Unpossible Autograph Friday- Two Deaths This Week

After a month without any sad news regarding former Orioles, this week two one-time O's passed away.

 

Gino Cimoli passed away due to heart and kidney complications on Saturday. I obtained this autograph in a trade with a friend of the blog way back in the summer of 2009. Gino was a great TTM signer and I had intended to send him a card in hopes that he would personalize it for me, but that will obviously not happen now.

He briefly played for the O's in 1964 and is best remembered for being a member of the 1960 Pirates World Series Champs. Overall, he played ten seasons in the Majors from 1956-65.

Joe Frazier, whose autograph I received in a trade not long ago, passed away on Tuesday. I actually found out about his death on Paul's Random Stuff blog last night. A fellow collector on SCN mentioned that Joe had been battling Alzheimer's for a few years and it seems as though the disease finally took it's toll on him.

Joe played for the Orioles in 1956 and later managed the Mets for a season plus in 1976-77. I had sent him a few TTM requests over the past two years, but can certainly now understand why they never made it back. Joe had been somewhat of a hit or miss TTM signer over the years.

RIP gentlemen.

Pol comes through again! 2 of 2

Here are the rest of the Orioles autographs that Pol sent me.

Johnny "Bear Tracks" Schmitz 1956

This is the second time that Johnny has been featured on my blog. I had previously received a Dodgers autographed card from Aaron but since Johnny is wearing the black and orange (in black and white) on this Crown card, it immediately slides into my collection. The Dodgers card is now up for trade if anyone is interested.

Johnny pitched in 18 games for the O's at the end of a fairly long career. He had led the NL with 135 strikeouts in 1946, been elected to two All-Star teams and received MVP votes after three seasons. He earned his nickname due to the combination of his shuffling gait and size 14 feet.

Lou Sleater 1958

Lou pitched for 6 teams over 7 seasons of his career and threw his last pitch in the majors for the '58 O's. Lou hit a walk-off HR in 1957 while pitching for the Tigers, a very uncommon feat for a pitcher.

Hal Smith 1955-56

Hal started his career for the O's and later played for the same 1960 World Series Champion Pirates team that Gino Cimoli played for. Hal hit a HR to give the Pirates a short-lived lead in the 8th inning of game 7 of that series but is overlooked since Bill Mazeroski hit his famous blast in the next inning to win the game and the series. Another interesting fact is that during the 1960-61 seasons, Hal was one of two NL catchers named Hal Smith. That's even more confusing than keeping track of the catching Molina brothers!

Gene Stephens 1960-61

Gene patrolled all three outfield positions for the Orioles for almost exactly one season between June 9, 1960 and June 8, 1961. He was traded to the O's by the Red Sox for Willie Tasby in 1960 and was later flipped to the Royals for Marv Throneberry in 1961. On June 18, 1953 while on the Red Sox, Gene was the first player since 1900 to have 3 hits in one inning, a record that has since been duplicated by Johnny Damon in 2004.

Jerry Walker 1957-60

Jerry started his Orioles career at age 18 without ever having thrown a pitch in the minor leagues, one of a very few players to have ever accomplished that and also was one of the youngest of that exclusive group. He was one of the "Kiddie Corps" Orioles pitchers of the late 50s and, at 20 years old in 1959, was the youngest pitcher ever to start the All-Star game for the AL. He was out of baseball by age 26 but has stayed involved with the game up until this day. He served as the Tigers general manager for one season in 1993 and is currently a vice president and special assistant to the GM for the Reds.

Pete Ward 1962

Pete only played in 8 games for the O's in September of 1962 before being traded to the White Sox as part of the Luis Aparicio deal the following off-season. He had a great '63 season for the White Sox coming in second, to teammate Gary Peters, for the Rookie of the Year award and finished ninth in MVP balloting. He had an even better year in 1964 when he had the sixth most MVP votes, but the rest of his career wasn't quite as successful. Pete is in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and both the Oregon & Chicagoland Sports Halls of Fame.

Wally Westlake 1955

Another player that was an Oriole at the tail-end of his career, Wally only amassed 24 at-bats for the O's over 8 games in the '55 season. He was on the NL All-Star team in 1951 when he played for the Pirates & Cardinals.

Dallas Williams 1981

As the Orioles first-round draft pick in 1976 (20th overall) Dallas was initially a highly-regarded prospect but never was able to live up to his lofty draft status. He appeared in only two games for the O's in the 1981 season. I saw Dallas in Norfolk recently as he is the Tides field coach.

George Zuverink 1955-59

George pitched in 197 games for the Orioles, appearing in all but five of those games as a reliever. During the 1957 season, along with Frank Zupo, he formed the only "Z" battery in Major League history. To clarify, he is the only pitcher, whose last name begins with Z, to throw to a catcher, whose last name also began with a Z. And that is some hard hitting news that you won't find almost anywhere else.

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.