Unpossible Autograph Friday- Duane Pillette

Like many of you, Blogger seems to have eaten my post that was supposed to have been up yesterday. In my few years of using the program, this is the first time that's happened to me. It was a relatively unimportant post, but I will try to re-write it sometime next week.

This week's unpossible autograph is of Duane Pillette, who unfortunately passed away last Friday.

 

In the Spring of 2009, when I first really got back into my Orioles autograph collection and sending out TTM requests, Duane was one of the first players I sent to because I already had his card. That was back before I used autograph resources like Sportscollectors.net and also knew other graphers who I could talk to about who signed and who didn't. This was also before I asked for players to personalize my requests, and I had intended to send Duane another request to get a personalized autograph, but I missed out on that opportunity. To Duane's credit, he was always a great signer and asset to the hobby and returned this signed card in only six days.

Duane was a second generation Major League pitcher, following in his dad Herman's footsteps. He pitched in the Majors from 1949-56 with the Yankees, Browns, Orioles and Phillies and has the distinction of being the losing pitcher in the final game of Browns' history and the winning pitcher in the first victory for the Orioles franchise. I don't think many other players have had the opportunity to accomplish something like that.

A fellow SCN member also mentioned how Duane was with the Browns for the infamous Eddie Gaedel- midget pinch hitter game. That's one of those classic, yet ridiculous, baseball stories and I wish I had known he was a part of his when I sent my request.

RIP Duane, thank you for having made many of your fans happy over the years.

More TTMs sent & a few additions

So I sent out a batch of TTM requests last night that are targeting vintage Orioles players. The first group I mailed are Billy Hunter, Duane Pillette, Don Lenhardt, Bob Hale, Sam Mele, Bob Turley and Hal Brown; all played for the Orioles in the 50s and/or 60s. I hope that they enjoy hearing from a fan of one of the teams they played on. I am way too young to have ever seen them play but still obviously need their signatures for my project.

I received a Bob Kuzava autograph in the mail that I had purchased on Beckett last week. It's a 04 Bowman Heritage Signs of Glory certified auto and I was pretty excited when it came. I hope to scan in a picture of it tonight to show it off. Apparently only 55 of these were signed by Bob so I'm happy that I was able to snag one of them.

Also, I had somehow not included the Jeff Ballard auto and a Shawn Boskie autograph on an Oriole Park card when I posted my last total so I am now up to 36.4%! That's 314 down, 549 to go...