The rest of the new TTMs

Here are the other TTMs that have been returned to me in the past 2 weeks:

Funny thing is that I received a Mark Corey card from Pol while I was waiting for this to come back to me. I just wrote about Mark last week.

Jim Marshall 1958

Jim played for the O's at the beginning of his career during the first half of 1958. He later was the manager of the Cubs from 1974-76 and the A's in 1979. He is mainly known for being the first ever Mets 1B when the team debuted in 1962 and for being part of the first interleague (non-waiver) trade in baseball history when the Cubs shipped him to the Red Sox in 1959. He is now a scout for the Diamondbacks.

Ron Moeller 1956, 58

When I first saw this card, I said to myself "Ron looks really young." While I was doing my research on Ron, I discovered that he was only 17 when he debuted for the Orioles in 1956, so I would think this picture was taken then. And I also theorize that has to be the youngest Orioles debut ever, but I don't know how or where I could check that. It's amazing to think that guys played in the majors in their teens at one point. I think Justin Upton did that recently but Chris Tillman is currently the youngest O's prospect close to the Bigs and he is 21 years old.

Something I found really interesting is that Ron had exactly a 4.15 ERA in each of his two seasons with the O's. He pitched in four games in both 1956 and 1958 allowing four ERs in 8.2 IP in '56 and gave up 2 ER in 4.1 IP in '58. Weird, right?

Ron was drafted away from the Orioles by the Angels in the 1960 expansion draft.

Bob Oliver 1974

Bob played in 9 games for the O's towards the end of his career. Darren Oliver, currently a reliever for the LA Angels, is Bob's son and interestingly, they were both teammates of Nolan Ryan; Bob with the California Angels from 1972-74 and Darren with the Rangers in 1993. The Angels traded Bob to the O's for cash in 1974 and the Orioles sent Mickey Scott to the Angels to complete the trade.

Mickey Scott 1972-73

Speaking of Mickey, here he is. Mr. Scott was born in Weimar, Germany and I believe that he is the only Orioles player to have been born in Germany, and possibly in all of Europe.

Tom Patton 1957

Tom caught one game for the O's and went 0-2 at the plate; but he did well behind it. He had 6 total chances, and recorded 4 put-outs and 2 assists, also helping turn a double-play. Tom also seems like a really nice guy and added this note along with the autographed card he sent me. Thanks Tom!

Bob "Bullet" Reynolds 1972-75

Bob earned the nickname "Bullet" for regularly throwing over 100 MPH. He played for the O's for the majority of his Major League career and earned all of his 14 wins while pitching for the Birds. He was traded to the O's from the Brewers prior to the '72 season for Curt Motton and was shipped to Tigers for Fred Holdsworth early in the '75 campaign.

Billy Smith 1977-79

Billy was to have been Bobby Grich's heir to be the starting second baseman at the beginning of the '77 season but never performed well enough to hold down the job, eventually losing it to Rich Dauer.

Somehow these slipped through the cracks

I had a great autograph day at last Wednesday's Orioles-Rays game and somehow failed to write about it. Better late than never right?

I was able to scratch off two current O's from my list. Adam Eaton was a really nice guy, contrary to what Phillies phans might say, and Robert Andino signed for a bunch of people over the dugout. Unfortunately, neither of these guys have an Orioles card yet but I can't complain.





I was also able to grab an auto from the only former Oriole currently on Tampa's 25 man roster. Lance Cormier was a nice guy who came right over to sign for me; he kind of seemed pleased that somebody was calling out his name as opposed to Upton, Crawford, Longoria, etc. Most middle-relievers are happy to be recognized and are the best signers at games.



Ben Zobrist & Grant Balfour also signed for a bunch of fans. They both seemed like nice guys. And Kalina is a big Balfour fan for reasons I won't mention here; let's just say that they have a cool connection.




Finally, here are two returned TTM requests that I got back in the past week. I think it's interesting how similar these two guys look. Similar hairstyles, both righties; they could almost be the same person! Holdsworth's signature also looks very similar to his on the card and it was nice of him to include a different inscription than I am used to. He told me to "Dream Big"; Thanks Fred!