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!

Unpossible Autograph- George Werley

Recently, I read the unfortunate news online that another former Oriole has passed away; pitcher George Werley died on November 21.

I wrote about my first autograph of George back in 2011, but had obtained this personalized TTM autograph just this past April, and had yet to post it here. He very kindly signed the front and back of the card, and I'm glad that I sent it out when I did. Sometimes I wait around to do things and then, in situations like this, the opportunity can pass me by, but luckily I found the motivation to send the card out, and George was kind enough to sign it for me.

I found this extensive write-up about Mr. Werley's brief Major League career, and I feel like it does a much better job than I could do of summarizing his time in baseball, so give it a read if you would like to learn more about George's short time with the Orioles.

RIP George. 

The Sad Return of Unpossible Autograph Friday- RIP Babe Birrer

It had been nearly three months since a former Orioles player had passed away (Jack Harshman died on 8/15) and it was a nice break from writing about O's who were no longer with us. Sadly though, Werner "Babe" Birrer passed away this past Tuesday. 

Babe pitched for three seasons in the Majors, one each with the Tigers, Orioles, and Dodgers, but pitched professionally for 20 years from 1947-66. The Buffalo News did an excellent job writing up the obituary about Babe's life, and I certainly learned a lot about him from reading the entire write-up. I suggest you do the same, but I'll hit on a few highlights here.

-during his time with the Tigers in 1955, he hit two 3 run homers and pitched 4 shutout innings in a single game, coincidentally against the Orioles; that game earned him his nickname "Babe"

-those 2 HRs and the resulting 6 RBI were the entire extent of his career HR and RBI totals

-he gave up one of Mickey Mantle's 3 longest home runs

- he put his baseball career on hold to serve with the Army during the Korean War

-he taught for 20 years after his baseball playing days were over

-he was an avid photographer

-and he was a featured visitor at local German festivals (I'm not sure what it means, but it sounds cool)


I obtained my autographed Orioles Crown card of Birrer way back in December 2010, and included him in a post I wrote about the trade. It seems as those he was a good TTM signer for a number of years but I believe he was unable to sign by the time I sent a request to him.

RIP "Babe", it sounds like you led quite a great life.


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." 

I'm Still Here

Just wanted to do a very quick post acknowledging that I do in fact intend on keeping this blog alive, contrary to my recent lack of posting. Most of my issues are tied to the fact that I don't have the cards that I want to write about scanned yet, as well as the general disarray of my cards following the 2013 season. I will fix that situation someday, maybe even someday soon!

For now, the Orioles off-season hasn't exactly been inspiring me to write; I mean, did anyone out there have Kelvin de la Cruz and Edgmer Escalona on their short list of top priority signings? Nothing against either of those two guys, and I have faith that Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter know what they are doing, but they certainly aren't the types of moves to get my blogging blood boiling.

I hope to write a post about some of the minor league additions to the Orioles 40 man roster sometime soon.

But for now, to satiate your Orioles autographs fix, here are a couple of my dad's awesome Old Man Cards featuring a couple 2013 O's who almost assuredly will never be immortalized in a Baltimore uniform by Topps.

Thanks again for the awesome cards, Old Man! And thanks for signing them Jairo and Chris!

K-Rod & Bud Join the "Need List"

2013 Topps Update came out last week, and has been my policy for much of the year due to my decreased card storage space, I haven't purchased any of it yet. I might get a pack or two here or there, but I think my days of trying to complete these sets are over. I don't even have room for the sets that I already have, and need to make some tough decisions about what to keep or get rid of sometime soon. 

Anyway, I digress. Recently, I have just been cherry-picking the Orioles team sets off of ebay, depending on how many new players are included in the set. I really don't need any more cards of Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, or Brian Roberts. Since I'm not a player collector, I think 100 or so cards of each of them is more than enough.

With the release of every Topps Update set, I just cross my fingers and hope that not many, if any, of the Orioles included need to be added to my need list. But every year it happens, as a few players are pictured for the first time as an Oriole on cardboard. Last year it was Matt Lindstrom, Ronny Paulino, and Luis Ayala. This year it's K-Rod and Bud Norris. 

Since my dad began making his Old Man Cards of the Orioles earlier this year, it has made the autographing process easier for me. If I had one of his OMC signed by either K-Rod or Bud, then I wouldn't need to add them to my need list, but unfortunately, that's not the case. I was not able to get either of their autographs after they joined the team, and K-Rod even turned me down in what seemed like a very ideal chance to get his signature. 

I'm not too worried about getting Norris to sign a copy of this card since he is likely going to be a member of the Orioles for a few more seasons. But I don't see K-Rod coming back to town, and he doesn't exactly seem to be a good signer, so I am concerned about my prospects of getting this card signed by him. Hopefully it will happen one day.

The 2013 Update set also includes the first official Orioles card of Cuban rookie Henry Urrutia, but since I happily already have an OMC signed card of him, I don't need to add his name to my list. But I will likely still try to get this card signed since he is wearing an orange uniform and all, and I still do collect signed orange uni cards.

Back To 100%

Considering that I haven't exactly had a ton of time for autograph collecting and/or blogging over the course of the 2013 baseball season, I consider myself pretty fortunate to still be able to say that I have an autograph of each and every one of the 966 players who has appeared in an Orioles uniform over the team's 60 years of existence.

Since I now possess autographs of all the 24 players who debuted over the course of the 2013 season, here's the breakdown for how those autographs came to be in my collection:
Obtained from player in minor leagues: 5
Obtained in-person from the player at MLB level: 5
On consignment from another collector: 3
Purchased online: 11

Quite a difference from past years when it probably would have looked something more like 30% obtained in minors, 60% obtained at MLB level, and 10% purchased. But such is the way things go when one doesn't have time to get autographs in person. Luckily, every one of the 11 autographs that I bought are certified signatures, and none were particularly expensive. In fact, most were quite cheap, which is perfect for me.

Without further ado, here are the three latest autographs that I purchased from COMC.com. (As you can see, I haven't had time to scan my own autographs yet, so I grabbed screenshots from their website. Hey, it's better than a post without pictures, am-I-right?)

Orioles #961-963

Michael Morse- options were somewhat limited since I didn't want a Nationals autograph bogging down my collection

Steve Clevenger- I would never have guessed that the Cleaver would have had a certified signature out there

Dan Johnson- there are a startling number of certified autographs of his out there; I tend to forget that he was something of a prospect back in the day

I was very pleased that all three of these autographs are on-card, and that all look pretty nice, although Clevenger's autograph leaves something to be desired. 

These three will likely stay in my collection unless I'm able to get any of these guys to sign one of my dad's custom OMC Orioles cards. Though I would guess that only Clevenger is back in the system in 2014, so that will complicate things with the other two. 

I also have a sneaking suspicion that Topps will be a jerk and include Morse as an Oriole in their 2013 Update or 2014 Series One set since he's something of a "star" although he did next to nothing during his month with the Orioles. If he is included on a Topps card than I have to add him to my need list, which I would greatly prefer not to do. 

Oriole #966- Mike Belfiore

After spending the entire 2013 season on the Orioles 40 man roster, and having joined the team at least two previous times throughout the season without having appeared in a game, Mike Belfiore finally had the opportunity to make his O's and MLB debut on the last Friday night of the season against the Red Sox, and he will forever be the 966th player to wear the Orioles uniform. 

Two previous times this season, I had speculated that Mike was going to make his Orioles debut, once during Spring Training, and again in May when he was called up to join the team. Obviously, my timing was off, but I'm sure that Mike is pleased either way to have gotten his Major League debut under his belt. Unfortunately, it didn't go the way I'm sure that he would have preferred as he gave up three hits, including two homers, and walked a batter over an inning and a third. Better luck next season Mike!

I've been fortunate enough to have gotten Mike's autograph a number of times during the 2012 season when he arrived at AA Bowie, having come to the organization from the D-Backs in return for the ultimately disappointing Josh Bell in a May 2012 trade. And thanks again to my dad's OMC production, I already have a signed, personalized Orioles card of Mike in my collection, so I will never need to worry about an upgrade.

The Orioles ended the 2013 season with 24 new players having made their black and orange debuts, from Alexi Casilla near Opening Day, to Belfiore near the end of the season. The Birds didn't quite have it in them to make the playoffs this season, but I'm happy they remained in contention through the final week of the year.

Hopefully next week I will have time to do a quick rundown on all the players who made it into a game for the O's this season.

Orioles #964 & 965- Jonathan Schoop & Jason Pridie

Hey, something to get excited about, a post with actual autographs AND pictures. That's probably why you checked this site in the first place!

Two players on divergent career paths both made their Orioles debuts during Wednesday night's game against the Blue Jays. Since they both made their debut in the field in the top of the first inning, I have to use my debut tiebreaker system of the numbered positions on the field to declare Jonathan Schoop (pronounced scope) (2B) Oriole #964, while Jason Pridie (pronounced pry-dee) (CF) becomes #965. Schoop is the O's top minor league position prospect whose debut was also his first MLB action, while Pridie has mostly been a minor league journeyman, and the O's are the fourth big league team that he has played in a game for at the MLB level.

I was lucky enough to be at the game, and had some amazing seats to boot. All the better to take some quick shots of the two guys making their black and orange debuts.

Jonathan Schoop- Oriole #964, debuted 9/25 against Blue Jays

I was specifically excited to see Schoop's debut, as he has been one of the O's top prospects for a few years now. He has played primarily second base and shortstop in the minors, but can also man third base. In 2011 and most of 2012, he and Manny Machado played together at Frederick, and then Bowie to form a double-play combo with some serious MLB potential. I think that Machado has already surpassed his early career expectations and I'm hoping that Schoop will have the opportunity to make the club at the start of 2014.

Jonathan was one of the players whom I discussed possibly making the club out of Spring Training this past year, but there was ultimately way too much competition for the Orioles 2B job in 2013. Next year should be a clearer path with the end of B-Rob's contract and the unlikelihood of Casilla's return. 

Schoop has always seemed exceptionally down to earth and should be an extremely easy player to root for; just ask my dad who was fortunate to have a nice conversation with him in our hotel lobby upon Jonathan's return from playing for the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic this year. As you can see, he also has been kind enough to sign a number of autographs for me over the years. 

His MLB career began with a bang, as he went 2-3 with a HR and three runs scored in his first MLB game. 

Here is at first base after singling in his first MLB at-bat

And here he is crossing home plate following his HR. He became just the second Oriole ever to homer in his MLB debut, following Larry Haney in 1966.

Jason Pridie- Oriole #965, debuted 9/25 against Blue Jays

I can pretty confidently say that this is currently the only signed Jason Pridie Orioles card out there, thanks to my dad's old man card production, in addition to a helpful graphing buddy in Norfolk, as I personally missed out on Pridie during Spring Training. For quite some time, it seemed like a forgone conclusion that Pridie was not going to play for the 2013 O's, mainly due to his absence from the 40 man roster, and after his name was not included in the September call-ups, I put this card in my trade pile. 

But he was definitely a Buck Showalter kind of player whose name had come up over the course of the season so after AAA Norfolk's season ended, the O's sent him to Sarasota to remain fresh in a sort of taxi-squad type of situation. They needed a fresh player after Manny Machado's nasty knee injury coupled with Chris Dickerson's hamstring tweak, so Jason finally made it to Baltimore. 

Here is his first at-bat with the O's

So far in two games with the O's, he is 2-7 with an RBI, and has played left- and center-field. He also had an unfortunately timed error in last night's game when he straight flubbed an easy fly ball with two outs which allowed a Blue Jays runner to score from first base to take a 1-0 lead. But luckily the Orioles came back to win so it didn't cost them the game, though that is the kind of play that can leave behind bad memories when considering off-season roster moves.

Interestingly enough, I also read that these two debuts have pushed the Orioles to having used 54 different players during the course of the 2013 season, which ties the 1955 Orioles for most in franchise history. And it is absolutely crazy to think about that many players appearing in a game for the team in a single season, especially when that team remained in the hunt for a playoff spot until the final week of the season. Expect a run-down on the 54 players next week.