Orioles Siggy Awards

Piggybacking off of a great idea from the ladies at Dinged Corners and further inspired by Paul's Random Stuff 's addition to the field, I present to you my Orioles Siggy Awards. I have eliminated all Minor Leaguers from consideration since they would dominate at least one of my categories (most legible autograph).

Best (only) TTM Return From a Player Inducted Into the Hall of Fame in 2010:

Best TTM Return From a Player Who Was Mysteriously Not Voted Into the HOF
but Should Have Been in 2010:

Best Use of the Letter "K" By an Oriole:


Best Uniform Number Placement:


Most "Unique" Autograph:


Most Legible Autograph:

Retired:

Current:


Least Legible Autograph:

Retired:


Current(many options for this one):


Most Amusing Use of Card Space for a Signature:

Least Amusing Use of Card Space for a Signature:


Most Frightening Picture/Painting on a Signed Card :


Most Unique Personalization:

TTMs, the Week of Insanity Continues...

Are you getting bored with these TTM successes? I hope not since I have to get through a few more today and tomorrow...and then I will move onto something else. Today I am focusing on some of the more recent players that have signed for me.

Roberto Alomar 1996-98

Alomar is definitely the best TTM success I have had so far who doesn't charge to sign. You can get all kinds of HOFers and stars to sign but they pretty much all expect something in return, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Robby signs.

He is regarded as one of the best all-around 2nd basemen of all time and has myriad awards and accomplishments to back up that claim. Some of them include: 12 straight All-Star teams, 10 Gold Gloves (an MLB record for a 2B), 4 Silver Sluggers (2nd most all-time for a 2B), 2 World Series Championships, and 2,724 hits (51st on the all-time list). He will likely make it into the HOF next year.

Unfortunately, Robby's time in Baltimore was marred by a nasty incident with umpire John Hirschbeck. He was ejected from a game for arguing a called third strike when Hirschbeck either used a racial slur or called him a fa#@ot. Alomar responded to that by spitting in Hirschbeck's face. Ugly stuff man, people were mad at Robby after that.

He was with the Orioles the last time they were relevant and helped the team make it to back-to-back ALCS's in 1996 & 97. Honestly, I could have the meanest 25 jerks ever put together on a roster right now and still be fine with it if we won a World Series. I am that desperate at this point.

Alberto Castillo 2007

OK, this gets a little confusing so stick with me. This is not the Alberto Castillo currently on the Orioles. The current Alberto is a pitcher who was born in Cuba, I did a post about him a while back.

This Alberto Castillo is the catcher who backed up Ramon Hernandez between April 3-June 21 of the 2007 season. I can't say I remember him very well, so don't really expect anyone else to either. He appeared in only11 games and batted .161 so it's easy to forget about a guy like that.

He has kicked around the Majors since 1995 and although he hasn't played in the Bigs since his time with the Birds in '07, he signed from the Newark Bears' address and was still trying to make it back to the Show as of earlier this season. Alberto has played with 8 teams over 12 Major League seasons, but only appeared in 418 games; still that's not too bad. I couldn't even make it past Little League!

A Week of Trades from SportsCollectors.Net- Rockinace Two Times

I know that I have mentioned SCN and it's awesome website before, but this week I am going to share some of the trades I have made with fellow collectors to showcase my successes. It costs about $15 for an entire year to use the site and you get TTM success rates, player's addresses, trading options with other users, and many other features. Most of the users on the site are active and helpful, so it's worth your time to check out if you are an autograph collector.

Now that I'm done giving their site some free advertising, I will share some of the trades I have made on there over the past month and a half since I joined.


My first trade, and shortly thereafter a second trade, was made with a guy who goes by rockinace.

The first trade netted me Aaron Ledesma and Chad Paronto, while the second one brought Ron Jackson and Adam Stern my way.

Aaron Ledesma 1997

Aaron was the utility infielder on the '97 Orioles squad, mainly backing up Robbie Alomar at second base. He hit the only two HRs of his career that season while wearing the orange and black and was the 62nd pick by the Devil Rays in the expansion draft after the season.

He is currently a coach on the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees.

Chad Paronto 2001

Chad was drafted in the 8th round of the 1996 draft by the Orioles and made his Orioles debut in 2001. He went 1-3 in 24 appearances, and finished 9 games for the O's that season. The Indians selected him off of waivers following the 01 season so that was it for Chad and the Orioles.

Chad has bounced back and forth between the majors and minors over the past 7 seasons but appeared in a couple of games for the Astros this season. Keep the dream alive Chad!

Ron Jackson 1984

While Ron had a 10 year long Major League career, only the last 12 games of it were with the Orioles. The Birds signed him in August '84 and he finished out the season with the club, appearing as a pinch-hitter and third baseman.

Ron has made a career out of being a Major & Minor League hitting coach, notably for the Red Sox from 2003-06. That, of course, made him a member of the '04 Red Sox that broke the "Curse of the Bambino" by winning the World Series.

Adam "Canadian Babe Ruth" Stern 2007

Did you just blink? If so, you missed Adam's cameo for the Orioles. He has one of the strangest stat lines I have come across while doing my project. Now, I kind of remember this from when it happened but Adam appeared in two games for the Orioles but only as a defensive replacement; he never got an AB! That's weird.

In case you are wondering how Adam was brought into the Orioles fold, he was the PTBNL from the Javy Lopez trade at the end of the 2006 season. Wow, between Lopez & Ramon Hernandez, the O's went through some lean catching years. It makes me even more thankful for Wieters!

Since there isn't anything else to say about his time on the Orioles, here are a few other notes I found about Adam.
-Trot Nixon gave him his nickname, but I can't find the story behind it
-he played for Team Canada in the 2004 & 2008 Olympics, as well as the 2006 & 2009 World Baseball Classics
-on August 8, 2005, appeared in a game for the Red Sox with Kevin Youkilis & Gabe Kapler, setting an American League record for most Jewish players on the field at one time
-is only the second Jewish Canadian player in MLB history, following Goody Rosen who played in the '30s & '40s mainly for the Brooklyn Dodgers

Aren't you impressed that I found that much to write about a player who never even hit for the Orioles? Are you still with me? Anyone?

The Beginning (updated with pictures!)

So here I go...

Don Aase (85-88)
What a great last name, how is it supposed to be pronounced? I just always say ass, or ace, one of the two must be correct.


Mike Adamson (67-69)


Manny Alexander (92-96)
For some reason, I always think that Manny was better than he actually was. I think it has something to do with the fact that he was the big prospect during the early 90s, when I was really getting into the O's. He turned out to be a .231 career hitter who managed to smack 15 HRs with 6 teams over 11 MLB seasons. Upon further review, it looks like Manny was out of the bigs for three years from 01-03 and then made an improbable end of career return to the majors to get 73 more at bats over 3 seasons and continue to not hit. At least he stuck with it I guess.


Roberto Alomar (96-98) Auto on Padres card
As good as he was, I will always remember him spitting in the umpire's face. You don't mess with the Roberto!


Brady Anderson (88-01)
Always awesome in centerfield and I think he holds the O's single season HR record with 50. But there's no way he was juicing. None. He was still in great shape at his O's HOF induction a year or two ago and I think he still wants to play. But he mainly seems to "play" at clubs in LA and show up on TMZ.com from time to time.
He was also just a little cocky about his looks, a fact that I'm reminded of by my girlfriend's personalized autographed poster. Brady is only wearing his compression shorts in this poster, and she was a teenager when he gave this to her as a gift assisting his business manager. She keeps the poster in the back of her closet. It's something she likes to have but not to see.


Danny Ardoin (06) Royal Rookies auto
I had no idea who he was when the O's signed him. I found out that his name is pronounced "Ard-wah" And that is pretty much all I know about him. This is what wikipedia says about his time with the O's "He appeared in only five games with Baltimore and recorded one hit in 13 at bats before being released in September." Maybe that's why I don't remember him very well.