Unpossible Autograph- Connie Johnson

Connie Johnson was a WWII veteran and had about 10 seasons of Negro League experience under his belt before he made his MLB debut with the White Sox in 1953. He was traded to the Orioles during the 1956 season and pitched in Baltimore through the end of the '58 season, which would be his last in the Majors.

Over his 5 MLB seasons, Connie pitched in 123 games, making 100 starts, and went 40-39 with a 3.44 ERA and 497 strikeouts. He won a career high 14 games for the Birds in 1957 and also had a career low 3.20 ERA.

Connie worked for the Ford Motor Company after his playing days. He passed away on November, 28 2004. RIP Connie.

TTM Success- Vic Rodriguez & His Long & Winding Road to the Majors

While waiting for Orioles baseball to return from the All-Star Break, I stumbled across the interesting story of Vic Rodriguez, who was nice enough to sign my TTM request and get it back to me in just 12 days. It's always exciting to get a card back that quickly.

Vic, who is from NYC, was signed by the O's in 1977 as a free agent when he was only 15 years old; I'm not really sure how that was allowed, but I don't think you can even sign international free agents that young anymore.

Anyway, he spent the next 7 years slowly rising through the Orioles system, and finally made his MLB debut in September 1984. He played in 11 games and had 17 ABs, hitting .412 with a 1.000 OPS over that time. You'd think with amazing numbers like that he should make the '85 team out of Spring Training right? No dice, not poor Vic. He was traded to the Padres the following February and spent the next 5 seasons trying to get back to the Major Leagues. He finally made it back in 1989 with the Twins, and this time he hit .455 with a 1.091 OPS in 11 ABs over 6 games.

So did Vic ever get another crack at the Bigs? Nope, that was it. Dude has a .429 average at the Major League level but somehow never was able to stick at that level. All told, he played 18 seasons and over 1700 Minor League games, but only got 28 Major League ABs. At least he made the most of them.

Thanks for signing my card Vic!

At Least Ty Made An Appearance

That's right Wiggy, stay in the on-deck circle.

Although Joe Buck & Tim McCarver didn't mention it in the FOX broadcast, Ty started the 7th inning as a defensive replacement for AL 3B starter, Evan Longoria. I don't think I would have even known that he was in the game if Torii Hunter hadn't try to throw out Scott Rolen at third, who was going from first to third on Matt Holliday's single. Ty fielded the ball cleanly and it was his only fielding chance in the game, so any potential Orioles ASG embarrassment was avoided.

While I was happy to see that Ty had the chance to play in the All-Star Game, I'm a little disappointed that he didn't get an at-bat. He was scheduled to leadoff for the AL squad in the bottom of the 7th, but Joe Girardi decided to go with his own guy, Nick Swisher, instead of Wiggy. With righty Adam Wainwright pitching, I guess it made sense for switch hitting Swisher to bat instead of playing the odds with the righty-righty matchup that Wiggy would have faced. Still, BOO Girardi. Let the lone Oriole representative hit!

You can put that bat away Paul!

As far as I can tell, Melvin Mora and Paul Blair are the only other Orioles All-Stars who appeared in the game but didn't get a chance to bat. Melmo seems to have appeared as a pinch-runner in the 2003 midsummer classic, while Blair was used as a defensive replacement in the 1973 ASG.

Baltimore All-Stars

Way back in 1959, Jerry Walker & Billy O'Dell were two of the five Oriole representatives in the All-Star game; Hoyt Wilhelm, Gus Triandos, and Gene Woodling also made the squad. Ah, to have 5 All-Stars...it must be nice.


Jerry still holds the record for being the youngest All-Star game starter in history; he was only 20 when he took the hill for American League squad. Jerry outdueled Don Drysdale over three innings and earned the win. That's pretty impressive stuff right there.



Billy was appearing in his second consecutive (and final) All-Star Game in '59. He earned a hold for pitching an inning of relief, and preserving Walker's win.

The NL lineup that Walker & O'Dell shut down was pretty menacing and featured future Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, Stan Musial and Frank Robinson.

Somehow, I doubt that Ty Wigginton will have the opportunity to dominate tonight's ASG like Walker and O'Dell did in '59, but we can hope that he has the chance to jack a pitch out of the park. Or at least can avoid embarrassing Baltimore. Make us proud Ty!

Congratulations to the Orioles on Their Four Game Road Sweep

The Orioles swept the Rangers in a four game series at Arlington in the days leading up to the All Star Break. Now for many of you baseball fans who like better teams than the O's, a simple 4 game sweep on the road probably doesn't seem like a big deal. But to the Orioles franchise, this kind of thing doesn't happen. In fact, this is the first four game road sweep since the Orioles did it against the White Sox on July 6-9, 1995! Now I realize that teams only play a limited number of 4 games road series every season (the Orioles have 3 this season), but for it to have been 15 years since it last happened is ridiculous. That means that the Orioles went 14 full seasons, or approximately 42 series, without such a sweep in another teams' hometown. It's a small victory in a largely lost season, but could it be a signal that the Birds are about to turn things around?

For nostalgia's sake, here are a few of the players on the 1995 Orioles team who were part of that last four game road sweep.





Now that was a pretty decent team. Let's hope that the 2010 Orioles can play well through the end of the season and end up with an improved record, at least over the first half of the season. Good luck guys!

TTM Success- Paul Hartzell

Paul was nice enough to sign this card for me and returned my TTM request in 38 days. He appeared in 6 games for the Orioles during the 1980 season, and went 0-2 with a 6.62 ERA. He spent most of that season pitching for the O's then AAA affiliate, the Rochester Red Wings.

Overall, Paul had a 6 season MLB career, also pitching for the California Angels, Minnesota Twins and the Milwaukee Brewers.

As a fellow native Pennsylvanian, I feel like I should mention that Paul was born in Bloomsburg, PA and attended Lehigh University in south eastern PA. He is the most recent baseball player from the school to reach the Major Leagues and was inducted to their Hall of Fame in 1998.

Unpossible Autograph- Gene Brabender

Today, I decided to feature the former Oriole who has, in my opinion, the best (most comical) name of anyone to have worn the Orioles uniform. I know it's childish, but the name Brabender makes me laugh, or at the very least smirk. So you can picture me grinning until the end of the post.

Gene "Lurch" Brabender was certainly an imposing figure to opposing batters. The 6'6'' Brabender earned his very appropriate nickname while he was a member of the expansion Seattle Pilots. He was supposedly referred to as "Animal" during his time with the O's. I tend to think if Gene played today someone would have given him a nickname that played off of his name, something like "B cup". Haha, but I digress.

Brabender pitched in the Majors from 1966-1970 and had his greatest success during his time with the Orioles from 1966-68. He went 16-14 with a 3.39 ERA in 82 games over those three seasons and was a member of the '66 World Series Championship team although he didn't appear in a game during the series.

He was originally drafted by the Dodgers but the O's snagged him in the 1965 Rule V draft after seeing him pitch at the nearby Aberdeen Proving Grounds during his time in the military. It's like the O's used the military team as a type of farm team precursor to the current Aberdeen Ironbirds. For those of you not familiar with Maryland, Aberdeen is about 45 minutes northeast from Baltimore.

Gene had his own construction business after his time in baseball was over and died from a brain aneurysm in 1996 at the young age of 55. RIP Gene. Thanks for standing strong with your awesome surname.
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Orioles Game Autographs

I'm proud to report that the Orioles most recent prospect call-ups are both good signers.

Awesome orange uni Jake autograph.

I was worried that Bell might be the type to stop signing once he hit Baltimore, but that's not the case, yet anyway. This picture was taken prior to all of the tattoos on his arms. And I just found that he has 2 Orioles cards in the 2010 Bowman set, including a solo card in the Topps 100 set, similar to the Arrieta card above, so I need to get him to sign one of those soon.

I showed off my picture with US Soccer Head Coach Bob Bradley last week. Here's the card he signed too.

A sweet Scott Moore orange uni autograph-I'm a fan of how most of the O's Minor League affiliates rock the orange uniforms.

John Shelby doesn't sign too often, but he always seems like a really nice guy when he does.


I've been pleasantly surprised with Miggy's signing habits this season. I wasn't getting autographs when he was in town last time, but he signs more than most superstar/star players.

Jake Fox is another new Orioles player who seems to be a great signer. I temporarily ran out of his cards, so had him sign this team card. I re-upped and now have a couple cards for him to sign if I can get him again.


This Jeff Datz auto turned out better than the one I got a few weeks ago. The J on that previous autograph was very faded. Stupid sharpie.



Cesar Izturis is signing more this season than he did last year. Good for you Cesar! The 08 Topps was signed for Moe, who will be getting another package at the end of this season.

Orioles Alumni Autographs

Germany, my second favorite World Cup team after the US, was just eliminated in their semi-final game against Spain so I'm not in the mood to write much.

Here are some autographs from the recent Alumni Signers at the MASN Booth on Eutaw Street prior to Monday and Thursday Orioles home games...

I've heard about this in the past but Tippy personally confirmed it to me. He really doesn't like signing cards that feature him with a mustache. He didn't say why, it just seems like he thinks that it makes him look silly I guess.

Doesn't look like Joe caught the ball...

Bordick was in town to help the team with infield skills.
Now if only someone could show up to position Adam Jones...

I was excited to get two cards from this old Keys set signed. Calvin commented about it being an old card while Joe didn't say much because of the heat. The signing booth gets awfully hot, especially for the older guys like Joe. The sun shines right in there and makes it pretty uncomfortable for the signers.

Congrats to Wiggy, Nick Snubbed?

Your 2010 Orioles All-Star representative is none other than Ty Wigginton. Unfortunately, some talking heads feel that Ty is the A.L.'s super-utility player who will only get in the game if it goes in to extra innings. Great, so we have one player in the game who likely won't even play. It reminds me of the 08 All-Star Game, when George Sherrill didn't appear in the game until the 12th inning.

While I would agree that Ty was the only Oriole who was "hot" at the plate for the beginning of the season, he has really cooled off lately. Before yesterday's 2-3 performance in Detroit, he was mired in a 1-28 slump. And while he does have 14 HR on the year, only 1 of those have come since May 23.

Kalina and I feel like Nick Markakis would've been a better representative. Kakes has been hitting around .300 all year and also gets on base about 40% of the time, mainly due to his 25 doubles (tied for 2nd in the AL) and 49 walks. He was likely not selected due to the position he plays, rather than his stats on the year. Juan Samuel did mention that he would've endorsed Kakes if Joe Giradi had been respectful enough to ask him.

I got this card signed at a game recently and Ty used another guy's marker to sign it. The marker is much thicker than the sharpie I normally use but it still looks decent. While neither Ty nor Nick are good autograph signers, I have gotten Ty's autograph 3 times at Camden Yards while I'm still waiting for my first Markakis game autograph...so Ty's an autograph All-Star at least.

A Coolio Contest

I know that most of us like Allen & Ginter cards. You know what's better than A&G cards? Free A&G cards!

There's a contest going on right now over at Coolio Cards where you can win a FREE BOX of 2010 A&G. That's what I'm talking about. So head on over and enter. All you have to do is name your favorite player and why you like them. I think that everyone can handle that!

Good luck all!

New Guys on the Block

Recently, I worked out a trade with two new autograph collecting bloggers and I wanted to share my experiences with both of them since they are both great guys and excellent trade partners. I couldn't scan all of the cards and postcards they sent me because that would've taken a long time but here are some of my favorites.

First up, Dion from Dion's IP Autos only and I started talking a trade about a month ago. We actually made the trade a few weeks back but you know how my posting schedule goes. 2 weeks late isn't bad. I'll probably be posting about 2010 Allen & Ginter in September...

Dion had a number of autographs that I needed for my collection including a few former Orioles who have passed away...

Pat Kelly (and it's on an orange uni postcard to boot!)

Former Orioles player and manager, Johnny Oates

Dion also had a few cards that I needed...

Jarvis doesn't have any O's cards so this works for my collection

I had a Keys autograph of Sendy but never got an O's card signed, until now.

I have a signed ball and 8x10 of Chad Brad, but didn't have the signed postcard.
Now if I could just find a signed Orioles card of his...

Thanks so much for all the great autographs Dion!


The other new blogger who reached out to me is Austin, who just started the Orioles Autograph Project. He sent me a bunch of autographs, but the one that really helped out my collection was Greg Aquino.

Greg doesn't have any Orioles cards, so this postcard is as good as it's going to get with Greg. Thanks for the great trade Austin.

Check out Dion's & Austin's blogs if you have a minute. They are both awesome trade partners!