A Couple Old 50-50s From Gerard

Oof. These Christian Vazquez signed cards were sitting in a team bag, in a box that I had put aside a while back and forgot about. The cards were taken as a 50/50 by Gerard some time ago, and I never scanned them.  Above is a 2019 Topps Heritage. Below is a 2008 Bowman.

If I had to guess, I probably sent these to Gerard in 2021.  I'm sure he will tell me.

I feel bad that they sat for so long without being scanned and added to the autograph album.  However, this has been rectified and the cards are safely locked in the album.

Thanks for getting these done, Gerard.  As always, I appreciate it, even though it took me so long to get them posted.

TTM Success - Brandon Rice

A couple mid-2000s Bowman Chrome cards came back signed TTM by Brandon Rice.  The above 2006 Bowman Chrome came from my friend, Ryan.  He sent me a bunch of Bowmans to try TTM, and I got a lot of them done. 

I'm pretty sure this 2007 Bowman Chrome came from my own stuff.  I have a ton of 2007s, so it was good to get them out of the box.

Rice (b. 1988) was an 11th round pick by the Reds in the 2006 June Amateur Draft out of Spalding High School in Georgia. He played in the minors from 2006 to 2008, in the Reds system. He never got out of Rookie Ball.  He had a record of 5-7 with 47 strike outs and a 4.43 ERA.

I mailed to Rice on November 10 and got the cards back on November 25 for a 15-day TAT. 

TTM Success - Tom Hagan

This 2008 Bowman Chrome refractor of Tom Hagan came back signed TTM recently. He signed it in black Sharpie, and it turned out nicely.

Hagan (b. 1983) was a 39th round pick by the Pirates in the 2006 June Amateur Draft out of the University of Virginia. He played in the minors from 2006 to 2008 in the Pirates systems, reaching A ball.  He had 156 hits, 10 home runs and a .286 batting average. 

I mailed to Hagan on November 14 and got the card back on November 24, for a 10-day TAT. 

TTM Success - Rick Austin

A couple nice cards from the 7ps came back signed TTM by Rick Austin. This 1971 Topps turned out great.  This either came from Ryan or from Conrad's boxes.  I don't remember anymore, but it's in the album now.

I also sent off this 1976 Topp that turned out well. Hard to believe 1976 Topps is now 59 years old.

Austin (b. 1946) played in the majors in 1970, 1971, 1975 and 1976 for the Indians and Brewers.  He had a record of 4-8 with 106 strike outs and a 4.63 ERA.

I mailed to Austin on November 3 and got the cards back on November 24, for a 21-day TAT. 

TTM Success - Rod Lofton

Another 1993 Bowman has been added to the autograph album. I couldn't even speculate where the box of 93 Bowman I have came from. I say that because I'm pretty sure they did not come from the former LCS. They could have come from one of the Goodwill boxes that Mom has found over time. I'm really not sure.  It doesn't matter, though. I have a ton of them, and have been able to get a few signed here and there. This one came back signed from Rod Lofton.

Lofton (b. 1967) was a 13th round pick by the Orioles in the 1988 June Amateur Draft out of Grambling State University.  He played in the minors from 1988 to 1995 in the Orioles, Brewers and Reds systems, reaching AAA.  He had 704 hits, 6 home runs and a .268 batting average.

I mailed to Lofton on October 27 and got the card back on November 22, for a 26-day TAT. 

TTM Success - Earl Stephenson

As far as my autograph collection goes, I've got a lot of irons in the fire.  I'm still working on the 1987 Topps set. I send off a handful of Bowman Draft every year. I am positioning myself to send a handful to Spring Training (probably less than last year, though). I also try to knock off a few 1991 Crown Orioles when I can.  Again, I have no chance at filling the set, but I can try to get as many of the living former Oriole players as I can.  One that recently came back signed TTM was the above Earl Stephnson. 

Stephenson (b. 1947) played in the majors in 1971, 1972, 1977 and 1978 for the Cubs, Brewers and Orioles.  He had a record of 4-5 with 50 strike outs and a 3.57 ERA.

I mailed to Stephenson on November 10 abd got the card back on November 22 for a 12-day TAT. 

January 15-16, 2026, Trip To RedsFest

The baseball offseason is a long one.  I'm at the point where I really want to go out and do some graphing, so when my buddy, Aidan, mentioned to me that I ought to make a trip up to Cincinnati for RedsFest, I was intrigued.  I planned the trip for over a month, and looped Jesse in on it, since he is a huge Reds fan.  I treated him to the trip as part of his Christmas gift. It was a gift to me, as well, because I enjoy his company, and that would be a long ride to take on by myself. 

Jesse and I started the trip Wednesday night, driving across the state from Greenville to my parents' farm in Yadkinville.  We got up Thurdasy morning, visited with my mom (and sister, Elly), then grandma (and Uncle Joe; Jesse loves Uncle Joe) for a bit, then headed to the card shop.  I wanted to see if I could get some 2025 Bowman Draft (not at $725/box).  They did let me take the leftover base, which helped me add a few cards to the Reds box. 

We got into Cincinnati around 7pm and had dinner.  I was glad that I over-prepared ahead of time and didn't have to prep or add anything to my book, other than the couoke of Draft cards I got earlier in the day. We could relax in the hotel and rest up for a full day of graphing. 

Jesse and I met up with Aidan Friday morning and graphed outside the hotel near the convention center.  There were a ton of other graphers there, and it was really cold. Still, we were able to get a couple guys to stop and sign, which took the edge off of the huge lot of stuff I brought to get signed. 

RedsFest was very similar to Orioles FanFest, except that the autograph sessions are free to the first 225 folks to get in line, and you don't know who's going to be in each session until 30 minutes before the session starts.  You sign up for the text alerts and have a fighting chance to get in a line in time.  I'll say, we didn't miss getting autographs in any time slot. I was able to double up during most slots, as well, which was great.  The only session we tried to get into but skipped was one on Saturday that included Matt McLain, but we saw the mob of people heading in there, so we skipped it.

I also was cut off by the Reds employee for the line to meet Bronson Arroyo.  I went around the area and stood by the barrier until a guy that was working for Arroyo (he was selling copies of his LPs and CDs at the show). The guy took my card and had Arroyo sign it, a 2010 Topps Walmart black parallel.  Arroyo turned around and told me "that's a weird card man".  I agreed, then asked him what his favorite Pearl Jam song is.  He started by saying "all of them" then pivoted and told me "Black is always a transcendent experience", which was cool as hell.

Aside from the Bowman Draft cards I picked up as we were leaving Winston-Salem, I had prepped and brought 706 cards with me to split between me, Jesse, Aidan, Aidan's brother Riley and Aidan's friend Marcus.  I just happened to pull a few Pierce Johnson cards and prepped them, just in case he showed up.  He was a signing the week before the event, and he did show up.

Devin Mesoraco was one of the guys we got outside of the hotel Friday morning. He signed everything we had.  I even found the smeared 2012 Heritage on the ground after everyone else left, so it went into my slider box.

Every player we met was really nice.  A couple folks on Instagram commented that I was lucky to get a couple of the guys, so it seems that RedsFest does facilitate getting autos from some guys a little better.

For most of the players, I put out no more than 4 cards, with the majority of them being 3 on a page.  The only guys who limited were Graham Ashcraft (1), Tony Santillan (1), JJ Bleday (2), JJ Hoover (2) and Tucker Barnhart (1).

I actually didn't keep the Tucker Barnhart that I got done.  He signed a 2023 Topps Heritage that is going to Max for his Cubs collection. I also got Barnhart's 2022 Topps signed by his little boy who was coloring the table with a Sharpie as hus dad was signing. I asked him if he wanted to sign a card, and I think that made his day.

Aidan's buddy Marcus slipped a custom card of "Big Sugar" Zach Maxwell into my book when I wasn't looking.  I was glad to get it signed, and it drew a response from Maxwell. That was really nice of Marcus.

Finally, the last auto of the show was this custom of my buddy, Aidan.  He and I have graphed together quite a bit over the last year, and I am happy that we have hit it off.  He is a pitcher for Wake Tech, and hopes to get picked up by a 4-year university after this season.  I hope he does, as well.

I'm glad I was able to take Jesse with me, and make this part of his Christmas gift.  I know he had an amazing time (he met TJ Friedl, and found a pair of game used cleats from Blake Dunn's first MLB home run game). We are already talking about going back up to Cincinnati soon.

In all, I got the following autographs: Today's graphing recap of RedsFest: Julian Aguiar x 2, Graham Ashcraft x 1, Benson Barnhart x 1, Tucker Barnhart x 1, JJ Bleday x 2, Keith Brown x 2, Danny Graves x 3, JJ Hoover x 2, Zach Maxwell x 3, Luis Mey x 3, Dave Miley x 1, Tony Santillan x 1, Jose Trevino x 1, Aidan Warnock x 1, Bronson Arroyo x 1, Leonardo Balcazar x 1, Skeeter Barnes x 2, Tyler Callihan x 3, Blake Dunn x 5, Alfredo Duno x 1, Luke Hayden x 2, Luke Holman x 1, Pierce Johnson x 3, Carlos Jorge x 3, Tyson Lewis x 3, Devin Mesoraco x 8, Sam Moll x 4, Mason Morris x 4, JP Ortiz x 3, Connor Phillips x 3, Hector Rodriguez x 2, Ben Rortvedt x 2 and Chris Welsh x 1 (76 total autographs).