TTM Success: Tom Dukes

   Grabbing TTM off the bottom of the pile, this nice return came from Tom Dukes.  He was a relief pitcher in the late 60's and early 70's for a couple of teams including the Orioles.  He didn't have a mainstream Orioles card released during his time in Charm City but was immortalized in the 1991 Crown Orioles set.  

    He was traded to the Orioles along with Pat Dobson in the 1970-71 offseason from the Padres.  He bounced around the league as a relief pitcher but was fortunate enough to be with the Orioles for their 1971 pennant run.  He pitched in two games in the '71 series against the Pirates, throwing four innings of 2-hit ball.                          

In addition to my card, he included a signed custom postcard of himself.

He also answered my question that I included on an index card:

I sent out on November 11, 2023 and got it back on November 27, 2023 for a 14-day TaT. Thank you very much Mr. Dukes!

TTM Success: Fred Beene

 This Orioles Crown return was a quick one from former Orioles pitcher Fred Beene.  He also pitched for the Yankees and Indians during his career. He had a respectable 3.63 ERA mostly as a bullpen arm, but seemed to walk too many batters.  I'm mainly focusing on Orioles autographs so I only sent this one card.  He shared his rookie card with another former Orioles star, Terry Crowley. I tend to shy away from getting duo and triple player cards signed through the mail so I decided against sending it to him.  

A fun fact about Fred Beene is that after his playing days were over, he was a Brewers scout for 20 years. On of his most notable signings was Jim Morris when he was originally drafted.  If you remember Jim Morris's story was the subject of the baseball movie, "The Rookie".  Jim Morris had several arm issues, retired and then made his MLB debut 16 years after originally being drafted.

This was one of my first couple of requests that I sent out with an index card question: 

I love that he name dropped Thurman Munson in his response. I appreciate his time to write a well thought out response.

I sent my card and index card question on November 10th 2023 and got them back on November 20th 2023 for a 10 day TAT.  Thank You Mr. Beene!

TTM Success: Darold Knowles

Darold Knowles was one of the first 1991 Crown Orioles to come back that I had sent out. This is his only single Orioles card.  He has 3 different his "Rookie Stars" cards over 3 separate years. He shares  1964 with Les "Buster" Narum, 1965 with Richie Scheinblum, and Don Buschhorn, and 1966 with Andy Etchebarren.  I don't think I remember seeing a player other than Knowles have 3 straight years of Rookie Stars cards like he had.  Cracking the Orioles rotation or bullpen during the mid 60's was really tough so he played a ton in the minors before he got his shot at the majors.  He only pitched a handful of games in Baltimore before he was dealt to Philadelphia before the 1966 season.  He was a bit of a journeyman around the league during his career but always had good numbers except for one year in 1975 with the Cubs.  He also had 14 losses during the 1970 season but carried a 2.04 ERA. That seems tough to do.

I sent this 1991 Orioles Crown card out on November 10th, 2023 and got it back signed on November 18th, 2023 for an eight day TAT.  Thank You Mr. Knowles!
 

TTM Kinda Success: John Papa

 Here's my first kinda success I had show up in the mailbox from John Papa.  I call it a kinda success because he signed the index card and not the card itself.  I alluded to it in my post from last night and I quit the practice of attaching the cards to index cards for protection cold turkey.  Between the time I sent this card out and it returning, I started to run low on photo corners so I searched 3 retail stores and finally made an Amazon order to get more.  The new pack now sits in my supplies drawer, unopened. Oh well, I'll use'em for something. 

Sure, I'm a little disappointed that this particular TTM didn't turn out the way I wanted.  I learned from my mistake and I'll try again in the near future.  Plus, I can't be too mad at one of the two Orioles who of which  I share a birthday.

I mailed this card out on November 8th, 2023 and got it back November 18th for a 10 day TAT. Thank You Mr. Papa!

TTM Success: Mel Held

 This was one of the first Orioles Crown card that I sent out after I decided to get as many of them signed as possible.  Obviously, I'll never be able to complete the set of them since players passed away before the sent was printed in 1991 and may have passed since.  I haven't pulled the exact numbers of what is still possible, but I'm going to try to send to as many of the living players that have a card in the set as I can.  For those who don't know, The 1991 Orioles Crown / Coca-Cola set was printed in 4 separate series, in mostly alphabetical order and ended up with 501 cards.  It pictured EVERY player that had played for the Orioles since they moved to Baltimore in 1954.  I'd estimate 95% of the players are shown in an Orioles uniform.  

For me, this set is a double edged godsend/curse.  There are some players in the set that never had a mainstream Orioles card issued and some never had anything issued with their picture at all.  It has afforded me the opportunity to research, learn about them, write a letter, obtain the autographs of guys that are somewhat obscure.  I realize that most teams have never had a set released like this so I feel fortunate that this set exists.

Mel Held is one of those obscure players.  He pitched four games during the 1956 season and that was the entirety of his whole MLB career.  The card below is the only card that exists of him (that I or COMC, etc. knows of). As you can see, I was attaching these Crown cards to an index card with photo corners to give them a bit of protection while going through the mail.  You'll see soon why I quit doing that.  

I sent this card out on November 8th and got it back on November 18th for a 10 day TAT. Thank You Mr. Held!