Happy Birthday Tippy & Joe

Two former Orioles are celebrating birthdays today as Tippy Martinez turns 61 and Joe Orsulak hits 49.

 

Thanks to both of them for being nice enough to personalize cards for my collection!

Orioles Alumni Autographs

Germany, my second favorite World Cup team after the US, was just eliminated in their semi-final game against Spain so I'm not in the mood to write much.

Here are some autographs from the recent Alumni Signers at the MASN Booth on Eutaw Street prior to Monday and Thursday Orioles home games...

I've heard about this in the past but Tippy personally confirmed it to me. He really doesn't like signing cards that feature him with a mustache. He didn't say why, it just seems like he thinks that it makes him look silly I guess.

Doesn't look like Joe caught the ball...

Bordick was in town to help the team with infield skills.
Now if only someone could show up to position Adam Jones...

I was excited to get two cards from this old Keys set signed. Calvin commented about it being an old card while Joe didn't say much because of the heat. The signing booth gets awfully hot, especially for the older guys like Joe. The sun shines right in there and makes it pretty uncomfortable for the signers.

Some Random Friday Baseball Pictures

I've decided to showcase some of my baseball/autograph pictures that didn't get posted over the course of the season until I have some new baseball action to get excited about. And I'm not thrilled about this World Series. I want the Yankees to lose but it would be hard to say that I would be pumped about back-to-back Phillies wins. I grew up around Phillies phans and I don't need all that noise.


This picture is from the Orioles Minor League Appreciation Night that was held in mid-late September. In case you can't read the writing on the jumbo-tron, that is Zach Britton, who was the 2009 Carolina League Pitcher of the Year. It was cool since Brandon Waring was the Carolina League Player of the Year so Orioles prospects swept the Carolina League awards. Go Keys!



This picture features David Price, the Rays' star prospect, front and center. He had actually just signed my card, a card that may one day actually be scanned and shown on the blog. Nolan Reimold and Chad Moeller are standing by the cage in the background and you might also notice the back of former Orioles catcher Greg Zaun's head on the right hand side of the picture. I don't recall who Price is talking to, but it could be Pat Burrell. I know it's #6, any Rays fans out there know this one? I'm looking at you Troll...



This was taken at one of the last Orioles Alumni Autographs nights of the season. From L to R, that is Chris Hoiles, Joe Orsulak and Ken Dixon. I already had autos of all of them but it's always cool to see Hoiles around the Yard. Kalina is always excited to see him too.

A Week of Trades from SportsCollectors.Net- Swap with Twiztidkegs

Today's trade came from fellow Orioles collector Twiztidkegs. He seems to focus on collecting Orioles minor league autos but also has a good collection of other MLB signatures.

Mike Timlin 1999-2000

You're not surprised that Timlin played for the Orioles are you? He played for every single MLB team right? But seriously, Mike did play for 6 teams over 18 Major League seasons, including two on the O's around the turn of the millennium. He signed a Minor League deal with the Rockies in 2009 but was recently released, so it appears that he finally has to hang up his spikes for good.

Mike was the Orioles closer from the start of the '99 season until he was traded to the Cardinals on 7/29/2000 for Chris Richard & Mark Nussbeck (?). Now there was a trade that really built the Birds for the future.

He currently holds the all time record for appearances (1058) by a right-handed reliever and is 7th on the all-time list behind 6 lefties. He won four World Series Championships in his career; 2 in Toronto at the beginning of it ('92 & '93) and two at the end with Boston ('04 & '07). He also finished 6th in the ROY voting in 1991.

Omar Daal 2003

While Omar had a decent MLB career, pitching for seven teams over 11 seasons, he was not good in his last big league season, and of course that was with the O's. After signing a two year contract prior to the '03 season, he went 4-11 with a 6.34 ERA in 2003 and didn't pitch in 2004 due to shoulder surgery. Maybe that was for the best.

Tim Laker 1997

Tim was very briefly the Orioles backup catcher behind Lenny Webster, while Chris Hoiles was on the DL, from late June-mid July 1997. I was a huge fan of the Birds at that point and I don't remember Tim being an Oriole at all. Maybe it was because he only appeared in 7 games and went 0-14 at the plate in his short stint with the Birds.

He was one of the former players named in the Mitchell Report and admitted to using and apologized for using PEDs. Of course he pointed the finger at the always reliable for roids, David Segui. Tim is currently a roving catching instructor for the Indians.

Dickie Noles 1988

Another guy that pitched for the Orioles towards the end of his career, Noles posted an 0-2 record with a 24.30 ERA in only 2 games with the Birds in 1988. To get an ERA that high, Dickie had to give up 9 earned runs in only 3.1 innings over two starts.

One funny thing I found about him is that he was effectively traded for himself when the Cubs sent him to the Tigers in 1987 for a PTBNL. They couldn't work out a deal for who that player should be, so the Tigers just returned Dickie to the Cubs. What a deal that was for both teams. Baseball-reference.com refers to this transaction as a loan. Haha.

Dickie did have some alcohol related problems while on the '83 Cubs; he and a teammate assaulted a cop after drinking one night. This led to Dickie injuring his knee and spending 16 nights in jail; he had to enter rehab after that incident. The good news is that he has since turned his life around and is now a special consultant for the Phillies & MLB. He even travels around to minor league teams to warn them against the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse. Nice turnaround Dickie!

Keith Hughes 1988

Keith backed up Joe Orsulak in right field and pinch hit for the Birds over the course of the '88 season. He hit his only 2 career homers while on the O's.

J.R. House 2007

J.R. has managed to play parts of 5 seasons with 3 different MLB teams but has only appeared in 32 games and amassed 60 at bats over that time span. The majority of those games & ABs were with the Orioles in 2007 when he appeared in 19 games and had 38 ABs and also hit the only 3 HRs in his big league career.

Ricky Bones 1999

This card is personalized to me, so how did I get it in a trade you ask? Well, around the same time that I got this trade in the mail, I also got this TTM request back from Ricky. So double Bones(bone-us) for me! The non-personalized card is now available for trade if you want it.

Even as an Orioles fan, I most remember Ricky pitching for the Brewers in the mid to early '90s. He also represented the Brew Crew on the 1994 AL All-Star team. Maybe I just don't want to remember his stat line for the '99 O's since he went 0-3 with a 5.98 ERA.

Ricky was also named in the Mitchell Report but surprisingly didn't blame David Segui. He is currently the Buffalo Bisons pitching coach and signed my TTM from the team address.

New card pics as promised

Kalina came through quickly on this one. Not only did she get me the Orsulak and Nordbrook autographs yesterday when I couldn't make it to the Orioles Alumni Autograph series signing as I was sick, but she scanned them and even had Joe personalize it for me!




And I bought this Eider Torres on Ebay for cheap since he hasn't really had much of a career. It's pretty awesome that he somehow has 4-5 certified auto O's cards since he only played like 8 games for us. But hey, it is a good looking card!