Brooks Robinson and the Baltimore Orioles

[BaltOrioles]

Hi guys,

I haven't posted much stuff lately, because I've been dealing with my mom's estate, but wanted to share a couple items I've picked up recently.

Many of you know that I really enjoy collecting programs, especially older programs of Orioles minor league affiliates. I've was able to pick up a new Orioles World Series program and get one program closer to my minor league goal of a program from every Orioles affiliate since 1954.

The first program is a 1983 World Series program printed by the Quad-City Times from Davenport, Iowa. I had never seen it before and my best guess is the newspaper was following the Orioles closely because O's pitcher Mike Boddicker is an Iowa native.


1983 World Series Program (Quad-City Times)

1983 World Series (Quad City Times).JPG


The second program is another one of my holy grails. I hate to use that term, but since I'm averaging about one new minor league program a year from those obscure teams, this is a program from a franchise I never expected to find.

In 1955, one of the Orioles class C affiliates was the Thetford Mines Mineurs from Thetford Mines, Quebec, Canada. In fact, Thetford Mines was an O's affiliate in 1954-1955. The team played in the Provincial League that fielded 6 teams. The Mineurs finished the season 42-88 and in last place. The team averaged 547 fans per game, so programs (or anything from the team) are pretty scarce. Barney Lutz was the manager. Here's the program and two players from the team, Ray Barker and Al Nagel. Barker ended up playing 5 games for the Orioles in 1960. He's the only player from the team to reach the majors.

1955 Thetford Mines Mineurs program

1955 Thetford Mines Mineurs.JPG


Ray Barker and Al Nagel

Barker, Ray 1.jpg Nagel, Al 1.jpg