TTM Success - Joe Rudi

I sat on my Joe Rudi cards for some reason, but finally mailed them out, and got some nice returns.  The above 2001 Topps American Pie is a bit different for my album.  I'm all for adding different sets and subsets to the album, so this is pretty cool.

I also added some more contemporary cards, with these Topps issues from 1981 and 1982.  He inscribed "To William" on each card, which was a nice touch.

Rudi (b. 1946) played in the majors from 1967 to 1982 for the A's (KC and Oakland), Angels and Red Sox.  He had 1,468 hits, 179 home runs and a .264 batting average.  He was a 3-time All Star (1972, 1974 and 1975) and 3-time Gold Glove Award Winner (1974, 197 and 1976).  His best finish in the AL MVP voting was 2nd, wich he did twice (1972 and 1974).  He won the World Series 3 times (1972, 1973 and 1974) with the A's.  Rudi appeared on the 1988 Hall of Fame ballot, but did not receive any votes.

I mailed to Rudi on February 5 and got the cards back on March 26, for a 49-day TAT.

May 17, 2018 - Graphing the Mudcats at Wood Ducks

I had missed about a month of Wood Ducks baseball games due to many reasons: I got sick, my brother got married, I went out of town to visit another brother, and Chris had a bunch of little league games.  I finally got back to Kinston last week and saw the Carolina Mudcats take on the Down East Wood Ducks.

I was really excited because I had the opportunity to get a bunch of cards out of my Bowman box for some of the Brewers prospects that I would see.  I had a ton of Keston Hiura cards tha I hoped to get signed, and he didn't disappoint.  He ended up signing 16 cards for Chris and I, as we were able to get him pre and post-game.

Even with all of the Hiura cards that I had, I was still able to get some 50/50s done for my friend, Gerard.  I also was able to add some brand new 2018 Bowman stuff to the stack.

I got some 50/50s done on Marcos Diplan, but also some cards for myself.  I had gotten him last year toward the end of the season, but it was nice to get some 2017 Bowman Draft done.

Tucker Neuhaus was really nice, and signed everything that I had.  All of these cards look really great in person.

The Wood Ducks called Eric Jenkins up from Single A Hickory to replace the injured Ledarious Clark.  I had a ton of Jenkins's cards that I wanted done, and he knocked them out for me.

I also got a bunch of the photo cards Rangersautos sent me for a 50/50.  They all turned out great, and I am almost done with his stuff, now.

I also just about finished all of the Matt Whatley cards that I had.  He was injured at the beginning of the season, so it took a while to get some of this stuff taken care of.

I took some more Jake Lemoines out of my box, so those have been whittled down as well.  I also added some cool team set cards of Carlos Maldonado that were part of a 50/50.

I was surprised to see former Major Leaguer Anthony Gose on the Wood Ducks roster.  He signed with the Rangers in the offseason, and they are attempting to convert him to a pitcher.  I was able to add a couple Topps cards to my autograph project, which was nice.  It was especially nice to be able to add a 2014 Topps to my ledger, as I still don't have many of them in the album.

So, I'm glad to say that I am back graphing the Wood Ducks.  I missed going there, and was able to hit 4 games this past week.  There will be another post coming with the Dash series.  Stay tuned.

TTM Success - Jack Reinheimer

Stepping away from vintage cards for a bit, here is a nice 2015 Bowman Refractor that I got signed TTM by Jack Reinheimer.  It turned out a lot better than I thought it would.

Reinheimer (b. 1992) played in the majors for 2 games in 2017 with the Diamondbacks.  He's currently with the Reno Aces, the AAA affiliate of the Diamondbacks.  What I didn't realize was that he was from Charlotte, and he played at ECU.  He's only batting .236 so far this season, so hopefully he will heat up and see his way back to the majors, where he hopefully will collect his first hit.

I mailed to Reinheimer via Diamondbacks spring training on February 15 and got the card back on March 26, for a 39-day TAT.

TTM Success - Roger Metzger

Another vintage TTM success came about with this return from Roger Metzger.  The cards I sent off were 1972, 1978, 1979 and 1980 Topps.  The above 1972 looks really cool, with the old stadium shot and some guy photo bombing in the background.

Not that I really look at it, all of the cards I sent are empty stadium shots.  That is always interesting to me, where they take the shots.

Metzger (b. 1947) played in the majors from 1970 to 1980 for the Cubs, Astros and Giants.  He had 972 hits, 5 home runs and a .231 batting average.  He was a Gold Glove Award winner in 1973.  For someone with as low a career average as he had, it is interesting that he led the NL in triples twice in his career (1971 - 11 and 1973 - 14).

I mailed to Metzger on February 24 and got the cards back on March 26, for a 30-day TAT.

TTM Success - Jim Lonborg

I added some nice late 60s and early 70s cards to my autograph album with this success from Jim Lonborg.  I had a lot of cards to choose from, thanks to my LCS, and I'm glad I got them all returned.

All of the cards turned out great.  Since this TTM success came back, I actually purchased a huge lot of 1972 and 1973 Topps cards from Conrad.  I hope to be able to add a bunch more of them to my album.

Lonborg (b. 1942) played in the majors from 1965 to 1979 for the Red Sox, Brewers and Phillies.  He had a career record of 157-137 with 1,475 strike outs and a 3.86 ERA.  He was the 1967 AL Cy Young Award winner when he went 22-9 with 246 strike outs and a 3.16 ERA.  He was also an All Star that season and finished 6th in the AL MVP race.

He appeared on two Hall of Fame ballots, 1984 and 1985, but didn't receive more than 0.8% of the vote.

I mailed to Lonborg on March 17 and got the cards back on March 26, for a 9-day TAT.

Another TTM Success From Joe Carter

I needed Joe Carter for my 1987 set, so I decided to mail to him again.  I also included this 1997 Fleer EX, because I thought it would look cool in my album.  I was worried that the auto wouldn't turn out too well on it, but I was happy to see that it did work out.

I also got the 1987 Topps done, of course.  It cost me $5/card, but was well worth it to get these taken care of.

I mailed to Carter on March 17 and got the cards back on March 26, for a 9-day TAT.

May 12, 2018 Graphing of Delmarva Shorebirds vs. Columbia Fireflies

It's fun graphing stadiums for the first time, especially when you have no clue as to where the players come out, and how accessible a stadium is.  Luckily, I was still successful last weekend at the Columbia Fireflies game.  I had a ton of cards for the Shorebirds, since they are the Single A affiliate of the Orioles.  I probably took away from some future graphing of the Keys, but since none of these guys are guaranteed of advancing, I went ahead and knocked them out.

I was most excited about meeting Ryan Ripken, son of Cal.  He was really friendly, and chatted with us for a bit.

My friend, Michael, picked up an Aberdeen set for me last season, and a few of those guys moved up to Delmarva to start the year.  That afforded me an opportunity to get quite a few cards done.  One interesting note, Zach Jarrett is a fellow graduate of UNC-Charlotte, which I made sure to point out to him.  What I didn't know up until a week before the game was that he is the son of former NASCAR champion, Dale Jarrett.

Justin Lord, one of the Shorebirds coaches, was the first auto we got.  He was at the wall talking with his family and signed for us after I helped take a photo of his family for him.

I was able to get some older Aberdeen set cards done that I had been sitting on for a while.  I also was glad to get a few of my 2013 Perfect Game cards signed that I got at the National last year.

Matthias Dietz was really nice.  He had a pretty cool mustache going, and we talked about that for a bit while he was signing these cards.  I especially like the Maryland Flag jersey on the 2017 South Atlantic League Prospect card.

Finally, here are some of the other Ryan Ripkens that I got done.

I wanted to get the Fireflies postgame, but we were all tired from a busy day, so we left early (after 14 total runs were scored) and went out to eat.  I plan on going back this season and graphing with my brother.  I'm sure he would be up for some graphing...