May 6, 2023, Graphing of the Frederick ? at the High Point Rockers

With my sister graduating from Salem College this past Saturday, I was afforded another opportunity to graph at High Point.  Another Saturday of Independent Ball, and I was pretty excited.  The Atlantic League Baseball Club of Frederick still has not been named, so they took the field in some pretty cool question mark jerseys, complete with question mark hats.  I liked them so much, I bought a jersey and hat before the game started.

A problem I have noticed the last couple of years while graphing at High Point is that the independent leagues are terrible at updating their rosters online.  Their scores are also hard to find on their webpages.  So, I went into this game a little blind.  Add in the fact that the Frederick team was missing 11 foreign players due to visa issues.  This included the one player I was really looking forward to seeing, Starlin Castro.  I was told by the manager that the players would arrive 10 days after the game.  This didn't do me a whole lot of good.  Still, it was a successful trip.

I hit up Ebay, since I knew well in advance that I would be seeing Frederick.  I picked up this oversized Johnni Turbo for the post card album, mainly because his name was so cool.

I also had plenty of time to go through my boxes, since the Wood Ducks were out of town the last two weeks.  I found a bunch of my Steven Brault cards, including a couple from the box of shame.

I found a ton of John Nogowski cards at the local card shop in Winston-Salem as I was killing time before the game.  That was nice, because I wouldn't have gotten him at all, had I not gone by the shop.  The Jeff Johnson card was the last card I would get signed.  I only needed him, Kole Cottam and AJK Cole outside after the game.

Cottam was really nice.  I picked his cards up off of Ebay, and he even commented on the green refractor.  I know Gerard had gotten him for me in the past, but I wanted to have something in the book for this trip.

I knew my mom would like to see the Charleston Charlies cards make their way into the album.  These were really cool West Virginia Power team set cards that I found on EBay.

I was also really happy to finally get these 2013 Perfect Game Justin Twine cards out of the box of shame.  I had been waiting to get those, as well as his 2014 Bowman, signed for quite some time.

These four Max Povse cards were Ebay purchases, and they turned out great.  I had one more Povse card that I had ordered that missed the cut.  It came as I was out of town.  I'll have to try to see Frederick again, and add that card to the book then.

AJ Cole was really nice.  I missed him post game by the dugout, since he had pitched in the game and had already gone to the clubhouse afterward.  I got him outside, and when I asked him to sign, he asked "Are you sure you want me to sign?"

Cole laughed, and signed my cards anyway.  He missed the Bowman Chrome at the top of the post, but quickly signed it after I asked him nicely if he would include it.  That was the ONE card of his that I really wanted to get signed.

Of course, I got Frank Viola to sign some more of his cards.  He had actually came out of the dugout and into the crowd to sign autographs.  He is such a nice guy, I enjoy going to High Point just to see him.

It will be a while before I run out of Viola cards, but as long as he is cool about signing, I am going to keep asking.  He seems to legitimately enjoy interacting with the fans in High Point.

In all, I got the following autographs:  Steven Brault x 7, Kole Cottam x 4, Jeff Johnson x 1, David Kubiak x 3, Mark Minicozzi x 2, Max Povse x 4, Justin Twine x 7, Johnni Turbo x 2, Elih Villanueva x 2, AJ Cole x 6, John Nogowski x 8 and Frank Viola x 8 (54 total autographs).

TTM Success - Jeff Johnson

Here are a couple early 90s cards that I got signed TTM from Jeff Johnson.  The above 1992 Triple Play turned out really well.  This set was the bottom of the barrel, as far as quality and price point went back then, but it was a decent-enough set.  The cards stand out, and you could get your hands on boxes of these really cheaply; especially at Sam's Club (thanks Mom!).

I also got Johnson to sign a 1992 Topps, which turned out nice, also.

Johnson (b. 1966) played in the majors from 1991 to 1993 for the Yankees.  He had a record of 8-16 with 76 strike outs and a 6.52 ERA.  I didn't realize it until I started writing this post, but Johnson is a fellow graduate of UNC-Charlotte.  He was a 6th round pick by the Yankees out of UNCC in the 1988 June Amateur Draft.

I mailed to Johnson on December 4 and got the cards back on January 15, for a 42-day TAT.