Unpossible Autograph Friday- Ken Rowe & Chuck Diering

The Orioles family unfortunately lost two players last week, as both Ken Rowe and Chuck Diering passed away on Thanksgiving and Black Friday respectively. This is one of the few times I can recall that two former O's players died in the very same week.

Ken Rowe passed away on Thanksgiving day due to complications of pneumonia; he was 78 years old. 

He briefly pitched in the Majors between 1963-65 with the Dodgers & Orioles (he became the 217th player to appear in a game with the O's when he debuted on 9/14/64) before moving on to a long post-playing career as coach. He stayed involved with the game, mainly as a pitching coach, from the late 1960's through the 2010 season, including a stint as the O's pitching coach in 1985-86. 

I obtained this autograph of Ken's in a trade, and had always intended on sending him a TTM request as he was a consistently great signer of mail requests. It's too late now, but it's nice to know that he was so responsive to his fans. RIP Ken.

The second player to pass away last week was one of the original 1954 Orioles, outfielder Chuck Diering. He was the 12th player to debut with the O's when he appeared in the second game of the team's existence on April 14, 1954. He was selected as the 1954 "Most Valuable Oriole" which he cited as the highlight of his playing career when I sent him a TTM request. 

Chuck was also a very accommodating responder to fan mail requests and signed this card and business card for me when I sent him a request earlier this year. He owned a car dealership for a number of years after his playing career ended and it seems as though he typically included a copy of his signed business card when people sent him a request.

Chuck apparently fell in his house either sometime late on Thanksgiving or early Friday and hit his head, which sadly caused his death. It seems as though his son found his unresponsive dad, and was able to get him medical care, but Chuck passed away a few hours later in the hospital.

Thank you for signing for me Chuck. Rest in Peace.



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." 

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.