Much like the Orioles season, my graphing season has gotten off to a rocky start. Unlike the Orioles season, however, I expect my graphing to improve. I was all gung-ho on the season starting, then winter decided that it wanted to stick around, and in turn, I have gotten really sick. I have already bypassed two games due to illness, and it has set me back a little bit on taking care of some 50/50s, and getting some stuff for myself signed.
I have gotten a lot of stuff done, though, and I am fairly happy with the results so far. The above 2017 Bowman Holiday Edition Ugly Christmas Sweater parallel might be one of the coolest cards I have gotten so far.
I caught the Wood Ducks home opener last Thursday (April 12) against Myrtle Beach, with my son and my brother. Myrtle Beach didn't have many guys with available cards that I could find in my boxes, so this was primarily a means to knock out some of my Wood Ducks cards before some scheduled 50/50s came in. I knocked out a lot of my Hickory team sets, and finished the Elite die cut Lemoine I had sitting since last year.
I did really well with Leody Taveras and Jake Lemoine. Anything else I get signed by them wil be either 50/50s or for trades because I knocked them out early.
I had found quite a few guys at the Chantilly show, like the 2015 Bowman green refractor of Michael Matuella. The card looks really sharp. I have gotten everything signed by Matuella that I had built up over the off-season. I have learned that getting pitchers to sign is tough because they don't always come out of the bullpen onto the field before the game. I can foresee that I will end up with extra Jake Lemoine cards by the end of the season, so I may hand off quite a few cards to kids at games.
I had to buy Walker Weickel's cards off of Sportlots; I also had to bust two sets to get James Jones's cards that you see above. I found out that he was the former outfielder, so I searched my boxes for his stuff, to no avail. Luckily, my friend, Gerard, sent me some others for 50/50s, so I can replace the ones I removed from the sets.
After the 4 games I have been to, Spike Owen already seems like he doesn't really like signing. I have gotten him on the cards that I especially wanted, so I doubt I will bother him much more throughout the season.
This Stars and Stripes Lemoine turned out really nicely, except the scan doesn't show the auto very well.
I kept missing Blaine Prescott during the earlier games I went to, but I finally got him on Saturday.
I completely missed Chuck LeBlanc in my Bowman box. Mainly because I was looking for Chuck and not Charles LeBlanc. He's a strict two-per, so I need a few more trips to the park to finish him off.
I found the green Beras and Tejeda at the Chantilly show. It appears that was the theme of this series of graphing; green parallels.
Finally, I only was able to get two Pelicans on cards. I tried to get Alex Lange, but he wouldn't sign. I found two of the Bryan Hudson and the one DJ Wilson at the Chantilly show in dime boxes. I was glad to at least get those done.
In all, during the Myrtle Beach Series, I got: Spike Owen x 8, Michael Matuella x 8, Jake Lemoine x 9, Alex Kowalczyk x 1, Leody Taveras x 8, Chuck LeBlanc x 4, Brendon Davis x 3, Jairo Beras x 2, Anderson Tejeda x 8, Blaine Prescott x 3, Carlos Maldonado x 1, Ricky Valencia x 2, Preston Scott x 1, Walker Weickel x 4, Christian Torres x 1, Steve Mintz x 3, Emerson Martinez x 1, James Jones x 2, Kenny Hook x 2, Jonathan Hernandez x 3, Jairo Beras x 2, Bryan Hudson x 2 and DJ Wilson x 1.
