August 2019 Graphing Recap of Keys at Wood Ducks

The Frederick Keys made their last stop in Kinston on August 26-29, culminating with a meet and greet with the Wood Ducks team on August 29, since that was the final home game of the regular season.

During this series, I got everything I had of Cadyn Grenier signed, which turned out to be a ton of cards.

I had help from Chris and a few other folks who were at the games.  Grenier was really nice, but if you had multiples of the same card on a page, he would not sign more than one of them.

He also wouldn't call you out if you got him more than once in the series, which really helped.  So, I got a lot of stuff done, and also helped out a bunch of folks with their 50/50s.

I got cards from a couple different Delmarva team sets, along with the Carolina League All Stars from the Keys, and this season's Keys team set.

I really like this season's Keys team set, and was able to get a bunch of the cards signed.

Chris and I enjoyed talking with the Keys players, as always, and one of the best was Brenan Hanifee.  He was really cool the last time I saw him come through, and this time around, Chris was there, and spoke with him at length.

I was surprised at all of the team set cards I was able to get done.  I don't think I missed anyone, save for one Bobby Rose card from the Carolina League All Star set.

I was disappointed to learn a couple days ago that all of the coaches for the Keys will not be retained for next season.  While that may provide an opportunity to see some new faces coaching them, I liked Ryan Minor, and will miss talking to him next season.

I was glad to get a lot of these cards signed, so I won't have to keep up with many unsigned ones from the sets for next season.  I don't necessarily mind, as a lot of the guys will show up at Orioles Fan Fest, or be at other MiLB stops in their system.

This series marked the last home series of the Wood Ducks regular season.  I knew Chris and I would be out of town for the first round of the playoffs, so he and I treated it like it would be the last seried of the year.  Unfortunately, we turned out to be correct.  I am glad we were able to meet and greet the team during that last game.

July 3 Graphing The Wood Ducks and Pelicans

It is July 4, today, but when I take a look at the upcoming Minor League schedule, I can see that the season is drawing to a close.  The Wood Ducks finish their season in less than two months, and with my trip the the National coming up, I will be limited in when I can see them.  I will not see the Pelicans, Dash, or the Nationals at Grainger Stadium any more this season.  I have one three-game series against Frederick where I will have to work hard to get any Orioles prospects I want.  I have one more shot at Wilmington, and one shot at Lynchburg.  I can always supplement my time with a trip or two to the Mudcats, like I am today.  I missed a chance to get the Salem Red Sox, so I am catching them today in Zebulon with my good friend, Dugan.

With the games winding down, I have finished up most of the lots of cards that I bought early this season.  I have finished up Josh Morgan, Bobby Rose, all but one Brett Martin and most of the Hickory Team Set (guys who made it to the Wood Ducks at least).  I have answered all of my 50/50 commitments, with the exception of a few Howard Johnson for Gerard.

I did pick up some COMC cards of Johnson and some Lynchburg guys recently.  I think it was 6 Johnsons, and I got two of the signed last night.  The above 1995 Score Platinum turned out amazing; I'm glad I went with that one first.  Johnson has been doing two-per lately, so I will have to space things out and hope I wrap everything up by the end of the season.

This 1990 Jumbo California Sunflower Seeds card was a nice rarity that I found cheap on COMC.  I thought it would look great in the album, so I picked it up.  I met a kid from Statesville at the game last night who couldn't believe that Johnson was the Wood Ducks manager.  He said that he tried to tell his dad that it was the same guy, and his dad wasn't buying it.  I bet his dad will be excited to see the two cards I donated to the kid, and then helped get them signed.  I also gave him 4 Bobby Rose and a Brett Martin, but we weren't able to get Martin to sign.

Finally, I got one last Eloy Jimenez on this 2014 Bowman Chrome refractor.  I tried to get one more card form Eloy at the end of the game, but he refused.  I think they were late and wanted to get a team meeting in before they left town.  The game was a 4.5 hour marathon that ended in the 11th with the Pelicans winning 11-7.

April 20, 2017, Graphing the Wood Ducks

While Chris was out of town for Easter break, my wife and I were able to catch a game at Historic Grainger Stadium on Thursday, April 20.  Before the game, my wife and I did a little graphing.  I got Howard Johnson on two cards (one of which was a 50/50 for my buddy, Carson).  My wife actually got this 1995 Stadium Club Ring Leaders card signed for me (the auto is by his hip).

I also did some 50/50 graphing for my good friend, Max.  He sent me a few Bobby Rose cards, and I got them all signed, and split them with him.

The Howard Johnson that I got signed for Carson was a 1987 Fleer, which looked really nice in blue Sharpie.  The Rose was another from Max.  I was also able to get the above 1994 Topps Howard Johnson signed.  I think I have gotten just about everything that I had of Johnson that I really wanted to get signed.  I think most of what I get after this will probably be gifts for friends and/or trade bait.

We were also able to get a few of the Hickory Crawdads team set cards signed.  A lot of the players in this set have moved up to the Wood Ducks this season.  Steve Mintz went to nearby Mount Olive College, and is now the Wood Ducks pitching coach.

The Wood Ducks lost the game, but we had to leave early, since my wife had to be up really early for work.  It was nice to go out and spend some time at a game with her, though.  I know the ballpark isn't her ideal spot, but we seem to enjoy going to games together.  Now that Chris is home, though, he and I will be doing some more graphing, I'm sure.

Baseball is Back In Kinston

Since the end of the 2011 season, professional baseball has been missing from Eastern North Carolina.  The Kinston Indians picked up and moved to Zebulon, outside of Raleigh and assumed the team name of the Carolina Mudcats, who had relocated to Pensacola Florida.  I have missed having a minor league team close to home since Zebulon is about an hour away.

The Texas Rangers have stepped up and now own a Carolina League affiliate and have placed them in Kinston.  They are known as the Down East Wood Ducks.  While I don't care much for the "Down East" moniker, I do think the Wood Duck logo is pretty cool.  The team colors are also really nice, it seems that their jerseys will be green and orange.

The hats the guys wore today were tan with the Ducks logo, but they didn't have any of those hats for sale.  I picked up the black one shown above.  It is tough for me to don another hat other than my O's one, but I do believe in backing this team fully.  I hated when the Indians left, so I plan on letting it be known that I am happy that these guys are here.

They had a meet the team event tonight which coincided with their first ever practice.  This was open to the public, so Chris and I decided to head to Grainger Stadium and check the team out.

Chris tried his hand at "graphing" the limited amount of cards that we had.  We had cards of coaches Howard Johnson and Bobby Rose; and one Bowman Chrome card of Rangers prospect Michael O'Neill.  Above, you can see Chris chatting it up with Rangers prospect, Jairo Beras.  I ordered some cards of the Rangers prospects, but they haven't come yet.  I'm hoping they come tomorrow for the exhibition game against Mount Olive College.

They did a really good job getting historic Grainger Stadium ready for the season.  It is just like I remember it from when they were the Indians.

I'm really happy that the Rangers are the ownership group of this team.  That means that they have the capital to ensure that things are taken care of and can invest in the upkeep of the stadium, regardless of how ticket sales are going.  My hope is that ticket sales won't be a problem, but I'm sure that some days will be better than others out there.

The concession stands were open while we were there, so I went ahead and tried a hot dog tonight.  It was pretty good.  Not as good as the mac n cheese and crab dog, but I enjoyed it.

I was able to "rack" while I was at the event tonight.  I got coach Bobby Rose before the game, and talked to him a bit.  He was really friendly.  I also got Howard Johnson.  I was really prepared for Johnson,  I had a bunch of his cards to get signed, and had my auto book set up.  I did really well in getting stuff signed.  The above 1992 Upper Deck Iooss Collection card came out really well.  I had a silver Sharpie at the ready, and am glad it came out the way it did.

These two cards came out really nice, as well.  The hologram card looks so great in person.

I got these above cards taken care of as well.  The 1987 Topps was the card that I really wanted to add to the autograph album; some of the others were ones I liked, but that 87 had to get done.  Thankfully, I was able to pull it off.

Surprisingly, these are two of the only three Bobby Rose cards I could find in my entire card collection.  I went through a 4,000-count box at my LCS, and still wasn't able to find one.  He was really friendly, though, and I will have to pick up some more of his cards.

Michael O'Neill was the only prospect card that I was able to find, and I was happy to get this 2014 Bowman Chrome signed.  He is the nephew of former Yankee Paul O'Neill.  His wife and my sister-in-law are actually cousins.

Finally, I was able to get this pocket schedule signed by the entire team, sans coaches.  I didn't bring any baseballs, so this was all that I could find on such short notice.  It will looks really cool, and I will eventually have it framed.

Tomorrow, I have the exhibition game against Mount Olive College.  I hope to get a few more autos tomorrow, as I hope my COMC order comes in.