Another graphing road trip with my son Chris has been completed. This year's destination was Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. On the way, we hit 6 ballparks, two of which we had already been to in the past.
Before we embarked on the trip, we hit the Ringo Starr concert in Charlotte. I added a day off to the front of the trip to accommodate for the concert and it was worth it.
We got to the concert late since Chris had a test for his summer math class. We missed maybe the first three songs or so, but still got to see most of the show and had a good time.
We were going to start the trip easily.with a stop at Greensboro to see the Dash at Grasshoppers. The game rained out, with a torrential downpour right before game time. The game was called, then the clouds parted. We were able to graph and bit outside, knocking out a few Winston-Salem players before we left the stadium. I also got a couple Pat Listach cards signed in person; he is notoriously tough, but stopped fot Chris and I outside after the game.
Our next stop, and real dive into getting stuff out of my boxes was Charleston. This has become an easy stadium to stop at and graph in our way to a lot of places. I had hoped to stop in and see my friend Josh, but he just recently moved and was unavailable for us to hook up with.
I bought a ton of team set cards from gosportscards.com to make sure most.folks that walk by us would likely have something to sign. We got a good many of cards signed, but did have a lot left over.
Gastonia was in Charleston, and they had a few guys I really wanted to get. Justus Sheffield was the biggest name, but he wasnt there. His contract has since been sold to a Mexican League team, so everything I prepped for him will end up in the Box-of-Shame. Still, we did well, and knocked out a lot of stuff.
I love going to Charleston. I have ended up there several times in the last few years. It is relatively close to where my parents live, so it is easy to get to.
Some of the older team set cards I picked up were really cool and look great signed. The above Staten Island Yabkees card of Bryan Blanton is one example.
I got my 2019 Midwest League All Star Card of Manuel Alvarez signed on the trip. My friend Vince got the set for me a while back, and I have been chipping away at it for years. I also finally got my 2017 Bowman Chrome blue refractor of Travis Demeritte signed.
A couple really cool cards that I picked up prior to the trip were the.two PJ Phillips cards. He was really nice.
.The coolest team set card I found was this Samuel Reyes South Bend Cubs card. It just looks great and Im.glad I got him to come over and sign.
The next morning as we were heading out of the area, Chris and I stopped by the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. I had seen the Mothman statue before, but had never gone to the museum. The museum was pretty cool. I got a sweet Mothman shirt while I was there.
Our next stop was Fort Wayne where we saw the Great Lakes Loons at Fort Wayne Tincaps. They have a nice stadium. We did ok graphing inside but missed several players. That was disappointing, but we still did alright.
I was glad to get Leo DeVries outside after the game. He got a walkoff for Fort Wayne, which was pretty cool to see. I got my Bowman insert green refractor signed, which was great.
Rosman Verdugo was another guy we got outside after the game. I just happened to recognize him and he stopped. I was so.glad because I spent a lot of time searching and prepping for the trip.
I did like the stadium at Fort Wayne. I'd go back, especially now that I have a better idea on where to stand for graphing.
Our next graphing stop was in Iowa to catch the Omaha Storm Chasers at Iowa Cubs. I was very excited to try to get Rich Hill finally. The top of the post shows that I did, in fact, get Hill. The 2009 Topps Heritage that I got Hill on has him as an Oriole, which is great. He was very nice and stopped for us on arrival and departure. We got Cavan Biggio as well, which was a great pickup for the autograph album.
We graphed on arrival, inside pregame and outside post game. It was very reminiscent of Durham, except that it was tough to get the home team outside. There were several Iowa guys that we did see outside, so it was a good haul.
Most of the graphers in Iowa were very friendly. With the exception of one guy. Still, the biggest help was a kid named Kaden, who was maybe 11 or 12 and could identify most everyone. He also grabbed a couple cards from me and helped with a few players. His help was greatly appreciated.
We dod really well identifying players. I was actually the one who identified Kyle Wright, so i impressed myself. Of the people we asked, we were only really denied by Phil Bickford (of all people) who said he is now only signing fot kids. He was released by the Cubs shortly after the game.
I was glad to get Greg Allen. I helped my friend Max complete a 2017 Heritage Minors three-way card where Allen was the last signature that he needed. Also, we got Jake Woodford first, as he got to the stadium. We watched him come in, then leave with all of his belongings. It turned out that he had opted out of his contract with the Cubs and was picked up by the Diamondbacks. We were lucky to get him.
I helped Max get his Rachel Folden cards signed. I happened to have a blue parallel.that got done.
One of my favorite cards that I got signed was my 2025 Topps blue foil Kenta Maeda. We got Maeda outside on arrival. I spotted him as well. It must have been the Metallica shirt that gave it away.
Tommy Romero was super nice outside. He signed for me then waited as Chris came over and flipped through his book to find the cards.
We did really well in Iowa and graphing was easy. I would definitely make another trip out there and try some more. We stayed an extra day in Des Moines and enjoyed the city and surrounding area.
Our next stop (actually, this was before.Iowa; see below) was to check out what the Frontier League looks like in other states. We caught the Washington Wild Things at Schaumburg Boomers. Schaumburg had a nice stadium. We were able to see former Wood Duck, Tyreque Reed. He seemed to remember Chris and I and has always been cool to us.
I didn't have a lot of cards for this game and then found out after we got there that Sammy Infante (who I had several cards of) was suspended the day before. Ugh.
I had a 10-card lot of these Perfect Game cards of Satchell Norman. I had watched his cards since he was drafted by the Brewers in 2022. I didn't pick them up then, but remembered the name. He did make it to the Mudcats in 2024 but was released by the Brewers at the end of the season. Norman was nice and signed everything we had. Sadly, Schaumburg released him a few days after we saw him.
We liked Schaumburg, but it was very hot there. I also mixed up my scans; we went to Schaumburg before we went to Iowa. Oops. My bad.
After Iowa, we went to Sioux City to see the Sioux City Explorers face the Kane County Cougars. We did fairly well here as well, with the exception of this being the only place where an usher ran us out of where we were standing. It looked like someone complained that we were asking for autographs near the clubhouse, but we weren't standing anywhere where we weren't allowed to stand. The girl that came over said "the players are just getting ready for the game." "No shit, lady." I didn't say that out loud of course, but it was annoying nonetheless. It was every bit of someone acting like we were at a Major League stadium, but it was the independent leagues.
Regardless, we moved, my Mom raised me right and we weren't rude. We moved to a different spot and still got folks. I was disappointed that I did miss Brett Phillips.
My favorite cards were the ones above that I got signed by former Giants prospect, Luis Toribio.
We had a lot of those oddball old team set cards for Sioux City and Kane County and got a lot of them done. I did miss several. Ut have already sent a few out TTM with the hope that they still get signed.
Sioux City was the last graphing stop on the trip. We wanted to leave some time to check out other stuff in the area on the way to Mount Rushmore.
Here is the requisite ballpark picture of Chris and I. This was from Sioux City.
We did pretty well graphing outside at Sioux City. The girl that ran us off in the stadium earlier in the night glared at me several times. I k iw she was just doing her job but she could have been a lot friendlier. Smile lady, you work in baseball. That's a lot of people's dream job.
Our theme of this year's trip was to check out roadside attractions and some things in the areas of the cities in which we stopped. On our way to Des Moines, it popped in my head to see how far we would be from Clear Lake, Iowa. It turned out that we would be an hour and a half away, so on our open day in Des Moines, we went up to Clear Lake and checked out the Surf Ballroom. We went from there to the memorial and crash site where the plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper went down.
Chris had no idea who the three were, but I grew up watching La Bamba, so it was an interesting stop.
We also stopped in Rockford, Illinois on the way from Schaumburg to Des Moines. We stopped at Beyer Field, where the Rockford Peaches used to play. The original stadium had fallen into disrepair and had been torn down. They have since begun restoring the area, which is cool. Chris had to pose in this pic reminiscent of a scene from.A League of Their Own; "What a hitter!"
Finally, we did make it to Mount Rushmore. It turned out that Vice President Vance was there the same time we were. We didn't see him, but saw the expanded security. It was cool to say we were there at the same time.
In all, we got the following autographs: Dash at Grasshoppers: Lucas Gordon x 6, Pat Listach x 2, Braden Montgomery x 4, Christian Oppor x 4 and Jordan Sprinkle x 2 (18 autographs); Ghost Peppers at Dirty Birds: Ronaldo Alesandro x 2, Manuel Alvarez x 1, Ben Blackwell x 2, Zach Daniels x 1, Travis Demeritte x 4, Eddy Demurias x 2, Cip Garza x 2, Jonh Henriquez x 2, Jamison Hill x 2, Kyle McGowin x 2, James Nelson x 1, PJ Phillips x 2, Samuel Reyes x 4, Joseph Rosa x 2, Jonathan Soto x 2, Alesander Womack x 2, Bryan Blanton x 2, Narciso Crook x 2, Eric De La Rosa x 4, Tony Fossas x 3, Goose Gozzo x 11, Dalton Guthrie x 4, Ryan Hennen x 4, Cole Roederer x 3, Ethan Skender x 2 and Kevin Watson, Jr. x 2 (70 autographs); Loons at Tincaps: Brooks Auger x 11, Wyatt Crowell x 8, Joseilyn Gonzalez x 2, Payton Martin x 2, Christian Ruebeck x 2, Mike Sirota x 2, Clark Candiotti x 3, Leo De Vries x 2, Thomas Eschelman x 2, Ethan Long x 4 and Rosman Verdugo x 2 (40 autographs); Wild Things at Boomers: Ryan Chasse x 2, Jordan DiValerio x 2, Kadon Morton x 2, Tyreque Reed x 2, Satchell Norman x 10 and Bren Spillane x 2 (20 autographs); Storm Chasers at Cubs: Cavan Biggio x 4, Dairon Blanco x 3, Jonathan Bowlan x 2, Diego Castillo x 2, Harold Castro x 8, Eric Cerantola x 1, Justin Dunn x 1, John Gant x 4, Tyler Gentry x 5, Thomas Hatch x 2, Rich Hill x 6, Kenta Maeda x 2, Luke Maile x 4, MJ Melendez x 2, Noah Murdock x 1, Stephen Nogosek x 1, Nate Pearson x 2, Carlos Perez x 3, Nick Pratto x 8, Luca Tresh x 4, Joey Wiemer x 4, Peyton Wilson x 2, Jake Woodford x 4, Kyle Wright x 2, Greg Allen x 7, Moises Ballesteros x 2, Phil Bickford x 1, Ben Brown x 1, Hayden Cantrelle x 2, Rachel Folden x 4, Christian Franklin x 7, Brandon Hughes x 4, Dixon Machado x 3, Marty Pevey x 4, Ethan Roberts x 3, Tommy Romero x 5 and James Triantos x 2 (122 autographs); Cougars at Explorers: Marcus Chiu x 2, Nick Dalesandro x 2, Claudio Finol x 2, David Holmberg x 2, Todd Lott X 2, Robby Martin Jr x 10, Jordan Martinson x 3, Logan Nissen x 2, Oscar Santos x 10, Vin Timpanelli x 2, George Tsamis x 3, Armond Upshaw x 1, Kurtis Byrne x 10, Josh Day x 2, Austin Druiry x 2, D'Shawn Knowles x 15, Abdiel Layer x 10, Kyle Marman x 12 and Luis Toribio x 5 (97 autographs). We got the second-most autographs on this trip co.pared to other annual graphing road trips with 367. The most.we had was last year to Buffalo and Erie, etc. with 376.
