2026 National Free Signer - Geovany Soto

Geovany Soto was the next free signer at this year's National. I had sent most of his cards to Max over the years, but was still able to find a couple to take with me to the show. The above 2010 Topps Heritage was one of them. This is such a good looking card and I'm glad I got it signed. 

I worked out a deal with the vendor I had been talking to all show; I took a bunch of his Soto cards and some wild card vouchers and went through the line for him so he wouldn't have to leave his booth. We split the cards, so I ended up with several extras.

I also got the other card I brought from home (this 2017 Topps) signed. Since I already had one in the album, I got this one done in red paint pen.

Soto (b. 1983) played in the majors from 2005 to 2017 for the Cubs, Rangers, A's, White Sox and Angels. He had 619 hits, 108 home runs and a .245 batting average. He was the NL Rookie of the Year in 2008. He was also an All Star that season and finished 13th in the NL MVP race.

Another TTM Success From Dave Trembley

This winter, I searched for some old Kinston sets because I was going to see former Kinston Indian, Ross Atkins, at the Kinston Baseball Hall of Fame banquet. While I was looking for his cards, I found a website that had a ton of old team sets; one of which was a 1986 Kinston Eagles set. Prior to (1979 to 1981) their time as the Kinston Blue Jays and between the Blue Jays and Kinston Indians (1986), they were the Eagles. I thought it would be cool to pick up the 1986 Eagles set. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that the manager card was of none other than former Orioles manager, Dave Trembley.

I had gotten Trembley TTM before, but I wanted to get him on the Eagles card, so I sent it out.

He sent me a signed post card and this sogned 2009 Topps bacl with my signed Eagles card, which was really nice of him.

I mailed to Trembley on February 5 and got the cards back on February 17, for a 12-day TAT. 

TTM Success - Chris Lambert

A couple more mid-to-late 2000s cards were added to the autograph album when these two came back signed TTM from Chris Lambert.  I raided my 2009 set to add a 2009 to the album since I don't have many bulk cards left from that set. I later replaced the one I pulled from my completed set, don't worry.

I also had this 2005 Topps Update cards that I sent off.

Lambert (b. 1983) played in the majors in 2008 and 2009 for the Tigers and Orioles. He had a record of 1-3 with 26 strike outs and a 7.36 ERA. His Orioles.career consisted of 4 games in 2009.

I mailed to Lambert on November 7 and got the cards back on November 29, for a 22-day TAT. 

December 6, 2025, Markakis-Johnson Signing

On Saturday, Jesse, Ryan and I made the trip to Prince Frederick, Maryland to attend a toy drive and signing with former Orioles Jim Johnson and Nick Markakis.  Markakis hasn't done any private signings and from what I can remember, hasn't done an in person signing in probably over 10 years or so.  I jumped at the chance to make the trip when I found out about the signing.  I dug through my Markakis PC box and pulled some good stuff.  This 2007 Topps Turkey Red Chrome refractor is numbered 29/99.  It wasn't on my radar, but when I found it, it jumped to the top of the list.

The above 2008 Topps Chrome Target T205 (above left) was the original card that I wanted to get done.  It turned out great.  I was also able to get a 2009 Topps done, as well.  I appreciate Jesse for getting the T205 chrome done.  He got a Topps Propaganda Markakis done for himself.

I had gotten Johnson on a card recently through a private signing, so I had to really dig to find more of his cards.  I went through my Orioles boxes and found some Johnsons.  The above (left) 2006 Ropps Rookie 52 was a cool card to dig out of the box. The card on the right is a 2012 Topps Heritage. 

The guys were really friendly.  They look super serious in the photo above, but they really were cool.

The toy drive looks like it brought in a bunch of stuff for the kids.  I had a great time with my friends, and hope we can get to some more signings soon.

TTM Success - Brandon Backe

Some fairly recent cards (more recent than some TTM subjects) came back signed TTM from Brandon Backe.  I'm seeing more and more returns from guys that played in the mid-to-late 2000s, so I have been searching boxes over the last few weeks for more cards like these.

I got a 2006 Topps (top), 2008 Upper Deck (above left) and 2009 Topps (above right) back signed from Backe.

Backe (b. 1978) played in the majors from 2002 to 2009 for the Devil Rays and Astros.  He had a record of 31-29 with 360 strike outs and a 5.23 ERA.

I mailed Backe on October 24 and got the cards back on January 11 for a 79-day TAT.

TTM Success - Kyle Davies

Several Topps cards came back signed TTM from former pitcher, Kyle Davies.  I don't have a lot of 2009 Topps in the autograph album, so i was glad to get this one in there.

He also signed a 2004, 2008 and 2010 Topps.  All of the cards look great.  They had sat in the to-be-TTMed box for some time, and I finally got some mailed out.

Davies (b. 1983) played in the majors from 2005 to 2011 and 2015 for the Braves, Royals and Yankees.  He had a record of 43-65 with 547 strike outs and a 5.57 ERA.

I mailed to Davies on September 28 and got the cards back on October 10, for a 12-day TAT. 

June 6, 2024, Graphing of the Long Island Ducks at High Point Rockers

The past few days have been a whirlwind.  Chris's graduation from high school was on Saturday, and we had planned a trip to High Point on Friday to see Pablo Sandoval. I had PDOs to burn, so I went ahead and took both Thursday and Friday off to prep for the trip.  We had some family stuff happen earlier in the week with my grandma, along with Chris getting off of work on both Thursday and Friday, so we went ahead and went up Thursday morning. I prepped some cards for the Long Island Ducks in case we could get by there Thursday night after sitting with Grandma for a bit.  We got to High Point and absolutely racked Long Island.

I was excited to see Wei-Yin Chen again; I had gotten him on a baseball a while back, but never on a card (as far as I can remember).

Another player I was excited to see was Josh James.  I had him pulled a while back, then missed him.  He was with Memphis earlier this year but was repeased before i could get him.  He had been elusive until after Thursday's game.  He signed everything Chris and I had as he was leaving the dugout.

It had rained off and on during the game, resulting in two rain delays.

I was glad to get Mike Montgomery because i had tracked him with a radar gun in Kinston back in 2009.  He was really nice and did two per for Chris and I.

Chance Sisco was another player I had wanted to get for a while, and finally cleaned out all of the cards I had pulled of him. 

I had gotten Ryan McBroom TTM a while back, but he signed my 2020 Topps in black. I upgraded that card with this one in blue.  I also cleaned out all of my Lew Ford cards, along with all of the Ford cards that Max sent me.

I split all of the Fords between Max and I.  I hope he likes the ones I sent him. 

My Wei-Yin Chen cards look cool signed in Mandarin Chinese.  I cleaned out some old cards when I pulled my Daniel Corcino and Hector Gomez cards. I also found an Ivan Castillo card at the last minute and was able to get it out of the box.

I had pulled a bunch of Alexi Casilla cards to try him TTM a few years ago.  I never got around to dropping those cards in the mail, but I knew exactly where to find them.  He signed everything we brought with us; another player who cleaned us out.

Finally, as we were walking out of the stadium, we ran into Colin Moran.  He was good for one per, so I got the 2013 Donruss Elite Extra Edition signed, while Chris got my 2022 Topps Heritage done.  Moran was the only High Point Rocker that we went for, so we wouldn't miss the Ducks guys that we needed.

In all, we got the following autographs: Colin Moran x 2, Alexi Casilla x 17, Ivan Castillo x 3, Wei-Yin Chen x 4, Daniel Corcino x 1, Lew Ford x 16, Hector Gomez x 3, Josh James x 16, Ryan McBroom x 3, Mike Montgomery x 4 and Chance Sisco x 9 (78 total autographs). 

TTM Success - Jeff Karstens

Here is another TTM success that I got on some cards that took me a while to send out. I had this 2009 Topps Gold parallel of Jeff Karstens that I wanted to get signed, and finally dropped it in the mail.  The card turned out well.

I also sent off a 2006 Topps Rookie 52 and a 2012 Topps. 

Karsten (b. 1982) played in the majors from 2006 to 2012 for the Yankees and Pirates.  He had a record of 26-40 with 330 strike outs and a 4.44 ERA.

I mailed to Karstens on March 8 and got the cards back on April 17, for a 40-day TAT.  

TTM Success - Clint Barmes

The first time I mailed to Clint Barmes, I got my cards back unsigned.  I said heck with it and tossed the cards in a yard sale box and forgot about them.  I saw some folks get TTM successes from him recently, so I dug the cards out and tried again.  This time, I got a TTM success from Barmes.  I liked the above 2009 Topps since I don't have many cards from that set in my album.

I also got back a 2003 Topps Traded, 2003 Leaf, 2006 Upper Deck Sweet Spot and a 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter.  All of the cards turned out great, and I am glad I finally got them into the autograph album.

Barmes (b. 1979) played in the majors from 2003 to 2015 for the Rockies, Astros, Pirates and Padres.  He had 932 hits, 89 home runs and a .245 batting average.

I mailed to Barmes on January 25, 2022, and got the cards back on December 17, 2022, for a 326-day TAT.

An Assortment of Autographs From Gerard

Falling behind of posting stuff has led to a huge stack of signed cards that still need to be scanned.  This stack can hopefully be managed quickly, especially if I combine posts of stuff from the same person.  Scattered among the cards were several that Gerard has sent me over the past few months.

He recently did a signing with Franklin Perez that I didn't write down nor count toward my TTMs.  I had sent several Perez cards to Gerard just after the National with several that he could use for himself.  I found the above 2018 Bowman Chrome purple shimmer refractor in a dollar box at the National and decided that this would be the key to what I wanted back from the signing.

I also sent off the 2018 Topps Pro Debut showing Perez in a Buies Creek uniform.  I couldn't find my team set card; I think I sent it TTM to Perez and never got it back.  Gerard provided the 2017 Carolina League Top Prospects card, which was nice (because mine was sent in that lost TTM).

Gerard had also arranged a private signing with Terry Kennedy, and since I needed the 1987 Topps Padres leaders card signed, I jumped in that signing as well.  I included my 1991 Crown Orioles card, since I'm not officially working on that set, but want to get them out of my box and signed.

My hope is that Gerard can get Andy Hawkins to do a signing so I can complete the leaders card.  Gerard also provided a base 1987 Topps of Kennedy so I could upgrade mine from black ink to blue.

Here are a bunch of random cards that Gerard sent back from past 50/50s and other signings.  I was glad he gave me the 2003 Bowman Heritage of Nate Spears.  I love that design.  I probably got Matthew Lugo on my own 2019 Bowman Draft, but this one will go in my album anway.

The 1991 Topps Oddibe McDowell was one of the last mystery TTMs that came in; back when we were doing those.  THat kind of stopped with the both of us getting really busy.  I might pick that up on a limited basis.  I thought about doing that for maybe one of my nephews or nieces.

Finally, here are a couple landscape oriented cards.  The 2019 Topps Rangers card is signed by former Rangers manager, Chris Woodward.

The Christian Vazquez seems to be the first 2022 Topps Heritage to make its way into my album.  I really appreciate all of the cards from Gerard.  I'm also glad that I am at a point where I can clean my desk up.  It is never too early to prep for next season.

Some Signed Cards From Chris Ray

This shouldn't count as a TTM success, and also shouldn't count as IP graphing; this is somewhere in between.  My friend, Ryan, and I went to Chris Ray's brewery outside of Richmond a couple weeks ago.  We both thought we may get lucky, and that Chris Ray would be there.  We each brought a few cards, and were disappointed to learn that he wasn't there.  Thankfully, the staff there was willing to let us leave the cards.  Ryan planned ahead and brought stamped envelopes with him.  So, we left the cards and envelopes, and today, the cards came in.

I left a 2009 Topps gold parallel (top), 2006 Topps (above left) and 2007 Topps (above right).  Each came out great.

Ray (b. 1982) played in the majors from 2005 to 2007 and 2009 to 2011 for the Orioles, Rangers, Giants and Mariners.  He had a record of 18-19 with 230 strike outs, 51 saves and a 4.10 ERA.  He and a player to be named later (Ben Snyder) were sent to the Rangers in the trad that brought Kevin Millwood to Baltimore.

TTM Success - Dave Trembley

Dave Trembley may not be remembered as the best manager to ever helm the Orioles, but given the teams he was handed, I think he did an admirable job.  We met him back when he was managing the Orioles, and he was one of the nicest guys I've ever met.  I was really sad when he was let go, but he quickly latched on with the Braves.  I finally got around to sending to him TTM, and got some nice cards taken care of.  The above 1991 Classic Best came out of a bargain box my wife bought off of Ebay.  This might have been one of the highlights of the box, and I kept it with my Orioles stuff for over 10 years.  I have finally moved this card to my autograph album, where it should have been kept all along.

I have cards of Orioles managers all in succession in my Orioles box, so Trembley's cards weren't hard to locate.  I got a (from left) 2010 Topps Heritage, 2009 Topps Heritage and 2009 Topps signed.

Trembley also included this Orioles post card that he signed.  He also inscribed the back with his tenure as Orioles manager.

Trembley (b. 1951) managed the Orioles from 2007 to 2010 to a record of 187-283 (.398 win %).  His teams were plagued by a lack of pitching, which seems to be the case most times when talking about the Orioles over the last 10-15 years.  He was dealt a tough hand, and managed with class.  A lot of the Orioles players who would see some success under Buck Showalter broke in under Trembley.

Trembley began managing in the minors in Kinston (I didn't know that, until just now) in 1986.  Back then, they were the unaffiliated Kinston Eagles.  He moved to the Pirates organization from 1987 to 1989.  After a break from managing in 1990, he managed Charleston (in the Padres) organization from 1991 to 1992 and Wichita (also Padres org.) in 1993.  Trembley then spent time in the Cubs organization 1994 to 2002, managing Orlando, Daytona, West Tennessee and Iowa.  His first stop in the Orioles organization was in 2003, when he was tapped to manage AA Bowie.  He spent 2 seasons in Bowie, then 2 at the Orioles then-AAA team in Ottawa, before managing the Orioles in 2007.

I mailed to Trembley on October 12 and got the cards back on October 19, for a 7-day TAT.

TTM Success - Josh Whitesell

Here are some nice cards that came back signed TTM from Josh Whitesell.  The above 2009 Topps 206 really is a nice card.  I have had a bunch of these that I haven't been able to do much with, so getting this one signed was nice.

He also signed a 2009 Allen & Ginter, 2009 Topps gold and a 2009 Upper Deck.  I kind of forgot how nice 09 Upper Deck looked.  I just think it is a solid design, and I don't have many of those cards.

Whitesell (b. 1982) played in the majors from 2008 to 2009 for the Diamondbacks.  He had 23 hits, 2 home runs and a .200 batting average.

I mailed to Whitesell on September 22 and got the cards back on January 28, for a 128-day TAT.

TTM Success - Josh Banks

 I added some late 2000s cards to my album with this TTM success from Josh Banks.  The above 2008 Stadium Club turned out great.  I always liked this set, and it has been tough to get some of them signed.

I also added a 2009 Topps and a 2008 Upper Deck.  Both of them look really nice, as well.

Banks (b. 1982) played in the majors from 2007 to 2010 for the Blue Jays, Padres and Astros.  He had a career record of 4-8 with 55 strike outs and a 5.66 ERA.

I mailed to Banks on October 15 and got the cards back on October 25, for a 10-day TAT.

TTM Success - Adam Lind

There aren't many signed 2009 Topps cards in my autograph album, but I added one more with this TTM success from Adam Lind.  The card was out for a while, but it finally came back in, and looks great.

Lind (b. 1983) played in the majors from 2006 to 2017 for the Blue Jays, Brewers, Mariners and Nationals.  He had 1,247 hits, 200 home runs and a .272 batting average.  He was a Silver Slugger Award winner in 2009.  That was the only season where he received MVP votes; he finished 15th in the voting that season.

I mailed to Lind on February 22, 2018, and got the card back on January 18, 2019, for a 330-day TAT.

TTM Success - Matt LaPorta

I have realized it is a lot tougher adding cards from the mid-to-late 2000s via TTM than any era of cards.  These are usually the guys who are recently retired, so you can't send via teams, and it is tough getting the addresses for their locations.  Still, a few pop up here and there, and this was how I was able to get Matt LaPorta.

 LaPorta was a former First Round pick (7th overall) by the Brewers in the 2007 June Amateur Draft.  He was the key piece in the July 2008 trade that sent CC Sabathia to the Brewers.  In the end, it wasn't LaPorta who made the most impact from that trade; it ended up being a player to be named later, Michael Brantley, who would impact the Indians more.

Still, I was able to get some nice cards done by LaPorta.  I sure had a bunch of them.

LaPorta (b. 1985) played in the majors from 2009 to 2012 for the Indians.  He had 230 hits, 31 home runs and a .238 batting average.

I mailed to LaPorta on August 21, and got the cards back on August 31, for a 10-day TAT.

TTM Success - Dave Roberts

Here are some cool cards that I received signed TTM from Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts.  I had heard he signed, so I sent off a few cards and was glad to get them back.  You can never go wrong with a signed Allen & Ginter.

I added a couple Topps cards to my Topps Autograph ledger, and these are two years that are very under-represented.  I need to find some bulk 09 Topps.  I got rid of all of my bulk years ago, but now I regret letting it go since I now use it for TTMs and stuff.

Roberts (b. 1972) played in the majors from 1999 to 2008 for the Indians, Dodgers, Red Sox, Padres and Giants.  He had 721 hits, 23 home runs and a .266 batting average.  He won the World Series with the Red Sox in 2004.

Roberts managed the Padres for one game in 2015, then became the Dodgers manager in 2016.  He led the team to the World Series last year, losing to the Astros.  He holds a career managerial record of 280-198 and won the NL Manager of the Year Award last season.

I mailed to Roberts on February 10 at Spring Training and got the cards back on June 18, for a 128-day TAT.