Sunday, July 10, 2011

Swapping Autos

As an Orioles autograph collector, I know that my trade stock isn't something that many other card collectors aren't necessarily interested in trading for, but that's not the case with Kirk over at Eutaw Street Cardboard.

Kirk is also an O's autograph guy too and has quite the collection going. He conveniently stopped collecting Orioles managers signatures at the same time that I decided to collect them and I had some O's player autographs that Kirk wanted, so we quickly worked out a trade. He's already posted his end of the trade, and here's what I got in return.


The highlight for me was definitely the autograph of the first Orioles manager, Jimmie Dykes. He managed the team for only one year, but it was the O's inaugural 1954 season. Jimmie never had an Orioles card produced, so this postcard is permanently staying in the collection. And it's pretty freaking cool to have a postcard stamped in 1932. My grandma was only a teenager back then! Nice forward thinking, Ivan Marietta of Cleveland, Ohio.

Hank Bauer was one of the more successful Orioles managers of all-time and was at the helm of the team for their 1966 World Series Championship.



Ray Miller also briefly managed the team but is mainly remembered for being a long-time pitching coach of the Orioles and Pirates.

Don't forget to check out yesterday's post about how to enter my contest running this week!

7 comments:

Greg Zakwin said...

That Dykes auto is just pure awesome. Congrats!

Oh, and I pimped the contest and posted the link in your post from yesterday.

Justin McLeod said...

Bauer's auto is legible and very nice, but Miller? It's a real signature, not just some scribble, but good luck deciphering it.

WV = blograp. Too bad I'm too lazy to have some fun with this one.

Orioles Magic said...

Greg- Thanks man, the Dykes auto is definitely one that I knew would be hard to track down.

Justin- It's pretty bad, but the sad part is that it looks great compared to a bunch of players' autographs.

Craig said...

Yes, Hank Bauer has one of the nicest sigs. Always very legible!

zman40 said...

That Dykes postcard is fantastic. I wonder how prolific those things are. Did Ivan make it or was it a team issued thing? Either way, it is deffinitely ahead of its time.

What set is the Bauer card from? It doesn't look like anything I remember seeing here.

Orioles Magic said...

Bauer's sig was amazingly consistent.

Zach- I think that Ivan made it himself so it's likely one of a kind. I'm very glad that Ivan was so forward thinking.

I have the set that Bauer is pictured in but can't remember exactly what it's called. Maybe one of those SSPC type things...

Dawgbones said...

I've got to agree with Greg on the Dykes auto. Cool, really cool, but then again, almost any Philadelphia team is GReat in my book.