Random Saturday Autograph- Willie Morales

I've decided to start a Random Saturday Autograph feature which will highlight either a player that I don't have much to say about, or an autograph that I don't have much of a story to tell about. I never have as much time for blogging on the weekends, so these posts will be short. I hope you all enjoy them.

 

Willie Morales is a perfect player for this feature. I got this autograph in a trade, so I don't have too much to say about it, and Willie's career with the Orioles, and MLB career, lasted all of three games and eleven at-bats in the 2000 season. Two of those games were in April, the other came in September and he went 3 for 11 with a double, run scored and three strikeouts.  

And that's pretty much all I have for Willie, but since he was an Oriole, he's in my collection.  Told you it would be quick.

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Bob Nieman

Bob had an amazing start to his Major League career with the St. Louis Browns in 1951 as he hit a home run in his first two big league at-bats. He was the first player to ever homer twice in his first game, let alone his first two at-bats, and it had to feel pretty nice. Since then, only three other players (Bert Campaneris 1964, Mark Quinn 1999, Keith McDonald 2000) have homered twice in their first game, and only one (McDonald) homered in his first two at-bats. Any time that you are one of only two people to have ever accomplished something in baseball's 120 + year history, you've done something right.

Bob played for seven different teams over his twelve years in the majors from 1951-62 and was a member of the Orioles franchise in both St. Louis (1951-52) and Baltimore (1956-59). He ended his career with a .295 batting average and consistently hit around .300 over the years. His best season was 1956, which he split between the White Sox & O's, when he his .320 and came in 7th in the MVP voting. 

After his playing days ended, Bob spent his remaining years as a scout for the Indians, Dodgers, A's & Yankees. He died on March 10, 1985 at only 58 years old, but I couldn't find his cause of death.  RIP Bob.

Who I'm Rooting For

As a diehard Orioles fan, I get a little bit sad come playoff time every season that the O's don't make it. But let's face it, I'm used to them missing the playoffs by now; Baltimore baseball has been ending at the beginning of October for what feels like forever. The Rays have been a nice fallback option for me in recent years, and I know that it's strange to like two teams in the same division, but the Rays, and specifically a Scott Kazmir jersey t-shirt, brought me and my now fiance together, so the team holds a special place in our relationship.  Now that the Rays have been eliminated from playoff contention, it wasn't too hard for me to pick out the remaining teams that I am rooting for. I hate hate hate the Yankees and I'm tired of the Phillies being the best team in National League. So I'm pulling for a Rangers-Giants World Series. I know it's unlikely, but I can hope right?

To show my support, here are a couple cards representing both teams.

 

Although not a Rangers card and having shown this card previously, Ron Washington, the Rangers' manager, is a perfect representation for his team. Ron took over the helm for the Rangers in November 2006 and the team has improved in each of his four seasons. His tenure is obviously highlighted by this year's playoff appearance and the first Rangers' playoff series win in team history, dating back almost 50 years to when the organization was still the Washington Senators. 

Ron is a great TTM signer, and this is his only Orioles card, so I was thrilled to get it back in only 22 days last August. I'm not really sure what's going on with his signature is though; as best as I can tell its an R W--g t--.

Jim Brower is my Giants representative because this is the only Giants card I have scanned right now. He spent two and a half seasons of his 9 year MLB career with the Giants from 2003-05.  2004 was his best year in the Majors when he led the league with 89 relief appearances while maintaining a 3.29 ERA and finishing with a 7-7 record. He briefly (and disastrously) pitched for the Orioles in early 2006, appearing in 12 games and allowing opponents to put up crooked numbers in 8 of those games, which worked out to a 13.86 ERA. Ugly. 

Jim pitched for 8 teams over his 9 MLB seasons, with his last big league appearance coming with the Yankees in 2007. He is apparently still pitching and spent the 2010 season with Italian Serie A1 team, Rimini, with whom he threw an Opening Day no-hitter against Grosseto. I honestly had no idea that Italy had a baseball league, I thought it was all about soccer futbol over there, but I'm glad that Jim has found some success. He has a fairly legible autograph, and you can almost make out every letter in his name. 

GO RANGERS & GIANTS!

Contest Update Following the Division Series

Here is the updated bracket following last night's Rangers victory over the Rays. That upset flipped the bracket upside down, as the Rays were the team that 11 of you selected to win the World Series, and the Rangers were selected to win the whole thing only in Play at the Plate's heart bracket. I guess this means that he is either a genius or a superfan, but either way props to him! Only eight of you even picked the Rangers to top the Rays and as you can see, it helped six of them to stay in the running to win the contest.

 

I apologize for the tiny type, but this was the only way to get all of your information to fit on the screen. Click on the picks for a larger view if you would like. 

Essentially, those of you in the blue (and white) are still alive in the contest, with Dion, Play at the Plate's head bracket, and madding still perfect through the first round. 8 others are still going strong, with zman and Play at the Plate having a major advantage since both of their brackets are still in play. That's what they get for plugging my contest! I like to think that it brought them good luck (sorry dayf, it didn't work for you). 

If you are in the green, that means that you are eliminated, so since yesterday, we also lost:
Justin 2
fanofreds
Paul
Jeremy
KmSals
Steven M
phaedrus
Dan
Slangon
JoesAutographs
The Ranter
Anthony K
dayf's head bracket

That's gotta be especially tough for Steven M, Slangon, JoesAutographs, The Ranter, Anthony K & dayf's head bracket since they had been perfect until the Rays knocked them out of contention.

Good luck to the 11 of you who still have a chance to win!

TTM Success- Tommy Shields

I sent a TTM request to Tommy in March and he returned it to me in 67 days, personalized as requested. 
He appeared in only two games for the Orioles in late July 1992, both as a pinch runner, so he never had an at-bat or defensive appearance with the O's but is still a member of their all-time roster.  He played in 20 games for the Cubs in 1993, and that was the end of his Major League career. 

Originally drafted by Pittsburgh in the '86 draft, he played in 853 Minor League games in the Pirates, Orioles, and Cubs organizations.  After his playing career ended, he became a Minor League manager in the Orioles' and later the Cardinals' farm systems.  He managed the GCL O's in '96, the Delmarva Shorebirds (to a league championship) in '97, and the Frederick Keys in '98.

Thanks for signing, Tommy!

Contest Update

I'm back from a few days away from the blog.  You know how it goes; life got in the way and I didn't have a chance to post anything. 

Originally, I wanted to wait until after all of the Divisional Series wrapped up to let everyone know how the contest was going, but I figured that updating everyone would be a good way to start my day.

I'm sorry to have to say this, but some of you are already effectively eliminated from the contest.  The following brackets are busted:
Brooklyn Met
mmmmrhubarb
Mariner1
Collective Troll
dayf's heart bracket

Thanks for playing guys, better luck next year! 

At the other end of the spectrum, these bracket entries are perfect through this morning:
Justin's #1 bracket
Dodgerbobble
Night Owl
Dion
Steven M
mmosley
Slangon
JoesAutographs
BA Benny
The Ranter
Anthony K.
Steve D.
dayf's head bracket
Play At the Plate's head bracket
madding

We'll see if the Rays can pull off the series win tonight, but the results of the game will have a major ripple effect through all of the entries.

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Aurelio Rodriguez

Don't have much time today, so this will be a quick post.  I'm not too thrilled about showing off a signed Yankees card on my blog, but it's all I have to show for Aurelio right now.  He was an Oriole during the 1983 season, his last in the Majors, but he played in the Mexican Leagues through 1987.  He was tragically killed when a car jumped the curb on a Detroit street and ran him over on a sidewalk in 2000; he was only 52. Aurelio was elected to the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002.  RIP Aurelio.

Under 100

Since I've been focused on my postseason contest over most of the past week, I almost missed the fact that some recent additions have increased my collection so that I now need only 93 autographs to finish it off.  As you can see on the left hand sidebar, I now have 792 autographs from the 887 players who have played for the Orioles.  There are another 48 players who I still need upgrades for, but there are just 93 players who I don't have anything signed of.  I'm pretty amazed that the number has shrunk that far, and while I still feel like I might never actually have an autograph from every single player, I now feel like I might get closer than I ever expected. 

Leo Burke was one of the autographs I purchased that pushed me under the 100 to go mark.  Leo is a funny case with me because I had been trying to add him to my collection for almost two years, and when I finally did, I was able to add two of his autographs within about two weeks.  The other autograph is at the bottom of this here post, and is now up for trade.

Leo played all over the diamond during his seven seasons as a utility player during his Major League career from 1958-59 & 61-65 with the O's, Angels and Cubs.  He played in only 12 games with the Orioles in 1958-59 at the start of his career and went 7-21 with a HR and five RBI.  The Washington Senators selected him in their expansion draft prior to the '60 season, so that ended his time with the O's.  

He lives in nearby Hagerstown, Maryland but has a sketchy track record of signing TTM requests, so I held off on that but luckily was able to add this signed Crown card at a good price.  Here's to the last 93!

Contest is Closed, Good Luck Everyone!

Now that the playoffs have officially started, you can no longer submit a bracket.  We have 31 entries which is a good turnout in my opinion.  I still need a few things from a couple of you.

The Ranter-I need your runs scored in the deciding World Series game
Jeremy- Please become a follower of the blog to lock in your entry

Here's a breakdown of who selected which teams in each series. 

Division Series
Rangers 8
Rays 23

Yankees 20
Twins 11

Reds 7
Phillies 24

Braves 8
Giants 23


Championship Series

Rangers 3
Rays 15
Yankees 10
Twins 3

Reds 5
Phillies 20
Braves 2
Giants 4


World Series

Rangers 1

Rays 11

Yankees 5

Twins 2

Reds 1

Phillies 8

Braves 2

Giants 1


WS Games
4 (0)
5 (5)
6 (23)
7 (3)


Runs In Deciding WS Game
3 (4)
4 (2)
5 (3)
6 (4)
7 (6)
8 (5)
9 (5)
11 (1)

So if the majority of you have your way/are correct, we are going to see a Rays-Phillies World Series with Tampa prevailing in the 6th game that has a total of 7 runs.  I'm cool with that.

Good luck and I hope everyone has fun.

Last Chance to Enter the Postseason Contest

No more entries will be accepted once the first pitch is thrown shortly after 1:30pm Eastern today. So enter now!

T Minus 23 Hours Left to Enter the Contest & Minor Leaue Free Agents

Thanks to everyone that has entered my MLB Postseason Bracket Contest so far.  If you want to enter, you still have time, but the contest closes once the first pitch is thrown in the Rays-Rangers game tomorrow at 1:30pm Eastern.  Good luck everyone!


In Orioles news, four minor leaguers have elected to become free agents.  They all appeared with the Orioles at some point over the past two seasons, but none were considered a major part of the Birds' 2011 plans.

Goodbye for now to...

 

Scott Moore, a former Cubs prospect, who played in 62 games for the O's in 2007-08 & 2010.

Alberto Castillo, the 2nd Alberto Castillo to play for the O's, who pitched 62 games out of the 'pen from 2008-10.  He was good in '08 & '09 but not so much this season.  

Cla Meredith, who the O's acquired from the Padres in July 2009.  I was excited since he was a submariner, my favorite style of pitcher, but a 4.33 ERA over 50 games, especially his 5.40 ERA this season, just wasn't good enough.  

 

And Michael Aubrey who looked pretty decent over 31 games as a September call-up last year.  Injuries prevented him from making it back to Baltimore this season.  

Still Time to Enter the Contest!

Hey everybody! You can still enter my contest, but you need to do it by Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 before the games start.  If you don't enter the contest, Damian will never smile again.  And we don't want his face to freeze like that...