2023 National - Pre-Show Dinner With Max

One of the (many) benefits of having the National in Chicago ever other year is that I can get there and visit with one of my very best and longest friends in the card community, Max.  He and I are approaching 10 years of knowing each other, and it has been really cool watching him grow up and also helping each other add to our respective binders.  Over the course of this season, so far, Max has been helping me get a bunch of cards out of my boxes.  We have our long-standing agreement of providing cards for each other, knowing a lot of what I send will be coming back my way, signed.

Not only does Max get me current major leaguers, he also gets coaches.  This helps me really clear out some room in the boxes where I would normally have stuff just sitting idle.  Guys like Darnell Coles and John Mabry (above) would normally be buried in these older boxes, but now, these cards have been signed and moved into the album.  The 2001 Upper Deck Jason Hart (bottom row, left) would normally be a needle in a haystack, but now the card is done (and looks great; 2001 Upper Deck is such an underrated set).  I also like that I was able to get a 2023 Topps Jon Berti (top row, right) signed.

Kristoper Negron (middle row, right) is a player that I tried to sent to Spring Training TTM, but never got my cards back.  I had some leftovers that I had pulled, so it was easy to find him and send the remainder to Maxx.  I had gotten Brad Keller TTM before, but had a lot of cards left over, so Max got a bunch more signed for me.  The two Mike Blowers cards (middle row, left and middle) turned out great.  For some reason, I had pulled Tom Murphy.  I think it was because someone was supposed to see him, but didn't.  That made it easy to find his cards, as well.

I had tried to get Logan Gilbert back when I went to Charleston (West Virginia Power) back when I visited my good friend, Josh.  I missed Gilbert, so it was nice to get a card back signed by him.  I also moved a couple Isaac Paredes cards from the box of shame.  That made some room for a few guys that I missed this season in Durham.

The Gabriel Arias 2022 Topps Cosmic Chrome turned out awesome.  I enjoyed opening that box, and I have been able to get a few cards from the set signed.  I was also glad to add some signed cards of former Buies Creek Astro, Myles Straw.

I love the 2019 Bowman Heritage set, so adding the Brad Keller (middle row, left) to the album was great.  I got a couple more 2023 Topps signed in Scott Barlow and Nick Pratto.  The Cubs Sticker is signed by Brant Brown.

Max and I use the team stickers for the same goal; have something with you, in case you run into someone who you don't have cards for.  These two are signed by Eduardo Salazat and Paul DeJong.

There were quite a few landscape-oriented cards, so I had to separate them for scanning purposes.  The 1996 Score Select John Mabry (third row from top; right) turned out great.  Those are some really nice-looking cards.  The bottom two team cards are signed by Kyle Freeland (bottom, left) and Angel Sanchez.

These team cards are signed by (starting top left): Andrew Knizner, Jason McLeod, Danny Hultzen, Tom Ricketts, Peyton Battenfield, Brayan Rocchio. Carlos Estevez and Eduardo Salazar.

These are signed by (starting top left): Steve Cishek, Rich Nye, Pete LaCock, Adam Russell, Cole Tucker, Michael Reed and two more Cole Tucker.

Finally, these are signed by: Freddy Fermin, Jose A Herrer, Jim Hickey, Paolo Espino, Jim Hayes (who couldn't believe Max wanted his autograph.  He does a podcast that Max listens to, and Max wanted to get him to sign something), Jose Fermin and Marty Brennaman with a Hall of Fame inscription.

Thank you so much for adding all of these autographs to my album, Max.  I enjoyed dinner, and hope that we can get together much sooner!