A Matt Nokes Story

Unless this is your first time on my blog, you probably know how my collection works. I collect signed cards of everyone who has played for the Orioles. My preference of what autograph is in my collection goes something like this: signed Orioles card, signed Orioles postcard, signed card of player on different team, singed 3x5. Basically, if the player has an Orioles card, I want that signed for my collection.  

My regular go-to source to find out what cards are available for a player is Beckett.com since they have a fairly extensive listing of cards that are available. They always have base cards listed and will normally have a lot of obscure and/or low number cards as well. And they are broken down by what team the player is shown on, so I can (typically) rely on them to let me know what's available.  

Well, it looks like Matt Nokes is a player whose listing is screwed up.  You can see here on the left hand sidebar under team, it doesn't show that Matt has any Orioles cards.  But then in mid-July, I read on Kevin's Orioles Card "O" the Day blog (mentioned at the bottom of this Kris Foster post) that Matt supposedly had an Orioles card in the '95 Pinnacle set. No way, I thought. Beckett doesn't list any Orioles cards for him! But upon further inspection, I looked for the card Kevin mentioned and, sure enough, listed as a Yankees card, there was Matt's single Orioles card. There are two parallel versions of this card, so I guess he technically had 3 Orioles cards, but I'm getting off topic. Point is that there was an Orioles card of Matt and I needed to upgrade my collection.  

Luckily, Matt is currently the hitting coach for the Potomac Nationals, the single A affiliate of the Nationals, and they play in the Carolina League with the Frederick Keys. Kalina and I go to a handful of Keys games every year, so I just circled the next time the P-Nats would be in town. Matt's not much of a TTM signer, so I was happy that I could try to get him in person. I tracked down this card at my local card shop, and went to Frederick, confident that I could get the card signed.  

Harry Grove Stadium, where the Keys play, is an awesome place to get autographs of both the Keys and the visiting teams since the players & coaches have to walk through the concourse to get from their clubhouses to the dugouts. Everyone HAS to walk past the fans, and I've never been shut down, so what could go wrong? As I stood outside the visiting clubhouse and waited for Matt to come out, I started to get worried as the entire team had passed me by and was stretching or warming up on the field.  The pitching coach was down there and so was the manager. But where was Matt? Was he not on the trip? Well, it turns out that he was, and came out of the clubhouse just a few minutes before game time. He was either in a bad mood or just a jerk because when I asked if he would sign, Matt flatly said "No" and rushed past me to the field.  I struck out! So how is my card signed then?  

Well, luckily the Keys and P-Nats would meet again in the first round of the Carolina League playoffs, just over a week later (I wrote a post on Monday about that). This time Kalina was on the job.  After my middling autograph skills hadn't worked, I sent in my better half.  I think that players always prefer to sign for kids and the ladies, especially attractive ones. Not fifteen minutes after Kalina walked over there, she came back with my cards signed and even reported that Matt was a nice guy. It sounds like he was shocked to see his Orioles card, as most people either have a Yankees or Tigers card for him to sign.  I now had two signed copies of Matt's only Orioles card.  Thank you Kalina!

This is the card that was in my collection which I obtained in a trade last June.  If anyone is interested in trading for it, or the twin of his Orioles card, just let me know!

Unpossible Autograph Friday-Chico Carrasquel

This is an autograph that remained just out of my grasp at the National Card Show; a dealer had it for sale, but it would have pushed me beyond my personal budget for the show. I tried to bargain with him but he wouldn't come down from his price, so I had to walk away. Luckily, I've recently had some success selling a few items on ebay, so I was able to flip my money back on this card with a dealer who was willing to bargain the price down to where I was comfortable with it. 

Chico was the third ever Venezuelan native to play in the Major Leagues, following the footsteps of his uncle, Alex Carrasquel, and a player named Chucho Ramos, who had a brief career with the Reds. Chico's nephew, Cris Colon, played briefly with the Rangers in 1992, so his family is truly a baseball dynasty.

While he wasn't the first player from Venezuela to play in the Majors, he was certainly his country's first star. Over his ten year career, he was a 4 time All-Star (and the first Latin player to be selected for that team), twice received MVP votes and came in third in the 1950 ROY balloting behind Walt Dropo and Whitey Ford. Chico started a long tradition of Venezuelan shortstops which still continues to this day; in fact the current O's SS, Cesar Izturis, is from Venezuela.

Chico is mostly known for the 6 seasons he spent with the White Sox from 1950-55 at the beginning of his career, but he also spent time with the Indians and the KC Athletics before he wrapped up his Major League career with the O's in 1959.

After his playing career ended he returned to Venezuela where he coached, and managed local teams before he turned to scouting for the Royals and Mets. He eventually returned to the U.S. to work in the White Sox' front office and work on their Spanish language radio broadcasts.  In 2002, a baseball stadium was named after him in his home country and he was a member of the inaugural 2003 class of the Venezuela Baseball Hall of Fame. In his later years, he also established The Chico Carrasquel Foundation to help the children of Venezuela through baseball.  He was 75 years old when he passed away in 2005 of cardiac arrest.

RIP Chico.

How Sweep It Is & John Bale

While I slightly apologize for the silly and cliche title, you have to understand that us Orioles fans don't get to use that s-word very often, at least not in a good context. The O's have been swept ten times this season, including twice being swept away in back-to-back series; 4 of the series sweeps have occurred in Baltimore, two of those coming at the hands of the Blow Blue Jays. In fact the Orioles were 0-12 on the season against the Jays until sweeping them out of Baltimore this week.

I don't know how much of this current turnaround has to do with Buck Showalter, but I damn near love our new manager so far. This weekend, the Orioles have a chance to win their fifth consecutive series for the first time since 1998. 1998! That's sad and awful and embarrassing, but I'm really glad we have a chance to get rid of some of these bad "milestones" this season, since next year, we will be a respectable and somewhat competitive team again. That's right, I'm going there. 

John's in this post because he doesn't have any Orioles cards and this is a Jays card, that connection works for me.

John Bale was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 5th round of the 1996 draft, which was actually the third time he was selected in the draft; the Cardinals took him in the 12th rd. of  '94 and the O's picked him in the 6th rd. of  '95, but the third time was the charm for him. The Jays traded him to the Orioles in December 2000 for Jayson Werth (it's good to know the O's weren't the only organization that gave up on Werth before he became good) and he pitched in 14 games for the Orioles during the 2001 season and went 1-0 with a 3.04 ERA out of the bullpen. The Orioles traded him to the Mets in Spring Training 2002 in return for Gary Matthews Jr. 

After the O's sent him packing, John pitched briefly with the Reds, spent three seasons with the Royals and is currently on his second stint in Japan, pitching for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. An interesting, unrelated fact about John is that his wife is is the sister of NHL star Vincent Lecavalier. 

I'm not a big fan of this card, it's kind of ugly what with the pale yellow & pinstripes and the huge Team Best logo in the background. What's the opposite of when something "pops" at you?  Maybe flops?  Well then, this card really flops to me. But I didn't have a wide selection to chose from since the only major release that he's ever been included in is 2009 Upper Deck and he's not much of a TTM signer. This 1998 Team Best is his only certified autograph I could find and it was only $1, so I can literally look beyond it's ugliness and add it to my collection. 

Oriole #886- Pedro Viola

Pedro was the second player to make his Orioles debut this week (after Brandon Snyder, see the previous post for that write up), but this wasn't Pedro's Major League debut.  He pitched in 9 games with the Reds last September and had a 5.14 ERA over 7 innings.  Some eagle-eyed readers might notice that I included this card in last Wednesday's Adios Baysox post.  The O's claimed Pedro off waivers from the Reds on April 21, 2010 and he started the season with the AAA Tides where he "pitched" in 11 games to the tune of 17+ ERA before being demoted to the AA Baysox for the remainder of their season. 

I wasn't really sure how Pedro belonged on the Orioles 40 man roster for the duration of the season, but he somehow survived various roster cuts and releases to be called up to the Baltimore on September 7.  He appeared in his first game with the Orioles last night and it looks like my confusion was justified, at least in a small sample size.  Pedro was brought in to the game with a runner on and two outs in the bottom of the 8th inning with the O's leading the Blue Jays 9-0. He promptly walked the free-swinging Lyle Overbay and then gave up a home run to the light-hitting Aaron Hill before finally striking out Adam Lind to get out of the inning.

My prediction is that Pedro will not make any additional appearances for the remainder of the season, unless the Orioles are winning or losing by more than 9 runs.  The man has a 54.00 ERA and cannot be trusted in close (Orioles lead/deficit < 9 runs) games. I don't mean to be hard on the guy, but I just don't like what I see; he reminds me too much of Daniel Cabrera, which is not a good thing.

Before I wrap this up, I also want to mention that I got this card signed at one of the Baysox meet-the-team days.  Pedro signed it with one of the markers on the table, not my preferred sharpie, but at least I have his autograph, which is good because I didn't see him sign before the games at all.  He wasn't included in the Baysox or Tides team sets, so I'm not aware of any Orioles' affiliates cards that he could have, so this will stay in my collection for now.

Oriole #885 Brandon Snyder

My favorite autograph of Snyder, however it looks like my sharpie was a little dry that day

Brandon Snyder made his MLB debut with the Orioles on Friday night, appearing as a ninth inning defensive replacement in another Orioles win. He made his first Major League start yesterday and went 0-3 with a strikeout but was 10-10 in fielding chances and also helped turn a double play.  He will forever be the 885th player to wear the black and orange uniform in Baltimore.

He was one of the O's September call-ups, so he had to bide his time on the bench for 9 days before he made it into a game.  I hope that he plays in a game or two during the upcoming homestand so the Baltimore fans get to see him play.  I wrote a post about him back in February after the O's added him to the 40 man roster, so don't want to repeat much from that, but please check the link to learn about him. 

Good Luck B-Snyde.  We hope that you can find success at the Major League level!

Frederick Keys Playoff Pictures & Manny Machado

I apologize for the crappy cell phone pictures, but I accidentally left the normal camera behind.
These were taken after the Keys' walkoff victory, and although they are fuzzy, you can clearly see the players' excitement. 

 

When writing my Adios Baysox post last Wednesday, I somehow neglected to mention that the Orioles hi-A affiliate, the Frederick Keys, were in the Carolina League playoffs.  I swear that I mentioned it in there, but I couldn't find anything about it today.  Anyway, on Wednesday night Kalina and I went to the first game of their best of five series against the Nationals' affiliate, the Potomac Nationals.  Most of you would've figured out on your own that the P-Nats are in the Nationals' farm system, but I just wanted to clarify, because Minor League baseball doesn't always make sense. 

It was a great game, specifically a great Minor League kind of game.  Neither of the starting pitchers made it into the second inning; the Keys' starter gave up 8 runs while only getting 2 outs while the Keys were able to squeeze 7 runs out of the P-Nats starter while getting a whole 3 outs.  Both the Keys and P-Nats hit grand slams in the first inning. Miguel Abreu (below w/ Kalina on his right) won the game in the bottom of the ninth on what was essentially a walk-off bunt double.  We have rooted for Miggy for the past three seasons so it was great to see him come through in the clutch like that.  It was the only game that the Keys won in the series and their season is over now, but it was great to see them win at least one game. 

Kalina had Miggy sign the scorecard that we used for the game

The Orioles 2010 First Round Draft Pick, Manny Machado was also with the Keys as part of the taxi squad from Aberdeen/Delmarva.  I somehow missed him when he came out before the game but I caught up with him as he was walking from the dugout to the clubhouse after the game.  He signed this Baltimore Sun sports section for me.  We also saw him in Aberdeen the previous week, but that's a post for another day. 

NFL Survivor League Lock of the Week

Picture from here

For something completely different on the blog, I am going to share the NFL team that I feel is a lock to win every week. I'm in a Survivor pick-em league and if you've never heard of that before, basically I have to pick an NFL team I think will win every week, but can't select the same team more than once over the course of the season.  For everyone's benefit, I'll include a picture of a cheerleader from the team I think will win (an idea I somewhat borrowed from Night Owl).  This week, I picked the Tennessee Titans. 

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Alan Wiggins

Alan Wiggins' story is probably one of the sadder tales in Orioles history.  You might see his picture on this 1986 Fleer card and think that he looks pretty young.  Why is Alan an unpossible autograph then? 

Alan was the California Angels' first round draft pick (8th overall) in the 1977 draft but he failed to live up to his high draft position and washed out of the Angels and Dodgers organizations before being snagged by the San Diego Padres in the 1980 Rule V draft.  He showed off his tremendous speed at various Minor League levels and reportedly stole 120 bases in a single season while still in the Dodgers' system. 

He made his Major League debut in late 1981 with the Padres and had decent success over the next 4 seasons with them but was also arrested multiple times for cocaine possession.  His drug use and addiction would be a recurring theme over Alan's remaining years. 

After another cocaine relapse, the Padres traded Alan to the Orioles in the middle of the '85 season and he filled a utility role for the O's over the next few seasons.  He continued to show blazing speed on the base paths but his average and on-base percentage went down each year, but he had a harder time stealing bases since he was no longer good at getting to first.  It's impossible for me to directly connect his decreased level of play to his drug use, but it was certainly a possibility since he was getting worse in his late 20's which are normally the prime years of a player's career.  The '87 season was Alan's last year in organized baseball and he died in 1991 from complications due to AIDS.  It's believed that he was the first baseball player to die from AIDs.  

While he died at the very young age of 32, Alan's son and daughter are keeping the Wiggins name in sports as Alan Jr. and Candice are professional basketball players; he plays for the German club Eisbaren Bremerhaven and she plays for the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA.

RIP Alan, you died way too young. 

TTM Success-Charlie Locke

While still recovering from the excitement of a walkoff Frederick Keys playoff win last night in the first round of the single A Carolina League playoffs, I present to you Charlie Locke. 

He pitched in only 2 games for the Orioles during the 1955 season but didn't allow any hits or runs during his 3 MLB innings while walking one and also striking a batter out.  Before and after his brief time in the Majors, Chuck spent 9 seasons in the Minor Leagues from '1950-58, mostly with the Browns/Orioles organization.

Charlie signed my TTM request in only 6 days, which is an extremely fast turnaround from Maryland to Missouri.  He also included a nice long letter thanking me for my request and telling me a little bit about his career. 

Thanks Chuck!

Adios Baysox

The Bowie Baysox, the AA O's affiliate located somewhat near my house, were unfortunately eliminated from the Eastern League playoff contention on Monday, the final day of their regular season.  They had battled for weeks with the Harrisburg Senators, the Nats AA affiliate, for the second (and last) spot in the Western Division standings, and could have forced a one game play-in game if they had one and the Senators had lost on Monday.  Neither of those things happened and the Senators clinched their playoff spot, so the Baysox season was over.  It's too bad because we only made it to one or two of their games over the past couple months and didn't one last night of fun in at Prince George's County Stadium. 

Well, as a proper send off to the team, here are some of the Baysox autographs I got over the season.  Caleb Joseph up top was my favorite player this season, so I took the time to separate his card. 

This is what their 2010 team set looks like; the Aberdeen Ironbirds set looks very similar.  I really like how many of the cards show the players in their orange uni's!  The Tucker card is an All-Star insert card from 2010 Topps Debut.  Waring led the E.L. with 179 K's, Henson was 2nd with 156.  None of these guys have very nice autographs... 

This is Tanaka & Johnson's first O's affiliate cards.  Car-los Ro-jas! McCrory pitched for the O's in 2008 & 09, but spent most of the season with the Baysox.  Chad's card isn't very flattering.  Cooney didn't like how his little pinkie is up on his '09 Shorebirds card.  Gamboa is a great guy, very friendly, another one of my favorites.  

Joel was one of the hardest autographs to get on the team.  I got all of these signed at one of the meet-the-team days, but did get his Baysox card signed at our last game of the season.  He led the Eastern League with 33 homers, 264 total bases, and was second with 98 RBI.  He's had stints with the Dodgers and Devil Rays in the Majors, but won't be coming to Baltimore this September.

Viola had awful numbers with the AAA Norfolk Tides at the start of the season but his numbers over 23 appearances with the Baysox were good enough for him to get a September call-up with the O's.  I think that Komminsk is probably sick of me getting his autograph, and since I don't have anything left for him to sign, I'll stop now.

Delino Deshields-the Montana Non-Signer

Delino is a bad TTM signer, to say the least.  According to SCN, he hasn't signed a single request dating back to 2001.  So I was excited when he was named the manager of the Billings Mustangs, the Reds rookie level affiliate, prior to the 2009 season.  I figured that many guys won't sign from their home addresses but will sign from the stadium.  I didn't send out a request but I wanted to wait to see how other collectors' fared, and  I'm glad I didn't send anything out because "Bop" still hasn't signed anything.  It's not like I know anyone in Montana, so I wasn't sure where to turn next.

I got lucky and a fellow SCN member located somewhere a few hours from Billings posted that he was going to a Mustangs game and would get things signed for a few dollars each.  I jumped at the opportunity and I'm very pleased with how the card turned out.  I guess since Delino hasn't signed much over the years, his signature still maintains a resemblance to his actual name, especially his first name.  

Delino had a 13 season big league career from 1990-2002; one of his career highlights was finishing second in the 1990 National League Rookie of the Year balloting to the Braves' Dave Justice.  He played for the Expos, Dodgers, Cardinals, Orioles and Cubs and the trade the sent him from the Expos to the Dodgers for Pedro Martinez is considered one of the worst that the Dodgers franchise has ever made.  He played from the Orioles from 1999 until mid-2001 when they released him due to his struggles at the plate.

Bop was the Expos' 1st round draft pick(12th overall) in 1987, and his son, Delino Jr., was the Astros' #1 draft pick(8th overall) in the 2010 draft.  I guess that gives Junior temporary bragging rights, he just has to have a decent Major League career to keep up with his dad. 

Born in Delaware, Delino Sr. currently has the most all-time Major League at-bats for a player born in "the first state" and was inducted to the states' Hall of Fame in 2006.  I wonder how many other people are in their HOF?  There aren't too many people to choose from; maybe they should rename it the Delino De-Hall of Fame.

A (Very) Delayed Thank You to Zach

Zach, who writes the amazing Autographed Cards blog, held a College World Series contest at the end of June.  I haven't had luck with winning contests around the blogosphere but I was finally able to win one thanks to my random selection of the winning teams.  I don't think I did a great job but I was able to edge out the competition.

It's only taken me about 2 months to get around to thanking him for the awesome cards and autographs he sent me, but hey, better late than never.  

I love autographs of Hall of Famers and this is my first one of Harmon.

 

 Augie is the legendary Texas Longhorns baseball head coach who has the most wins in NCAA history. 

The cards marked R are also mine, and the Jim Rice autograph is an 8x10.  You'd think I could have found time to get these scanned within two months, but no.  

I sent Zach a couple cards of Mario's since he is playing somewhere in the Midwest.  Zach was nice enough to send this one back to me for my orange uni collection.

Thanks for everything Zach!  If you've never checked out his blog, head over there right now!  He features a new autographed card every day and he always has some interesting information on how he got the autograph.