Taking Stock

So I happened to notice the other day that I have now posted more times in 2014 than I did during the entire 2013 year. I know that I've commented about my increase in posting this year a time or two already, but it's kind of nice to be back in a posting rhythm.

I'm sure that many of you fellow bloggers understand about life getting in the way, and that things like our sites are secondary to "real life". Which, don't get me wrong, is a good thing. But as you can probably tell, I love me some Orioles autographs, and I really enjoy writing and researching about the players too. So, here's to hoping that this site has legs and will continue on for a few years into the future. But you never know!

Because where else can you go to look at a signed Matt Nokes Orioles card, personalized to Ryan? Nowhere, it's only right here!

Oriole #202- Ike Delock, TTM Success!

As my TTM requests continue to roll in, I am going to keep trying to write some more about many former Orioles whom I might have glossed over a bit in the past.

Up today is Ike Delock, who pitched eleven seasons in the Majors between 1952-63. The first ten plus seasons of his career were spent with the Boston Red Sox, for whom he appeared in 322 games, including 147 starts amassing a 83-72 record and a 4.01 ERA. He was struggling for the Sawx early in the '63 season and was released on June 9, and the O's signed him that very same day.

Ike made his Orioles debut on June 11, 1963 to become the 202nd played to appear in a game for the Birds. He was a member of the Orioles for just over a month as his struggles continued and was released by the team on July 19, effectively ending his baseball career. Over his seven games with the O's, including five starts, he had a 1-3 record with a 5.04 ERA.

Mr. Delock very kindly signed my TTM request and even added the inscription "My Pal", which is a nice addition to the signature. This Orioles Crown card is his only O's card, although he doesn't appear to be wearing an Orioles uniform in the image.

Thanks for signing Ike!

Slow Posting Week

Well, I just realized that I went nearly an entire week without posting an autograph on my site. Which seems pretty wrong considering that this is supposed to be an "autograph" website.

So here's a pretty awesome autograph of Nick Markakis partying like it's 2012. Let's hope for more cards like this one in the 2015 Topps set. But maybe ones that say something along the lines of "World Series Champions". Who's with me?

2014 Orioles Draft

Well, as many of you Orioles fan likely already know, the Orioles did not have a pick in the first two rounds of the 2014 draft because they signed Ubaldo Jimenez and Nelson Cruz. They also lost a competitive balance pick between the first and second rounds when they traded for Bud Norris last year. So for the first time in recent memory, I paid next to no attention to the first two rounds of the draft on the MLB Network last Thursday night. It's a strange feeling considering the O's have had top five picks so frequently in the past decade and normally have the ability to sign a franchise-changing type of player.

The draft started back up on Friday afternoon, and in the third round, with the 90th overall pick, the Orioles finally got to make a selection. They picked LHP Brian Gonzalez out of Archbishop McCarthy High School in Florida.

Honestly the best information and insight for many of these guys come from their Twitter accounts, so here is a rundown of the Orioles picks, a little info about them, and their Twitter handles, if applicable.

Round   Pick     Name                    School                                      Position            Twitter
3            90        Brian Gonzalez       Archbishop McCarthy HS          LHP                  @Bigb_Gonzalez
4            121      Pat Connaughton    Notre Dame                               RHP                  @PlanetPat24
5            151      David Hess             Tennessee Tech                         RHP                  @hess_express28
6            181      Tanner Scott           Howard College                        LHP                   @t_scott11
7            211      Max Schuh             UCLA                                       LHP                   nope
8            241      Steve Wilkerson     Clemson                                    2B                      nope
9            271      Austin Anderson     Mississippi                                 3B                     @a_anderson8
10          301      Jay Gonzalez           Mount Olive                              OF                     nope
11          331      John Means            West Virginia                             LHP                   @JMeans25
12          361      Nigel Nootbaar       USC                                         RHP                   @NigelNootbaar20
13          391      Matt Trowbridge     Central Michigan                       LHP                   @M_Trowbridge20
14          421      Gerrion Grim           Jefferson College                       OF                     @YaboiGG3
15          451      Alejandro Juvier      Doral Academy                         2B                      @alejandrojuvier
16          481      Tanner Chleborad   Washington State                       RHP                  @TannerChleborad
17          511      Jean Cosme            Colegio Sagrada Familia            RHP                   nope
18          541      Matthew Grimes     Georgia Tech                             RHP                   nope
19          571      Connor Seabold      Newport Harbor HS                 RHP                   @seabs5
20          601      Zach Albin              UCONN-Avery                        RHP                   @ZackAlbin
21          631      John McLeod         Wake Forest                             LHP                    @JohnMcLeod17
22          661      Josh Walker            New Mexico                            RHP                    nope
23          691      Zeke McGranahan   Georgia Gwinnett College         RHP                   @Zekers44
24          721      Lucas Long              Univ. of San Diego                   RHP                    @luclong11
25          751      Brandon Bonilla       Grand Canyon U                      LHP                    @Brandon_Bonilla
26          781      Gage Burland           East Valley HS                        RHP                    @gager44
27          811      Austin Pfeiffer          Univ. of Arkansas-Little Rock   SS                      @AGP_22
28          841      James Carter           Chabot College                         RHP                   @JTC_23_
29          871      Patrick Baker          Anne Arundel CC                     RHP                    nope
30          901      Michael Burke        Univ. of Buffalo                          RHP                   nope
31          931      Riley Palmer            S. New Hampshire Univ.           3B                      @rileypalms
32          961      Jamill Moquete       UMASS-Boston                        OF                      @jeamillzz
33          991      Brandon Koch        Temecula Valley HS                  RHP                    @brandon_koch1
34          1021    Garrett Pearson       St. John's College HS               RHP                    @gare_bear321
35          1051    Tad Gold                Endicott College                        OF                      nope
36          1081    Alexander Lee        Radford                                     1B                      @GeneraLee27
37          1111    Hunter Hart            St. Joseph's Ogden HS               RHP                   @HHart01
38          1141    Keegan Ghidotti     Ouachita Baptist                         RHP                    nope
39          1171    Tucker Simpson      Chipola College                         RHP                   @tucktuckgoose27
40          1201     T.J. Olesczuk         Winthrop                                   OF                      nope

Tim Berry Heading to Baltimore

Could Tim possibly be Oriole #979?

According to some reports from the Orioles beat writers, Tim has supposedly gotten the call to come to Baltimore from the AA Bowie Baysox scheduled series in Portland, Maine against the Red Sox AA affiliate. 

I imagine that this is all tied to the need for a long reliever and/or Miguel Gonzalez's possible trip to the DL. Tim has a major advantage in this recall situation since he is already on the O's 40 man roster, as they had added him this past off-season to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. 

If Tim does make his Orioles debut, it would be a really cool draft weekend story for a guy the Orioles took in the 50th(!!!) round of the 2009 draft out of San Marcos High School in California. 

Tim has always been a good signer throughout his time in the minor leagues, and I'm lucky enough to have a few copies of his autograph ready to be plugged into my collection when/if he makes his debut. The personalized Old Man card up top is ready to be put in with the rest of the O's.

Good luck Tim!

Oriole #224- Ed Barnowski

As I highlight some of my recent TTM autograph additions to my collection, I'm trying to devote a post to some former Orioles that I might not have written much, or anything, about over the time I've been writing this blog. 

Today's focus is Ed Barnowski, who made his Orioles, and MLB, debut on September 8, 1965 to become the 224th player to wear the O's uniform in a game. Ed was kind enough to sign and personalize my TTM request earlier this year. 

Ed had a brief MLB career, which consisted of 6 appearances for the Orioles, 4 in 1965, and 2 in '66, all out of the bullpen. He had a 0-0 record and 2.45 ERA over 7.1 IP with 8 walks along with 8 strikeouts.

Over 7 seasons in the minor leagues between 1963-69, he had a 54-38 record with a 3.12 ERA over 165 games, including 129 starts. In 1965, he threw a no-hitter during his time with the Elmira Pioneers, then the AA Orioles affiliate. He also won 17 games in 1966 for the AAA Rochester Red Wings, so it's easy to see how Ed earned his promotion to the Orioles.

After his playing career ended, Ed worked in the front office of the Red Wings for a few seasons, before moving on to a career as a sporting goods dealer. That sounds like a pretty appropriate job for a former player.

A Day At Bowie

As I mentioned in yesterday's post about my sadly lacking experiences in 2014 with autographs at Orioles Park, I haven't done much better with the Orioles minor league affiliates. I believe that I have attended two AA Bowie Baysox games thus far this year, but only had time to get autographs at the first game, as I arrived late to the second one.

The good news is that the 2014 Baysox team as a whole seemed to be very good at signing for the fans. I didn't have cards for most of the players, but I was able to pretty much get all of the cards that I did have signed. The only player on the team who seems like he might be a little tough is Eduardo Rodriguez, but I don't currently have any of his cards to be signed so that's fine by me.

One-time MLBer Juan Morillo, prospect Christian Walker, Matt Bischoff, and Kyeong Kang were all nice enough to sign for me.

#6 Prospect Tim Berry was also nice enough to sign. Someone his card got scanned seperately.


Thanks to all of the Baysox who were nice enough to sign for me! I hope to make it back to some more games soon!

Graphing at the Yard in 2014

After my Orioles Alumni Autograph post from the other day, I figured I would naturally segue into my other graphing expereinces at Oriole Park thus far in 2014. And then I realized that they were pretty limited; as in, I think I've only gotten 2 non-alumni autographs in Baltimore so far this season. Which is already 1/3 over, so I should probably step my game up.

My main issue has been time or a lack thereof, but I know that we all struggle to balance real life with the fun stuff so I won't dwell on that point. I have been able to make it out to a few games but for various reasons I haven't been able to get there early enough to grab some autographs. Oh, and I was thwarted by a few little league days, which consist of a parade of approximately 10,000 (my estimate) local little leaguers walking around the warning track prior to some Sunday games. It's an awesome experience for the kids, but not so much for a grapher who has the kids between himself and any chance at accessing the players.

So here are the two autographs I've managed to add to my collection at Camden Yards so far in 2014. I got these both signed the same day, prior to an Orioles-Royals game.

My big haul was getting long-time Oriole Jeremy Guthrie to personalize a card for me. I had gotten Jeremy's autograph a number of times over the years he spent in Baltimore but wasn't doing the personalized autograph thing quite as much back then. When he was with the O's and was asked to sign his Indians cards, he always added "Go O's" to those signatures, so I wasn't sure if I could expect a "Go Royals" inscription from him. But he obviously didn't add it, and I guess that means he probably doesn't have any animosity towards the Orioles. Or something along those lines.

The other card I got signed that day was this amazing old card of the Orioles pitching coach, Dave Wallace. I'm pretty sure it's a 1986 ProCards card commemorating his time as a coach with the Albuquerque Dukes. I bought it in the offseason, since he has very few mainstream cards out there, and before I realized that I would have Old Man Cards of him in an Orioles uniform in hand. But I forgot it on my Spring Training trip and was happy to get it signed. Dave was walking past most of the fans, but generally, with an older guy like him, when you flash a 30ish year old card in front of his face, it seems to slow a guy down and make him much more likely to sign. In my experiences at least.

So that's it for my 2014 OPACY success thus far in the season. I need to get out there and try to add some autographs to my collection as I currently have nothing signed by Nick Hundley, and could use personalized upgrades for Caleb Joseph and Preston Guilmet.

My Return to Orioles Alumni Autographing

I've written about it a few times over the years, but the Orioles do something pretty awesome prior to every Monday and Thursday home game; they bring back three alumni players to meet fans and sign autographs on Eutaw Street. Due to some changed responsibilites with work, I wasn't able to make many (maybe any?) of the alumni signings last year, but I've already made it to one this season.

The Orioles don't typically announce who is signing beforehand, but a few people on collecting sites sometimes seem to get some insider info about who will be showing up. And I heard a few weeks back that John Stefero, who I needed to get a personalized upgrade of, would be in town. Also signing that night were Ken Dixon, and Chris Hoiles.

I tried to snap a few pictures of the former O's as I worked my way through the line but it was easier said then done, here is one of my first attempts, that shows Chris Hoiles being cool and standing up for a selfie with a fan. (Yes, that's definitely my first mention of the word selfie on my site.)

Here is a somewhat better shot of the three signers as I neared the front of the line. 

And here's the autograph I was after, it's always a good day for me when I can knock another personalized autograph off.

Chris Hoiles was awesome as always and signed three cards for Kalina and me. He was one of her favorite players and it's always easier to ask for her to help me out when he's involved.

I was able to snag signed postcards of Dixon and Stefero as well. As you can see in my pictures, the players generally have a pre-signed stack of them for people to grab, so I always try to not be too greedy. But when I have autographs sitting in front of me, it's hard to resist!

I only had the one card of Stefero's for him to sign, but I was just happy to get the personalized auto. Dixon signed these two cards of me, but I have to say that he always seems distracted at these signings and pays much more time talking to his former teammates than interacting with the fans. An autograph is an autograph, but a simple acknowledgement at these types of things are always nice.

I hope to be able to make at least a few more of these alumni signings throughout the season. I hope that you fellow collectors might be able to use them to improve your collections too.

The College World Series Contest Returns

No, not here. Go check out my buddy Zach's blog, Autographed Cards, for all the contest details. This is the fifth year he is holding the contest and I was lucky enough to win it once and I came in second or third another year. And trust me, I know very little about college baseball, so if I have a chance to win, so do you!

Good luck to anyone that enters!

Oriole #978- Nick Hundley

This past Saturday, the Orioles pulled off a trade with the Padres sending lefty reliever Troy Patton to San Diego in return for catcher Nick Hundley. Troy had pitched for the O's off and on since 2010 and was a player who I enjoyed watching in the minors at AA Bowie. But this past off-season produced the second failed drug test of his career and a subsequent 25 game suspension that seemed to place him in Buck Showalter's doghouse and on the chopping block. His name had been dangled as trade bait once he came of the restricted list, and he was especially vulnerable as the O's bullpen had four lefties in it at one point earlier this season.

So the O's made the deal to acquire Hundley from the Padres, a transaction that might also speak volumes about Matt Wieters' future with the O's for the rest of the 2014 season, but hopefully I'm jumping to conclusions.

(Disclaimer- I know that I will call Nick "Todd" at various points. I already had to fix the title of this post. Todd Hundley was also a MLB catcher who played in the Majors from 1990-2003, and someone whom I was much more familiar with until this past weekend.)

Anyway, Nick was drafted in the second round of the 2005 draft by the Padres and made his MLB debut for them in 2008. He appeared in 510 games for Friars over the past seven seasons, and was mainly used as back-up/platoon catcher over that time. None of this stats particularly jump out at me, but it does solidify the O's current catching situation.

He made his Orioles debut on Memorial Day, and it looked like it would be a forgettable one, as he was 0-4 with a strikeout and also committed a nearly game-ending error over the first nine innings of the game. But luckily the Brewers couldn't capitalize on his throwing mistake, and he came to bat in the tenth inning and promptly singled in J.J. Hardy who scored the go-ahead and eventually game-winning run for the O's. So his debut went from horrible to awesome with a single swing of the bat.

I do not have Todd's Nick's autograph in my collection, and it doesn't look like he has any certified autographs out there. But luckily, a few online sites are littered with cheap autographs of his, so I should be able to add one to my collection for only a few bucks. Eventually, I would like to have a signed, personalized Old Man Card too, but we will see how things work out.

Good luck with the O's Nick!

Oriole #782- John Halama

John Halama pitched in 262 games over nine MLB seasons for seven different teams, with almost half of those appearances coming over his four seasons with the Mariners. In addition to the Orioles, he also played for the Astros, A's, Devil Rays, Red Sox, and Nationals.

John made his Orioles debut on April 6, 2006, and he spent the final 17 appearances of his time in the Majors with them, over which he had a 3-1 record but a 6.14 ERA before being released on June 16th. He would continue to pitch professionally, mainly in the independent Atlantic League, through the 2012 season before finally retiring at the age of 40.

After his playing career was over, he immediately became the pitching coach for the York Revolution (also in the Atlantic League) for the 2013 season. Since York is right in my area, I figured I would go catch a game and try to get him to personalize a card for me.

I briefly wrote about John way back in 2009 when we was one of my first TTM successes, so I figured that since he signed TTM, that he probably would gladly sign in person at a game, especially since he was a coach in an indy league and likely not bothered often.

I was wrong, he was pretty surly and definitely did not want to sign, even though I caught him as he was first coming out on the field to set up the mound area for that day's starter. He denied me on the way out and tried to walk past me before the game started but I called out to him and he came over. It kind of makes the "best wishes" inscription mean a little less to me, but at least he did sign. So thanks for that John!