May 7-12, 2024, Graphing of the Hillcats at Wood Ducks

This week, the Lynchburg Hillcats came back to Kinston to one per me to death.  I had picked up some cards off of Ebay of Wood Ducks coach, Jorge Cortes.  The above 2005 Bowman Heritage relocation card was a cool pickup that I was able to get signed.  Even Cortes commented on how cool the card was.

I had also gotten Cortes's 2004 Bowman and 2004 Bowman gold, along with a Hillcats team set card.

It turned out that former Wood Duck, James Jones, was in town as a roving instructor for the Rangers.  I got a couple of his cards signed, once I dug them out of my boxes.

The Hillcats were rough.  Juan Benjamin did one-per, so it took me some time and a little help from Jesse to get the cards i brought of him signed.  Angel Genao is now personalizing, but he was super nice about it. He seems like a really nice kid.  Ralphy Velazquez was hard to get a read on.  He seems genuinely miserable about being here one day, then super nice the next, followed by absolutely miserable again.  Who knows what the deal was.  I only had one card of him, so I didn't have to ask much of him.

The series was close all-around, topped off by a walk-off win in extras today.  We had a good time this week, even though graphing was a bit tough.

In all, we got the following autographs: Jorge Cortes x 4, Gleider Figuereo x 6, Alejandro Rosario x 3, Alex Clemmey x 6, Angel Genao x 7, Tommy Hawke x 3, Juan Benjamin x 3, Jaison Chourio x 6, Christian Knapczyk x 3, Ralphy Velazquez x 1, James Jones x 3 and Jose Pastrano x 2 (47 total autographs). 

Some 50/50s From John in Texas

It's really nice having someone in Texas who can take former Buies Creek Astros (now Fayetteville Woodpeckers) and former Wood Ducks.  My friend, John, in Texas has been helping me get some cards taken care of that I wasn't able to finish last season.  He helped me complete my Wood Ducks team set, and also some other stuff that I had in my box.

John also took some 50/50s for the Midland RockHounds, which was nice.  I don't see any A's players ever, so it was nice to be able to get some of those guys out of my box and into my album.

I love the A's colors on cards, so getting any of them signed is really nice.

John got me some cards signed by JJ Matijevic that I missed last year.  I didn't see him a whole lot, so it was good to finish off what I had.  That being said, I heard he is back in Fayetteville for a while.

John has been very instrumental in getting Jonathan Hernandez cards signed for me.  He moved up to Frisco before the team set and Carolina League top prospects set came out.  I was also able to get a couple 2019 Bowmans signed.

I don't know how long I had these James Jones cards in my box, but John helped me get them signed.  He wasn't with the Wood Ducks for very long last season, but he was really cool when we did see him.

Finally, I'm fairly certain these cards wrap up my Woodies team set.  If they don't, then I know I'm really close to being done with it.

Thanks for getting all of these cards signed, John!