Rest of the FanFest Autographs

Wow, look at me go. It's my 5th post of the month (my most since last August), and I'm showing off the rest of my Orioles Fanfest autographs, within three weeks of obtaining them. I'm on a freaking roll here. Maybe I'll get this blog back up to full steam one of these days. But for now, I'm pretty pleased to just be moving along at a medium pace.

FYI- This is probably the most scans that I've ever had in a single post. At times in the past, I would have split this into a few different segments, but I'd rather just knock them all out at once. So that's how I'm gonna do it.

Also, my scanner got a little weird while scanning some of the postcards, but whatever. It has a mind of it's own.

This first group of cards are joining my collection. Mainly for the orange uniforms, but I was really happy to finish off the Davis/McLouth celebration card too. McLouth signed it for me during Spring Training last year, so it got carried around for quite some time before it got signed. And, I can't seem to bring myself to tradeaway any of my Wieters' autographs.

 

 

These cards are all extras that I got signed and are available for trade. If you see something you like, let me know and maybe we can work something out!

 

These postcards are available for trade too...

I got this group signed for some other collectors, so they are already spoken for, but I wanted to show them off anyway, if for no other reason than to prove that I got them signed. Or something like that. 

Finally, Liam Hendriks get his own grouping in the "we-hardly-knew-you category". Liam was DFA'ed to make room on the roster for the exciting free agent signing of Ubaldo Jimenez. But the Blue Jays selected him off of waivers from the O's, so the likelihood of his appearing in a game for the Orioles, at least in the near future, took a major hit, so these Orioles autographs become somewhat of an unneeded item. No complaints here though as Jimenez is certainly an upgrade.

Luis C. Garcia Finally Joins My Collection

About a month and a half ago, I showed off a long-awaited signed Orioles card of Bret Barberie, and teased the fact that I had added another long sought after autograph to my collection. Well I hope that no one was holding their breath waiting for me to show off that other signature, because six weeks is no short wait.

Without any further ado, I present to you my signed Orioles card of Luis C. Garcia. His has been one of the autographs that had remained just out of my reach since I restarted collecting Orioles autographs in 2008. I was able to track down a signed custom index card back in September 2011, but I had never seen one of his signed Orioles cards available until last November.

Once I saw this card available for sale, I recall being ridiculously excited, and pulling the trigger on the deal right away. There is still at least one other of his signed cards for sale online, and only a handful were available, so that kind of shows me the limited demand for his signature, but at least I know there are other Orioles autograph nuts out there.

There are a few factors that contributed to the difficulty of tracking down Luis's signed Orioles cards. First, he appeared in just six games for the 2002 Orioles, and played exclusively in Mexico after the '02 season. While he continued to play in Mexico through the 2011 season and seems to still be involved with baseball in his home country, there are precious few 'graphers who take care of former players in Mexico, and fewer still who are truly reliable.

Secondly, Luis Garcia is a somewhat common name for baseball players from Mexico, and why I list his name as Luis C. Garcia. Luis R. Garcia played in a handful of games for the 1999 Tigers, and Luis A. Garcia pitched for the Phillies in 2013. Not to mention the additional eight Luis Garcia's who have played in the minor leagues over the years. So even figuring out which Luis was the one who played for the Orioles was a challenge.

Lastly, Luis C. appeared on just two cards as an Oriole, this 2002 UD 40 Man card, and a 2002 Fleer Box Score card, of which both sets were relatively limited. So the simple matter of having an Orioles card of his to be signed was no simple matter.

All of these things worked against me for a long time, but I have to admit that made it all the sweeter once I finally had this card. Welcome to the collection, Luis.


(I plan to get back to my FanFest autographs soon. I would like to show them all off before I head down to Spring Training, in case you care!)

FanFest Additions: New Orioles

One of my favorite things about Fanfest is having the opportunity to add some signatures from the players who are new to the Orioles organization before they even play in a game for the team. If I can get them at Fanfest, I never need to add them to my need list if/when they make their Orioles debut. 

Obviously this season didn't see too much Orioles action on the free agent market so there weren't any new big names, but I'd say that at least Ryan Webb and David Lough are near locks to make the O's Opening Day roster, with a couple other of these guys being fairly likely to appear in at least a few games over the course of the season. 

Since I specifically target the new players at FanFest, as I already have signed items from all the returning players for the most part, it leads me to make some interesting selections regarding which stations to buy. I don't intentionally go after the big names, but more often then not I end up with quite a few anyway, due to how the players are spread out. 

Here are the five stations that I purchased this year:

And I can quite confidently say that I am the only person who bought those stations for David Lough, Ryan Webb, Steve Clevenger, Liam Hendriks, Jemile Weeks, Larry Bigbie, Kelvin De La Cruz, and Brad Brach, and not for Dylan Bundy, Chris Davis, Matt Wieters, nor JJ Hardy. I know, I'm weird. And I'm obviously happy to add additional signatures of the stars to my collection, but I'd rather target the new guys. 

Johnny Monell was the only new player whose autograph I did not get, and I still need personalized upgrades of Calvin Maduro and Nate Snell, but I will take care of them at some point.

Without further ado, here are the new Orioles players, who all signed and personalized some awesome new Old Man Cards.

Webb is virtually a lock to make the O's Opening Day roster, and to date, is their most expensive off-season signing. And I've said it before but will say it again, I always enjoy getting other Ryans to personalize cards to me. Not sure why, I just do.

Lough is also pretty likely to start the season on the O's 25 man roster, and seems to be the front-runner for the every day LF position. But the O's have like 10 potential LFs in camp so you never know. 

I think Kelvin has a solid chance of playing for the O's at least at some point this season, mainly because he's signed to a big league deal.

Pure speculation, but I'm guessing Liam is a member of Norfolk's rotation but joins the club in a swing role or as as spot starter at some point. 

 Brad (who unfortunately spelled my name wrong, probably because I'm a mumbler) will likely be crowded out of the O's spring training bullpen group and start the season with the Tides. But I predict he will be a regular out of the Birds' 'pen later in the 2014 season.

Which brings us to Jemile Weeks, who I sadly predict will be this year's Matt Antonelli. Both seemed like nice guys but just couldn't crack the roster. Between Ryan Flaherty, Alexi Casilla, Alex Gonzalez, and Jonathan Schoop, I think there will just be too much competition for Jemile, who might even get slotted at AA Bowie for some playing time.

First FanFest Follow-Up

The other day, I briefly wrote about all of the autographs that I got at Fanfest. Well starting today, I'm going to go into a bit more detail about the cards that I got signed and their places in my collection. 

I'm going to start out with the three autographs that I got that are going directly into my collection. All three are personalized upgrades I got from guys who had already made their Orioles debuts. I got a number of autographs from players who are new to the O's organization, but until they make their debut, they don't belong in this post. 

This was my first in-person autograph from Bigbie (well technically my dad went through this line and got this signed, but you know what I mean); the card that had been in my collection was a certified Bowman autograph that is now available for trade. During Bigbie's time in Baltimore, I wasn't actively getting autographs, so I missed him during his playing days. But I was very happy to see him brought in as a different member of the alumni group. 

This was also my first in-person Clevenger autograph. I never got a chance to get him during the end of last season, and this will replace his Cubs certified signature in my collection. Steve seems like a really nice guy, and with his local connection, I hope that he has success with the O's. This OMC is also Steve's first and only Orioles card at this point, and as a back-up catcher, I don't anticipate his being included in any sets in the near future. 

"Hammering Hank" as Roch has been known to call him, and my dad picked up on for this OMC, got a chuckle out of signing this card for us (Urrutia was at the station with Bigbie, so my dad took care of this one too). I got him to sign a few different Old Man Cards in spring training last year, but his English wasn't nearly as good as it is now, and he didn't understand my request. 

As always, thanks to my dad for producing these awesome OMCs that we enjoy getting signed and many of the players really seem to enjoy seeing. 

Quick FanFest Post

I'm sure that everyone has been waiting with bated breath for my take on this year's Orioles Fanfest, and here is quick rundown of my day, a mere four days after it occurred. But let's face it, you don't check my site for it's timeliness on current events. Without further ado...

I had purchased five autograph stations throughout the day and got a total of 48 autographs. Not too shabby! I caught a few guys walking around and picked up a few more autographs at each station, but overall, these were the guys who I was after for the day. I took care of pretty much all of the new guys in attendance and got some help from my buddy Aaron with Bud Norris, and Wayne Kirby, which would bring my total up to 50. That's not a bad day at all! 

Some of these are heading to other collectors but most are staying in my collection, and I hope to break these down over the next week or so. Here's a quick rundown:

17 Old Man Cards

9 Personalizations

3 Cards going straight into collection (Bigbie, Clevenger, Urrutia personalized)

6 New Players, who will be added after their debuts

12 Postcards

All in all, I had a great time, and I hope that you all did too. I have to thank Kalina, my dad, and my mom for their help over the course of the day. We spent a vast majority of the day at the convention center, and I think that we were all pretty tired by the end of it. And thanks again to my dad for his awesome homemade Orioles cards that I love adding to my collection!

I know that we are all certainly now ready for some baseball!

Leave me some comments about your experiences at Fanfest!

2014 Topps Series 1 Orioles Checklist

Thanks to my long-time collecting buddy Paul who writes the awesome paul's random baseball stuff blog, I discovered that the 2014 Topps Series 1 checklist was posted on Beckett's website. I had searched for it earlier this week but wasn't able to track it down. So nice work Paul!

In the interest of myself and most of my Orioles-centric readers, here are the Orioles included in the base set.

24    Manny Machado Future Stars
29    Chris Davis League Leaders (w/ Cabrera & Encarnacion)
47    Chris Davis Baseball Highlights
61    Nick Markakis
83    Jonathan Schoop Rookie
138  Wei-Yin Chen
141  Chris Tillman
153  Chris Davis & Adam Jones League Leaders (w/Cabrera)
158   Nate McLouth
190   Kevin Gausman Future Stars


And that's it.

While I will say that it's pretty cool that Chris Davis has gone from a guy who wasn't even included in the 2011 Topps set, and who had a single Orioles card picturing him through most of 2012 to a player who has three cards in the Series 1 base set, there isn't much to get excited about beyond that.

There are no players being featured on their first Orioles card, which is something that I always look forward to (I know a big reason for this is the team's relative lack of offseason signings), but I still was hoping for someone to make the cut. Possibly Ryan Flaherty, or maybe Jemile Weeks, or Ryan Webb? Who knows? Looking at the roster there honestly weren't many candidates.

While I will certainly want to pick up a number of the Chris Davis base cards and inserts for Kalina, I'm personally not all that excited about the list.

What are your thoughts?

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Paul Blair

I know that this is far from breaking news for any Orioles fans out there, but I didn't want to not write about the passing of one of the greatest center-fielders of all-time. Paul Blair passed away on December 26th, and I feel bad that it has taken me this long to commemorate his life with a post, but I was out of town over the holidays, and I suppose it's better late than never.

Paul Blair was one of the better players in Orioles history and I'm sure that if you're hear reading my Orioles blog you are likely familiar with his career. If you are not, MASN's Roch Kubatko did a great job summarizing his career and statistics, but his eight Gold Gloves in center-field are really the highlight to me.

In recent years, Paul was frequently one of the alumni autograph signers you could count on seeing a few times a season at the regular signings held at Camden Yards. He lived in the Baltimore area so was an easy autograph to get for O's fans. 

I was lucky enough to get his autograph a number of times over the years and fellow O's autograph collector Aaron, even helped me out with this personalized postcard just this past season. It means that much more to me now that I know I will never have the chance to get Paul's signature again. 

RIP Mr. Blair, thanks for all of the great memories both during and after your career.

*To briefly explain the misspelled/made up title of these weekly posts: Every Friday, I profile a former Oriole who has passed away. I've substituted the word unpossible for impossible as an homage to a line from "The Simpsons". Young Ralph Wiggum, who is not very smart, says "Me fail English? That's unpossible." 

New Year, New Autographs

Wow, has it really been almost a month since my last post? Laziness The holidays really crept up on me this year and I feel like I've been behind on a lot of things lately. But anyway, here I am, and I have a few new Orioles autographs to show off in 2014. 

I recently had the luck to knock two names off of my need list, and both were guys whose signed Orioles cards have long eluded my collection. I will show them off in separate posts, if for no other reason but then to motivate myself to post a bit more frequently. 

I finally (FINALLY) have a signed Bret Barberie Orioles card in my collection. I have sent no fewer than 3 TTM requests to three different addresses in an effort to add a signed Orioles card of his to my collection and never had any luck while he seemed to sign sporadically for some other collectors. And his autograph is widely available on Expos or Marlins cards. If you want one of those signed it will cost you about $1 and take thirty seconds of searching. But his signed Orioles cards seem to be few and far between. 

Bret has at least four different cards that picture him as an Oriole, all of which were produced in 1995, and this is by far the least autograph friendly of the four but beggars can't be choosers. The signature is bubbled to boot but it matches up well with other examples of his signature and I got it for under $10 shipped. If I could pull that off with the rest of the players on my need list, I would gladly do that deal. 

So today, my need list is one autograph shorter. Here's hoping that I can track down a few more in 2014!