The Orioles family lost another member last week when former pitcher Jesse Jefferson passed away from prostate cancer on Thursday, September 8. He was only 62 years old.
Jesse was the Orioles 4th round draft pick in 1968 and eventually made his MLB debut with the 1973 Orioles. He pitched in Baltimore for two more seasons before bouncing around from White Sox to the Blue Jays to the Pirates to the Angels over his final six seasons in the Majors. For a comparison to a modern Orioles pitcher, check out this post I wrote comparing Jesse to Daniel Cabrera back in May of 2010. Essentially, they were both flame throwers who had a hard time keeping the ball in the strike-zone, resulting in many walks and hit batters. Jesse is best remembered for being a member of the inaugural 1977 Toronto Blue Jays team.
Jesse was one of the early through the mail (TTM) requests I sent out when I got back into the hobby in mid 2009. He was only a 9% signer, possibly due to his health issues, but I never got a response from him. Luckily, I was able to add this signed card to my collection via Ebay. He had a really great and legible autograph. If you check out yesterday's Chris Davis post, I said that Chris signs his D like a J, and it looks a good bit like the two J's in Jesse's signature.
RIP Jesse.
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2 comments:
I could've sent you a sign card of my fathers...I made him sign the cards that came through the mail when I was younger..and I would mail them back.
I would have appreciated that, but I understand that he was probably fighting against cancer by the time I sent my request and that was obviously much more important. I'm sorry for your loss.
And thanks for taking your time to return his fan mail.
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