Spring Training Personalized Upgrades

While I've continued to hope that my posting here will get back to the 5-6 days a week level it was once at, it's becoming more and more evident that 1-3 days a week is going to be the norm. I've just had less free time, mainly due to different hours at work, so it is what it is. I have no plans to completely shut things down, so I'll continue to limp along for the time being. But don't worry, I'll still be giving you your occasional Orioles autograph fix!

Up today are a number of the personalized autographs that I was able to get on my Spring Training trip. Many of these guys are current or recent Orioles, but a few of the coaches played for the team many years back. I'm currently on a push to "upgrade" as many of the autographs in my collection as possible to include personalized inscriptions. I've always enjoyed the added touch and since I'm luckily still sitting at 100% for my collection, I have a little bit of freedom to work within the collection for the time being.

My favorite cards that I got signed on my trip were the "Old Man Cards", the cards that my dad custom made for me of many of the Orioles players who have never and/or will never receive O's cards in a major release.  You'll see a number of his cards below. Thanks again dad!

For what it's worth, both Exposito and Teagarden are surprisingly hard autographs to get (maybe it's a catcher thing?!?), while Ryan Flaherty was the best signer I saw amongst the current Major League guys.

Oriole #921- Exposito Knocked Off the List

On Saturday, I took a trip to Nationals Park in DC for this past weekend's "Battle of the Beltway" series between the O's and Nats and was happy to see the Orioles beat the Nationals 6-5 in a very exciting game. It was my first trip of the season to Washington but I will likely get back down there for another game or two, depending on my schedule. It's a nice park and all, but it's no Camden Yards!

It's highly probable that I was one of very few autograph seekers whose primary goal was to get a signature of the team's backup catcher, but such is the madness of my collection. 

And I succeeded! Luis Exposito graciously signed for a nice group of fans, and was kind enough to personalize this card for me. Too bad it pictures him in a Sawx uniform but beggars can't be choosers. 

I also was able to "upgrade" my autographs of a few other players to include my preferred personalization. I don't know exactly why I like it, but it makes the autographs mean more to me. 

Brian Matusz and Kevin Gregg were both leaning against the railing during Orioles batting practice, so it was pretty easy to knock out both of the relatively tough signers in one clip. 

Matt Lindstrom seems to be a pretty good signer thus far and was kind enough to add "Best Wishes".

So I got to see an Orioles win, a new autograph for my collection, and three new personalized autographs. I would say it was a very successful trip to DC, at least by my standards!

Moving the Collection Backwards

I'm totally relatively kind of fine when I add newly debuted Orioles to my need list. While I try to collect as many Orioles minor league autographs as possibly, sometimes players bypass the two affiliates closest to me (the AA Bowie Baysox and hi-A Frederick Keys) and go directly to AAA Norfolk and on to Baltimore as was the case with two of the newest Orioles, Luis Exposito and Bill Hall. I will gladly trade for autographs of players on the Tides' roster, but I refuse to buy autographs of AAA guys who might never make it to Baltimore. Even though I'm highly-focused on my Orioles autograph collection, I won't take it that far.

 Anyway, moving along to the point of this post, I recently found out that two of my rarer Orioles signatures  seem to not be of who I thought they were. A knowledgeable long-time collector of rare baseball autographs recently alerted me that my Carl Powis and Dick Luebke autographs are no good.

Many of the long-ago Orioles' autographs are tough to come by, and tougher still to find another signature to compare them with if I do happen across one for sale, so many times I'm flying blind when it comes to knowing if a signature is actually that of the player. I always do a google search to see if I can find a comparison, but when I can't I'm generally left to rely on the honesty of sellers. Most of the time it works out for the best, but occasionally, it doesn't. I think sometimes it's an honest mistake while other times I come across an under-handed dealer.

According to the collector who knows these things, Carl Powis's autograph looks nothing like this, so this is likely a forgery.

While this is an authentic autograph of Roy Luebke, not Dick Raymond (or as I thought) Ray Luebke.

Long story short, these guys are back on my need list and my collection is likely to be under 100% again for some time. While Luis Exposito and Bill Hall should be easy enough to knock off, I have no such hopes for Luebke or Powis.

Orioles #921 & 922

Two players have made their Baltimore (and MLB) debuts in recent days.

Catcher Luis Exposito, who the Orioles selected off of waivers from the Red Sox in mid-April, made his debut in the 12th inning of Friday night's game against, coincidentally, the Red Sox. He became the 921st player to appear in a game for the Orioles, and I am currently in need of his autograph.

He has a few certified minor league autographs that I can pick up if needed, but I will try to get his signature in person first. It's too bad he is only featured on Red Sox cards thus far in his career but an autograph would still help out my collection.

Interestingly, Luis is now the team's back-up catcher since Ronny Paulino has been sent down to AAA Norfolk. Considering that Luis has only been in the organization for three weeks, you can tell that the brass must think highly of him to make him the official back-up catcher so quickly.


Next up is Oriole #922, Stu Pomeranz, who made his debut last night against the Rangers. He was the only one of the three Orioles pitchers in the game who was able to hold his own against the potent Texas lineup, which really says something about him considering it was his first appearance in the big leagues. He pitched three scoreless innings and allowed three hits, one walk, and struck out two. And Gary Thorne called him "a tall drink of water" on the MASN broadcast. I guess he is 6'7" but I might have said something else.

Stu signed these cards for me during Spring Training this season. He inked a minor league deal with the Orioles this past offseason but spent a majority of the spring in the big league camp. You could kind of tell that Buck liked him, but he was still kind of one of those autographs I got and expected never to see the guy in Baltimore. Stu was the only player that I saw coming and going from the Orioles complex without being hounded for autographs since no one really knew who he was, but I was lucky enough to get him inside the stadium when he had the uniform number that helped to ID him. 

Stu is 27 years old, so is not a typical rookie, but he battled injuries and alcoholism on his road to the majors. He seems like an easy guy to root for, and rose from AA Bowie all the way to Baltimore in about a month.

Some of you might recognize his last name because of his younger brother Drew, who has been a top prospect for the Indians, then Rockies for the past few years. Drew just made his MLB debut late last year, so it's a good time to be a Pomeranz.