Wrapping Up the Spring Training Autos

And it only took me a week and a half. Not bad considering I always seem to get behind with things; 10 days isn't half bad for me. Without further delay, here are the final autographs that I got in Spring Training.


Palmer was at both of the O's games that I went to. He was there to throw out the first pitch on Tuesday and looked like he just wanted to shoot the breeze on Monday. Luckily for me, he was in a signing mood too and signed this Crown card and also a ball for me. He included "HOF 90" on the ball without even being prompted.


Pena was the only Ray who signed for me, but since I was camped on the Orioles side of the field, I would say that I got lucky even getting him. Anytime you happen to be in the right place at the right time to get the reigning AL HR champ's autograph seems like a good place to be at.


Luke kept telling people at the game that he would sign as he was leaving the parking lot. I figured that we had all heard that one before so wasn't expecting much. But as Luke was leaving the lot, he pulled over and graciously signed and talked to everyone who was outside the lot. Granted there weren't more than 10 of us at that point but he was with his family and considering the number of players that drove by without acknowledging our existence, it was a nice change. Luke has always seemed like a very cool and down to earth person. I really hope he can stay hot at the plate for a full season this year. LUUUUUKKKEEE.


If you have been reading the blog for a while, you probably already know this, but I like sidewinding pitchers. Which makes Cla a pretty obvious choice to be my favorite reliever. You can't really see his pitching motion on the card, which I don't like, but it's a great card for an autograph and Cla did a nice job signing this, even adding his number.


This is probably the most illegible Guthrie autograph that I have, but he still seems to be a good signer. Now if he started having some success on the mound this spring...that would be nice.


Chris signed another card for me. This orange jersey beauty will go with my orange jersey mini collection.


Michael has had a "lost" spring training with various minor injuries and ailments robbing him of playing time and at-bats. I got his autograph when he was leaving the parking lot and really like the way this card looks now that it's signed.

Spring Training Autographs-Pirates-Twins Edition

Before heading south to watch the Orioles in Sarasota, I caught a Pirates-Twins game in Bradenton. McKechnie Field is one of my favorite Spring Training sites and is a very cool little ballpark. I highly suggest you check it out if you are ever heading to Florida in the Spring, or any other time for that matter. They just added lights to the park and were able to lure a Minor League team, the Bradenton Marauders, who start playing there at the beginning of April.

Leave it to an Orioles blogger to lead you to believe you will see Pirates and/or Twins autographs and then start it out with some signed Orioles cards.

Joe Kerrigan 1978, 1980

Joe has been the Pirates' pitching coach since the beginning of the 2009 season. I tried to get him to sign at a Pirates Spring Training game last season and I'm pretty sure he ignored me and I know he didn't sign for anyone. But this year, he was talking to another fan right near the fence so I held out my card, and he seemed slightly surprised that I had a card of his, but he quickly signed it. Suh-weet.

Joe pitched in 27 games for the O's over two seasons, 26 of them were in '78. He also managed the Red Sox for 43 games over the 2001 season.

Brian Burres 2006-08

Burres is in the Pirates' camp as an invitee and is trying to make the team. Brian Bass is also in the same position with the Bucs. That's a lot of B.B.'s who used to play for the O's. Ha! Now if only they were throwing BB's instead of beach balls! Now, I don't want to be too mean and I'm glad that Burres signed for me, but I don't have a lot of fond memories from his years in Birdland.

Andrew McCutchen didn't play in the game that I saw, which was disappointing, but since he didn't play, in his own words "he had nothing else to do" other than sign for us fans, so that was good. He was nice enough to also sign a ball for me.

He is one of my favorite, current non-Orioles players and I'm seriously thinking about collecting his cards. The Pirates are my National League team after all. And he seems like a decent guy.

Dmitri "Da Meat Hook" Young was in the stands at the game to watch his little bro, Delmon, play for the Twins. I normally don't like to bother guys off the field, but he was just standing along the walkway, so I got him to sign my game ticket and also got a picture with him. He seemed like a nice guy and is actually smiling in the picture.

My Blog Turns One! And I Forgot the Cake!

Technically, this blog has been going for a year as of last Thursday 3/18. It figures that I would forget to say something on the actual day but I felt like it was something that warranted a post, even if it was belated. Here is a link to my first ever post.

I can't believe that I have been doing this for a full year already. I've been collecting autographs for most of my life but had no clue that I would stick with this blogging thing as long as I have. I think that I thought 100 posts was a good goal at the beginning. And I know that some of my fellow bloggers write many more posts per week than I do, or are into the thousands of total posts. I commend them for their commitment and skill; I know that I am not on their level. But I am very happy to have posted an average of 5.2 blog posts per week for a whole year.

I can hope that I will continue to post for another year or two, but who knows what the future will bring. I can guarantee that I will always collect Orioles autographs, but don't know if I can blog indefinitely. Some major life changes are looming so we will see how things work out, but I promise to post approximately 5.2 times a week as long as I have the time and motivation.

To celebrate my Blog-day, if you will, here is an autograph that I really like and that I got on my spring training trip. It's the Dean of the Orioles, our long-time second baseman and leadoff hitter, Brian Roberts. He's wearing an orange uniform, which is a focus of the new offshoot of my Orioles auto collection, and I just like the card.

Spring Training Contest Update

In case you haven't seen the banner under the name of my blog or haven't checked it lately, the current records of all the teams are here in blue (updated at least through Friday afternoon).

GRAPEFRUIT LEAGUE

Atlanta Braves (33) Captain Canuck 24-9 11-7
Baltimore Orioles (32) Aaron 20-12, Jeremy 23-9 8-12
Boston Red Sox (33) AdamE 21-12 9-11
Detroit Tigers (35) Grand Cards 19-16 11-8
Florida Marlins (31) Paul W 23-8 11-9
Houston Astros (33) Steve E. 13-20 11-8
Minnesota Twins (31) SpastikMooss 23-8 9-8
New York Mets (34) Slangon 22-12 11-9
New York Yankees (33) Bo 22-11, Drew 25-8 8-11
Philadelphia Phillies (31) KmSals 26-5 9-7
Pittsburgh Pirates (32) Paul 24-7-1 5-12
St. Louis Cardinals (30) Kevin 22-8, madding 14-16 8-10
Tampa Bay Rays (32) RadicalEddie 19-13, BA Benny 22-10 13-6
Toronto Blue Jays (30) mmmrhubarb 21-8-1, The Gooch 23-7 9-7
Washington Nationals (33) Collective Troll 25-8, Mark's Ephemera 16-17 5-13

CACTUS LEAGUE

Arizona Diamondbacks (33) Sean Benton 20-13, TheBrooklynMet 21-12 10-10
Chicago Cubs (35) The Diamond King 23-12 11-8
Chicago White Sox (34) White Sox Cards 24-10 6-10
Cincinnati Reds (32) heavy hitter 19-13, Carl Crawford Cards 22-10 8-9
Cleveland Indians (32) night owl 20-12 12-5
Colorado Rockies (33) phaedrusX 21-12 13-8
Kansas City Royals (31) zman40 21-10 8-8
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (33) Wickedliquids 26-8 5-11
Los Angeles Dodgers (31) Roy 25-6 7-10
Milwaukee Brewers (33) Thorzul 20-13 11-9
Oakland Athletics (33) dan 23-10 9-10
San Diego Padres (32) Rod 20-12 9-10
San Francisco Giants (34) Joe K 22-12 15-6
Seattle Mariners (33) Play at the Plate 20-13, packaddict 19-14 7-11
Texas Rangers (31) Moe 21-10, Spiff 19-12 6-12

The Rays are still leading all teams with a .733 winning percentage, while the Braves, Indians, Phillies and Giants aren't far behind.

The Nationals' .143 losing percentage is currently bringing up the rear.

Good luck everyone! Anyone can still win at this point!

Spring Training Successes: Minor League Members of the 40 Man Roster

Following up on the series of preview blogs I wrote about these players a few weeks back, here are all of the autographs I got from the Minor League guys on the O's 40 man.


Rhyne Hughes signed at both games I went to but I missed him on the first day. This is my first autograph from him, and I wanted to get at least 2 but I won't complain. I didn't immediately recognize him when we walked by on the first day and I think he looks quite different in person than he does on his cards.


These cards looks like they were designed to be signed. There's too much open space when they aren't autographed but once the signature is added it looks great. The Hughes card above is also from the Tristar Projections set but his wasn't cut off at the waist for some reason.

Brandon signed a trio of cards for me, but this is the most unique. As you can see, it's from the '07 Hawaii Winter Baseball set and that was the only year I bought one of these sets. It featured 5 or 6 other Orioles Minor Leaguers, including my boy, Matt Wieters, but I didn't buy the set for him or Snyder. I bought it because it includes the only card produced of Ryohei Tanaka, a RP who was on the Baysox in '09. I have not yet gotten Ryohei's autograph but this shows you how far I will go to obtain a card of a random Minor League player to get their autograph on a card.

This is a cool action shot for a Minor League team set. The Baysox did a nice job on their cards last season. The orange border is cool as well.


And why stop now? Here is the third Snyder card I got signed from the equally cool 2006 Ironbirds set.


Chorye kind of missed the card with his C when he was signing it. I think that he was trying to avoid the black jersey but I would've preferred that he kept his autograph totally on the card. Oh well. At least it's an Orioles card.


Since I seem to only have good things to say about the Minor League sets in today's post, I won't stop now. I like the rolling blue wave at the bottom of the Tides '09 set. The orange jersey and blue border clash a little bit but I like it anyway. Also, Troy has always seemed like a nice guy and a good signer to boot.

Spring Training Successes- Non Roster Invitee Autographs

Some of you particularly astute Orioles fans might note that a few of the autographs that I showcased yesterday are also non-roster invitees in the O's camp. But the difference between them and these guys is that I don't have Orioles cards of anyone in this post. Some of them have been featured in various Orioles Minor League releases but none of them yet have an Orioles card, outside of possibly Jake Arrieta.


And speaking of Jake, here is the card he signed. Kalina also got a card signed by him and he was definitely the first player she noticed shagging fly balls at the first game we went to. That's weird, since it's not like he is her favorite prospect or anything (he unequivocally is).


Armando Gabino was, by far, the most excited I have ever seen a player to see a card of his. I asked if he would sign and tossed this card to him, which he excitedly showed off to Alberto Castillo and Frank Mata. He was speaking in Spanish but seemed to be saying something like "See I told you that I actually have a baseball card!".
When the Orioles selected Gabino off of waivers from the Twins in the offseason, I searched online and found literally 2 cards of his for sale anywhere. They were both Twins Minor League cards and this one looked like it would look better signed. I know that he now has a card in the 2010 UD set, but I wasn't able to get it before my trip.


I don't know much about Chris, but I know that the combination of this card, his uni in the shot, and his autograph look pretty good together.


Caleb is now my mom's favorite player. In full disclosure, I'm not positive that she has had a favorite to replace, at least since Cal was around, but she was standing next to me when Caleb signed this card and he said something about it being the first card he had signed at Spring Training. She liked that, and thinks that he seems like a nice guy. I agree, Caleb seems pretty cool.


Frank is another player that I know little about, other than that he clearly spent time in the Twins organization. I guess it really doesn't Mata what I know about him. And you know I just had to go there, it was way too easy.


I saw Josh pitch at Bowie last season, and I believe he spent part of the season as the Baysox' closer. His last name is pronounced Per-oh, as opposed to how it looks, Per-alt.


Tuck is one of my favorite Minor Leaguers. He has always been a great signer, he hustles on every play, and I have seen him make a few outstanding catches. He also plays multiple positions, which is backed up by the card listing his position as INF/OF, and has spent most of his time in LF and at 3B. Scrappy is also a pretty small guy for a baseball player and is listed at 5'8'' which either means the he is actually 5'7'' or that he's one of the few honest players about his height. Either way, he is having a good Spring Training and I know that he has caught Trembley's eye once or twice.


On my trip to Norfolk last year, I incorrectly thought that Ross was Bob McCrory. While they do look a little bit alike, I'm normally good with faces, so I felt bad when I handed Ross the wrong card. I finally made up for it this spring when I boldly called out his name and he came over to sign. Again in full disclosure, McCrory is no longer with the O's so that boosted my confidence level.

Carl Crawford Cards Group Break

Check it out here! I'm already in on the Orioles, since it's a great way to pick up some more expensive cards that I normally wouldn't buy myself. There are still many teams available, so claim yours before someone else does!

Spring Training Successes- Orioles Card Edition

Here's the beginning of the autographs that I got in spring training. I normally try to avoid displaying so many cards in one post but stick with me on this. All of these are signed Orioles cards, and are either the first time I got that player to sign in person, or their first Orioles card that I have signed in my collection. I would say that this group of cards are my best auto-ccomplishment from Sarasota.

I have to start with two players that have been a thorn in my side for the past year. I recently obtained autographs of them both via trade and a gift but this was the first time that they signed for me in person.


I finally got the elusive "Koji 19" autograph that had evaded me for a complete season. He was also one of the last signatures that I got in my time at Ed Smith Stadium. As was the case on the other occasions that I saw him signing, he started signing far from where I was and I had to make a break for him, but this time, I finally got what I wanted.


I had few opportunities to get Alfredo's autograph since he was injured very early last season and was rarely with the team after his April surgery. I had to call out his name a few times before he reluctantly came over to sign, and he signed for only a few other people and me.



This next group of guys had their first Orioles cards produced after the 2009 season.


Including unlicensed 2010 UD cards of Chad Moeller and Justin Turner.


Whereas UD did a respectable job of hiding any glimpse of the O's logo on Moeller's card,


the Bird logo on Justin's helmet is clearly visible.



I bought the 2010 Topps Heritage team set in the week before I flew south which worked out well since it included Kevin Millwood's and Garrett Atkins's first O's cards.


Millwood is obviously wearing an Orioles uni but I have no idea where the picture may have been taken. Kevin was discussing golf with Scott Moore when he signed this and had just spoken to Dick Vitale, who was on the field during warm-ups.


I'm skeptical that this is actually an Orioles uniform since there is no way that Heritage had the time to take a picture and get it into a set that came out before Atkins had likely ever broken a sweat for the O's, but at least it's not obviously a Rockies uni on an "Orioles" card. This works for me!


Tillman had a few Orioles cards come out in late 2009 sets but this card is perfect for an autograph. He also signed the FanFest picture that Kalina had of the two of them, and said something about that when he signed it.


This is from the 2010 Topps When They Were Young insert set and is the only card to date that shows Berken in an Orioles uniform, even though it's focus is of him as a kid.


This is Kam's first Orioles card and it's from the Bowman Chrome set. I like it even more since he is wearing an orange uniform; the picture was probably taken during spring training last year. Although he doesn't have a great autograph, at least it's close to what is pictured on the card.


I mentioned that Scott had been talking with Millwood about golf. It sounded like both of them are pretty proficient at it and were talking about which other O's could hold their own against them. Scott has only spent a little time in Baltimore and was on the Tides' DL when I went to Norfolk last year, so this was one of my first chances to get his signature.


Somehow, I didn't have a Bordick in-person autograph in my collection. I really like this card of his because of the action shot and the textured laces that are visible in the top left and bottom right corners. Mike also nicely personalized a card for Kalina, who was always a big fan of his.


Sorry again for the long post, the next few Spring Training auto posts should be shorter, but I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my successes.

Calzado & Castro

I recently purchased autographs of these two former Orioles from an online seller who specializes in obtaining autographs of Dominican baseball players. As has been my experience, tracking these guys down after their playing days can be very tough. Most Latino players seem to disappear after they retire and I rarely can find a good address for them, even if I knew how to mail something to them internationally, which normally is not the case. International shipping is beyond me.

Napoleon Calzado 2005

Napoleon Dynamite, uh I mean Calzado played in a grand total of four games for the O's in 2005, and that was the extent of his MLB career. He has played baseball around the world since his time with the O's but it seems unlikely that he will make it back to the Majors.

Bernie Castro 2005

Castro, by comparison at least, had a much more substantial MLB career, and appeared in 24 games for the '05 Birds. He also played 42 games for the Nationals in '06. Castro had been in the Padres system before signing with the O's, hence him being pictured as a Padre. He also has cards featuring him in a Nationals uniform but not a single card pictures him as an Oriole. So this card will have to make do for my collection.


Something that I find interesting about these two guys is that Calzado appeared in 1/6 the number of games for the Orioles as Castro did, yet Nappy has at least three Orioles cards whereas Castro has none. It's very possible that none of you find that even remotely interesting, but I do and you can't change my mind! No way, no how!

And I'm Back

I hope that everyone had a great week, I can't say that I'm thrilled to get back to the grind but I had a lot of fun in Florida. I got 47 autographed cards, mostly from guys in the Orioles camp, but also from a few former O's who are currently with the Pirates. I also got two autographed balls and one autographed game ticket. I'm having some computer issues right now, so I'm not positive when I will be able to scan everything but will do so ASAP.

Many of the autographs I got are new to the collection and include many of the new players who were in camp. It's very possible that some, if not all, of them might never play for the O's but I have their autographs in case they do! I also upgraded some players who signed their first Orioles cards. All in all it was a great trip and I can't wait to go back in the future.

And to update the Spring Training Contest, currently the Rays have the best record at 9-3 while the Nationals are a MLB worst 0-10. C'mon Nats, you gotta win a game every now and then!

"The Orioles Integrator"

Jehosie "Jay" Heard 1954 (died 1999)

This is one of my new favorite autographs in my collection. I really like these '54 Topps cards and to have any Orioles card that is 56 years old, let alone have it signed, is pretty awesome. Look at that awesome bird logo on his hat and the sweet Oriole on a ball logo in the corner. This card is truly great.

Jay was a member of the inaugural 1954 Birds but only appeared in 2 games for them and pitched a total of 3.1 innings. His place in Orioles history mostly lies with the fact that he was the first black player to play for the O's, making his debut on April 24, 1954. He was their "integrator", if you will. I'm not positive that's a word but it sounds good to me and works for my purposes.

MLB Alumni Signing Additions

So I don't know how many of you fellow autograph collectors are aware of this but the Major League Baseball Players Alumni holds a signing pretty much every month through their website. Last month, I was able to add two guys to my collection who don't sign much at all TTM or otherwise. I was very happy to be able to add these two tough signers to my collection.

Mike "Pags" Pagliarulo 1993

For some reason I remember Pags being an Oriole for much longer than he actually was: he played in only 33 games for the Birds at the end of the 1993 season. It might have something to do with the multiple O's cards I have of his which could've led me to think that his tenure in Baltimore was longer than it actually was. Overall, he played 11 Major League seasons, mostly with the Yankees & Twins. He is currently running a baseball website called Dugout Central.

Willie Royster 1981

Willie played only 4 games for the O's in 1981 and I can't say that I really remember him, other than for the slightly goofy picture on this Crown card. I also know that he's only a 25% TTM signer who only has this one Orioles card, so I jumped at this opportunity to get his signature.