Adios Baysox

The Bowie Baysox, the AA O's affiliate located somewhat near my house, were unfortunately eliminated from the Eastern League playoff contention on Monday, the final day of their regular season.  They had battled for weeks with the Harrisburg Senators, the Nats AA affiliate, for the second (and last) spot in the Western Division standings, and could have forced a one game play-in game if they had one and the Senators had lost on Monday.  Neither of those things happened and the Senators clinched their playoff spot, so the Baysox season was over.  It's too bad because we only made it to one or two of their games over the past couple months and didn't one last night of fun in at Prince George's County Stadium. 

Well, as a proper send off to the team, here are some of the Baysox autographs I got over the season.  Caleb Joseph up top was my favorite player this season, so I took the time to separate his card. 

This is what their 2010 team set looks like; the Aberdeen Ironbirds set looks very similar.  I really like how many of the cards show the players in their orange uni's!  The Tucker card is an All-Star insert card from 2010 Topps Debut.  Waring led the E.L. with 179 K's, Henson was 2nd with 156.  None of these guys have very nice autographs... 

This is Tanaka & Johnson's first O's affiliate cards.  Car-los Ro-jas! McCrory pitched for the O's in 2008 & 09, but spent most of the season with the Baysox.  Chad's card isn't very flattering.  Cooney didn't like how his little pinkie is up on his '09 Shorebirds card.  Gamboa is a great guy, very friendly, another one of my favorites.  

Joel was one of the hardest autographs to get on the team.  I got all of these signed at one of the meet-the-team days, but did get his Baysox card signed at our last game of the season.  He led the Eastern League with 33 homers, 264 total bases, and was second with 98 RBI.  He's had stints with the Dodgers and Devil Rays in the Majors, but won't be coming to Baltimore this September.

Viola had awful numbers with the AAA Norfolk Tides at the start of the season but his numbers over 23 appearances with the Baysox were good enough for him to get a September call-up with the O's.  I think that Komminsk is probably sick of me getting his autograph, and since I don't have anything left for him to sign, I'll stop now.

A Highly Successful Bowie Baysox Meet the Team Day

The Baysox had their first of three scheduled Meet the Team days last Sunday, April 25. I always like these since they are the perfect time to get your picture taken with the players.

Kalina took my picture with...

Zach Britton

Brandon Waring

Caleb Jospeh

Wilfrido Perez

And Ryohei Tanaka

Here are all the cards that I was able to get signed (with Kalina's help). These events are great for getting a ton of autographs and are great to get the guys who are typically tough signers.


Like Joel Guzman, who prefers to avoid fans if possible. He was nice enough and didn't seem to mind signing. I was expecting him to be surly but he was cool enough.


All of the other Baysox players and coaches are normally good about signing.

Adams mentioned to Kalina that he does not like the picture on the card to the left.

Pedro's autograph didn't turn out great but I have a bunch of his signed cards so it's all good.

Rojas also used a thin sharpie but it works well on this card.



The Figueroa boys were at the same table. Kalina definitely got a picture with the two of them that she likes quite a bit.

I think she also got a picture with Tyler, who wasn't making this funny "fielding-a-ball-face" in their photo.

I think I have about 20 Komminsk autographs at this point. But since he was just sitting there...

It would be nice if Steve had any other cards that I could find. These are cool and all, but they're the only ones I have.

One-time O Jim Hoey was very cool, and even mentioned that sometimes a sharpie will smear on his UD card. Good looking out Jim!

Moe is always very nice and even tossed me a ball from the dugout during the game.

Kennie, who is the Baysox pitching coach this year, didn't sign at the official event but I caught up to him on the field. The pitching coach and that day's started never sign at the Meet the Team days since they are prepping for the game.


Zach and Wilfrido were nice enough to not only pose for pictures with me, but to sign my cards as well.

If any of you ever have the chance to get to any teams' Meet the Team events, I highly suggest that you do so. They are awesome for getting autographs or pictures. If that's not your thing, it's a great way to speak to the players for a few minutes too.

4/10 Baysox Game Autographs

I have shown off a few of the autographs that I got at this Baysox game but here are the rest of them.


This is my first autographed card of Eddie, who blew through the O's Minor League system last year. He started the season with lo-A Delmarva, was promoted to hi-A Frederick midway through the year and ended up in AA Bowie by the end of the season. The amazing part is that his ERA went DOWN with each promotion, from 1.86, to 0.55 to 0.00. I didn't have this Shorebirds team set until the end of the year and didn't see the Baysox play again after I bought it, so this was my first shot to get Eddie to sign it. Eddie was very personable and seems like a good signer.



Pat followed a similar, if slightly less successful, path as Eddie's last year. He also played for Delmarva, Frederick and Bowie. And he is extremely tall; listed at 6'8". I think the O's like tall pitchers IE Mickolio, Hendrickson, Egan...

Miggy signed his 09 Baysox team set card. I've said it before and will say it again, I really dig the orange border on these cards.

Now, the 09 Keys team set, I don't like so much. Never have the players wear black uniforms on picture day and then shoot close-ups of them! They have to squeeze in their signature or sign over the black!

Bascom's last name stretched into his face to avoid the black.

The Carolina League Top Prospects set also used the Keys' team set pictures.



You see what I mean about these signatures fading into the black. They look even worse in person; the scanner actually brightens them up a bit. There's barely any light space on the cards.


Whereas the Keys' giveaway team set utilized white uniforms and action shots. Major upgrade! That's how a Minor League team set should look, or at least more-so like this.

Tyler was nice enough to also sign his 07 Ironbirds card for me.

Minor League Appreciation Pictures

Here's a few more pictures from the 2009 Orioles Minor League Appreciation night.

I have to lead off with the Minor Leaguer who had the best year in my opinion, Brain Matusz. He won the Jim Palmer Pitcher of the Year award so he may now talk highly about himself all year.


Next up is Brandon Waring who won the Brooks Robinson Player of the Year award. He looks a little nervous in this shot but it was probably his first time on a Big League field with fans in the stands. Either that or he dislikes wearing a suit as much as I do!


Caleb Joseph, the 2009 Elrod Hendricks award winner, would probably be the Orioles catcher of the future if he wasn't blocked by the #1 player in all of our hearts, Mr. Matt Wieters. Caleb seems like a great guy wand works very hard at getting better every day. He used to run his own Wordpress blog but it looks like it has since been taking down.


Finally, Mike Griffin won the Cal Ripken Sr. award for player development. He was the pitching coach with Bowie last season and moved up to Norfolk with a lot of the talent this past season. He has been great working with the O's crop of young pitchers.

Some Random Friday Baseball Pictures

I've decided to showcase some of my baseball/autograph pictures that didn't get posted over the course of the season until I have some new baseball action to get excited about. And I'm not thrilled about this World Series. I want the Yankees to lose but it would be hard to say that I would be pumped about back-to-back Phillies wins. I grew up around Phillies phans and I don't need all that noise.


This picture is from the Orioles Minor League Appreciation Night that was held in mid-late September. In case you can't read the writing on the jumbo-tron, that is Zach Britton, who was the 2009 Carolina League Pitcher of the Year. It was cool since Brandon Waring was the Carolina League Player of the Year so Orioles prospects swept the Carolina League awards. Go Keys!



This picture features David Price, the Rays' star prospect, front and center. He had actually just signed my card, a card that may one day actually be scanned and shown on the blog. Nolan Reimold and Chad Moeller are standing by the cage in the background and you might also notice the back of former Orioles catcher Greg Zaun's head on the right hand side of the picture. I don't recall who Price is talking to, but it could be Pat Burrell. I know it's #6, any Rays fans out there know this one? I'm looking at you Troll...



This was taken at one of the last Orioles Alumni Autographs nights of the season. From L to R, that is Chris Hoiles, Joe Orsulak and Ken Dixon. I already had autos of all of them but it's always cool to see Hoiles around the Yard. Kalina is always excited to see him too.

But the Keys Lost 2/2

Here are the rest of the autographs I got at Friday's Keys game:



The cards on the left and right are very similar but Nate switched in up in the 06 Ironbirds card in the middle.



Here Ryan Rodriguez makes another appearance. These cards are proof of his brief time in Bowie but he is back in Frederick, where he probably belongs.


Kennie Steenstra is the Keys' pitching coach and has been for the past two seasons. Somehow I never got his autograph before and had been toting this card around for 1.5 seasons. He is normally in a rush to get to the field to work with his pitchers. Come on Kennie, what's more important, signing an auto for me or making your pitchers better?



Bobby Stevens is fielding in this picture. I don't know much about him and have no insight to share. Sorry for the poor effort here.



Jake Stevens was drafted by the Braves in the 3rd round of the 2003 draft. This is his first season in the O's organization and he did not pitch at all last season after being released by the Braves, so he is trying to make a comeback this year. I really like the card on the right for some reason; it's like he is mesmerized by the baseball.



Brandon Waring was traded to the Orioles this past offseason along with Ryan Freel and Justin Turner from the Reds in exchange for Ramon Hernandez. There haven't been many Orioles that I don't like but I would've been happy to trade Ramon for his weight in excrement. He played such uninspiring baseball that it brought down everyone around him. Freel was a bust but hopefully Brandon and Justin will help out the Birds for years to come. Brandon hit a HR in the game and he plays a position that will likely be open in Baltimore starting next year.



Robbie was named the O's minor league player of the month for June. This was my first time seeing him and he seemed a little cocky. It was a snap judgment so I hope I'm wrong but who knows. I will get back about this next time I see him play.



Rick started Friday's game and was a little shaky. He was drafted in the 6th round of the 2008 draft and has already jumped from Aberdeen to Frederick in just over a year so I would expect some growing pains. And check out that crazy leg kick!