TTM Success - Julio Zuleta

Take a look at that auto.  Julio Zuleta has a great signature.  I saw that he was signing TTM, so I sent three cards. Only two came back, but that's ok.  Above is a 2000 Topps Gallery.

I also got a 2002 Topps signed.  He inscribed both cards to me, but that doesn't take anything away.

Zuleta (b. 1975) played in the majors from 2000 to 2001 for the Cubs.  He had 43 hits, 9 home runs and a .247 batting average.

I mailed to Zuleta on January 13 and got the cards back on January 25 for a 12-day TAT. 

Another TTM Success From Juan Beniquez

Another 1991 Crown Orioles card was added to the album when this one came back signed by Juan Beniquez via a private signing on SCN.  I had gotten him during a previous signing, which took care of my 1987 Topps.  I saw another signing come along and decided to go ahead and get my Crown Orioles card done.  It turned out nicely.

I mailed to the signing on December 27 and got the card back on January 25 for a 29-day TAT.  I paid a fee of $12.00.

April 12-13, 2025, Graphing of Stripers at Tides

This past weekend I let a coupkenweeks of torturing myself with card searching and prep to graph two more AAA teams across two days.  It didn't help that work has been busy and I haven't had a lot of time to go through boxes.  I had Chris and Jesse here at the house searching boxes on Friday to get me ready to go to Norfolk for games Saturday and Sunday.

Chris had to work, so it was my buddy Jesse and I hitting the hotel Friday night.  Since Norfolk's game on Friday had been rained out, we weren't in a hurry to make the two-hour drive up there.  We found the guys we could find, hit the road and got into the hotel around 10pm.  I powdered the cards and loaded the books so we would be ready to do arrival Saturday morning.  The weather sucked; it was chilly and windy all day out there, but Jesse had a sweater and I remembered to bring a hoodie.

We graphed outside with a Norfolk grapher named Jeff.  We hit the Tides side on arrival with a couple tries at some Gwinnett guys, hit Gwinnett inside pregame and their side again outside on departure.

We were really hoping to get Alex Verdugo, who we got outside on arrival when we saw the second Gwinnett team bus come in.  Jesse Chavez signed for us outside on arrival, which was really cool.  I got denied by Sandy Leon (Hola Sandy) on arrival but he signed everything we had on departure.

James McCann was really nice as well.  He was one of the last players out on departure, but it was worth getting him on my Orioles card.  

Luke Williams was a bit tougher, but he did sign for us.  We missed several people like Luke Waddell, Jake Marisnick and Hurston Waldrep.

I had some nice Jesse Chavez cards, but missed one that was stuck behind other stuff in my slider box.  It was also good to finally get Chuck LeBlanc on my Frisco team set card.

There were a bunch of Tides guys that I needed on this trip.  We got really lucky to get Samuel Basallo and Coby Mayo at the same time outside.  The 2025 Topps insert if Mayo turned out great.  The Basallo I got done was from 2024 Bowman Draft.  Jesse helped me get a 2024 Bowman Chrome.

My 2024 Pro Debut Chrome gold refractor of Jud Fabian turned out awesome.  It was also great to get all of the Vimael Machin cards I had pulled for the Independent League last year done.  He is continuing to hit like crazy.  I hope he gets called up to the big leagues again.

One of the toughest cards that eluded me for a while was Triton, the secondary mascot of the Tides.  I finally got that one done for the 2024 team set.

Finally, Terrin Vavra's exclusive deal expired.  So, I was able to get several of his cards signed. His Topps Now card had a lot of miles on it.  This card traveled with me to the Orioles Caravan a couple years ago as a "just in case", then on to Norfolk last year as I tried to get some ink on it.  The card is finally signed an can now reside in the binder.

Jesse and I had a great time, catching 3 games as opposed to the two we originally had thought we would when we planned the trip.  The Tides went 1-2 while we were there but we got to see homers by Fabian and Mayo.

In all, we got the following autographs: Jordyn Adams x 2, Samuel Basallo x 2, Dylan Beavers x 4, Jud Fabian x 2, Coby Mayo x 2, Vimael Machin x 4, Corbin Martin x 12, Terrin Vavra x 4, Thaddeus Ward x 2, Triton x 1, Eddy Alvarez x 1, Matthew Batten x 1, Jesse Chavez x 5, Garrett Cooper x 1, Jose Devers x 2, Chuck Leblanc x 1, Sandy Leon x 9, James McCann x 2, Enoli Paredes x 2, Alex Verdugo x 2, Jordan Weems x 5, Luke Williams x 4, Livan Soto x 6, Carlos Tavera x 1, Luis Vazquez x 1 and Chandler Seagle x 6 (84 total autographs).

TTM Success - Pete Weber

Here is a 2008 Topps Allen and Ginter that I got back signed from bowler Pete Weber.  The card turned out great.  I used to love A&G but I kind of feel like the set has run its course.  I'd be happy with a new set with a new retro design taking its place.  Still, it's a nice set and the cards look great when signed.

Weber (b. 1962) is a famous bowler who has won the PBA Tour 37 times and is a member of the PBA and USBC Halls of Fame.  He is widely considered the greatest bowler of all time, according to Jesse who is standing beside me while I type this.

I mailed to Weber on October 14 and got the card back on January 25 for a 103-day TAT.

Spring Training 2025 Plus Other Autos From Max

As he always does, Max delivered a huge package of autographs a few weeks ago.  He went to Cubs Convention and Spring Training and took a bunch of my cards with him to get signed.  I was glad to get a bunch of room cleared in my boxes.  The above Topps Pro Debut relic card of Ryan Vilade was a big hit.

Here are cards sigbed by Riley Adams, Paul Bako, Moises Ballestros, Matthew Boyd, Rob Brantly, Alex Call, Dave Clark.  I liked getting the Winston-Salem Spirits card signed by Bako. I'm pretty sure I got to see him play at Ernie Shore Field.  

These cards are signed by Kenedy Corona, Ryan Dempster, Bob Dernier, Chris Devenski, Sean Doolittle, Joe Espada, Jose Fermin, Daxton Fulton.  I'm certain that I am out of Dernier cards at this point.  It was funny Max got Corona for me; I just got him myself while seeing Sugar Land last week.

I finally got my old Greensboro team set card back signed by Joe Espada.  That was a cool team set to pick up for $5.  Well worth it to have something for Espada to sign.  I was also glad to add a Jose Ferrer card to the album ince I saw him past year but had none of his cards on me at the time.

This group is Ryan Flaherty, Ben Gamel, Stone Garrett, Luis Guillorme, Ricky Gutierrez, Jon Jay.  I did a search and I didn't see that I had any Flaherty signed cards until this moment.  I'm glad I finally found these.  I think Max asked me for Flaherty stuff early last year and it took me forever to find when I had mine sitting.  My Ben Gamel Bulls team set card finally got done, as well.  I was afraid that one wouldn't get done. 

I found several more Luis Guillorme to take with me to the Durham game while Sugar Land was there but Guillorme wouldn't stop and sign for us.  He was in a hurry to catch their flight.

These are Chris Johnson, Reed Johnson, Matt LeCroy, Bill Madlock, Brice Matthews, CHas McCormick, Victor Mesa, Jr., Noble Meyer.  That 2024 Panini Crusade of Meyer turned out nicely.  I had heard that Chris Johnson was a tough graph but Max got him on several cards, which helped get a good many out of my boxes. 

The next batch is of Brian McRae, Jake Meyers, Drew Millas, Rodery Munoz, Connor Norby, Glenn Otto.  That Diamond King Otto is pretty cool.  I didn't even know I owned that card before.  Max really helped to get some older team set cards signed.  That's great because they just end up sitting in a box unsigned otherwise. 

Daniel Palencia, Mitchell Parker, Nate Pearson, Konnor Pilkington, Cal Quantrill, Ethan Roberts, Drew Rom are in this next group.  I love the 2019 Topps Holiday Cal Quantrill.  Those are fun cards to add to the album.  I finally have Drew Rom, a former Oriole farm hand who is in the majors with St. Louis.

Here are Jackson Rutledge, Jon Singleton, Mike Soroka, Geovany Soto, Caleb Theilbar, James Triantos.  Thay 2010 Topps Pro Debut says Kyle Heckathorn on the card but it is actually Caleb Thielbar pictured.  That was a cool novelty card to get done.

These are Keegan Thompson, Luis Vazquez. Christian Walker, Donovan Walton, Ryan Weathers, Forrest Whitley.  Another 2019 Midwest League All Star Card got done.  Im down to just a handful of these.  I couldn't believe I didn't have the 2015 Topps Chrome Christian Walker in the album yet.  He's really gone on to have a good career.

The Jacob Young above is a really cool card.  I didn't know I sent that one also or maybe Max gifted it to me because he's such a great guy. I was also surprised I had and Jordan Wicks cards left in the boxes to send out.

These are 2024 Topps Heritage minis of Rilety Adams, Jose Ferrer and Dane Myers.  I loved last year's Heritage.  Hopefully this year's using the 1976 design looks good as well.

These horizontal cards of Ron Coomer, Stone Garrett, Reed Johnson, Konnor Pilkington, Cesar Salazar, Jesus Tinoco mixed upky alphabetization of the signatures, but that's ok.  They all look great.

Max also helped with several generic cards by getting Paul Bako, Anthony Bender, Declan Cronin, Joe Espada and Calvin Faucher to sign.

Here are more team cards: Colton Gordon, Ronny Henriquez, Ryan Ignoffo, Bryan Lavastida, Andrey Lara, Jon Lieber, Riley O'Brien, Javier Sanoja.

Finally Eric Wagaman and Carlos Zambrano signed a bunch of these. 

Again, thanks so much for taking the cards from me and getting some signed, Max.  I always appreciate it, even though it seems like it takes me forever to scan and upload them.  Here's to another season of graphing!

Another TTM Success From Dick Woodson

Here is a signed 1974 Topps that came back signed TTM from Dick Woodson.  I believe I got the card from my buddy Ryan.  The card turned out nicely.

I originally ogt Woodson TTM back in 2021.  I was glad to add this 74 to the album. 

I mailed to Woodson on January 6 and got the card back on January 22 for a 16-day TAT. 

March 29, 2025, AML Wrestling Event

Over the last several months, I've really enjoyed checking out independent wrestling in the area.  Jesse and his grandpa introduced me to a local wrestling organization ran out of Kinston back in October.  Then, Chris and I checked out Wrestlecade in Winston-Salem in November.  We all have realized that these are fun shows, and have been following some of the wrestlers we have seen in each organization.  A few of them have wrestled in both.

At the end of March, Chris, Jesse and I talked my younger brother Andy and his wife Cam into checking for out AML Wrestling's show in Lexington, NC.  AML are the folks who put on Wrestlecade. 

The main event of the show was the culmination of George South's 40+ year career with his first shot at the NWA World Heavyweight Championship "10 pounds of gold".  We.met South prior to the event at the meet and greet. He is such a cool guy.  I paid $20 for four autographed cards.  He signed the cards, then gave Chris a wrestling photo book and gave Jesse and I each a Bible. 

His entrance to the match was excellent.  He normally comes out to Journey's Don't Stop Believing.  When the music hit, baby face (good guy) wrestlers from the organization lined up along the entrance way, and his family made their way to the ring.  South wasn't there.  Journey stopped and Welcome to the Jungle from Guns N Roses hit, and South made his entrance.  Hell yeah.  They introduced each of South's family, including a grandson who looked to be 3 or 4 years old.  He was decked out in wrestling gear, and cried when he was led out of the ring.  I guess he wanted to make it a tag match or come flying off the top rope to help Grandpa out.  It was really sweet.

The match was great.  The NWA champ (Thom Latimer) made South, who is in his 60s, look like a million bucks in the ring.  South ended up losing, but it was a believable match, and we all had a good time.

One of the guys that I was introduced to at one of the Kinston shows (that promotion is called Extreme Shock Wrestling) is Diego Hill.  I have seen him at all but one of the se real shows I've seen over the last 6 months.  He is very talented, and looks to be on the brink of getting picked up by one of the majors promotions.  Jesse and I figure he will probably move up to TNA at some point, but man it would be cool to see him make it to WWE. 

Here's a short video clip of Diego hitting a move in a doors, ladders and chairs match.

We all had a great time at the show and plan to catch a few more.  It'll be tough during baseball season, but in the offseason, it definitely gave us some alternae entertainment options.

April 6, 2025, Graphing of the Space Cowboys at Bulls

On Sunday, the Durham Bulls held a "meet the team" event in Durham prior to their game against the Sugar Land Space Cowboys.  Chris, Jesse and I made the trip and racked both teams.

A big reason I wanted to get to the signing was to try and get Eloy Jimenez on an Orioles card.  I got him on the 2025 Topps, which looks great and becomes the first 2025 Topps to get into the album. A couple came in TTM, but they haven't been scanned yet.

I spent hours on Saturday prepping for the trip.  It was worth it.  I cleaned out all of my Morgan Ensberg cards, along with several other players.

I was happy to see Jonathan Hernandez again; I talked to him about the Wood Ducks for a bit.  I had purchased several Sean Hunley cards, thinking I'd see him with Charleston or Bowling Green, but I missed him.  I cleaned all of those cards out as well.

Chris and Jesse helped me with some good Eloy cards. I also got Joey Krehbiel on his Norfolk card.

Coco Montes stopped to admire the 2024 Topps Finest.  He had never seen the card before.  The Tanner Murray was a pickup at the National out of a parallels box.  I was lucky to remember that I had it.

The 2014 Bowman Chrome Jamie Westbrook was a quick last-minute find.  I knew I had his cards somewhere. I saw that I had gotten him TTM a while back and his extra cards were sitting in the same spot on my other desk since 2021.  Kind of sad.  I was glad to get my Carson Williams 2024 Panini Prizm parallel signed.  It turned out nicely. 

I bought a few cards for the trip like the two 2022 Topps parallels of Cole Sulser.

In talking with Jonathan Hernandez about the Wood Ducks, I had him sign this extra Wood Ducks team card from the 2017 team set.  I had found this card in a random box here at the house.  It's possible it was Chris's at some point.

I almost sold this 2023 Bowman Chrome pearl parallel of Kenedy Corona.  I had gotten it thinking I'd see Corona with Fayetteville. I didn't and wasn't sure it would ever get signed.  I got it done on this trip and was really happy to add it to the album. 

Miguel Castro was really nice.  I was disappointed that I couldn't find his 2019 Topps Update card showing him as an Oriole.  I took what I could find on the trip and he signed everything.  The Colton Gordon was a lucky find in a stack of 2024 Panini Crusade that I happened to purchase.  The coolest find in the box of shame was the 2017 Buies Creek team set card of Nick Hernandez.  His 2017 Carolina League All Star Card was an ebay purchase prior to the trip.

The above Joe Thurston relic is numbered 001/100, which I thought was cool.  I was also glad to get my 2019 Midwest League All Star Card signed by Cesar Salazar.

We waited outside for quite a while to get the Sugar Land guys.  Their plane flight was scheduled to leave at 9pm and it was 4pm when we got outside.  We were able to get some Bulls on their side while waiting.  It worked out for us that we were able to maximize who we saw.

The 2023 Topps Update Astros Rookies card (signed by Salazar) is a black parallel that I was lucky enough to find in one of my boxes.  I was disappointed to see tonight that my buddy Max got a 2022 Topps Update card signed by Tanner Banks.  I could have completed the card but didn't think to look and see if I had one signed already.  Maybe I'll see Sousa again sometime. 

We had a great time graphing with some awesome weather. In all, we got the following autographs: Garrett Acton x 2, Dru Baker x 4, Morgan Ensberg x 9, Joey Gerber x 2, Jonathan Hernandez x 13, Sean Hunley x 6, Eloy Jimenez x 3, Joey Krehbiel x 1, Coco Montes x 4, Tanner Murray x 1, Eric Orze x 1, Joe Rock x 3, Connor Seabold x 13, Ian Setnour x 3, Chandler Simpson x 3, Cole Sulser x 2 Jacob Wagiespack x 1, Jamie Westbrook x 2, Carson Williams x 1, Miguel Castro x 9, Kenedy Corona x 2, Colton Gordon x 1, Nick Hernandez x 2, Tyler Ivey x 6, Brice Matthews x 4, Jacob Melton x 2, Nick Robertson x 3, Cesar Salazar x 4, Bennett Sousa x 1, Joe Thurston x 1, Brandon Walter x 14 and Blake Weiman x 1 (125 total autographs).

TTM Success - Donnie DeWees

A cool TTM success I got back recently was this one from Donnie DeWees.  I had his cards pulled a while back thinking I'd see him with Myrtle Beach.  That didn't happen, then I tried a couple folks that saw Cubs minors teams, and the cards still were missed.  Finally, I took a shot at TTM and got two of my cards out of the box.  The above 2015 Panini Contenders turned out well.  I hadn't gotten one of these signed in quite a while, but there was once a time where I saw several guys from this set.

The same goes for 2017 Bowman.  This was a nice set to get signed, and I still see a few guys around with cards from that set.  I actually just got two of them done this past weekend.  That's another story.

DeWees (b. 1993) was a 2nd round pick by the Cubs out of the University of North Florida in during the 2015 June Amateur Draft. He played in the minors from 2015 to 2019 and 2022 in the Cubs and Royals systems.  He reached AAA.  He had 583 hits, 44 home runs and a .268 batting average.

I mailed to DeWees on January 14 and got the cards back on January 22 for an 8-day TAT. 

TTM Success - Kevin Higgins

With some more graphing trips being completed, I can see myself falling way behind again on TTM posts.  I'm not quite at the point of posting two a day again to catch up, but i may start.  Until then, I'll just keep plugging away.  Here are two cards that came back signed by Kevin Higgins.  Above is a 1994 Donruss, a very underrated set.  I tend to enjoy looking at these, but they came from the over-gloss era where stacks of cards can brick by sticking together.  I had to toss out a bunch of 1994 and 1995 Donruss a few years ago.  What a shame.

Another relic of that same era was 1994 Score.  This can be another sharp-looking set.  It has a very basic border, but some pretty decent photography on some cards.  Something else that I love about the 1994 Score set was that they did stadium cards that season.  I need more card sets doing some stadium cards because they come in handy while graphing.

Higgins (b. 1967) played in the majors in 1993 for the Padres.  He had 40 hits, no home runs and a .221 batting average. 

I mailed to Higgins on November 19 and got the cards back on January 22 for a 64-day TAT.

TTM Success - Aaron Parker

Here are a couple more 2024 Bowman Draft cards that I got signed TTM. These were signed by Aaron Parker.  He signed both cards in blue Sharpie, and they look very nice.

Parker (b. 2003) was a 6th round pick by the Blue Jays in the 2024 July Amateur Draft out of UC Santa Barbara. He has played in the Blue Jays system since 2024 and began this season at high A Vancouver.  He has 19 hits, 5 home runs and a .218 average so far in his career.

I mailed to Parker on December 19 and got the cards back on January 21 for a 33-day TAT. 

April 2, 2025, Graphing of Cannon Ballers at Dash

On Wednesday, the Winston-Salem Dash hosted the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers in another exhibition game.  I had two tickets, since Winston-Salem was doing a $0.52 promotion, but ended up being unable to fill the second spot.  That ended up being ok, because the graphing scene (at least on the Kannapolis side) was a mess.

Players from both teams limes up on the field pregame for a signing event, but it was very disorganized. Rosters with uniform numbers hadn't been released prior to the game, so we had to ask everyone what their name was.  That was pretty embarrassing, but I've had to do it before.  Still, everyone was pretty cool and signed a good bit of what I had.  Most limited, but that was ok.  I can try to see Winston-Salem again soon.

The White Sox have quite a few guys with Bowman cards from the last several years.  I knocked out a lot of players who had been in my Bowman box for years like the two 2022 Bowman Wilber Sanchez cards.

It turned out that the Kannapolis guys who lined up for the signing had no cards.  They were cool about it though and chatted with us for a bit.  We made our way to the Kannapolis dugout, which ended up being swamped.  I was in the scrum, right in the middle of it, but still got a few guys that I needed.  I wasn't too worried about the guys that I missed because I plan to catch them in either Fayetteville or Zebulon.  Hopefully I can.

I ended up leaving early, around the 3rd inning, because I had a long ride home.  I did get to see George Wolkow launch a bomb of a home run.  He crushed that ball.

I had a good time, even though graphing is more fun with friends. 

In all, I got the following autograohs: Sam Antonacci x 2, Lucas Gordon x 4, Wes Kath x 1, Seth Keener x 3, Jeral Perez x 3, Wilber Sanchez x 2, Samuel Zavala x 2, Ryan Burrowes x 4, Darius Day x 2, Nick McLain x 3, Brayden Montgomery x 1, Casey Saucke x 2, Jordan Sprinkle x 5 and George Wolkow x 5 (39 total autos).