This past series of the Hillcats at the Wood Ducks may be my most successful series graphing in a long time. I was able to knock out a ton of cards, and helps several folks with 50/50s. I took a few team bags of Carolina League coaches from my awesome friend, Max, and started him off right with a bunch of signed Omir Santos cards. I really loved this 2006 Bowman Sterling that Max provided.
I had also ordered a few Santos cards off of Sportlots, and they came in just in time. The 2006 Bowman Heritage that Max sent turned out great, along with the other cards I got signed (a 2006 Bowman, 2006 Bowman blue parallel, 2009 Topps Update Gold, 2010 Topps gold and a 2009 Bowman).
There were a few Hillcats players with cards, and fout of them had 2021 Topps Heritage Minors cards. I added these four of Milan Tolentino (Milan is pronounced like the city in Italy), Carson Tucker (brother of Cole Tucker), Isaiah Greene and Yordys Valdes.
Tolentino and Valdes had cards in 2021 Topps Pro Debut (base), and both were landscape oriented. The cards were very similar and I had mixed them up on my pages at least once.
I actually had pulled the blue parallel of Greene's Pro Debut insert out of my boxes last year, so it was nice to get it signed and not have to buy one.
Greene was also in 2020 Bowman Draft and 2021 Bowman. He was really nice, but very quiet. His signature isn't much, but the cards are signed. I can't complain there.
Milan Tolentino was the toughest of all of the players, and after all was said and done on Sunday afternoon, I had only two cards left over, and they were Tolentino. They went back to Gerard, so he could try again another time. I also was able to get Jake Fox on two new cards for the album; this is a different Jake Fox than the former Oriole farmhand who lit up Spring Training a while back.
I added a few new Guilder Rodriguez cards to the album. This is a 2015 Topps mini that Gerard sent along.
Sharnol Adriana was the rover this week, and I got him on two Hickory team set cards. He was helping out with hitting instruction this past week. I also added a Guilder Rodriguez chrome refractor and x fractor from 2015.
The Rangers finally moved Cam Cauley and Ian Moller to the Wood Ducks. Both were drafted last summer, and I have been picking up some of their cards. I got a ray wave parallel of each guy, along with their respective Perfect Game cards.
My friend, Jesse, gave me a Teodoro Ortega card from the Spokane team set, and Gerard gave me a few more parallels of Dylan MacLean. I also added some Mitch Bratt parallels. Jesse hooked me up with a Junior Paniagua Elite Extra Edition.
Finally, here is the die cut parallel of Dylan MacLean's Elite Extra Edition that Gerard sent along. I had gotten one of these done for him already, so this was my end of the take.
In all, I got the following autographs: Today's graphing recap of Hillcats at Wood Ducks: Maximo Acosta x 6, Mitch Bratt x 9, Dylan MacLean x 15, Cam Cauley x 14, Yosy Galan x 4, Ian Moller x 15, Milan Tolentino x 26, Leury Tejada x 12, Guilder Rodriguez x 13, Carson Tucker x 34, Omir Santos x 16, Yordys Valdes x 17, Junior Paniagua x 3, Bradford Webb x 2, Tucker Mitchell x 2, Isaiah Greene x 25, Sharnol Adriana x 2, Teodoro Ortega x 1, Jose Rodriguez x 1 and Jake Fox x 12 (229 total signatures).
A highlight of the series was meeting some fellow graphers who had traveled from the NJ/Philly area, Brian and Joshua. I have talked to both of them for years on Instagram, and Joshua has read my blog for even longer than that. It was really nice putting some faces with the names, and helping the guys have a fun and positive experience graphing at my home stadium.
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