Hawaii Winter League Autographs

Here are all of the cards that I have signed from the Hawaii Winter League/Honolulu Sharks team set. My boy Matt Wieters is also in the set, and was part of the reason that I bought it, but I don't know if I will get that one signed or not.

This is Ryohei's only card that I am aware of, and his inclusion was the other reason why I bought the set. Teams in the Hawaiian Winter League are mainly made up of American and Asian players, and Tanaka was a member of the Sharks on behalf of the Chiba Lotte Marines, his team in Japan's Pacific League. He just happened to be placed on the team with the Orioles prospects, with no way of knowing that they would be his future teammates. Pretty cool stuff.


It looks like Ouellette also had the "honor" to wear the lei and the accompanying unsure look on his face for picture day.


I like Chad Thall's card because it features the Shark's purple uniform. It's something different, and I guess that's why I like it. I'm not really sure.


Miggy Abreu's card isn't a different color, I just edited it incorrectly. He got a little wild with his autograph, as his M leapt off the bottom edge of the card. I like to think that he was just excited to see this card and couldn't contain his autograph excitement. I'm probably wrong.


Brett Bordes is the only member of the O's organization in this set that is still with hi-A Frederick. Everyone else is in Bowie, Norfolk, or Baltimore.


I've shown this B-Snyd card before, back when I was previewing the Minor League member's of the O's 40-man roster, but here it is again. He signed this for me in Spring Training.


And I just posted this card last week, but I promised to display all my autographs from this set, so here it is again. Phillip Britton was VERY excited to see this card and talked to me about it for a few minutes.

Baysox Autographs

Here are just a few of the Baysox autographs that I was able to get at last Saturday's game.


I now have a few autographs from Zach, but this is my first on an "Orioles" card and he's even wearing the orange uniform as an added bonus. He is the Orioles #3 prospect this year according to Baseball America and should have a bright future.


On Monday, I wrote about the the cool experiences I've had with Armando in Spring Training and again in Bowie. Well, as of yesterday, he has moved up to the Tides, so I wont see him again anytime soon. He was moved up to fill Kam Mickolio's spot, which was vacated when Kam was called up to the Orioles to fill Gonzo's roster spot. So thanks a lot, Cobra; get your mind right soon so that I can give Armando his 2010 UD card sometime soon! This is the Finest card that Armando hadn't seen and I had two, so I gave the other to him.


The card on the left is the other one that I referenced in the post linked above. It's from a pretty rare set that was produced for the 07 Hawaii Winter League Sharks team. Phillip hadn't seen the card for a while and was very animated when he talked to me about it. Interestingly, he said that he wouldn't have liked it much in that league if it hadn't been in Hawaii. And to tease a future post, you will be seeing more cards from that set soon.

A Good Autograph Weekend and the Return of the Orioles Alumni Autograph Series

I had a pretty good autograph weekend; I would actually call it great if the freaking O's had managed to win a game. I haven't had a chance to get anything scanned yet but I spent time getting autographs at both the Baysox-Flying Squirrels game on Saturday and the O's-Blue Jays game yesterday.

At Saturday's Bowie Baysox game, I got a total of 14 Baysox players to sign 17 cards for me, and I especially enjoyed talking to new backup catcher, Phillip Britton and new reliever Armando Gabino.

I brought a Hawaii Winter League card of Britton that he hadn't seen for a while and he went on and on about it. He seems like a really nice, talkative guy and I'm looking forward to watching him on the Baysox this season.

I had a cool experience with Gabino in Spring Training, when I had a Twins minor league card of his that I don't think that he had seen for a few years. He showed it to a few other players in the dugout in Sarasota and seemed like a nice guy. In Bowie, Armando again seemed like a cool person and was talking to everyone as he went down the line signing. Earlier on Saturday, I had picked up 2 of his 2010 Topps Finest cards to get signed. He mentioned that he hadn't seen the card before, so I offered one of them to him and he was very appreciative of it. In retrospect, I probably could have asked for a ball or something, but I'm glad that he liked the card. I saw him pull it out of his pocket and look at it at least twice once he went to the bullpen area. And I now have a favorite member of the 2010 Baysox, you're the man Armando!

Luckily, the Baysox are one of my team's that know how to win, and they pulled out a back and forth game with an 8th inning three run homer from Joel Guzman, who seems like he will be a tough signer, and a rocky yet successful save from a favorite of this blog, Wilfrido Perez.


Sunday's continue to be the best time to get autographs of the members of the Orioles bullpen and I got 10 different autographs from members of the 25 man roster. I got my first autograph of Will Ohman, my first Orioles cards signed of Cla Meredith, Mike Gonzalez, and Brian Matusz and was also able to get my first in-person Miguel Tejada autograph. Pretty exciting stuff and I will be posting the scans and pictures over the next week or so.


Tonight also marks the return of the Orioles Alumni Autograph Series to Camden Yards. If you don't know or don't remember, former O's will be signing autographs at the MASN tent on Eutaw Street before every Monday and Thursday home game. JACKPOT! I just hope they are able to bring in some different players than last year, but I won't complain about getting some guaranteed autographs any day! No list of signers have been posted yet, but I hope to get an idea of who is signing sometime soon.