A Case of the Sundays- Bobblehead Edition

Yesterday, you saw one of my favorite bobbleheads. Today I present to you my least favorite.

 

Friggin' Adam Loewen. I just wrote about him last week, so click the link if you missed why I dislike this guy so much. I don't feel like repeating the story, but long story short, he screwed over the Orioles. 

To disrepect Loewen, I've intentionally misaligned the pictures of his bobblehead. That'll show him not to mess with us Orioles fans alright. 

In all fairness, the Baysox gave away this bobblehead back on August 7, 2008 back when Loewen was still in good graces with the O's and their fans. The AA Baysox did a pretty nice job with it and overall, it looks a fair amount like the traitorous Loewen. Hopefully, this will be the last time that I have to utter his name, and I'll make an attempt to not feature him on the blog ever again.

A Case of the Sundays- Screw You Adam Loewen

Adam Loewen made his Major League hitting debut with the Blue Jays on Wednesday, going 1-3 with a strikeout and a run scored. He was also hit by a pitch, which kind of brought a smile to my face, but only since I knew he was alright, I swear. Now before you get all up-in-arms for my saying that, hear me out.

Here's a Blue-Jays/Canadian spun article that was featured on Canada.com this week so you can read about Loewen's return to the Majors after injuries forced an end to his pitching career with the Orioles. But there is a rather major omission in that article. The part about how the Orioles had a hand-shake agreement with Loewen that would return him to their farm system to redevelop as a hitter. And how he dicked over the team who had paid their 2002 first round pick millions of dollars to go 8-8 with a 5.38 ERA over parts of three seasons in Baltimore. Listen, I know Loewen is Canadian and all, so I can get how he would want to play with his home country's only remaining MLB team. The part I don't understand is how Loewen could have treated the Orioles so poorly after all the time and money they wasted on him.

Oh, and Adam, your signature is awful. My dog could handle a sharpie better than that.

Eastern League All-Star Game Pictures

Last Wednesday, Kalina & I drove up to Harrisburg, PA for the 2010 Eastern League All-Star game & Home Run Derby at Metro Bank Park. The Derby was held about an hour or so before the game, and there had been an autograph session held before the Derby, but I wasn't able to get there in time for that. I would've liked to make it in time for the autographs too, especially when I found out they had card sets on sale for both the Eastern & Western division teams, but I had fun anyway. I grew up in nearby Carlisle, PA so we met up with my parents at the game and had a great time.


Our Bowie Baysox were represented by OF Tyler Henson & reliever Pedro Beato. Zach Britton was originally scheduled to appear, and possibly would've been the Western Division's starting pitcher, but was promoted to AAA a few weeks before the game. Eastern League HR co-leader Joel Guzman was also selected to the team as an injury replacement, but had a previous commitment and couldn't attend.


Henson was one of the 8 players that took part in the HR Derby. Here he is hitting one out of the park.


And here's a picture of him on the scoreboard before taking his hacks. He ended up placing third in the Derby, which isn't bad since he only hit 1 HR in the first round. Tyler also played the entire game and went 2-4 with two doubles.

Adam Loewen, former Orioles pitcher, and current Benedict Arnold OF of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, also took part in the HR Derby. The scoreboard above is incorrect and should have read HR:0 Outs: 1. (The scoreboard operator was having trouble keeping up with the Derby.) If you click on the picture, you can see that Loewen appears to be laughing, and that's because he is. He actually swung and missed at the first pitch thrown to him. It was probably a 60 MPH fastball. Great work Adam! He ended up with zero home runs, which gave me immense satisfaction.

Loewen also appeared in right field for the second half of the game, and had a few bonehead plays, including one which he tried to catch Tyler's deep fly ball and almost Jose Canseco'ed it over the fence. You suck Adam! If you don't know why I dislike him so much, I'd tell you, but it's a post for another day. If anyone asks, I can certainly share the story.

Here's Tyler standing on second base after his Loewen assisted double.

Pedro Beato appeared in the 9th inning and threw a single pitch to close out the 10-3 win for the Western Division. Now that's what I call efficient!

Great Job Tyler & Pedro! It was awesome to see our local guys in the All-Star Game. I hope the All-Star Game comes to Bowie soon, but I'm guessing they might need to upgrade Prince George's Stadium before they can bring it home.

Markakis trade

I'm in a bit of a blogging slump right now. I have a bunch of new autographs that I need to scan but haven't found the motivation recently. It has something to do with another dismal season ending with the O's at the rear of the AL standings. I don't have too much that's good to say about a team that's only better than the Pirates and Nationals. Hey, at least we will get a great draft pick!

Nick Markakis 2006-forever hopefully

I got this in a trade with another Ryan. It is currently my favorite Kakes Jr. auto, but that's not exactly a huge accomplishment since my only other autograph of him is his Topps rookie card that is plagued with Adam "traitor" Loewen.

I'm torn about how to feel about Nick Markakis. On one hand, he is arguably the best player on my favorite team. He is young and consistent and should be good for years to come. He should be in Baltimore through at least 2014, hopefully a veteran leading a young Birds team to their 2nd straight World Series. (I'm not a dreamer at all, I swear)

On the other hand, Markakis is about the worst signer on the team. He is one of very few players that has been on the roster all year that I don't have an in-person autograph from. And it's not like I have just missed him a few times. I don't think I have seen him sign more than 10 autographs all season at the Yard; and I don't count when an Orioles employee grabs him after BP to make him sign for some family or group. It really grinds my gears that he doesn't sign more.

So if you are still following my rant, I support Nick because he does seem to have the most Superstar potential of the Birds but I don't count him amongst my favorite O's since he doesn't look out for his fans or autograph seekers.

Some random things

Here are some cards I got over the past few days.


This sweet Markakis auto came to me recently in a trade with a fellow Ryan. I love Heritage/old school style cards and it's a cool closeup of Nick from a few years back. This is only my second autograph of Kakes and the first one on a solo card. My previous auto was on a Topps Prospects card with Adam "traitor" Loewen, so this is a major upgrade.



I went to the Keys game on Saturday (partially for the Markakis bobblehead giveaway) but did not account for the changed start time due to Friday's rainout. This is the first time this has happened to me as I normally double-check these things before heading out but I luckily still got my bobblehead; a post will be coming on that in a few days.

My late arrival affected my ability to get the Keys' autographs this time around but I was still able to pull a few...

It worked out that Pedro was again tracking the pitches so he was hanging out and signing autos by the Clubhouse while everyone else was warming up. I think this brings my total of Beato autographs up to 10! Anybody need one?


Wally was a member of the Georgia Tech baseball team along with Matt Wieters and was drafted in the 12th round of the '07 draft.



I love this action shot of Richie; now that's how you coach third base while managing your squad!
He was once again thrilled to sign for me, but at least he did.

Dave Schmidt 1987-89

Here is the wild card autograph I got at the Key's game; Schmidt is the Orioles minor league roving pitching instructor, who I finally had a card of to get signed when I saw him. You never know when or where these roving instructors will show up, so I was always caught with my pants down in the past. But not this time.

Dave was mainly a reliever over his twelve years in the bigs, but started 49 times for the Orioles between '87-89. He was decent in 1987 & 88 but once the Orioles tried to convert him mostly to a starter in '89, things fell apart. He finished in the bottom ten of AL pitchers in losses, home runs and earned runs allowed.