2012, New Year - New Autos

At the end of 2011, I hit the 50% mark on my Orioles collection. I was happy to hit this milestone so quickly. I began the year at around 25% and this year was the year I really focused on trying to obtain every Oriole. Sadly, I'm approaching the part of my collection where they are players who aren't automatic through the mail. But, I like a challenge and I'm motivated to further my collection. That being said, 2012 already looks promising with some recent additions TTM and purchase.

This past week has brought in 3 TTM successes. The first was Ricky Jones:

Ricky only played for the O's for 16 games and that was his entire MLB experience. I found he had been twice drafted before in 1976 & 1978 by the Braves and the Mets, as early as the 5th round in the amateur draft, but declined both before signing with the Orioles with a 15th round pick in 1980.


Today brought in 2 successes with Dyar Miller and Steve Luebber.

Dyar included a nice note and added a signed business card to my request.


Steve Luebber had a rather forgettable Oriole career only appearing in what was the final 7 games of his career. He was later sent to the Texas Rangers as part of an earlier trade. An interesting tidbit I found about his career though was this:

Luebber was part of the longest game in professional baseball history, the famous 33-inning contest between the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings of the Triple-A International League in 1981. Luebber came on for the Red Wings in the 15th inning, pitching the next eight frames before giving way to Jim Umberger, who threw the next 10. The game was finally suspended after 32 innings (4:09 am) and resumed the following day, in which Pawtucket won it in the 33rd, 4-3.

http://500level.wordpress.com/2007/04/12/steve-luebber-we-hardly-knew-you/