Thursday, June 16, 2011

To Collect Or Not Collect?

For a while, I've been trying to decide whether or not I want to officially include Orioles' Managers and Coaches in my collection. I know some other O's collectors do while others don't, so that hasn't made my decision any easier.

To this point, if I have any managers' or coaches' autographs, they are in my binders with all of my other O's autographs. If I don't have them, I haven't worried about it. There is some overlap between guys who have played for the O's and later managed or coached for them, so I have a decent percentage already. I also keep cards of all of the current coaches with me when I get autographs, so that has helped with the numbers in recent years. Many coaches never have Orioles cards produced of them, but most have been included in the yearly team-produced postcard sets.

Here's the breakdown of the current Orioles managers' and coaches' autographs in my collection.
 
Managers:
9/19 (1 former Orioles player)- 47.3%

Billy Hitchcock managed the team in 1962-63


Coaches:
38/83 (22 former Orioles players, 11 eventually became Orioles managers)- 45.8%

Former player and Padres' Manager, Steve Boros, was the O's 3rd Base Coach in 1995




So what do you think I should do; collect, or not?

6 comments:

zman40 said...

That's a tough one. All I can say is that, if you ever decide to do it, the sooner you officially get working on it, the better.

Where do you find a list of the older coaches?

Ryan H said...

It's definitely a tough call. I would say if you decide to do it, you might want to start sooner rather than later. It may be too late and a more costly proposition down the road.

Orioles Magic said...

I think you guys are right, I'm just gonna do it. Why not, right? And yes, as many of these guys get older, it won't get any easier to add them to my collection.

Zach, through 2008, they are listed in The Orioles Encyclopedia. Also, the Orioles' website has a mostly updated link somewhere.

Paul Hadsall said...

Good luck collecting them - I decided not to pursue the Mets coaches because the original 1962 staff included Rogers Hornsby and Red Ruffing. There are enough players that lie outside my budget, so I didn't want to add to the problem.

night owl said...

I never understood why people excluded managers from their collections. I have always loved the manager cards -- and it follows if I was an autograph collector, I'd want those, too.

Of course, if it gets to be too much that's another thing.

Orioles Magic said...

Paul- Most of the former Orioles coaches aren't in the Hornsby stratosphere, let alone Ruffing's, so I don't think I face those monetary problems. I know both Brooks & Frank Robinson coached for the team, but since they played for them as well, they're already in my collection.

NO- Don't worry, I'm righting that slight, and am now officially collecting managers, and coaches. I like the challenge and I should have less competition than I do with many of the former players.