One Bell of a Debut- Oriole #882

Highly touted third base prospect Josh Bell made his MLB debut for the Orioles last night. I know that the title of the post is a bit of a stretch, since he went 1-4 with a single, strikeout and an error while playing third base, but it was the Orioles' first debut of a big-time position prospect since the Wieters Era began last May 29.



As you might be able to read in this picture, Josh was acquired from the Dodgers, along with RHP Steve Johnson, for George Sherrill just before the 2009 trading deadline. I had the chance to see Josh play for the AA Baysox for the last month of the '09 season and also saw him in Sarasota this spring. He has been playing for the AAA Tides this season; after a slow start to the season, he found his stroke over the past month and had 10 HR and 44 RBI prior to his call up. I don't think the Orioles intend to keep him up for the rest of the season, but were forced to call him up after Luke Scott's HR injury yesterday and since Felix Pie isn't quite ready to come off his rehab assignment.



Here's a picture of Josh's first Major League hit. He smacked a 91 mph sinker from Trevor Cahill into left field in the bottom of the 7th inning. The Orioles lineup only mustered 4 hits off Cahill in 7 innings, so it was nice to see Josh contribute.

I also had the pleasure and luck to run into the U.S. Men's Soccer team manager, Bob Bradley, who was at the game to throw out the first pitch. He was a very nice guy and it was awesome to talk to him for just a minute after watching the U.S. team's run in this year's World Cup. He said that he obviously wishes that he was still there, but enjoyed his time there while it lasted.

Autographs from Saturday's 1970 Orioles World Series Championship Celebration

As some of you might know, the Orioles held a team reunion for the 1970 World Series Championship squad at this past Saturday's game . Most of the living members of the team were in attendance and there were three autograph stations set up around the lower concourse. All of the HOFers and other big names didn't sign but were at some sort of Q&A press conference.

With the help of Kalina and my parents, I was able to add the first in-person autographs of Pete Richert, Bobby Floyd, Bobby Grich, Merv Rettemund, Tom Phoebus and Dave Leonhard to my collection.



My dad knows that I like my autographs personalized, so he helped me out with a few of those, including Pete. It was cool to get him to sign a 1970 commemorative card.

Bobby had personalized my TTM request too, and wrote across his face on both. He's clearly not a vain man. Or maybe he's trying to cover up a scar?


Now that is an amazing mustache. Bob was probably the most friendly of all the signers I came across. But he no longer sports the 'stache.


Most of the players were nice, but Merv seemed kind of hot and bothered. Literally hot. Possibly bothered. It's hard to say. He was signing at a furious pace.


Don't have much to say about Tom. He also signed boldly across his face.



The top card is my TTM request that Dave personalized "Keep Smiling"; I think this one says "Best Wishes". He seemed like a cool guy.


I'm willing to trade the rest of these cards if anyone didn't get them and is interested.


I got Don's autograph years ago at another alumni signing of some sort. He was sitting down at his station but looked very short for a former player.

I was pretty excited about this one. The O's Crown set is perforated and I opened a new set for this event. Richert & Rettemund are right next to each other so these cards are still connected.

Another Leonhard. This one not personalized and signed in pen.

An Angels Grich from the cool Ted Williams set. Somehow I didn't have any other Orioles cards of him.

And a couple more Richerts.

SCN Trade Success

I recently got these cards back in the mail after a successful transaction with SCN user, michaeland. He's a reliable guy and I'm very happy with these autographs. Both Adam Stern and Rich Hill are currently playing for AAA Pacific Coast League teams that michaeland has access to and I don't, so I was happy to send him a few dollars to get each signed for me.
I wish the Stern autograph popped a little more, but overall this went very well.

As far as I know, this is Adam's only Orioles card and it's the only card I've ever seen from this set(?). I don't know how many players were included but I was very happy to come across this on the bay a couple months ago. Once I bought it, I was a man on a mission to get it signed. Adam has a card in the 2007 Norfolk Tides team set that I had wanted to get signed but this card is perfect for my collection, not to mention that it's very unique.

Next up is former Oriole "great", Rich Hill, who was a great signer when he was in Baltimore but all of his Orioles cards were released after he had already been cut loose by the O's. This card replaces my certified Orioles A&G auto that was in the collection.

2010 Orioles Bobbleheads

The Orioles have four bobblehead giveaways scheduled for this season and have given away 2 of them so far. I decided to write about this today because tomorrow is my most anticipated bobblehead of the year; Matt Wieters first Orioles stadium giveaway (SGA) bobblehead! Most people that read my blog probably already know this, but I'm a huge bobblehead fan and Matt Wieters is my favorite Orioles player, so I can't wait to add that bobblehead to my collection.


The first bobblehead giveaway of the year was of Nolan Reimold on May 26, part 1 of 3 in a mini-bobblehead set depicting last year's starting outfielders. As you can see in the picture below, the three mini bobbles will fit together to replicate Camden Yard's outfield.

I say last year's starting outfield because unfortunately, Nolan was sent to AAA Norfolk the week before this was given away so the timing was rather anti-climatic. He obviously didn't have a chance to have a great night at the plate on his bobblehead night since he was playing some 5 hours south of Baltimore at the time.


Nolan isn't exactly known for his outfield defense, but it's good to see that they showed him making a diving catch. The Orioles have since moved him to first base in Norfolk, so I don't think that he will need to worry about his outfield prowess moving forward.


Adam Jones' bobblehead was giveaway number 2, and was handed out at last Thursday's game against the Marlins.


Since Jones was actually playing for the team at the time of his giveaway, did he rise to the occasion at the plate? Yeah, you could say that. He went 3-5 with a double, HR, two runs scored and two RBI. Not too shabby Jonesy. There was a strange lady sitting in front of me at the game who would hold up the bobblehead and dance every time he came to bat. Since the Orioles won the game 11-5 and pounded out 17 hits, we might have found our new version of Wild Bill Hagy!


As you can see, the Jones bobblehead also shows him catching a ball, so maybe the trio is being depicted during batting practice. It seems unlikely that both Nolan and Jonesy could be in the same outfield both catching a ball during a game. I would like to note that Jones is not using both hands to make the catch, so at least the bobblehead is accurate.

Paul Adds to My Collection

Recently, I pulled off another trade with blog reader, Paul. And by recently, I mean about three weeks ago. Yep, it took me that long to get the cards scanned and posted. So without any further delay...

Eli Marrero played in only 22 games for the Orioles at the end of the 2005 season, but did manage to hit 3 HR over that time. He played 10 total seasons in the Majors, 7 of those with the Cardinals, and nearly had his career (and life) derailed by thyroid cancer in 2000. Luckily, he was able to win his battle with cancer and it didn't even cause him to miss a full season of games. I also found out that Eli is the uncle of current Nationals prospect, Chris Marrero.

Eli's 2005 Topps Update card shows him in an O's uniform and I sent that card to him in a TTM request back at the beginning of 2009. I don't think it's coming back at this point. I still hope to get his Orioles card signed at some point, but will have to wait for a private signing since he is only a 36% TTM signer.

Steve Reed pitched for the Orioles in 2005, the final year of his 14 season career in the Majors. He is a submarine-style pitcher, which is a major plus for me, however his 6.61 ERA over 30 games for the O's made it tough for me to like him too much.

Steve also has a card that shows him in an Orioles uniform, a 2005 Topps Total card that also features Aaron Rakers. I have a better chance of getting that signed TTM since Steve signs requests at a 85% success rate.

Chris Widger doesn't have any Orioles cards, likely due to the fact that he only appeared in 9 games for the Birds at the end of the 2006 season, so this card is now a permanent resident of my collection. I really like it too; the blue sharpie works great with the Expos colors on his uniform and on the card. Chris signed this at the perfect spot too, anywhere else the blue sharpie would've disappeared into the blue on the card.

Paul's trade also included orange uniform autographs of Nolan Reimold and Jeff Fiorentino, as well as Orioles player postcard autographs of Scott McGregor and Nate Snell. Somehow I failed to scan all of those, but figured it was about time to post this trade. Thanks again Paul!

Happy Birthday Mom!

It's my mom's birthday today and a little research revealed that she shares her birthday with a number of former Orioles players.

"Did I catch a Niner in there?"

I guess that JJ is a former and probably future Oriole.

Oscar was only in Baltimore for a short time but was a favorite of mine.

Jackie is closest in age to my mom, but doesn't share her actual birth year.

This is the first time that Lou has been featured on here.

Happy Birthday Mom! I hope that you have/had a great day!

Unpossible Autograph: Sam Bowens

Sam Bowens played for the Orioles in 5 of his 7 seasons in the Big Leagues from 1963-67. He only appeared in more than 100 games in 1964, when he played 139 games and had career highs in almost every offensive category that season. He actually hit 22 HR, 25 doubles and 71 RBI, which are all solid numbers, but was kept from regular playing time behind the likes of Boog Powell, Paul Blair, Curt Blefary, and Frank Robinson over the remainder of his time with the Birds. Throughout his career, Sam's OF defense was regarded as being very good.

I picked this card up on the bay, so Sam didn't wish me "Best Wishes" but rather someone else. This is one of a very few cards that I have that's signed in red. Potzie over at Eutaw Street Cardboard did a post on player's signing in red a while back, if you are interested I'm sure that you can find it on his blog. I generally don't prefer it but the red works on the blue sky on this card.

Sam passed away in his hometown of Wilmington, NC in 2003 at the age of 64. Rest in Peace Sam.

The Week Of Jake Fox

Unless Jake does something crazy over the next few days, I promise that this will be my last post about the Orioles new super-utility player for now. In his three games with the O's so far, he has appeared as a catcher, left fielder and DH. Now that's versatility! He got his first hit in an Orioles uniform last night too. Oh, and the Orioles crushed the Marlins, totaling 11 runs and 17 hits. It felt great to be on the right side of a lop-sided victory.


I was lucky enough to get Jake's autograph before last night's game, and I apologize for this crappy cell phone picture, but it's all that I had time to do before work. I will try to get an actual scan done tonight so you don't have to keep looking at this blurry thing.

Anyway, Jake seemed like a great guy and signed for a bunch of people. I met up with fellow O's collector Aaron at the game and we were both able to get him. I thought it was interesting that Jake has a pretty serious southern drawl for someone who is from Indiana.

From what I have heard, Jake has a much-needed happy-go-lucky attitude in the clubhouse and from what I've seen, he seems to be a free swinger at the plate. I guess that can be good if you can hit the ball out o the ballpark, but not so much if you strike out all the time. What's it gonna be Jake? I vote for the HR option.

Some Recent Orioles Autographs

Since I've been behind with almost all my collecting related activities for this entire baseball season, I haven't been able to scan or show off my current Orioles autographs as I've been getting them at games. So I am going to dump them all into this one post. Sounds like a plan to me. So here we go!




My new thing is trying to get these O's postcards signed, specifically by players who don't have any Orioles cards, like Ohman and Castillo (who has been sent to AAA Norfolk since he signed this for me). Berken's only Orioles card is from the 2010 Topps When They Were Young insert set, so I only give that card half credit as an O's card since the picture of him as a kid dominates the card.

And speaking of guys who are no longer with/on the team...

I intended to have this card scanned for my "Goodbye Dave" post. That obviously didn't happen, but here it is now. I wonder what Dave is up to these days?

Tillman is currently biding his time with the Tides. I was happy to get him to sign this card for my orange uniform collection.

Jeff Datz, the O's bench coach, signed for me for the first time all season. I don't think he's a tough signer, but he is just always in the dugout. I have a few more copies of this card, which is his one and only MLB card, and hope to get another signed since this J turned out very dry.

I got my first in-person C-Pat autograph too. I've seen him sign one or two other times but was in the wrong place to get him then.

Ty signed for me for only the third time since he's been with the O's. He's a tough autograph to get most of the time, and in retrospect, I don't really know what I chose this card to get him to sign. It's pretty blah. Oh well.




It's possible that any of these three guys are sent to Norfolk (or released in Albers' case) to make room for the starting pitcher needed for this Saturday's game. Garrett Atkins would be the most logical guy to get rid of in my opinion, but what do I know?

Luke was the man once again. I know that this is an 08 Heritage short print, and that I probably should have just kept it with my set and all, but look at all that orange! It needed to be signed. And now it's going with my orange uniform autograph collection. I know he's not wearing an orange uni, but it's orange enough for me. It's my collection so I get to make the rules.

Both Cesar and Julio Lugo signed at the same spot the day I got this card autographed. Since this is my 5th Cesar and I still need Lugo on my Orioles postcard, I would gladly have switched up which autograph I got, but that's not how it works. I hope to get Julio sometime soon though.

Guthrie continues to be a good signer. Again not sure why I chose this boring card to get signed, but I did. Can't do anything about it now.



I continue to get lucky with Jonesy. I've heard others say that they've had trouble getting him to sign but I seem to get him 4-5 times a season. I like how he looped his #10 in with his signature on the top card. Oh, and Kalina, I put Jones at the bottom of the post just for you. Let's just say that Kalina doesn't appreciate his "attitude", "hustle" or constant focus on chewing gum/blowing bubbles.