Birthday Gift From Gerard

My birthday was fairly low key this year.  I didn't tell too many people that it was coming up, but a couple of my friends knew anyway and sent a few things along.  My good friend, Gerard, picked up a few things for me and sent them along with the last 50/50 batch for the season.

I didn't have a signed mini helmet yet of Nolan Reimold, but now I do.  I will put this in my display case with some of my other Nolan stuff.

Gerard also sent this Zach Britton relic along, which I really like.  I haven't picked up much of Britton's stuff, so this was a nice item to add to the collection.

Gerard has been the person that I have leaned on the most for 50/50s this season.  He has sent me a ton of stuff to get signed, and I have sent him some cards for Pawtucket.

Gerard worked on these cards for the bulk of the season, and came away with some nice autos.

I need to find some more cards of Pawtucket guys so that he has more options.  I, obviously, will wait until the new year when rosters are set.

Gerard had asked me for Mike Olt cards a few times, so at the National, I picked up a few from the dime boxes.  I thought they were all going to be for him, but he sent two of them back to me signed.

Finally, he hooked me up with these signed cards.  I liked the Castillo, since I wasn't sure he would be able to get one signed for me.  Luckily, Gerard came through, as always!

Thank you so much for the birthday package, Gerard!  I enjoyed it!

50-50s From Dilan

Now that I am officially caught up on my TTM successes (for now), I now have the opportunity to try to catch up on some other packages that have come in over the last few months.  I got two batches of cards from my friend, Dilan, after he and I worked together to get some IP autos. Dilan messaged me a few times to tell me what teams he was planning on seeing, and I did my best to accommodate him.

One of the cards that he got signed for me that I liked the most was the above 2013 Bowman Sterling Henry Urrutia.  The card is numbered 9/25 and turned out great when signed.  Dilan really did a good job getting that one for me.

Other than the numbered Urrutia, I tried to let Dilan have the better versions of the cards that he got signed, such as parallels and inserts.  I was more than happy to take base cards, especially Topps.  He helped me knock out 2015 and 2016 from my Topps Autograph Project.

I know Dilan's main objective in getting the IP autos is to get up and coming prospects.  I was able to, however, help Dilan get some older cards of some of the coaches.  You figure that those guys are there signing, too, so why not try to get one of their cards signed?  I used my older Topps boxes from Mom to help with that part of the project.

Dilan got a few more recent players as well.  The above 2012 Steve Delabar is a nice horizontal card that turned out great.

These JP Arencibia cards also turned out nice.  I was more than happy to send along several of his cards, since I had so many.  The Heritage cards really turn out great when signed.

The biggest surprise of all, though was that Dilan was able to get Byron Buxton on a 2016 Bowman for me.  He had texted me saying that Buxton was only signing one per, so I told him that he was doing all of the work getting signatures, so he should keep Buxton.  Dilan texted me a few hours later saying he waiting after the game and got another Buxton signature, this one for me.  It was a really nice thing that Dilan did.  He went out of his way to try to get me the marquee guy, and came through.

Thank you so much for the work that you put in, Dilan!  I really appreciate all of the autos.

2014 Orioles Fan Fest - Our Last Autograph Station

I had vouchers for one more autograph signing, the 4:40 session with Kelvin De La Cruz (above), Henry Urrutia, Larry Bigbie and Matt Wieters.

Urrutia looks like he has packed on a little bit of weight this offseason.  He will be one of the Orioles' keys to success this year.  Especially if they don't sign anyone else, and the way it is looking, they won't.

Larry Bigbie was a former first round pick of the Orioles (1999) who was named in the Mitchell report in 2005.  Before that mess happened, I saw Bigbie play for the O's (in 05) over two games against the Yankees.  He hit a homerun in each game.  He has a connection through Ball State University with a good friend of mine.  I mentioned my friend to him, and Bigbie said that he recalled him, which was cool.

After Bigbie was named in the Mitchell report, he kind of fell off of the baseball landscape.  He played briefly in Japan then quietly ended his career.  It was kind of good to see him back.  I liked him when he was an Oriole and I don't hold a grudge against him for being named in the Mitchell report.

Finally, I was able to speak to Matt Wieters again.  I told him about how we met when he was playing with Frederick back in 2008.  Brandon Snyder brought him up to us and had him sign.  That was my first experience trying to get autographs of prospects at minor league games and it was a success.  Wieters was really nice to us this time around as well.  He kind of laughed off my asking him to go ahead and sign that extension, but it was all good.

So, I got 4 guys signatures.  Each on baseballs.  I gave the De La Cruz ball to Michael since he needed it for his collection and the Wieters post card to Scott since he was so gracious to let Chris and I stay at his place.  We had a really good time and I seriously can't wait for the season to start.