A Highly Successful Bowie Baysox Meet the Team Day

The Baysox had their first of three scheduled Meet the Team days last Sunday, April 25. I always like these since they are the perfect time to get your picture taken with the players.

Kalina took my picture with...

Zach Britton

Brandon Waring

Caleb Jospeh

Wilfrido Perez

And Ryohei Tanaka

Here are all the cards that I was able to get signed (with Kalina's help). These events are great for getting a ton of autographs and are great to get the guys who are typically tough signers.


Like Joel Guzman, who prefers to avoid fans if possible. He was nice enough and didn't seem to mind signing. I was expecting him to be surly but he was cool enough.


All of the other Baysox players and coaches are normally good about signing.

Adams mentioned to Kalina that he does not like the picture on the card to the left.

Pedro's autograph didn't turn out great but I have a bunch of his signed cards so it's all good.

Rojas also used a thin sharpie but it works well on this card.



The Figueroa boys were at the same table. Kalina definitely got a picture with the two of them that she likes quite a bit.

I think she also got a picture with Tyler, who wasn't making this funny "fielding-a-ball-face" in their photo.

I think I have about 20 Komminsk autographs at this point. But since he was just sitting there...

It would be nice if Steve had any other cards that I could find. These are cool and all, but they're the only ones I have.

One-time O Jim Hoey was very cool, and even mentioned that sometimes a sharpie will smear on his UD card. Good looking out Jim!

Moe is always very nice and even tossed me a ball from the dugout during the game.

Kennie, who is the Baysox pitching coach this year, didn't sign at the official event but I caught up to him on the field. The pitching coach and that day's started never sign at the Meet the Team days since they are prepping for the game.


Zach and Wilfrido were nice enough to not only pose for pictures with me, but to sign my cards as well.

If any of you ever have the chance to get to any teams' Meet the Team events, I highly suggest that you do so. They are awesome for getting autographs or pictures. If that's not your thing, it's a great way to speak to the players for a few minutes too.

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.

Minor League Members of the O's 40 Man Roster-Wilfrido Perez

Kalina came up with the great idea to do posts about the members of the Orioles 40 man roster that have yet to see Major League action with the Birds. Since we have seen a majority of those guys play at either Frederick and/or Bowie, I have autographs from most of them and can provide a little information about them.

Since Kalina came up with the idea, I let her pick the first guy to profile and she selected Wilfrido "Willy" Perez, a left-handed reliever from the Dominican Republic. He is listed as being 6 feet tall and only weighing 145 pounds so he has a very wiry build and an interesting delivery as seen on his 2009 Baysox card.

Perez has been a member of the Orioles organization since signing as a minor league free agent before the 2005 season. He has pitched for Bluefield, Aberdeen, Delmarva, Frederick and Bowie over his five seasons in the system so far. He was originally a starter but was converted to a reliever in 2007 while with the Shorebirds and his career has taken off since then. He has had multiple dominating stretches which include pitching 25 consecutive scoreless innings at the end of '07 for the Shorebirds.

Before the '09 season he had a real chance to make the Orioles as the left-handed reliever but battled some injuries that prevented him from coming North with the O's. We have seen him pitch at both Frederick in 2008 and Bowie in 08 & 09. As you can see, he normally signs with his number 44 under his last name, but not always. If he makes the O's, it's unlikely he would wear that number since it's been unofficially retired in memory of Elrod Hendricks.

And here is a signed article from the Bowie Baysox gameday magazine last year that has some more information about him if you're interested.

I really hope that Willy can make the Orioles this season. The left-handed reliever spot isn't exactly locked down so if he has a good spring training he could be making his Birdland debut this April.

A few more autos from Bowie

And here are the rest of the forgotten Bowie autographs...


Joe Nowicki hit a walk off HR at the last Baysox game we attended.



Ryan has been one of my favorite minor-leaguers for the past two season, starting last season in Frederick. This is partially because of his last name that I fail at pronouncing correctly (Kalina always reminds me that it is OH-let, not OH-lay or EW-let), and also due to the fact that he normally is rocking a sweet mustache and is thusly nicknamed "the Stache".



Wilfrido is another favorite; he has always been nice to fans and autograph seekers alike and he pitches really well for a little guy. I wouldn't be surprised to see Willy in Balitmore in the next few seasons if he can stay healthy.



Josh was a member of the Harrisburg Senators last season and my dad got me his autograph on a Senators card, so when I found out that he was on the Baysox this season I said "I already have his autograph." Weird coincidence I suppose. But now I have his autograph on a Baysox card, which is good since he is now pitching at Norfolk, which is much farther away from me than Bowie.



G-Rod has been relegated to backup catching duties but also DHs so he keeps busy. He dominated my silver sharpie on his autograph here.



Chad Thall is another of the Baysox jokesters. We have seen him chew many pieces of Dubble Bubble during warm-ups and throw it on the field near where the first base umpire stands during the game. I bet that umpire stepped in 15 pieces of gum throughout the game; that would be fun to scrape off your shoes. This is another one of the sweet 2006 I-birds cards that I now have signed.



"Scrappy" Tucker is one of those guys who you can't help but root for to make it to the Majors one day. He has a great attitude and has played all over the field on an effort to improve his chances of getting promoted. He also comes to the plate to Jay-Z's "Say Hello to the Bad Guy" which is not something that seems to fit him very well.



This is one of the strangest pictures I have ever seen used on a minor league card. Valido's eyes are closed and you can't really tell if he made the out or not. But I'll give the photographer credit for going for something a little different than the norm.

Joe Nowicki literally causes Friday fireworks in Bowie

The title of this post is accurate. The Baysox were up 1 in the top of the seventh inning (the last inning since it was a double-header) around 10:30pm on Friday night. Fireworks were scheduled but they had to start (or end) by 11pm. The fans were getting nervous.

Wilfrido Perez was in to close out the game and struck out the first two batters with ease. Unfortunately, he walked the next Sea Wolves batter and the following guy took him deep to take the lead in the game. He got the last out but the damage was done. It was now 10:40, the Baysox were behind and the fireworks seemed unlikely.

Melvin Dorta led off the bottom of the seventh with a quick single. There was hope in Bowie.

Adam Donachie flew out to right for the first out as the clock continued to tick away the seconds. Joe Nowicki stepped to the plate, and he wanted to end the game for the good guys. One sweet swing of the bat and the ball was over the right field fence. It was 10:45 and the fireworks started before all of the players even left the field.

Oh yeah, I also got my picture with Brandon Snyder & Troy Patton. And got some sweet autos from some of the Bowie players that I didn't already have autographs of.

Troy Patton & me


Brandon Snyder & me


Troy Patton


Melvin Dorta(who got promoted to AAA Norfolk after the game) & Fredy Deza


Robert Valido & Dave Krynzel

Bobby Livingston (who shares my exact birthday) Jonathan Tucker, Mike Costanzo
Costanzo offered to sign 100 if I had them, and then joked they would cost $50 each

Brandon Snyder-isn't this a weird looking card though?