Baltimore Orioles Postgame @Petco Park 8/6/13

Since the Baltimore Orioles are a team that rarely has a series against the Padres here in San Diego, I decided to head down to Petco Park with my friend Lawrence after work and try to add some of this team to my collection.  The Orioles have quite a few good targets to use my baseballs on, like Jim Palmer (works for the Orioles broadcast), Manny Machado, Chris Davis, Adam Jones, and Matt Wieters.  Upon arriving at the ballpark, we realized very quickly that it was not going to be a normal night of trying to get some memorabilia signed.  There were probably around 100 people waiting outside of the park, at various different locations players may walk out.  To compound the problem, the Orioles were staying at a hotel closer to the bay, meaning no one really had any idea which route they might take, or if they might just ride the bus.  Turns out, a few players walked out the normal way, but only a couple signed.  Chris Tillman was with family so declined, and Brian Matusz was talked into signing by his family.  Unfortunately, I was too far away watching another exit to get him.  I did see Brian Roberts walking out an unusual exit, and he stopped to sign for four or five people.  He signed a Topps card for me.

I did not see any of the players I wanted to sign a ball walk out, so needless to say it was a pretty slow night for me.  Manny Machado is the brother-in-law of Yonder Alonso of the Padres, so they drove out together at some point.  When the Orioles team bus left, there was probably about 20 people on it so we never really could judge who was still in the clubhouse and who had left.  Lawrence and I decided to head to the Padres parking lot to see if we could at least add a few of those to our collection, but just about everyone had left.  While waiting, Buck Showalter walked out and took a cab, but I had nothing for him to sign.  My total tally for the night ended up being the card above, which is a far cry from the successful trip I had getting the Reds.  I know this guy only played a short while with the Orioles, and I actually got his autograph when he played for the Phillies, but here is a photo of a Jim Thome autographed baseball I got in 2004 outside of Petco Park.

Thanks for reading, and this weekend there will be a cool post about the event going on Saturday at the Frank and Son's Warehouse up in the City of Industry.  Shaq and Dr. J anyone?