TTM Success - Kevin Thompson

A couple mid-2000s Bowman cards came back signed TTM from Kevin Thompson.  The above 2006 Bowman Heritage foil parallel is pretty nice.  I don't have many of these signed, so it was good to add one to the album. 

I also got this 2006 Bowman gold parallel signed with the return from Thompson.  Again, I didn't have many of these in the autograph album, so here's another different card added to the bunch.

Thompson (b. 1979) played in the majors in 2006 and 2007 for the Yankees and A's.  He had 14 hits, 1 home run and a .215 batting average.

I mailed to Thompson on September 20 and got the cards back on October 12 for a 22-day TAT. 

TTM Success - Tommy Murphy

Here are a couple older gold Bowmans that I found in my boxes from the former card shop.  I got these two cards signed TTM by Tommy Murphy, and they turned out really cool with the red marker.  The card above is a 2004 Bowman gold, and the card below is a 2006.

Murphy (b. 1979) played in the majors from 200 to 2007 for the Angels.  He had 23 hits, 1 home run and a .213 batting average.

I mailed to Murphy on October 21 and got the cards back on February 14, for a 116-day TAT.

TTM Success - Jason Hirsh

Here are two cards that I pulled from my card shop boxes and send out TTM for autographs from Jason Hirsh.  The above 2007 Topps Finest is a really nice card, and the first of which that I was able to get signed.  The card looks great; I was glad to stumble upon it while searching the boxes.

Among the multiple older Bowmans that were in the boxes, I was able to send this 2006 Bowman gold, as well.  These are thick, like the dummy cards that used to be put into packs.  These don't fare too well in the mail; this one got some creases along the right side.  Still, the card looks good, and I'll add it to the album nonetheless.

Hirsh (b. 1982) played in the majors from 2006 to 2008 for the Astros and Rockies.  He had a record of 8-11 with 110 strike outs and a 5.32 ERA.

I mailed to Hirsh on January 26 and got the cards back on July 12, for a 167-day TAT.

TTM Success - David Huff

Here are some nice cards that I got signed TTM from David Huff.  They had been hanging around in my boxes for a long time, and finally got out and put into my albums.  I really liked the 2009 Topps Heritage.  The card turned out really well, and the design is a classic.

Huff also signed a 2006 Bowman gold parallel, 2010 Topps and a 2010 Topps Heritage.

Huff (b. 1984) played in the majors from 2009 to 2016 for the Indians, Yankees, Giants, Dodgers and Angels.  He had a career record of 25-30 with 234 strike outs and a 5.17 ERA.

I mailed to Huff on January 23 and got the cards back on March 5, for a 41-day TAT.

TTM Success - Tyler Norrick

I got a 2006 Bowman out of my box when I sent this one off to Tyler Norrick TTM.  It came back signed in black Sharpie and looks pretty nice.

Norrick (b. 1983) was a 6th round pick by the Cardinals out of Southern Illinois University Carbondale in the 2006 June Amateur Draft.  He played in the Cardinals system from 2006 to 2010, reaching AAA.  He had a record of 23-18 with 368 strike outs and a 4.10 ERA.

I mailed to Norrick on January 11 and got the card back signed on January 23, for a 12-day TAT.

2019 Wood Ducks Hot Stove Event

It still pains me that I missed the first Wood Ducks Hot Stove event back in 2017.  Thankfully, I get notifications from the team on a bunch of different platforms now, I should never miss any Wood Ducks news.

This year, the third annual Wood Ducks Hot Stove event brought current Rangers Willie Calhoun, Jose Trevino and Jeffrey Springs to Kinston (and in Springs's case, back to Kinston).  Again, the event was held at King's BBQ, which is a very great BBQ chain in Kinston.  This was my second time going to the event.  Tickets cost $30/person and came with 2 drink (for adults of course) tickets and dinner.  There was also a social hour where you could mingle among fellow fans, Wood Ducks employees and the Rangers personnel.  I brought my son, Chris and my brother, Andy, along and the two of them has as much fun as I did.  I posed for one photo, with Willie Calhoun, who was super nice.

Willie also posed with Chris and definitely won a new fan once Chris realized that Calhoun grew up a Giants fan.

Jose Trevino was really cool, as well.  We had met him last summer in Frisco.  We spent some time last night talking about football and who we thought would win in the playoffs.  Turns out, Trevino is a huge Cowboys fan.

Jeffrey Springs kinda sorta remembered us from 2017, when he was a Wood Duck, but the 30th round pick has gone on to become the second Wood Duck to reach the majors.  He is also a native North Carolinian, hailing from Belmont.  He and I discussed how disappointed we were in the Panthers' season and more specifically how disappointed we were in Cam.

We were introduced to new Wood Ducks manager, Corey Ragsdale, who seems to be a pretty cool guy.  This season, he will be doubling as Woodies manager and also Rangers Minor League Field Coordinator.

There was a roundtable discussion with the players, and I was able to ask a question of them: Now that they have reached the majors, who have they met that they were like "Oh man, I can't believe I met THAT GUY!"  Springs answer was Cole Hamels; Trevino answered Michael Young and Calhoun answered Barry Bonds.  The Rangers announcer, Matt Hicks, also answered my question by telling a story about how he interviewed the great Hall of Famer, Vin Scully.  The stories that were told definitely were a highlight of the night, and I was glad that my question elicited some of the best stories of the night.

Chris made a new friend in Calhoun.  Here they are after the event talking about the Giants and Barry Bonds.  According to Chris, he also talked to Calhoun about how it was having Tim Lincecum (still Chris's favorite player) as a teammate last Spring Training and how Calhoun collects his own baseball cards.  Apparently, Calhoun tries to get one each of his cards and signs them for himself.  For some reason, that cracked me up.  He seems like a really cool, down-to-earth guy.  I talked with him later about how it was meeting Bonds.  It turns out, Calhoun was introduced to his idol by his mentor, former pitcher, Dave Stewart.  Bonds and Calhoun formed a friendship this offseason and have spent a great deal of time working out together.  I may or may not have dropped a few hints to Calhoun by saying, "Man, I really need to find a way to get Barry to sign his 1987 Topps rookie card for me..."  Calhoun laughed and told me that each day he worked out with Bonds, he was bringing handfuls of stuff to be signed, and Bonds graciously signed everything he brought.

I picked up two nice items during the silent auction (well, one during the silent auction, and one after).  This team signed "Christmas in July" bat hadn't been bid on at the end of the show, so I offered to buy it at the minimum bid, and the folks were happy to take my money.

The bat is amazing.  I mean, it is really awesome!  It looks even better in person and I honestly have no idea where I want to display it, but it looks so cool.

It definitely is a high-end custom bat that they had made especially for the Christmas in July event last season.  So, Chris and I have jerseys for the event, and I have the team signed bat.

Of course, I couldn't do the event without doing some graphing.  I took 50/50s for my friends, Max and Gerard, and between Chris, Andy and I, we got everything signed.  The purple chrome Calhoun was pulled from one of those 2018 Bowman Chrome Mega Boxes from Target and is the special atomic refractor that was in those boxes.

I was out of Trevino cards, so I had to order some.  I liked this Frisco card from 2018, so I got that off of Ebay.

I also picked up a few parallels from 2018 Bowman, and a red Team USA card.  The 2018 Bowman Chrome base was my end of the 50/50 from Gerard.

My favorite Trevino was this gold shimmer parallel out of 2018 Bowman.  It is numbered 20/50 and scanned amazingly.  I had purchased a lot of 10 additional Bowmans, but they didn't arrive in time.  My friend, Max, will get those done for me at Spring Training.

I had never heard of Ragsdale before, but when I was informed that he would be the manager, I searched him real quick on EBay.  I saw that he was in 2006 Bowman, so I searched my Bowman box and found that although I had a ton of 2006 Bowman, I had no Ragsdales.  I bought a good many of them off of Ebay.

It turns out, though, that my LCS has boxes of "rookie cards" dating back to the mid-90s, which essentially means, there are boxes there that I had never gone through in the 10 years (that's right, I have been in the Greenville area now 10 years) that I have been going to the shop.  I picked up a handful of Ragsdale's cards just in case the ones I ordered didn't get here in time.  Luckily, those all came and I got them done already.

Finally, I got Jeffrey Springs on my Spokane and 2017 Woodies team set cards, along with a Roughriders card that I picked up.

I had such an amazing time at the event; I can't wait til the season starts.  I think I got my 2019 graphing season started off with a bang.  Now, onto Orioles Fan Fest!

A Surprise Care Package From Jake P.

I got a care package in the mail today from my friend, Jake P.  The package was very unexpected, and the heartfelt letter he wrote was even more of a surprise.  Jake sent me a Sonny Gray relic that was damaged badly, and I was pretty upset over it.  I wasn't mean to Jake at all, I just told him I was disappointed that the card was damaged.  He apologized profusely, and vowed to make it up to me, to which I had responded "Don't worry about it."  Well, Jake was true to his word and sent me two nice PC cards.  I really didn't want him to worry about it, and my opinion of him didn't change as a result, but this was such an amazing gesture, it won't be forgotten.

Jake hooked me up with this 2006 Bowman Futures Game relic of Nolan Reimold.  I had one already, but I am really glad to have another in my collection.

Jake also sent this 2012 Upper Deck SP dual auto of Brian Matusz and Matt Wieters that I had never seen before.  Even without pictures of the players, and no team info at all, the card still looks really cool.  I love the colors they chose for the card, and the autographs match well with that scheme.  It is a really sharp card.

So, thanks a bunch for this awesome care package, Jake, and more so, thanks for the amazing letter.  Those are really my favorite parts of any package.