TTM Success - Brad Baker

A few more older Bowman cards came out of my box (along with a 2000 Topps and 2000 Topps Traded) and went into my album with thus TTM success from Brad Baker.  The above 2000 Bowman turned our nicely.

The 2001 Bowman Chrome and Topps cards also look nice.  I was glad to get a few cards out of the 90s-00s Bowman box I inherited from my former LCS.

Baker (b. 1980) was a first round (40th overall) pick by the Red Sox in the 1999 June Amateur Draft out of a Massachusetts high school.  He played in the minors from 1999 to 2007 in the Red Sox, Padres, Braves and Twins organizations.  He would end up making it to AAA.  He had a record of 47-44 with 769 strike outs and a 3.98 ERA.

I mailed to Baker on March 19 and got the cards back on April 18, for a 30-day TAT. 

TTM Success - Peter Tucci

1999 Fleer Brilliants is a really nice set.  I believe it was Fleer's attempt at a chrome set, and these are really sharp.  One of the bad things about the fall of past trading card companies was the fall of Fleer in the early-to-mid 2000s.  They had over-saturated the market with really nice sets and designs, but it seemed like they spread themselves too thin.  A lot of their stuff from the late 90s to early 2000s was ahead of its time, and really nice stuff to look at.

I was really happy to get this signed card back TTM from Peter Tucci.  The auto doesn't show up too great on the scan, but in person, the card is sharp.  I'd like to find a few more of these that I can send off.

Tucci (b. 1975) was a first round (31st overall) pick by the Blue Jays in the 1996 June Amateur Draft out of Providence College in Rhode Island.  He played in the minors from 1996 to 2001 in the Blue Jays, Padres and Mets systems.  He advanced to AA before calling it a career.  He had 594 hits, 84 home runs and a .20 batting average.

I mailed to Tucci on March 24 and got the card back on April 18, for a 25-day TAT.

TTM Success - Kevin Jarvis

These two cards were rescued from my boxes and signed TTM when I sent off to Kevin Jarvis.  The above 2002 Fleer Focus turned out nicely, and had come from one of the boxes I got from my former LCS.  These have a nice design; I wish I had opened more cards in the early 2000s, but I was a broke college student at the time.

Here is Jarvis's 2001 Topps, which also turned out great.  This is a nice landscape oriented card, which looks nice in this set.

Jarvis (b. 1969) played in the majors from 1994 to 1997 and 1999 to 2006 for the Reds, Twins, Tigers, A's, Rockies, Padres, Mariners, Cardinals, Diamondbacks and Red Sox.  He had a record of 34-49 with 453 strike outs and a 6.03 ERA.

I mailed to Jarvis on March 29 and got the cards back on April 18, for a 20-day TAT.

TTM Success - Logan Davidson

This 2020 Bowman green parallel turned out nicely in this TTM success from Logan Davidson.  I had sent to A's Spring Training and got one of the three cards that I sent signed.  I'm glad it was this one, since I don't have many of these in the album.

Davidson (b. 1997) was a first round (29th overall) pick by the A's in the 2019 June Amateur Draft out of Clemson.  He went to high school at Providence High School in Charlotte.  He has played in the minors for three seasons, all in the A's system.  He has 193 hits, 20 home runs and a .224 batting average.

I mailed to Davidson on March 12 and got the card back on April 16, for a 34-day TAT.  He kept my other two cards.

TTM Success - Matt Clement

These cards stayed out in the mail for quite a long time, but I finally received a TTM success from Matt Clement.  I had some older Bowmans and a couple early 2000s Topps cards for Clement, and they turned out nicely.

The 1997 Bowman (above, left) turned out well; I was glad to get one of those out, as I don't have very many of them signed.  They seem to live in my boxes and it was good to get at least one of them into my album.  I also like the early 1st Bowman logo.

Clement (b. 1974) played in the majors from 1998 to 2006 for the Padres, Marlins, Cubs and Red Sox.  He had a record of 87-86 with 1,217 strike outs and a 4.47 ERA.  He was an All Star in 2005.

I mailed to Clement on February 11, 2019 and got the cards back on April 14, 2022, for a 1,158-day TAT.

June 2022 Graphing of Mudcats at Wood Ducks

The Carolina Mudcats came back to Kinston for a 6-game series against the Wood Ducks after the Wood Ducks had been away for two weeks.  It felt like longer, with all of the stuff we had going on recently, so it was nice to get back into a groove at Grainger Stadium.

I caught all 6 games, and got to see the Woodies sweep the Mudcats, which was great.  THere were some really close games, and great pitching.

I had taken a lot of 50/50s for this series; more than usual, and was able to almost finish everything off.  Prepping on Monday was a pain, but I got it all done, and ended up doing very well, even though a lot of the Mudcat players were limiting us on signing.  I enlisted a little help here and there to polish off a few guys, and it helped.

I was also able to find Demetre Kokoris's Vancouver Canadiens team set card, which he was excited to see.  I am glad to finally add him to the autograph album.  A lot of the stuff I got done for the Wood Ducks was parallels that I got in a 50/50 from Gerard.

I finally got some of my 2022 Bowman cards out of my box when the Mudcats came.  Jackson Chourio was the highlight of the series.  He was one per every time he walked by, so we were able to get him to sign most of the games pre and post-game.  I also got him to sign a baseball after the Sunday game.

A big difference between the first series of the year between the two teams and this series was that Hedbert Perez and Jeferson Quero were limiting pretty heavily.  I was still able to get the stuff signed that I wanted signed, which was nice.

I raided my closet and found this 2019 Aberdeen team set card of Jean Carmona.  I had bought the set to get Adley Rutschmann, and ended up not even opening it once the 2020 season was canned.

In all, I got the following autographs: Jackson Chourio x 11, Jheremy Vargas x 9, Hendry Mendez x 12, Hedbert Perez x 17, Dylan MacLean x 3, Ryan Garcia x 30, Maximo Acosta x 6, Jeferson Quero x 9, Eduardo Garcia x 14, Demetre Kokoris x 3, Jean Carmona x 2, Xavier Valentin x 1, Mitch Bratt x 3, Cam Cauley x 9, Ian Moller x 4 and Jose Rodriguez x 9 (142 total autographs).

TTM Success - Chris Karamesines

He may be as old as 93, no one really knows how old Chris Karamesines really is, but he most likely is the oldest person ever to pilot an NHRA top fuel dragster.  After returning from a tour in Europe during World War II, Karamesines began auto racing in the early 1950s.  He finally retired after the 2020 season, and had his granddaughter, Krista Baldwin take over driving duties.  In between, Karamesines wo countless rounds of NHRA competition, but never a national event win.

I mailed to Karamesines on April 4 and got the card back on April 12, for an 8-day TAT.