Bobblehead of the Week- EDDIE

Since I've been "showing off" some of my back row bobbleheads (my least favorite bobbleheads that reside in the rear row of my bobblehead display) in recent weeks, I figured it was about time to show off one of my favorite Orioles bobbles.

 

Hall of Famer Eddie Murray rocking an orange uniform...what's not to like?!?! This thing is awesome.

 

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that Cal is my all-time favorite Oriole, but Eddie is right up there, and I kind of like really love the orange unis. Not to mention Eddie's stupendous facial hair. I dare another bobblehead to top Eddie's mutton-chops/huge mustache/afro combo.

 

Since I bought this bobblehead on ebay, I honestly don't know too much about it. If you squint, you can see that it says HOF 2003 at the bottom of this picture, so that gives me a clue. As far as I can tell, this was a stadium giveaway that was handed out to the first 20,000 fans on July 20, 2003 to celebrate Eddie's induction to the Hall of Fame. I was in college in '03 and my Orioles fan-dom was tuned down a notch at the time. But once I saw a picture of this bobble, I just knew that I had to have it and was outbid on a few before I was finally won this one for about $25.

I'm happy that I was able to share a bobblehead that I actually like this week. Eddie is firmly entrenched in the front row of my bobbleheads and will likely stay there indefinitely.

And for a little preview of tomorrow, another bobblehead is coming your way, but this might be my least favorite bobble of all time...

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Jesse Jefferson

The Orioles family lost another member last week when former pitcher Jesse Jefferson passed away from prostate cancer on Thursday, September 8. He was only 62 years old.

Jesse was the Orioles 4th round draft pick in 1968 and eventually made his MLB debut with the 1973 Orioles. He pitched in Baltimore for two more seasons before bouncing around from White Sox to the Blue Jays to the Pirates to the Angels over his final six seasons in the Majors. For a comparison to a modern Orioles pitcher, check out this post I wrote comparing Jesse to Daniel Cabrera back in May of 2010. Essentially, they were both flame throwers who had a hard time keeping the ball in the strike-zone, resulting in many walks and hit batters. Jesse is best remembered for being a member of the inaugural 1977 Toronto Blue Jays team.

Jesse was one of the early through the mail (TTM) requests I sent out when I got back into the hobby in mid 2009. He was only a 9% signer, possibly due to his health issues, but I never got a response from him. Luckily, I was able to add this signed card to my collection via Ebay. He had a really great and legible autograph. If you check out yesterday's Chris Davis post, I said that Chris signs his D like a J, and it looks a good bit like the two J's in Jesse's signature.

RIP Jesse.

Chris Davis Upgrade

The Orioles pulled off the win against the Rays last night, with Jeremy Guthrie striking out ten Rays in the rubber game of the series. The win actually secured the O's a rare series win as well.

In addition to Guthrie's dominant pitching, the Orioles hit three home runs to back him up, highlighted by Chris Davis's go-ahead three run homer in the 4th.

Chris signed and personalized this card for me on Labor Day, when he was rehabbing with the Bowie Baysox, the O's AA affiliate. It's my first in-person autograph from him; Chris doesn't have any Orioles cards and if he's traded or released in the off-season, it's possible that he never will, so this is likely a long-term addition to my collection.

I'm not the only member of the household who got something signed that day: I mentioned in Chris's Orioles Debut post a few weeks back that he tossed Kalina a ball during batting practice during his time with the Rangers a few years ago. Well, she got him to sign that ball. She considered trying to tell him the story about how he tossed it to her, but there were a few too many other people trying to get his signature. And I think she might have chickened out a little bit; but honestly, I'm always proud of her when she approaches a player for an autograph, it's not really her thing.

His signature is pretty stylized if not overly legible. The Ch is mostly there in his first name, but his D looks a bit like a J. Thanks for signing Chris!

Stick With Me Here...

The intent of this post was to connect the Orioles & Rays to make a point about how, while I never want the Orioles to lose, if they are going to lose, they may as well lose to the Rays to help them in their quest to knock the pompous Red Sox out of the Wild Card playoff spot. The Orioles still have seven games left against the Red Sox, so they certainly have an ample opportunity to fill the spoiler role and keep the Sawx out of the postseason.

Initially, it was my intent to create the O's-Rays connection via a former Oriole currently on the Rays roster. So I looked into that, and no former O's currently play for the Rays.

Fine, maybe the Rays have someone on the disabled list who was an Oriole at one point. Still no.

OK, I guess that I can still form a bridge between the teams if a Rays' coach was an Oriole back in the day. But the Rays are still not cooperating with me here.

So this is the connection I was able to make...and why I asked you to stick with me.

The Rays current pitching coordinator, Dick Bosman, was the Orioles pitching coach from 1992-94,

 

after he had held the same position with the O's then AAA Affiliate Rochester Red Wings from 1988-91.

Pretty thin connection, I know, but at least I made one out of almost nothing! And I feel the need to mention that Bosman's autograph looks like D James/Jones. I really don't see Bosman in there.

Bringing up Bosman's name made me want to share an update of my relatively new collection of Orioles' managers & coaches autographs. So far, I've managed to add 81 of the 92 current and/or former managers and coaches to my collection. A good percent (probably 25 or so) were one-time Orioles players so that part was easy. Of the 11 I am still trying to track down, I can see that a few will be very difficult, if not impossible, but I'm gonna keep at it.

Oriole #907- Zach Phillips

The Orioles and Rangers have been frequent trade partners this season, completing at least three deals by my count. The least notable of the three transactions occurred on July 19, when the O's received minor league pitcher Zach Phillips for AAA Norfolk Tides infielder Nick Green and cash.

The Rangers selected Zach in the 23rd round of the 2004 amateur draft after he pitched one year at Sacramento(California) City College. He was almost exclusively a starting pitcher for the first three seasons of his professional career before the Rangers converted him to be a reliever at the start of the 2009 season. The Rangers designated him for assignment on July 14th of this season and then worked out the trade with the O's for Green & green. He spent about six weeks pitching for the Tides, appearing in 14 games before he was recalled to the O's on Wednesday, August 31.

 

The Orioles played the Blue Jays at home that night and I happened to be at that game. It was a miserable 13-0 Blue Jays win, and the only good part about the game was that I got to see Zach make his MLB & Orioles debut. That's him in the picture, throwing his first or second big league pitch.

To date, Zach has pitched 4.2 innings over six games for the O's and has yet to allow a run. He has given up four hits, walked two and struck out six; I like what I've seen of him so far. Keep up the good work Zach!

As far as Zach's autograph goes, it doesn't consist of much more than a Z___ P_____ but I think it's interesting that he seems to have put a bit more effort on the actual signature than the auto-pen version on the card. That's something I guess...

Dear Kevin Gregg

Please stop blowing save opportunities. You don't get too many on a team like this and it would be great if you could preserve some of the leads you are given.

Thanks,
Orioles Fans Everywhere

P.S.- If you can't overcome these difficulties, I expect you to find yourself in a setup role in 2012.

A Case of the Sundays- Screw You Adam Loewen

Adam Loewen made his Major League hitting debut with the Blue Jays on Wednesday, going 1-3 with a strikeout and a run scored. He was also hit by a pitch, which kind of brought a smile to my face, but only since I knew he was alright, I swear. Now before you get all up-in-arms for my saying that, hear me out.

Here's a Blue-Jays/Canadian spun article that was featured on Canada.com this week so you can read about Loewen's return to the Majors after injuries forced an end to his pitching career with the Orioles. But there is a rather major omission in that article. The part about how the Orioles had a hand-shake agreement with Loewen that would return him to their farm system to redevelop as a hitter. And how he dicked over the team who had paid their 2002 first round pick millions of dollars to go 8-8 with a 5.38 ERA over parts of three seasons in Baltimore. Listen, I know Loewen is Canadian and all, so I can get how he would want to play with his home country's only remaining MLB team. The part I don't understand is how Loewen could have treated the Orioles so poorly after all the time and money they wasted on him.

Oh, and Adam, your signature is awful. My dog could handle a sharpie better than that.

Orioles Bobblehead of the Week- Sammy Sosa

Last week, I featured my Rafael Palmeiro bobblehead, which I mentioned I kept in the back row of my Orioles bobbleheads due to my general dislike of Raffy. Also hanging out in that back row of bobbles was none other than Mr. Sammy Sosa.

While Sammy's career numbers, specifically his 609 home runs, are pretty impressive, he has been hounded by steroid allegations over the past decade. It seems unlikely that he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame since contemporary players like Mark McGwire and Raffy have been largely passed over.

Sammy spent the 2005 season with the Orioles and was honored with a bobblehead giveaway on July 27, 2005. Too bad he was having an awful season and was none too popular with the fan-base.

More like SO-SO! Ha.

Unpossible Autograph Friday- Roger Marquis

Roger "Noonie" Marquis likely had the shortest Orioles career of any of the 909 men who have worn the orange and black. His Baltimore career lasted only a single game, but more specifically, only an inning in the field and a single at-bat. On September 25, 1955, when he was only 18 years old, Roger entered the game as a defensive replacement in the 8th inning, grounded out in his AB in the top of the ninth and was back on the bench by the bottom of the ninth. And that was it. Wham bam thank you ma'am.

It's hard to say if Roger's reaction to his extremely brief MLB career was the sense of accomplishment that many of us average Joe's would have felt just to make it to the show or if he was disappointed that he was unable to have more of a chance to play at the big league level. He played baseball at the low levels of the Orioles' farm system for a few more years after that single big league inning, but had permanently hung up his spikes by the age of 20.

His baseball career over, Roger headed back to his hometown of Holyoke, Massachusetts and started some sort of oil business, which he later sold, hopefully for a profit. He passed away at the age of 67 in 2004. RIP Roger, congrats on making it to the Bigs, even if it was for a single inning. It's something I know that I will never do!

Oriole #906- Willie Eyre

There have been five Orioles debuts since August 3rd, when Jo-Jo Reyes became the 905th player to wear the orange and black in a game. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about them, I've just been preoccupied with request week and the overall sad state of the current team.

 

Willie Eyre became Oriole #906 when he pitched in the August 12th loss against the Tigers. To date, he has pitched in 10 games with the O's, and is 1-1 with a 4.15 ERA and a 2/1 strikeout to walk ratio; all of his appearances have come as a middle reliever. Honestly those numbers don't sound amazing but he has been a stabilizing force out of the pen over the past month.

Willie was drafted by the Twins in 1999 and steadily rose through their farm system before making his MLB debut with the club in early 2006. He became a free agent following that season and spent the next four years in the Rangers' organization, pitching in the Majors for them in 2007 & '09. Prior to the 2011 campaign, he signed with the A's but was never called up to their big league team and exercised his opt-out clause on July 31. Four days later he signed with the Orioles and spent a week with the AAA Norfolk Tides before getting called back to The Show.

Two other interesting things about Willie...

His full name is William Mays Eyre, so it seems like he was predestined to become a baseball player, although I'm guessing his parents envisioned him as a hittter.

His brother Scott pitched in 617 Major League games over 13 seasons from 1997-2009 for the White Sox, Blue Jays, Giants, Cubs and Phillies.

I traded for this autograph on SCN and still hope to get an in-person autograph from Willie before the end of the season, but the clocking is ticking. His autograph is interesting and kind of has a high and low lasso type of thing going on.

One More Request- Damon Buford

After yesterday's Don Buford post, it seems only fitting that fellow Orioles blogger and Ryan, Ryan H, who writes the always Oriole-tastic '"O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog, wanted to hear about Damon Buford, who is Don's son and also a former Oriole. 

This card might look familiar to the few of you were reading my blog way back in April 2009, but I think it will be new to most of you. At the time, I was including 5-6 players in each post, so I only wrote a brief stub about Damon at the time. One thing I will repeat is how I got this autograph in-person at an Orioles game/FanFest/something-or-other back in 1994 and how he concept of prepping a glossy card for an autograph was a foreign concept to me back then, hence the extreme bubbling. 


Damon played in the Majors from 1993-2001 with five teams but was generally a fourth outfielder and only played in more than 100 games in a season twice during his career. He was an Oriole for parts of three seasons at the start of his career from '93-95 before he was traded to the Mets halfway during the 1995 campaign. 


There really isn't too much more to say about Damon, that fairly well sums up his career. I would like to upgrade this autograph to a better looking signature from Damon, but it seems like he rarely to never signs now that his career is over. Maybe one day...


If anyone else has any requests for posts, I can continue to integrate any and all suggestions into the blog as I get them, just let me know!

Wrapping Up Request Week- Don Buford

Sorry for the delay with my final request week post, my birthday was over the weekend and it kept me away for a computer for a few days. The final request came from a blog reader who goes by Reivax, who wanted to hear my take on Don Buford. I've briefly covered Buford two other times, but not in much detail.

Don Buford played with the Orioles from 1968-72 during some of the best years in franchise history. He was the lead-off hitter for most of his time with the O's and still holds the all-time Major League record for the lowest GIDP (ground into double play) rate, averaging only once in every 138 at-bats. That's pretty amazing. He also made the 1971 All-Star team and received MVP votes in three of his five seasons with the O's.

After Don's playing career, he went on to hold various Minor League coaching and managing positions with a few Major League teams, mainly the Orioles. He even spent some time in their front office, talk about versatility!

Maybe the current team should have Don come in and talk to everyone. Outside of the injured Brian Roberts, the O's don't have much in the way of lead-off hitters, so at least he could give advice to a few of the current players filling that roll.