October 1, 2023, Graphing of Red Sox at Orioles

Sunday morning, I jumped in the car and headed north.  I stopped along the way to pick up my friend, Alex.  We went on to Baltimore with the intention to get to the Brooks Robinson memorial scheduled for Monday.  Since it was scheduled for Monday morning, I booked a hotel and checked into some Orioles tickets.  I got some for Sunday's game against the Red Sox; the final game of the regular season. 

I brought some cards with me, but wasnt stressing too hard about trying to rack while graphing.  I did want to be prepared, and it worked out.  Inside the stadium pregame, I got DL Hall by the dugout.  I was glad i was able to get someone to get me on the board.

My mood was a bit somber since I was still upset over the loss of Brooks.  His number was hung from the warehouse in tribute, which was nice. 

There was an usher standing at Brooks's statue inside the stadium.  She took my photo in front of the statue for me.  I don't own a Brooks jersey, so I wore the first jersey that I bought in Baltimore back in 2005, my Brian Roberts jersey.

After the game, Alex and I sent to the home plate plaza entrance to try to get Jim Palmer.  We did get to speak to Palmer, but he wouldn't sign for us.  On any other day, I might have followed Jim, as most graphers do and is normal to get him to sign.  I let him pass since he had a tough week.  I was able to get Trevor Story, which was a nice pickup.  I could have gotten a few more Red Sox, but I didn't spend a lot of time looking for their stuff.  This trip wasn't planned at the last minute, but maybe the next to last.

I also got Steve Melewski on the 2007 Topps above. I read his blog, and had gotten Roch Kubatko a while back.  Steve was surprised that I asked him for his autograph and said after he signed it "now it is worth less than it was 30 seconds ago."

Alex and I didn't have anywhere we really needed to be after the game, so we hung out a while talking with the other two graphers out at the home plate entrance.  We heard the kids who were hanging out near the Oriole player lot yelling for Gunnar Henderson.  Surprisingly, he stopped for them and signed autographs out of his truck.  I got my Topps Now card signed, and Alex got my baseball signed for me.  He had also gotten a ball signed by Alex Verdugo earlier.  I let him keep that ball since they share the same first name.

In all, we got the following autographs: DL Hall x 1, Gunnar Henderson x 2, Trevor Story x 1, Steve Melewski x 1 and Alex Verdugo x 1 (6 total autographs).