Graphing the Carolina League All Star Game

A couple weeks ago, Chris and I traveled to Five County Stadium in Zebulon, NC to witness the Carolina League All Star Game.  There was an autograph session before the game, which provided us with an opportunity to get a ton of cards signed.

All Star sets were available in the Mudcats' team store, so I picked up a few.  I was able to get most of the cards signed, with the exception of three pitchers who weren't there, and a few of the Mudcats coaches.

The cards look really cool, and took up several pages in my binder.  There were several guys who didn't have any cards, so it was nice being able to add them to the album.

In all, I counted that Chris and I got 179 cards signed at the game.  That's not too bad.  We graphed the auto session, per-game, and also post-game.  We didn't try outside after the game, but I'm sure that we would have come away with some if we had.

I did stoop so low as to graph the mascot, but hey, Muddy is in the team set, so I had to get the card signed.

 The game was pretty good, but I spent a lot of the time tallking to my friends during the game.  THe Southern Division won 7-6, and Joel Booker was named the MVP.

Former Wood Ducks closer, CD Pelham, got the save in the Southern Division's win.

I only need a few more of the coaches in order to complete the set.  Well, I also need Tyler Mapes, but I have no idea how I am getting him.  I need to find someone who graphs the Harrisburg Senators.

Speaking of guys who are on the Senators now, I was able to get all of my Carter Kiebooms signed.  Except for the two team set cards I had from last year.  I forgot them at home.  So, I am definitely looking to get someone who sees Harrisburg to get them done.

The Kiebooms I got done all turned out nicely, though.  These two 2018s were really nice.  Kieboom commented on the Pro Debut insert saying that he hadn't seen that one before.

I had a few 50/50s that I had taken that I was able to wrap up at the game.  Tucker Neuhaus is always cool, so I was able to get a few done for Gerard, and he let me keep these two.

Getting Dylan Cease isn't always easy, so I was glad to get a couple extras done, in addition to my All Star set.

Finally, here are the last cards.  The Booker is from last year's South Atlantic League All Star set.  I picked it up when I was in Columbia a while back.

Graphing The Wood Ducks vs A Stacked Dash Squad

Whatever bubonic plague I was suffering from on Monday wasn't going to keep me from my goal of graphing the Winston-Salem Dash when they came to town.  This is the team that I was most looking forward to seeing this season, mostly because of their manager.  Future Hall of Famer, Omar Vizquel was named the manager of the Dash during the off-season, and I had to make sure that I got him on a baseball.

Because I was pushing for the ball, I couldn't present my book for him to sign as well, but luckily, CHris made sure he signed my two best cards.  I found both of these cards at the Chantilly show, and was so glad they turned out well.  I had bought a pack of Steadtler pens for the Bowman Hi Tex, but they didn't get here in time.  The blue Sharpie worked just fine, and I was really happy Chris thought to make sure those were the two he signed.

An unexpected highlight of the night was that White Sox prospect, Gavin Sheets, wasn't in the lineup.  So, while the game was going on, he had to wait by the fence to come onto the field.  While he was waiting, I chatted with him for a bit about his being in Winston.  He actually attended Wake Forest University, so it was a bit of a homecoming for him.  Sheets was really nice, and friendly.  He came back by at the end of the game and signed for us.

I had gotten Dylan Cease before, when I was at Andrew's last season.  He was with South Bend, and was traded.  He signed 2 per for us.  I really was glad to get a 2013 Perfect Game card out of my box.  I'll be sitting on a ton of those for a while, I think.

Micker Adolfo doesn't have much of a signature, but I was able to get him taken care of.  I also used up another card from my 2017 Carolina League Top Prospects set.

I finished off all of the Michael Matuellas that I had, which was nice.

I also took some custom cards in a 50/50, and they turned out great.  This Ledarious Clark might be my favorite of the bunch.

I got a good many of the customs done, but the other guy ended up with more (the guys who don't sign duplicates like Taveras).  I'll have a few to work on for a while.

In this series, I missed out on Dane Dunning and Blake Rutherford.  I wanted to catch a second game, but due to being sick, I decided I would stay home, get better and try again another time.

In all, I got Omar Vizquel x 2, Gavin Sheets x 5, Micker Adolfo x 4, TiQuan Forbes x 3, Luis Basabe x 4, Dylan Cease x 4, Michael Matuella x 7, Spike Owen x 2, Jonathan Hernandez x 2, Christian Torres x 2, Ledarious Clark x 2, Josh Altmann x 2, CD Pelham x 3, Anderson Tejeda x 3, Leody Taveras x 1 and Ricky Valencia x 2.

And I got a Gold Glove Award ROMLB signed by Vizquel.

IP Graphing Recap From My Trip

One of the things Andrew and I planned on doing while I was visiting him was to go to a Cardinals game, and also a minor league game in his area.  The Bowming Green Hot Rods are the closest minor league team to him, so we were able to find a home game to attend while I was in town.  We also were fortunate enough that the St. Louis Cardinals were also at home while I was there.

One of the highlights of being able to see Bowling Green (the Single A team for the Tampa Bay Rays) was that I could finally meet Jonah Heim.  Heim was a former Orioles farmhand who was dealt to Tampa last year for Steve Pearce.

I had a bunch of Heim's cards, so I split them with Andrew, and we got all of them signed.  I was especially happy about the 2013 Bowman Chrome green mini numbered 65/75.  I also got the blue shimmer, purple ice and refractor signed.

I bought some Garrett Whitley cards for the trip, and I also accepted a 50/50 from my good friend, Gerard, but Whitley only signed two cards for me.  One of them was the above yellow parallel from 2016 Bowman, and a 2015 Bowman paper for Gerard.

I got two cards signed by Lucius Fox.  I had bought three Bowman Platinum, but he wouldn't sign them.  He said that it wasn't him on the card, but how many Lucius Foxes are playing in the minors?

I also bought a bulk lot of Dylan Cease cards.  He was on the DL, but was gracious enough to sign for Andrew and I.  I got a 2017 Bowman Chrome taken care of for Gerard, and the rest of the ones I had signed were from what I picked up.

I really like how this blue parallel of Cease from 2016 Bowman Chrome turned out.  I got it pretty cheaply off of Ebay specifically for the trip.  Andrew is going to try to get the rest of the cards taken care of for me as the season progresses.

I did really well with the coaches, too, with the exception for mistaking the Hot Rods manager for Hector Torres.  Apparently there is about a 30-year age difference between the two, and the manager was happy to have a "serious discussion" (his words) with me.  I'm going to have to get one of his cards and send it to him and have him inscribe it "I am not Hector Torres".  That would be funny, and make my embarrassment worthwhile.

I dug through my mid-2000s Topps boxes at the last minute before I left for Andrew's, and found two Brian Lawrence cards.  I gave one to Andrew, and got this 2005 Topps signed.

I did have a little success at the Cardinals vs. Giants game the day before.  Andrew and I each got one of these 2017 Topps Giants team cards signed by Giants reliever, Josh Osich.  It really is a crapshoot in being able to figure out which MLB players will sign, so I was happy that I brought along the random team card.

I had a really great time at both ball parks.  I now have been to 4 MLB parks (Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Detroit and St. Louis), and countless MiLB parks (I will update my map soon).  I also had fun with Andrew, and hope I can get him down my way to graph the Wood Ducks sometime soon.