"To Ryan"

As some of you already know, I prefer my Orioles autographs personalized to me whenever it's possible. Getting autographs can be tough enough and adding the extra personalization request can further complicate things at times. But it lets the players know that I have no intent of flipping the autographs I receive and I really like how it makes the autographs unique to my collection.

Over the years, I've added personalized autographs to my collection in a few different ways.

The two most common have been:

Public Signings/Appearances- especially when there is a small number of attendees and/or you can pay a little extra for personalization. Some of these autographs are probably 15 years old at this point.

 

Every Orioles fan has an Al Bumbry autograph if they really want one. Dude is always around town.

 

I was a Pirates fan when I was younger. Drabek later played for the O's, so this card has stuck around.

 

 I have an abnormally large amount of Rick Krivda autographs, even for me. 

I remember something about a private signings with very few attendees, many years back.

 

Dave is another guy who lives in the Baltimore area and has appeared around the vicinity for many years.

To the best of my recollection, Tackett is one of very few Orioles to have appeared during his playing days at the mall "card show" in my relatively small hometown of Carlisle, PA. Demand was pretty low for him too.

Sheets is yet another omnipresent former Oriole.

Singleton might have also made the trek to Carlisle, but I can't say for sure.

 

I got this one done through a signing on Sportscollectors.net. 

Probably the method that is responsible for the most personalized autographs in my collection is TTM requests. Players who sign autographs through the mail generally are happy to personalize as well..

 

I was really happy to come across this oddball Orioles issue of Pete Smith, even happier to see 

that he signs TTM, and happier still when he returned this to me after over 250 days.

Dave charges to sign TTM, but at least he signs.

Kelly was even nice enough to add "Best Wishes"

At just under a year, this one took a long time to get back, but I'm always happy to get those envelopes!

The third most effective way to add personalized autographs is in-person, which is easiest when the players are in the minor leagues. 

 

As is the case with former Oriole and current AA Bowie Baysox member, Armando Gabino.

 

Devo is currently a coach with the hi-A Frederick Keys; he was nice enough to personalize earlier this year.

A Week of Trades from SportsCollectors.Net-Wrapping up with ce1012

Ok, I hope everyone had as much fun with this as I did but this will be my last SCN trade posted for now. Don't miss this feature too much though; I think I've decided to make it an occasionally returning highlight of the blog. It totally exemplifies how I am trying to expand my collection-by spending as little money as possible while working with fellow collectors!

Today's trade brought me Chris Singleton from ce1012.

Chris is an easy guy to track down as he has worked for ESPN's Baseball Tonight show for the past two years after having done the color commentary for White Sox radio broadcasts the two seasons prior. So it's not a matter that fans don't know where to send TTM requests; it's that Chris won't sign them. SCN doesn't list a success from him since 2006. Hence, why I traded for him.

Chris Singleton 2002

While I initially thought that he was somehow related to Ken Singleton, based on name and appearance, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Chris came to the Orioles from the White Sox for Willie Harris in January 2002; the two teams pretty much traded their young centerfielders. Chris's stats for the O's were solid if not outstanding. He played in 136 games and batted .262, scoring 67 runs, cruising to 6 triples and crushing nine round-trippers.

One other fact jumped out at me while researching Mr. Singleton. In November of 1997, the Giants traded him and Alberto Castillo to the Yankees for Charlie Hayes. And yes, it's that Alberto Castillo. The one who has briefly pitched for the Orioles over the past two seasons. It's crazy to me that Alberto is still playing while Chris has been broadcasting games since 2006. And Charlie Hayes has been doing...well who knows what.

And with this tale that connected past Orioles greats like Willie Harris to current pitching wunderkinds like Alberto Castillo, I wish you all a nice weekend.