"Orioles" Bobblehead of the Week- Nolan Reimold

Only one week into my Orioles Bobblehead of the Week (OBW) series, I decided that I was going stretch my definition of what constitutes an Orioles Bobblehead. I consider all of my bobbleheads from the Orioles and their minor league affiliates to be in the Oriole family. Without further delay...

 

Here's a Nolan Reimold bobblehead that was given away by the AA Bowie Baysox on July 22, 2010. I figured that it was appropriate to show Nolan's bobble this week since he is having a great spring training so far. Oh yeah, and he's one of Kalina's favorite players. 

Nolan is definitely on the bubble of the O's roster this year, but his performance through the first two weeks has only helped his chances of heading north with the team.  

It's very fitting that the Baysox made a bobblehead commemorating Nolan's time in Bowie since he led them to the Eastern League playoffs in 2008.  He also made the regular and post-season Eastern League All-Star teams that year, and had possibly the greatest single-game performance in Baysox history during those '08 Playoffs. On September 3, 2008, Nolan hit three home runs and had 8 RBI against the Akron Aeros, the Indians AA affiliate. That date happens to be my birthday, and one of my presents from Kalina was Baysox playoff tickets, so we were in the first row behind the Baysox dugout for Nolan's fireworks display. It was AMAZING.

 

 The Orioles also gave away a Reimold bobblehead last season as part of the OF mini-bobble set. Unfortunately, the giveaway date was May 26, exactly two weeks after Nolan had been shipped to AAA Norfolk. 

 

 

Many fans' bobbleheads were also broken off the base when they opened them up due to insufficient styrofoam protection. I remember that there was a bunch of separated bobble bodies and bases left with all the trash at the end of the game. Luckily, only one of my two was broken and it was fairly easily fixed with some super glue. Now if his head angle could only be adjusted. Any bobble collectors out there have any suggestions from me?

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Bob Alexander

Continuing to show the tough Orioles autographs I recently purchased from a friendly ebay seller, like the cards from last Friday and yesterday, here is Bob Alexander. He is special to my collection because his name was at the top of my alphabetized need list for a long time, an honor that is now bestowed to John Anderson, who I am guessing will be there for an even longer time since he virtually disappeared after his playing career ended.

As far as I know, this Crown card is the only card produced of Bob during his career, which is understandable since he only pitched in 9 MLB games over two seasons in the mid to late 1950's. But as far as picture quality goes, this could be the worst in the set. It's defintely in the top 5.

I know that I've complained about how other cards in this set show players wearing other team's caps, but that would be an upgrade over this picture. Baseball-Reference.com has a pretty nice head shot of Bob in an Indians hat that puts this photo to shame. This picture looks like Bob is wearing a jersey but the focus seems to be on his hair and forehead. And what is he looking at?!? Oh well, at least it looks a lot better since it's signed.

Bob pitched in four games for the '55 O's and five games for the '57 Indians; that was it for his time in the Bigs. The most interesting thing I found about his playing career was the outlandish names of some of the minor league teams he played for over his 18 seasons in the minors. He played for the Rugmakers, Tars, Triplets and Exporters, among others. Crazy, right?

I also felt that I should mention that Bob served in the military during WWII but did not deploy before the war ended. Thanks for your service and RIP Bob.

Tony Chevez & Nicaraguan Orioles

Last Friday, I mentioned that I found an ebay seller with some tough-to-find Orioles autographs. Well here's another one of them, Mr. Tony Chevez.

Tony's autograph is very hard to track down, and I've never actually seen another example of it to compare this one to, but everything else I got from this seller checked out so I have no reason to believe that Chevez isn't legit as well. Tony pitched in only four games for the 1977 Orioles and seems to have fairly well disappeared, possibly back to Nicaragua, after his professional baseball career ended following the 1979 season.

The only lead I've ever been able to track down for him is that current Padres SS Jason Bartlett is his son-in-law. I'm such an Orioles autograph freak that I considered trying to talk to Bartlett during his time with the Rays about Chevez's whereabouts. I never did, and doubt I would've gotten anywhere with that anyway. Can you imagine someone walking up to you at your job asking you where your father-in-law lives? It comes off a little strange. Even I will admit that.

Tony was the second baseball player from Nicaragua to make it to the Majors after "El Presidente" Dennis Martinez.

 

Martinez is still the most famous player to make it to the Majors from his home country with only Vicente Padilla giving him any sort of competition. Porfi Altamirano and Devern Hansack aren't gonna give him a run for the money on this one.

El Presidente pitched for the O's for the first 11 years of his 23 seasons in the big leagues. He was a four time All-Star (none of those appearances were during his time with the O's), pitched a perfect game for the Expos in 1991 and led the American League with 14 wins in 1981 and the N.L. with a 2.39 ERA in 1991. His 245 career victories are the most of any Latin American pitcher. So he found just a little more Major League success than his fellow countryman Chevez, but Chevez leads the way in the hard to find autograph category.

Martinez has been a pitching coach in the Cardinals organization for the past few years and has signed TTM requests from time to time but my two attempts (in May & August 2009) have not made it back to me yet, and I'm not hopeful at this point. I picked up this signed card in a trade and I think that he signs one of the coolest and most unique M's that I've ever seen.

TTM Successes- Pat Hentgen

Kind of continuing the facial hair post from yesterday, here are a few TTM autographs of Pat Hentgen. Both cards show him wearing a horseshoe mustache, which certainly pushed the "mustaches only" facial hair policy to the limits. Yeah it's a mustache, but it extended well below the upper lip, which definitely muddied the waters of the rule.

 

Pat is an 86% signer, which is solid for a recent player so I figured it was a safe bet to send him a TTM request. But I sent these two cards to Pat in two different requests. Here's the reason...

I sent this 2001 Topps Limited in October 2009 to an address that people had been having success with for a long time, but shortly after I sent it, people began sending to a different address for Pat. So how did I get it signed? Stick with me and I'll get to that part.

In February 2010, I sent this 2002 Fleer card to Pat's new address. I got the card back in 8 days. It was personalized as I like and I was happy. 

But then, right before Christmas 2010, I got the first card back, also signed and personalized after 441 days. But something wasn't right. Take a second to compare the signatures. They aren't very similar at all. The '02 Fleer is signed Patrick, and after doing some research, I wasn't able to find a single other example of his signature that was signed Patrick. Most of the other examples closely resemble his autograph on the '01 Topps Limited. So it's possible the other address was a different Pat Hentgen, but both addresses are in Michigan only a seven minute drive apart so it seems unlikely. Regardless, I'm pretty sure that Pat didn't sign the '02 Fleer. 

What do you all think? Does anyone else have Pat's signature, maybe an in-person sig, for comparison?

A Return To Sanity

After thirteen-ish seasons of forcing players to remain hairless below their lips (read- mustaches only), it's official that the Orioles have relaxed their facial hair policy. It seems to have changed partially due to the addition of veterans like Derrek Lee and Vlad Guerrero who have long sported goatees but was also helped by Buck Showalter's clubhouse culture updates. Let's face it, the rule was silly and (most) baseball players look better with some sort of facial hair. It let's them show their personality and it's not like it affects the way the game is played. Former Oriole Kevin Millar championed the "Beards for Birds" effort throughout his three seasons in Birdland, but unfortunately didn't make any headway at the time.

 Crappy cell phone pic from 2010 FanFest, Markakis is on the left

 

2010 Spring Training, Credit to the Baltimore Sun on this one

Longtime O's Nick Markakis and Luke Scott have generally rocked Grizzly Adams style beards in past offseasons, but had to shave when they officially reported to Spring Training. I don't think these glorious face-warmers will still be allowed, but at least they can have some sort of whiskers to keep them happy.

The Rick Sutcliffe autograph at the top of the post is definitely the best cardboard representative showing off Orioles facial hair in my collection. Between the full beard and the mullet, Sutcliffe might have had the overall best Orioles hair in Bawlmer history.

But the Red Baron wasn't the only Orioles player pictured on cards sporting some facial hair.

 Mark McLemore sported a goatee in Baltimore and used it to collect dirt while stealing bases

 

The Fu Manchu-ness of Alan Mills' goatee helped to intimidate batters

 

And do you think Big Ben would've looked quite so badass without the facial hair? 

No, he would not.

As I'm sure you can tell, I'm thrilled that the players finally have facial hair freedom in Baltimore. It was one of those silly rules that didn't help attract players to a perennially downtrodden franchise. 

Will it help to bring any marquee free agents to the O's? Possibly not. 

But could the clean shaven rule have ever tipped a player against signing with a team that already had trouble selling itself? There's a chance. 

Spring Training Contest Update- The Braves are in the Lead

Well, we're just over a week into Spring Training action and, as of this morning, the Braves have the best record at 7-2 which should make Captain Canuck happy. The 6-2 Royals and Twins are trailing them closely, while the 8-3 Giants, 6-3 Rangers & Reds, and 4-2 Orioles aren't far behind.

The 1-7 Tampa Bay Rays remain at the back of the pack and I can say with a fair amount of confidence that they will not have the best Spring Training record in consecutive seasons. That's just too many games to make up in a just over three weeks.

To celebrate the Braves lead, I wanted to show off an autograph of an Orioles player on a Braves card and this was the closest thing I could find.

The unforgettable Chris Brock. OK, I need some work on my descriptive terms. I had no idea who Chris was before I started my project but he pitched in the Majors from 1997-2002 for the Phillies, Giants, Orioles and Braves. He had an 18-17 record and 4.81 ERA over 148 games, and was 2-1 with a 4.70 ERA in 22 games for the 2002 O's in what would prove to be his final big league action.

It seems like the most newsworthy thing that he did during his career was during his time with the Phillies when he complained to GM Ed Wade about HOF broadcaster Harry Kalas's habit of riding in the back of the team charter with the players. He was apparently the only one who had an issue with this as Kalas was at the back of the plane entertaining everyone a few days later. Not a good way to endear yourself to the other players or the organization.

Brock is pictured as an Oriole on a 2002 UD 40 Man card but is not a good TTM signer and doesn't appear to do any signings. The card pictured above is the only autograph of his that I've been able to track down, so it's in the collection for now.

A Case of the Sundays- Tom Bolton

This card has been in my scanned folder FOR-EV-ER. I never like when I have Red Sox or Yankees cards in my collection, so that's the main reason I've avoided sharing it. Tom doesn't have any Orioles cards but was featured on a few Tigers cards, so I might need to look into an upgrade to rid my collection of any Red Sox images. He used to be a good TTM signer but seems to have stopped signing sometime early in 2009.

Also the blinding yellow '91 Fleer design doesn't exactly help me like it any better.

Orioles Bobblehead of the Week- Matt Wieters

I've decided to scuttle my Random Saturday Autograph weekly feature for now. Essentially, all of my autographs are random and the posts didn't seem to garner much attention. So I'm trying something new.

If you've followed this blog for any amount of time, you know that I like to collect bobbleheads from the Orioles and their Minor League affiliates. Or really any baseball bobbleheads for that matter. I would venture a guess and say that I have something like 50 bobbleheads all around my house. They aren't well organized or all in one spot, so I don't have the greatest idea of exactly what bobbleheads I own.

Installing bobblehead shelves near the ceiling around my room has been on my short list of things to do for too long now. I hope to get it done one day to properly display my collection. Hopefully my writing about the collection will whip me into shape about getting that done.

My collection is clearly not as well organized or cataloged as the blogosphere's bobblehead master, the great Dodgerbobble. I'm not trying to step on his toes, and my write-ups and picture just won't compare to what he does, but I hope that you all enjoy them anyway. 

 

I have to start this feature off with my favorite current Oriole, Matt Wieters. I believe that I have five different bobbleheads of his, as well as a statuette, so I can comfortably say that his bobbles constitute the largest individual contribution to my collection. This bobblehead was given away on Wednesday June 30th 2010 to the first 25,000 fans age 14 & over. The O's played the A's that day and won 9-6. Wiety went 1-4 at the plate and caught the full game, not allowing any stolen bases and calling the right pitches to guide the Birds to victory. 

 

My favorite thing about the bobblehead is the removable face mask. I had fun moving it all around but think that my preferred position is the standard mask-up look in the top picture. 

Spring Training contest update- The Royals are leading the way at 5-1, followed closely by the 4-1 ORIOLES, while the Rays and Cubs are at the back of the pack at 1-5.

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Dick Littlefield

A couple months ago, I came across an ebay seller who had a number of hard to find Crown cards for sale at very reasonable prices. He was apparently a former Orioles autograph collector who had intended to pass his collection down to his grandkids but none of them were interested. Their indifference definitely benefited me and my collection as I've been able to add about 12 hard to find Crown autographs thanks to the seller's willingness to work with me on prices and keeping me updated as to when he was posting cards that I needed.

I'll be showing the cards I bought from him over the next few weeks, and will start today with Dick Littlefield.

Dick was a journeyman in the truest sense of the word. He played for nine franchises in ten cities over his nine seasons in the Majors. I hope that he was either a renter or a real estate genius because he didn't get a chance to spend much time in any of the cities that he played in. The most steady employment Dick ever had was the parts of three seasons he spent with the spent with the Pirates from near the start of the '54 season until early on in 1956.

He also spent one full season and parts of two other with the Browns (and later Orioles) franchise from 1952-54; thus making him a member of the 1954 inaugural O's squad.

Dick's claim to fame is that he was supposed to have been traded by the New York Giants to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956 for Jackie Robinson, but Jackie refused the assignment and retired instead.

He passed away in his hometown of Detroit in 1997. RIP Dick.

"The Bad Guys Won!" & Roger McDowell

I enjoy reading books about baseball, and I've decided to share an occasional book review in case anyone is interested.

About a month ago my buddy Mark, who is also an Orioles fan, lent me "The Bad Guys Won!", Jeff Pearlman's book about the 1986 Mets and their path to the World Series Championship. I really enjoyed how Pearlman brought the reader behind the scenes into the Mets clubhouse and showed the Mets' true colors. And I would describe the shade as a "puke green".

Most of the players on the team seem cocky, rude, or generally jerkoffish. I don't have any behind-the-scenes knowledge to compare the '86 Mets' clubhouse atmosphere to that of any other past or present team, but I like to think that most teams aren't that ridiculous. I know that many baseball players, especially Major Leaguers, have plenty of self-confidence, but the some of the stories in the book were insane. Entertaining, but insane.

Overall, it's a very enjoyable read, unless you hate the Mets franchise, so if you like baseball books, check it out.

 

The Orioles tie-in here is that former O's pitcher Roger McDowell was a member of the '86 Mets.  Many of Roger's antics in the book can best be described as wacky and it sure sounds like Roger marches to the beat of his own drummer. I would assume that he was still like that during his time in Baltimore. 

I got his autograph on a Dodgers card during his playing days but I've been trying to get his Orioles card signed for a long time. Roger has been the Braves pitching coach for a few years and a fellow collector on SCN was graphing the Braves at Spring Training this year so I sent my card to him and I can finally scratch Roger's name off of my need list. 

Gordon Jones- The Strangest Crown Card

Gordon Jones' Orioles Crown card is probably the most questionable in the entire 501 card set.

At first glance, it might not seem too odd, although if you look at it for another second, it's clearly not a picture like every other card in the set, but rather a drawing. And then you might notice the pre-printed signature in the bottom right hand corner of the card, which isn't on any other card.  Then you could see the circular design at the top, and think, hey that looks familiar.

And that's because Gordon's Orioles Crown card uses the exact same picture that appeared on his 1959 Topps card. This has to be some sort of copyright infringement and I can't believe that Topps let it fly. But knowing their customer service department, it's possible they still haven't discovered it, but when they do, you can bet it will be replaced by a card of equal or greater value.

Gordon's card is far from the only one in the set that shows a player sporting another team's cap. There's plenty of players who only spent one season, or one game, with the O's almost thirty-forty seasons before the set was produced in 1991, so I understand that pictures of them in an Orioles uniform must have been hard to find, especially before the internet was widely used.

Just one thing though...

 

 

Gordon's 1961 Topps card shows him in an Orioles hat and, presumably, uniform. So why not steal borrow that picture for an Orioles card set. I think someone clearly dropped the ball here. It's not like it was an ethics issue since they used a picture from a Topps card anyway. I would call it an oversight. 

Gordon passed away in 1994 at only 64 years old of complications from diabetes, so I'm happy to have his autographed card in my collection. I just wish that whoever put this set together had been a bit more resourceful so his Crown card would've truly been an Orioles Crown. 

 

ST Contest Update- The 3-0 ORIOLES, Nationals, and Rockies currently lead the way while the 0-2 White Sox and Padres are still looking for their first W.

Who's Happy That Baseball's Back?

This guy. As in me. And I guess Erik Bedard might be excited even though I'm pretty sure he's hurt. And I would guess a bunch of you out there are pumped as well.

I literally can never get enough baseball news, games, anything. I love it. And the Orioles first two Spring Training games have been on the radio the past two days. I don't care if the lineups at the end of the game are a bunch of Minor Leaguers who hardly anyone has ever heard of.

Speaking of players you've probably never heard of...

 Eddy's autograph might be the laziest I've seen from a no-name type player. E. R_____? Really?

Jeff M. Robinson, not Jeff D. Robinson. Keep it straight.

 Todd Williams' signature confuses me. I can't make out a single letter nor see his name in there at all.

OK, you've probably heard of Phil. He was an All-Star in 1985. And he was the 1989 cap under helmet champion of baseball.

To celebrate the amazing black/orange uniforms the O's wear during Spring Training, I decided to feature a bunch of orange uniform autographed cards today. I'm too amped up to write anything much. Happy Baseball everyone! 


ST Contest Update- The Tigers continue to lead the pack with a 3-0 record (but look out for the 2-0 O's, Nats & Rockies). The Blue Jays continue to struggle with a 0-4 record.