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).

April 1, 2025, Graphing of CENSORED at Crawdads

The bitterness is still fresh and the feelings remain raw, but I got over myself a little bit and saw the first ever Hub City Spartanburgers game when they took on the Hickory Crawdads in an exhibition game on Tuesday.  By the end of the game, I felt a lot better. Many of the former Down East Wood Ducks recognized me and acknowledged my feelings about the team folding.  One of the players who took the time to ask how I was doing and thank me for making the trip was Anthony Gutierrez.  Anthony is (by far) the single player who has signed the most cards for me.  Yes, I counted.  Anthony signed for me with no problem and was just super cool.  I was so glad to see him again.

Brock Porter was another guy who made sure to shake my hand and ask how i was doing.  Gleider Figuereo and Danyer Cueva also recognized Jesse and I as we were graping, and signed what we had.  I was glad to get the final Wood Ducks cards, my Figuereo and Cueva 2024 Topps Pro Debut. Pablo Guerrero also recognized us, which was really cool.  I'm glad he was included in 2024 Bowman Draft.

I googled Dalton Oence images, looked at them, looked up and immediately recognized him.  I was impressed that I recognized him and got this UNC card signed.

Another cool thing about the game is that I got to see my buddy Dugan at work.  He's the analytics guy for the Spartanburgers.  I've known Dugan since he was 14, having met him at a card show way back then.  Im really proud of him and am happy to see him living his dream by working in baseball.

In all, we got the following autographs: Pablo Guerrero x 3, Dalton Pence x 1, Brock Porter x 3, Casey Cook x 3, Danyer Cueva x 3, Dylan Dreiling x 1, Gleider Figuereo x 3 and Anthony Gutierrez x 8 (25 total autographs).

Another TTM Success From Dave Tomlin

This 1975 Topps that came back signed TTM from Dave Tomlin was either in an assortment of cards Ryan gave me or from the Conrad boxes from a few years ago.  I wanted to add another 75 to the autograph album, having gotten Tomlin several years ago on some of his other cards. 

I mailed to Tomlin on January 2 and got the card back on January 21 for a 19-day TAT. 

TTM Success - Chris Wakeland

This 2000 Topps Gold Label signed by Chris Wakeland is a really nice looking card. It's also pretty thick, as cards go.  I like the concept, a high level chromed-out card.  I'd like to see some more of these pop up in some future releases. 

Wakeland (b. 1974) played in the majors in 2001 for the Tigers.  He had 9 hits, 2 home runs and a .250 batting average. 

I mailed to Wakeland on January 2 and got the card back on January 21 for a 19-day TAT.