Orioles Hall of Fame Week- Cal Ripken Jr.

One reason that I think I have held off on profiling many of the big-name Orioles Hall of Famers is that I don't feel qualified to write about them. I can blog about the Ramon Nivars and Barry Shetrones of the Orioles past all day and feel like I've done a good job, but trying to summarize Cal Ripken Jr. and what he has meant to me and my love of baseball is a whole different monster.

I was born in 1982 and my love of baseball really started to take shape in the late '80s as I was playing tee-ball and later little league. At that time, I honestly felt like I would make it to the Major Leagues. That obviously never happened, not even close, and I had actually stopped playing by the age of 13 or so, but my love of baseball remains to this day. It's my #1 favorite sport by far; I spend a good part of every day thinking, breathing and day-dreaming about baseball. And if you asked me which one player pops into my head at any given time, it would be Cal.

Now I know that most '92 Fleer cards wouldn't be your first choice to get signed, but I love that this card has the date that the streak started and 2130 on it. Outside of any possible Orioles' World Series Championships in the coming years, I don't think anything can rival "The Streak" and 2131 in my baseball memory hierarchy. Seeing video clips of that game gets to me even to this day. The lead up to 2131 was so amazing. Could Cal stay healthy? Would it benefit the team if he took a day off now and then? How would he handle the pressure?

Well, the "Iron Man" obviously passed Lou Gehrig's record of 2130 consecutive games played and extended the record to 2632 straight games played. My dad took me to a bunch of games in the lead up to 2130 & 2131 and we watched the numbers change of the warehouse count up towards those magical numbers. He tried to find tickets to those two games but the cost was astronomical, I think in the thousands. It just wasn't gonna happen, but I appreciate that he tried so hard. Honestly, it was pretty awesome to see it on TV. I didn't know her back then, but my fiance, Kalina, was lucky enough to have some family friends that took her to 2131. She was standing in line for her "I Was There" t-shirt when Cal homered. Cool stuff, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous, but I am glad that one of us got to be there for it. I was lucky enough to have been at the final game of Cal's career on October 6, 2001.

Kalina gave me this awesome card. 

It didn't scan well because it's in a screw-down case and I was too lazy to take it out for the scan.

Most of you know that Cal was the 1982 AL ROY, won the AL MVP in 1983 & '91, caught the final out in the O's '83 World Series victory, made 19 All-Star teams, won 2 Gold Gloves, 8 Silver Sluggers, was the All-Star Game MVP in 1991 & 2001, and won the '91 Home Run Derby. He has won countless other awards and honors over his illustrious career, too many to list.

Cal's #8 was retired by the O's in 2001 and he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2007, his first year of eligibility. Thanks for everything Cal!

I have to plug my HOF week contest. Some of you have been earning a bunch of bonus entries. I won't comment on how you can earn them, but there are some clues in previous posts.

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Barry Shetrone

This week's "unpossible" autograph is from Barry Shetrone, a reserve outfielder on the Orioles from 1959-62. He bounced back and forth from AAA to the Baltimore over most of those seasons, appearing in just 58 games over his four seasons with the O's. He was included in a trade to the Washington Senators following the '62 season and appeared in two games for the Senators in 1963; that would be his final major league action, but he continued to play in the Senators farm system until the end of the 1967 season.

His autograph is fairly legible and smooth. I don't think I would ever guess that his last name says Shetrone if I didn't know what I was looking for, but all-in-all, it's a great graph compared to many that I come across. 

Although Barry had a short and fairly unexceptional time in the Majors, he is notable in the Orioles history books as he was the first Baltimore-born player to play for the modern-day O's after they moved from St. Louis to Baltimore. He passed away in Bowie, MD in 2001 from Lou Gehrig's disease at the relatively young age of 63. RIP Barry.

Pol comes through again! 1 of 2

Last week I received another amazing package from Pol. This time he not only sent me a bunch of his of extra TTM returns, but also added an almost completely signed 2009 Frederick Keys set! It was only missing the guys who were released from the organization or have already been promoted to Bowie. For today, I'm going to focus on the guys who have already played for the O's but will probably show off the Keys autos soon.

Gino Cimoli 1964

Gino was an outfielder who appeared in only 38 games for the O's towards the end of his career. He was a member of the 1960 World Series Champion Pirates; that was the series that featured Bill Mazeroski's walk-off series winning HR in the bottom of the ninth inning in game 7 against the Yankees. He also led the AL in triples on the 1963 KC Athletics.

Mark Corey 1979-81

Mark had 57 ABs in 59 games over 3 seasons for the O's. I can't really find any other information about him. He looks like a guy named Larry that I went to high school with.

Angie Dagres 1955

Angie/Angelo played in 8 games for the O's during September in the 1955 season.

Dick Drago 1977

Dick had a fairly long career, appearing in 519 games, mostly as a reliever. He was on the O's for most of the 1977 season after being traded by the California Angels for Dyar Miller. Dick finished fifth in the 1971 AL Cy Young voting while he was a member of the KC Royals and gave up Hank Aaron's 755th and last career home run in 1976 while pitching for the Red Sox. I think his name sounds like a character in one of the Double Dragon video games.

Jim Pyburn 1955-57

Jim played all three OF positions, 3B and even caught one game for the O's over 158 games spanning 3 seasons.

Art "Artie" Quirk 1962

Art pitched in 7 games for the O's, going 2-2 with a 5.93 ERA, so I guess he got some decent run support. He was traded after the '62 season along with Marv Breeding & Barry Shetrone to the Washington Senators for Bob Johnson & Pete Burnside.

Jeff Rineer 1979

Jeff appeared in one game for the Orioles, pitching 2/3 of an inning and retiring both batters he faced. It is people like Jeff that make my project so difficult, but I am glad I have his autograph.

Ken Rowe 1964-65

Ken was a middle reliever for the O's who appeared in 12 games over 2 seasons. He is currently the pitching coach for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, the New York Penn League short season A ball affiliate of the Indians. The Scrappers gave away liposuction at last night's game. Really.

Art Schallock 1955

Art finished his 5 year career with the Orioles after pitching the majority of his years with the Yankees. Art was on the 1953 Championship Yankees team.