Unpossible Autograph Friday Sadly Returns

With the news that two former Orioles passed away this past week (Gus Triandos passed away yesterday, and Lou Sleater on Monday), I am unfortunately reviving my "Unpossible Autograph" feature to highlight the former Orioles who have passed on.

Triandos was far and away the better remembered player of these two, both in Baltimore and nationwide. If you click his name at the top of this post, you can see the write up I did about him back in 2011. And here is an excellent eulogy written by Joe Posnanski, and after reading that, I won't try to top it since it does such a great job of remembering Gus. 

Here is a quote (that I found on Core Contrarian's blog) that sums up how Gus felt about getting older: "I think I'm mildewing. Whoever said that getting old is beautiful was full of it." RIP Gus, you were a funny man. 

I don't know too much about former pitcher Lou Sleater, and what I do know you can find out if you check out his linked name at the top. I do know that Lou was a great TTM signer, and it's great to know that he appreciated his fans. RIP Lou.

I will also say that both of these former O's passing away within a few days of each other is driving home to me that I should be sending out more TTM requests to many of the guys who I would still like to add personalized autographs of to my collection. They certainly aren't getting any younger, and both of these guys  were great signers for many years. I really appreciate that they took their time to sign so many items for so many people, I just wish that I hadn't been so lazy as to not send them something myself.



To briefly explain the misspelled/made up title of these weekly posts: Every Friday, I profile a former Oriole who has passed away. I've substituted the word unpossible for impossible as an homage to a line from "The Simpsons". Young Ralph Wiggum, who is not very smart, says "Me fail English? That's unpossible." 

Gus Triandos- A Request

It's not too often that I get requests to feature a certain player in a post, but when I do, I try to feature them as soon as possible. I received an email from fellow O's blogger, Ryan of '"O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog saying that he apparently has become a big fan of Gus Triandos after reading and learning about his career. He mentioned that he saw that I have Triandos's autograph but had never posted it. Well Ryan, I'll remedy that for you today!

As a disclaimer, I will say that I probably don't know as much about Gus as some other people out there, but I'll do what I can.

 

Gus played in the Majors from 1953-65, spending eight of his thirteen seasons ('55-62) with the Orioles and is best remembered for his time in Baltimore. He is regarded as the Orioles first power hitter and hit 142 round-trippers during his time in Birdland, highlighted by the 30 he smashed in 1958.

Gus was a three-time All-Star, in consecutive seasons from 1957-59. He caught Hoyt Wilhelm's no-hitter in 1958 and later caught Jim Bunning's 1964 perfect game while with the Phillies, thus becoming the first catcher to be behind the plate for a no-hitter in both leagues. 

He was also a great base-stealing deterrent throughout his career and threw out 66.7% of base-runners in 1957, the third highest percent all-time. His 46.62% career percentage of base-runners caught is good for sixth-best all-time. And I'd be remiss not to mention that he also holds the record for most games played (1,206) without ever having been caught stealing himself and he ended his career with a perfect stolen base percentage. Of course he only stole one base over his 13 seasons, but still, he has the record!

Gus was honored by having a local street named for him, one of only three Orioles, along with Brooks & Cal, to have that tribute. You can find Triandos Drive in Timonium, MD if you're ever in the area.

Well Ryan, I hope that I did a decent job in saluting Gus for you. If anyone else would like to see a former Oriole featured that I haven't already covered, just leave a comment and I will do what I can!

Tradin' with Troll

It's a rare thing for me to post trades, let alone two days in a row, but that's what I'm doing today. I shared my end of a trade with GCRL yesterday and today I'm showing off what the always giving Collective Troll sent my way.

The best part of the box that Troll sent was that he included cards/items for both me and Kalina. She did a guest blogging post to thank him a couple weeks back and now it's my turn. I have to start out with the more surprising and unusual items he included.



Like these two 14 year old starting lineup Orioles figures. My dad and I collected most of the Cal SL figures, but we never expanded to the other Orioles. These two have piqued my interest into possibly collecting all of the Orioles who were featured. But in addition to my bobbleheads, shelf space is a bit tight around the house already so I might need approval from Kalina before I start on this one...

He also threw in a few Cal card "packs" from the heyday of card production when you could buy cards in cans, tins, barrels, coffee mugs, and water bottles. Of course I kid, but only slightly.

Troll also threw in some awesome vintage O's and many of my 2009 Topps & Heritage set needs.

As I mentioned at the top of the post, Kalina already thanked the Troll for her cards, but we didn't have anything scanned at that point.

He included this awesome Nyjer Morgan autograph,

some really nice Carlos Pena cards, including this bat relic, and a HUGE stack of Scott Kazmir cards, including probably 10-15 jersey patches. 

THANK YOU so much Troll. This was an amazing trade package and we have a box with your name on it set to go out, hopefully by this weekend. Oh, and congrats on being a new grandpa! Atlas is a lucky boy!

Baltimore All-Stars

Way back in 1959, Jerry Walker & Billy O'Dell were two of the five Oriole representatives in the All-Star game; Hoyt Wilhelm, Gus Triandos, and Gene Woodling also made the squad. Ah, to have 5 All-Stars...it must be nice.


Jerry still holds the record for being the youngest All-Star game starter in history; he was only 20 when he took the hill for American League squad. Jerry outdueled Don Drysdale over three innings and earned the win. That's pretty impressive stuff right there.



Billy was appearing in his second consecutive (and final) All-Star Game in '59. He earned a hold for pitching an inning of relief, and preserving Walker's win.

The NL lineup that Walker & O'Dell shut down was pretty menacing and featured future Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, Stan Musial and Frank Robinson.

Somehow, I doubt that Ty Wigginton will have the opportunity to dominate tonight's ASG like Walker and O'Dell did in '59, but we can hope that he has the chance to jack a pitch out of the park. Or at least can avoid embarrassing Baltimore. Make us proud Ty!