Orioles Coaches Collection Pt. 2 & Congrats to Bobby Dickerson

Around the time that I was writing the first part of my Orioles coaches email yesterday, the Orioles officially announced that they had hired a new third base coach for the 2013 season, Bobby Dickerson.

Luckily, I already had Bobby's autograph in my collection, as he had been a minor league instructor for the organization over the past few seasons. Even better is the fact that Bobby played in the organization back in the day, so this autograph is going to stay in my collection, with the likely addition of a team-issued Orioles postcard.


Moving on to wrap up the various signed coaches cards in my collection...In case you missed it, yesterday I profiled some of the types of signed items of Orioles coaches that are in my collection. Today, I'm showing off the rest.

Many of the men who have coached for the Orioles played at the MLB during their career and were thusly included in some major release sets for whichever teams they played with; this variety of autograph makes up a good 20-25% of my coaches collection.

 Some other coaches were MLB managers at some point along the way, and so signed copies of the cards that commemorated their assorted managerial stints reside in my collection.

While a couple other guys were at one point minor league managers or players and so signed versions of those cards fill their spots in my collection.

 I love pulling out a fairly rare card like this for a guy like Graham to sign. There aren't many of these going around and guys like Graham (who is currently some sort of O's minor league instructor) don't typically get many autograph requests.

If you're wondering why there are two cards from the AA Eastern League Harrisburg Senators, they are the team that was closest to my hometown of Carlisle, PA, so I've been to more than my share of Senators games.

I also have this Orioles signed team card of Stearns from during the time of his O's coaching stint. I never know how to feel about these team signed cards. They are obviously better than nothing, but I still prefer to see a picture of a person with my autographs. Which is why I'm such a fan of my dad's custom cards.


Finally, to finish off the collection, I present to you my autograph a man who was an Orioles coach in 1963, and also happens to be in the Hall of Fame for his on-field success during his playing career, Mr. Luke Appling.

I particularly like this autograph as it fits in both my Orioles coach collection, and my minuscule HOF postcard collection. Two birds with one stone is my kind of thing.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed seeing some of my autographs of the men who have helped to shape the Orioles over the years.

Minor League Rehab Successes

Over the past two weeks, multiple members of the Orioles have been rehabbing with some nearby minor league affiliates. And knowing that this is one of my best chances to get autographs from these guys, you know I ventured out to try my luck. And I didn't come away disappointed. 

The AA Bowie Baysox had three Orioles players on their roster two weeks ago, so I hit up a few games. 

At the first game I attended, I was lucky enough to get B-Rob's autograph. He has been a tough autograph to get in recent years, so counted myself lucky to get him. 

I got the other two O's rehabbers at the second Baysox game I attended,  

and was very happy to upgrade my Mark Reynolds autograph to this personalized card, 

and to get Endy Chavez to sign his 2012 Orioles team set card.

Former Oriole Cesar Devarez is a coach for the Baysox, and while I've gotten his autograph a handful of times over the years, I never asked for a personalization until now.

Terry Crowley is some sort of minor league instructor for the O's this season and he also makes occasional appearances at the minor league games. This time around I lucked out and upgraded my autograph of his as well. When I asked him to personalize "To Ryan" he asked if that was me or my son (I don't have any kids, if you care), and I fessed up and said it was me and that I was a collector. Hey, I know that not too many adults are out there still getting autographs, but there ain't no shame in my game.

Autograph pictures from my trip

As I try to catch up on work, and life in general, after my trip I want to make sure I get back to posting regularly (whatever that might be). Pictures of the Orioles playing at the Skydome are forthcoming. And I do know that it's now officially called the Rogers Centre, but I definitely prefer calling it the Skydome.

In the meantime, here are most of the Orioles autographs that I was able to get in Toronto. I love going to O's road games since it is so much easier to get autographs from the Birds. These are presented more or less in order of how much I like the players, and/or whether or not I already have their autographs.

While I'm OK with the Gregg Zaun trade, I was not prepared for it, so didn't have my Moeller cards on the trip with me. I got him on this cool O-Pee-Chee Orioles checklist. But Bad Chad surprising me like that!

Felix finally signed for me at a game.

Berky got the win on Friday, which is the only reason he is ranked this high. I ran into his cousin before that game; he seemed like a really nice guy. And don't get the wrong idea, I don't know Berken but his cousin said hi since I was wearing my Orioles gear.

Dino continued to be a good signer, and to look tough in all pictures taken of him.

Guthrie signed but seems to like to mess with some of the fans by telling them he will sign and then running away multiple times.

Finally an in-person success with "The Crow"!

Also my first time getting Brian Bass in-person. I think Toronto was a good luck charm for me.


Probably the best signer on the team, LUUUKE signed for everyone, and some of their mothers.


This isn't the first time Melmo signed for me, but it is the first time this season.


Ty finally signed this card; his first in an Orioles uniform.


"Claw" signed for me! He has moved down a little on my favorite O's list as he keeps giving up runs but this is an awesome action shot of him pitching!


I think that this is now my favorite Jonesy autograph. What a great looking card.


Nolan was signing and let's just say that Kalina was a little bit happy about that.


But Wiety signed too! And I was very happy about that!
It's the first time I got him to sign since he was promoted to the O's in late May.
He signed all three days of the series too.

So, to wrap up this post; I highly recommend that, if you love the Orioles and getting them to sign things for you, you should hit the road with the team sometime. They are much more likely to sign since there are many fewer O's fans than in Baltimore and it's always cool to check out other ballparks.

Theory about Felix Pie's surprising improvement

While it may be reported that Felix Pie's improvement at the plate has to do with the excellent tutelage of Crow (Terry Crowley) I have a different idea about why he had an Omazing game last night.
Sidebar-And I can't continue on without giving major props to the O's. They all showed some real heart last night in the franchise's largest comeback in their 55 year history. The O's were down 10-1 and came back to beat the Red Sox 11-10. It was awesome to see but I just wish I had been there.

Back to P-yay, who came in to replace an injured Adam Jones in the top of the third inning of last night's game. The Orioles were already down 4-0 and had been held scoreless by the Red Sox pitching staff for the previous 17 consecutive innings, dating back to the April 20th Patriot's Day game in Boston. So what did Felix do during his first at-bat of last night's game? Oh, he just lined a triple to right field that scored Robert Andino from first base! The O's broke the nasty scoreless streak and I think this was the first domino in a long line to fall against the Sawx last night. Felix finished the night 2-4 with 2 RBI and has started today's game 1-1 with another RBI. He is absolved for being thrown out at second base while trying to stretch the single into a double because of last night's performance.

Oscar Salazar's 3 run HR in the 7th might have had a greater impact on the final score, but it was Felix the Cat (Luuuke's nickname for P-yay) that showed the O's that they could still scored against the Evil Empire. And yes, that title is now shared for the O's two hated AL East rivals.

Ok, so by now, you are probably wondering what my theory is regarding Felix's sudden turnaround. Well, Felix was scheduled to appear at the York Galleria Mall yesterday from noon-1pm. York is approximately 45 minutes North of Baltimore for those of you who aren't familiar with the area.
Now, as you can imagine, it would be hard for many O's fans to make it to a signing that occurs 45 minutes from the core of the fan base. I went to college in York and the baseball fans are probably 50/50 Orioles and Phillies. So the Orioles decided to take one of the last guys on the roster 45 minutes away from most of his potential fans at lunch time on a Tuesday. Needless to say, there was not a good turnout.

Luckily for me, Kalina teaches summer school and was able to go for my sake, hence these two nice autographs. But she reported to me that Felix did not seemed pleased about the few people that seemed interested in meeting him or getting his autograph. That has to bruise the ego of a Major League player. So I think a fire was lit in P-yay and he decided that he was going to live up to his potential and dominate in last night's game. Hopefully that fire will continue to burn and he will step it up for the rest of the season.

Finishing off my C autos

Since I didn't make it to any games this weekend and didn't get any cards back in the mail, I will finish up with my C autographs. Since it has been so long since I started this, you can catch up on it here and here.

Mike Cook 1993

This is the only card I had of Mike when I got it signed at a game. He only pitched in 2 games for the O's but I remember him since this is the only card I got signed on the team playing cards.

Rocky Coppinger 1996-99

I remember the O's had high hopes for a bright future for him at one point but doesn't Rocky's autograph looks pretty good on this card? That's something positive right?

Moving on...


Terry "the Crow" Crowley 1969-73, 76-82

The current O's hitting coach is widely regarded as the best Oriole pinch hitter of all time, with his 108 career pinch hits ranking 13th most all-time in MLB. He was also the Orioles first designated hitter, filling the roll once the rule was implemented in 1973.

Todd Cruz 1983-84

Todd unfortunately passed away last fall at the young age of 52 while swimming in a pool at his apartment complex. He will always be remembered by O's fans for being a valuable member of the 1983 World Series championship squad. He filled the role of Curly of the "Three Stooges" along with Rick Dempsey and Rich Dauer in the bottom third of the '83 lineup.

Darwin Cubillan 2004

I don't remember Darwin being an Oriole at all and this is only card (that I'm aware of) of him in an affiliates uniform. He only pitched in 7 games as a reliever for the O's and had a 5.40 ERA.
The most interesting thing I could find about him is that he pitched in Japan and Korea after being released by the O's but was known only as Darwin since Cubillan sounds like "Kubi Yan" which means "he is fired, isn't he?" in Japanese. Thank you Wikipedia.

"Stumbling" Jack Cust 2003-04

This story sums up Jack's time as an Oriole:

During a game in August 2003 between O's and the Yankees, Cust was the would-be tying run in the 12th inning with two outs when he tried to score from first on a single to the gap by Larry Bigbie. Cust first stumbled and tumbled over between third and home, and hence was caught in a rundown. Cust somehow got past the defense, and was sprinting towards home with nobody covering it. The O's were going to win the game!!! Instead of scoring the winning run, however and inexplicably, Cust fell down for the second time. He was tagged out by Aaron Boone to end the game and cemented the nickname of "Stumbling Jack" in Orioles fans' brains forever.

Jackpot!

So while I was back in PA at my parents house over the weekend, I was going through a bunch of my old baseball cards and came across a stash of signed cards that I had forgotten about. Included in these were a bunch of autographs of former O's, but the cards that were signed were when they were on other teams. I know that I said that I wouldn't generally share the pictures of these cards, but since this was such a pleasant surprise, I decided to show them via collage.

Al Reyes, Jeff Reboulet, Ryan McGuire, Lenny Webster, John Wasdin, Jerome Walton

Jim Corsi, Shawn Boskie, Mike Boddicker, Tito Landrum, Mike Fetters, Terry Crowley

Also, Joe Altobelli, who never played for the O's but nevertheless is on an O's card:
The Reyes & Boskie are upgrades over autographs I already had for both players, but the rest are new to me. So that is 9 new O's autographs there and then with the addition of the the three returned TTM requests below from Duane Pillete, Don Lenhardt & Bob Hale my total number of O's autos up to 336! That is 38.9% of my goal and a nice increase for a weekend!





Dave Trembley was also nice enough to sign for me at Friday's game!