Focusing on TTM Successes

This week I am trying to catch up on the TTMs that I received over the past few months. I haven't posted very many of these recently so I think it's time to share them.

Dave Huppert 1983

Dave's time with the Orioles was very brief; extremely short really. He appeared in only 2 games for the O's, both as a defensive replacement in the late innings of an O's loss. His overall Major League career was very short as he only appeared in only 15 other games, all for the '85 Brewers, and collected a grand total of 1 Major League hit in 21 ABs. At least the hit was off of future HOFer Phil Niekro.

Since his playing career ended in 1985, Dave has been a coach and manager for various organizations. He is currently the manager of Philly's AAA team, the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, and signed my card from the team address.

Some highlights of Dave's post-playing career include being the third base coach for the 2005 Nationals, their inaugural season in DC, and managing 3 different minor league teams to league titles. Also, I was interested by the fact that Dave was the manager of the 2002 Harrisburg Senators, the minor league team I grew up watching.

Dick Hyde 1961

Before I say anything else about Dick, I have to mention what he did on this card. I am very appreciative that he signs TTM, but do wonder why he chose to test his pen on the card he signed for me. You can see the big pen swirl on his right cheek. Oh well, it's still a lot better than not getting my card back or having someone refuse to sign it, but it does look like he has a large Cindy Crawford-esque beauty mark.

Dick was a relief pitcher for the '61 O's who appeared in 15 games. Things didn't go so well for Dick, as evidenced by his 5.57 ERA, and that season was his last in the Majors. Before coming to the Birds, he was on the Washington Senators for 5 seasons where he maintained a 3.41 ERA over 154 games. He led the AL with 44 games finished in 1958 and came in 12th in the MVP voting that year.

Don Johnson 1955

Don only spent one season with the Orioles, and pitched mainly out of the bullpen. He appeared in 31 games and only 5 of those were starts. His season didn't go too well, as his 2-4 record and 5.82 ERA will attest. But he looks pretty happy in the picture on the card at least!

My Dad's O's autograph collection

This is something that I should have written about well before this, but my dad has been trying for the few years to put together an entire autographed set of (preferably Orioles and/or '83 Topps) cards from the '83 Orioles World Series Championship team. He is trying to get the entire roster of players, not just those who were on the field for the last out. Many of the guys don't have '83 Topps cards, so he is substituting them with (in order of preference, at least I think I have this right) an '82 or '84 Topps, an '83 card by another card manufacturer (Donruss, etc.), or a Minor League card from 1983.

I know that he is getting close to his goal and just received a signed TTM Dave Huppert card today. That is actually what motivated me to blog about his project since it was his first successful TTM autograph. He also was sending requests to Mike Boddicker, Bobby Bonner, Leo Hernandez, John Lowenstein, Dan Morogiello, Allan Ramirez, John Stefero & Bill Swaggerty. I will be able to get his Stefero & Swaggerty autographs thanks to the O's Alumni Autograph series at OPACY, but if anyone else might be able to help him out, please let me know. He also still needs an Aurelio Rodriguez autograph, but that is tough since he died in 2000.

Let's hope the O's can take another game from the Rangers tonight in that bandbox of a ballpark in Arlington! Three series wins in a row sounds really nice to me...