the 3rd round of the 2003 draft. This is his first season in the O's organization and he did not pitch at all last season after being released by the Braves, so he is trying to make a comeback this year. I really like the card on the right for some reason; it's like he is mesmerized by the baseball.



Brandon Waring was traded to the Orioles this past offseason along with Ryan Freel and Justin Turner from the Reds in exchange for Ramon Hernandez. There haven't been many Orioles that I don't like but I would've been happy to trade Ramon for his weight in excrement. He played such uninspiring baseball that it brought down everyone around him. Freel was a bust but hopefully Brandon and Justin will help out the Birds for years to come. Brandon hit a HR in the game and he plays a position that will likely be open in Baltimore starting next year.



Robbie was named the O's minor league player of the month for June. This was my first time seeing him and he seemed a little cocky. It was a snap judgment so I hope I'm wrong but who knows. I will get back about this next time I see him play.



Rick started Friday's game and was a little shaky. He was drafted in the 6th round of the 2008 draft and has already jumped from Aberdeen to Frederick in just over a year so I would expect some growing pains. And check out that crazy leg kick!

Notes from Friday's game

So I've had a busy Saturday/Sunday of Easter weekend, but wanted to pass along a few things from Friday's game.

First off, the game had the first full stadium wave of the season. Not that I consider them to be overly exciting after a full season of witnessing them, the first one is always a nice sign that baseball is back in Birdland!

I wanted to also comment on the overall excellent OF defense that the Orioles have this year. Freel, Jones and Markakis were able to track down almost anything the Rays could hit at them. There was one play that concerned me a bit however. A Ray, I think Pat Burrell, hit a pop up to shallow left center that both Jonesy and Izturis were tracking. Neither of them appeared to ever call for it and they nearly collided, allowing the ball to drop between them. While, I'm very glad that neither appeared to be hurt, I would like some better communication out there! We can't afford to lose either of them to injury!

Also, since Lance Cormier appeared in relief for the Rays, I wanted to pass along a quick story from his O's days. Last season I happened to be in the Orioles Store in the warehouse at the same time Cormier was and, since he wore #54 for the O's last year, he was excited that a lot of the Orioles gear had '54 listed on them (signifying the first year the Birds started playing in Baltimore). I told you the story would be quick, and relatively interesting!

Finally, I wanted to pass along that Kalina sent out her first TTM request yesterday, well at least the first since Edgar Martinez shunned her years ago. Her request went to Mike Hessman, a player in the Tigers system, whom we saw play this Spring. He is a gigantic 3rd baseman who clobbered a HR to deep left field, at the same time adding at least one new fan. I hope that he comes through for her! The ball is in your court Mike.

I hope that everyone is having a great Easter weekend, if you happen to celebrate it! And let's all hope the O's can finish off the sweep of the Rays today. It's been a great start to the season.

O's FanFest=new autographs! (Updated with pictures!)

Here is the Bob Kuzava card I blogged about the other day

So I've had a busy weekend, hence no new posts and I don't have a lot left in the tank for a great post right now. But since I told myself I wouldn't skip blogging for two consecutive days, here I go.

I had one of my greatest autograph weekends ever! I put in the time and effort at Orioles FanFest yesterday and it really paid off. I was able to get two current Orioles' autographs, Ryan Freel & Matt Albers, thanks to some friends!

I also got autos from a number of past Orioles; Paul Blair, Dick Hall, Dave Johnson, Scott McGregor, Tim Nordbrook (who my girlfriend and I agree was one of the nicest players ever, he complimented my hat!) Jim Palmer & Larry Sheets.








I also purchased a Luke Scott UD Inkcredible and a Brian Burres UD Star Signings.




I didn't have an autograph from Freel, Albers, Hall, Nordbrook or Scott, so I now have 320 different O's autographs, 37.1% of my goal. I finally feel like I am making some progress since I started writing about my collection so that's nice. I will delve a bit more into my experience tomorrow and will try to have pictures both of the players signing and of the cards. I also have to thank my girlfriend and parents for their help, I know I can use as much of it as I can get.

(L to R) Dick Hall, Scott McGregor, Tim Nordbrook

Tim Nordbrook & Jim Palmer

And many thanks to my buddy at Lance Burnitz's blog for sending me an awesome Sam Horn autograph. I hope to put together something to send him this week.



And O by the way, tomorrow is Opening Day! Everyone put on your black & orange and come out to the Yard! Let's watch the Birds take out the awful Stanks to start the season. You can't have a perfect season unless you win the first game! LET'S GO O'S!