After 14 former Orioles passed away in 2010, I was optimistic that 2011 might be a better year for the O's family. That doesn't seem to be the case as Francisco de la Rosa became the second Orioles alumni to die within the first 12 days of the new year (Ryne Duren passed away on the sixth). I hate to say it, but at this pace, another 58 Orioles could die this year. Not good.
I obtained this autograph in a trade with a reader names Jamie back in August. It's not the prettiest signature, but Francisco is wearing the Suns' orange uniform, so that's a plus. His autograph is tough to come by since his MLB career lasted all of two games. If you clicked his name up above, you might have read that he passed away in Baltimore, which frustrates me since he had lived locally for some time and there's an Orioles Stadium Club card that I would have really liked to get signed. I guess it goes to show that former players can "disappear" sometimes.
Francisco died way too young at only 44 years old. I couldn't find a cause of death, but whatever it was, it was unfortunate that his time was up. RIP Francisco.
4 comments:
Don't know if your a member of Sportscollectors.net. but a member was able to get a handful of Rich Coggins cards signed and is selling them for $40 each.
I am and I did. I was pretty excited to see it too. But thank you very much for making sure I saw it!
Sad news. Especially sad that he lived right here in Baltimore and we had no idea. I have a de la Rosa auto and it looks quite a bit different than yours. Have you seen any other examples of his auto?
Totally agree, it would've been really nice to know he was around the area to try and track him down. The only other autographs of his I've seen were posted by a guy on SCN. http://www.sportscollectors.net/MessageBoardThread.aspx?t=87585
Since my autograph is so faded, it's a little hard to tell but it looks pretty similar to the five that were posted. A collector up in Rochester supposedly got mine in-person at a Red Wings game years ago, so I guess I trust it. Can you send me a picture of yours?
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