Orioles' Managers

My Orioles' managers & coaches autograph collection frequently takes a back seat to my Orioles' players autograph collection, and for good reason, as I put a lot more time and effort into the players collection. But I recently added a few new autographs of some past Orioles Managers and I now have a signature from all of them, so I figured I would do a quick rundown post to mention each of the 19 men who have skippered the O's since 1954. Here we go...

Jimmie Dykes (1954)

Paul Richards (1955-61)

Lum Harris (1961)

Billy Hitchcock (1962-63)

Hank Bauer (1964-68)

Earl Weaver (1968-82, 85-86)

Joe Altobelli (1983-85)

Cal Ripken Sr. (1987-88)

Frank Robinson (1988-91)

Johnny Oates (1991-94)

Phil Regan (1995)

Davey Johnson (1996-97)

Ray Miller (1998-99)

Mike Hargrove (2000-03)

Lee Mazzilli (2004-05)

Sam Perlozzo (2005-07)

 Dave Trembley (2007-10)

 Juan Samuel (2010)

Buck Showalter (2010-current)

Swapping Autos

As an Orioles autograph collector, I know that my trade stock isn't something that many other card collectors aren't necessarily interested in trading for, but that's not the case with Kirk over at Eutaw Street Cardboard.

Kirk is also an O's autograph guy too and has quite the collection going. He conveniently stopped collecting Orioles managers signatures at the same time that I decided to collect them and I had some O's player autographs that Kirk wanted, so we quickly worked out a trade. He's already posted his end of the trade, and here's what I got in return.

The highlight for me was definitely the autograph of the first Orioles manager, Jimmie Dykes. He managed the team for only one year, but it was the O's inaugural 1954 season. Jimmie never had an Orioles card produced, so this postcard is permanently staying in the collection. And it's pretty freaking cool to have a postcard stamped in 1932. My grandma was only a teenager back then! Nice forward thinking, Ivan Marietta of Cleveland, Ohio.

Hank Bauer was one of the more successful Orioles managers of all-time and was at the helm of the team for their 1966 World Series Championship.

Ray Miller also briefly managed the team but is mainly remembered for being a long-time pitching coach of the Orioles and Pirates.

Don't forget to check out yesterday's post about how to enter my contest running this week!