2008 Grandstand Aberdeen IronBirds, Joe Esposito

NN Joe Esposito

Here is a card that was given to me by Ryan, from The Great Oriole Autograph Project, in 2013. Ryan had sent me a little care package at the time and in it was some random signed minor league cards that he had acquired over the years. This is one of those cards and one more will be coming up in the next post.

Joe pitched in the minor leagues from 2007-2012. He spent the first three seasons in the O's system before joining the Phillies organization for two years and then finishing in the Atlantic League. Minus his Atlantic League time and 14 games in AA, he spent his time in some sort of A-ball.

For his career, Joe was 26-23 with 12 saves and a 3.74 ERA. His best stint in the minors was with the Delmarva Shorebirds in 2009. That season, he got into 18 games in relief and was 3-0 with 2 saves and a 2.43 ERA. He also recorded 52 strikeouts in just 33.1 innings. He was also about two and a half years older than the average player in the South Atlantic League that season and the O's cut ties with him when the season was over.

2006 Grandstand Aberdeen IronBirds, Jason Berken

#26 Jason Berken

Here is a card that was sent to me last year by Ryan of the Great Orioles Autograph Project. Prior to going to Orioles Fanfest last year, Ryan did a post offering up some free autographs for a couple of players that he did not need signatures from. All his readers had to do was post a comment on who they wanted and then send him a card of that player.

There were a couple of people that I wanted autographs from, but unfortunately, I did not have any cards of them. So, I ended up working out a trade with Ryan where I would get a Jamie Quirk Orioles Crown card signed at Royals Fanfest in exchange for an autograph from one of the players on his list.

But Ryan, being the class act that he is, sweetened up the deal and I ended up getting two autographed cards for the Quirk Crown card. And as if that was not enough, Ryan emailed me which cards he had and he let me pick out which two I wanted. How cool is that?

So in the end, I ended up with this card and a Dick Hall Crown card. Thanks again, Ryan!