Spring Training 2023 50-50s From Dylan

My friend, Dylan, took a bunch of cards to Spring Training for me this year and racked.  He got me a lot of great signatures on some really nice cards, like the above 2022 Topps Heritage Minors insert of Khalil Watson.

Dylan his Brady House for me before i was able to get him for myself.  Im surprised Dylan was able to get me two House cards, but they're awesome.

He also knocked out a bunch of Watson cards for me.  I may see Marcelo Mayer later this summer, so I might take this one and try to get him on it.

Dylan saw the Marlins, Cardinals, Nationals and a couple other teams.  He racked it for me and I can move these into my album.

I hadn't gotten Elijah Green before, so these were a great add to the album. I got James Wood last season, but these were new to me, so they're great additions as well.

I'm always happy to add some Jordan Walker to the collection, and Dylan hooked it up.  I think Walker is going to be a good one.  Folks just need to be patient with him.

Finally, here are a couple other Cardinals that Dylan hit for me, a Treyjyn Fletcher and Alec Burleson.

Thanks for taking these 50/50s from me, Dylan!

Logan K Returns Some Autographs

A cool thing that happened when Chris and I were on our road trip out west was meeting some of the local graphers at the stadiums that we went to.  I was able to connect with one of the ones from Wichita, and he agreed to take some cards that I missed and try to get them signed.  He had never done a 50/50 with someone before, but that's not quite what we did.  Instead, we pretty much did a league swap.  I got him some Wood Ducks, and also some of their opponents.  Logan worked on some of my Wichita stuff, and also took some other teams.

Logan saw Corpus Christi after I had left Wichita, so he took some of the cards I had for them.  I was really happy to get the above Matt Ruppenthal from my Midwest League All Star set completed, as well as the Joe Perez 2017 Bowman Chrome purple refractor.

Logan sent back a few of the Wichita team set guys I missed; he is still working on some of the others.  I tried to get Simeon Woods-Richardson, but missed him completely.  I would have knocked out several of his cards, had I been able to stop him.  He signs TTM, but it is still nice getting people in person.

Here are the rest of the Corpus Christi guys that Logan got for me.  I had these pulled and put aside with Astros stuff, since Fayetteville is their Low A team.  I had never pulled the higher-up guys out of the box (thanks for not getting around to it).  It ended up making for a quick search when Logan told me he was seeing Astros AA guys.

Thanks for getting the autographs for me, Logan.  Next year, we will be able to swap early on, and knock out a lot more stuff!

July 2022 Graphing of Fireflies at Wood Ducks

Last week's series between the Fireflies and Wood Ducks showed me that I am getting to be just about ready for the season to come to a conclusion.  While I had a ton of cards to get signed, and an extra pair of hands this week, this was still one of the tougher series I have had.  The series before against the Cannonballers was probably the toughest, but this one tried my patience at times.

Still, we did well graphing.  We got a lot of different cards signed.  I was able to move a bunch of 2021 stuff out of my boxes, and add them to the album.

There were also a good many cards from older sets that I was able to get signed, and there would have been more, had the coaches for the Fireflies not been so tough to get to sign.  Tony Pena, Jr. stopped pre-game once for us during the series.  He would sign different cards, so I was able to get a few taken care of.  Later in the series, however, he would tell a group of us that he would sign outside after the game.  So, for the first time this season, I waited outside.  Pena walked by us and ignored us.  This was Saturday.

To be fair, the graphing crowd on Saturday was the largest that I had seen in Kinston since probably 2018, when Luis Robert was in town.  There was a group of graphers from the Raleigh area, and two teenagers (both named Dylan, oddly enough) who were visiting from Durham.  I talked to the first Dylan for the better part of the game, and helped him get some stuff signed after the game.  He and his friend seemed like nice people, and I think they enjoyed their time in Kinston enough to want to come back during the Fredericksburg series.

Glenn Hubbard would take the long way to the opposing dugout; skipping where we were standing entirely.  Tuesday, after the game, he went down the left field line and signed everything for everyone.  After that, he wouldn't sign for anyone at all the rest of the series.

John Habyan, by far, was the nicest of the coaches.  He stopped for everyone every time he walked by, which was great.  I didn't pull much of his stuff, and a couple of his cards were given to me by a fellow grapher.

The toughest coach was Chris Nelson.  He stopped one time after Tuesday's game, then signed one per for the three of us.  After that, he would completely ignore us, with the exception of answering me one time when I asked "Do you have time to sign" to which he replied "Ummm, Nah." and kept walking.

The pitchers, by far, were the best signers of the week.  Ben Hernandez signed everything we had over the week.  I was glad to get my blue 2021 Heritage Minors parallel signed.  The card is numbered 60/99.  The Panini Elite Extra Edition is a die cut parallel and is numbered 159/999.

I was glad to get Frank Mozzicato to sign the cards that I had.  He was the Royals first round pick last year.

I had some parallels and stuff for the Wood Ducks as well, and this 2021 Panini Elite Extra Edition of Cam Cauley is numbered 479/499.

My friend, Gerard, sent me a bunch of Jose Rodriguez parallels from 2022 Bowman and a Mitch Bratt refractor from 2021 Panini Prizm.  Regardless of the issues with the coaches, I had a good time graphing this week.  In all, I got the following autographs:

Maximo Acosta x 6, Cam Cauley x 22, Ryan Garcia x 9, Dylan MacLean x 2, Ian Moller x 10, Jose Rodriguez x 12, Jesus Azuaje x 1, John Habyan x 8, Glenn Hubbard x 16, Chris Nelson x 5, Ben Hernandez x 23, Carter Jensen x 7, Frank Mozzicato x 8, Shane Panzini x 8, Erick Pena x 21, Mitch Bratt x 1, Ben Kurdna x 7 and Tony Pena Jr x 15 (182 total autographs).

June-July 2022 Graphing of Cannonballers at Wood Ducks

To say I wasn't feeling this series between the Cannonballers and Wood Ducks would be an understatement. It started out with James Beard telling me that he had signed for me last time he was in Kinston, so he wouldn't be signing for me again (and completely ignoring Chris; Chris did get him on one card the last game we saw on Friday) to most of the pitchers I needed to get taking the long way around the ballpark to get to the bullpen (and skipping where all of us graphers were. All 3 or 4 of us). Add in the fact that I was thrashing to get ready for my vacation; I sincerely couldn't wait to get out of town.  Oh, and Colson Montgomery got moved up to Winston-Salem, after I had bought a few of his cards to try to get signed.

All of that being said, I did get some cards signed, but I'll be sending back a lot more unsigned cards than normal. I'm going to have to start limiting folks on what they send me, because it is getting tougher and tougher to get the 50/50s I had taken completed. I'm not complaining, because I'm happy just getting one autograph but the completionist in me doesn't like to leave an unsigned card behind.

So, I did get a decent amount done, and I was very happy to get Norge Vera on some cards. He has one of the most unique signatures that I've seen. It looks like he drew a math formula on the card. 

In all, I got the following autographs: Misael Gonzalez x 2, James Beard x 1, Wilber Sanchez x 2, Norge Vera x 10, John Ely x 2, Juan Mejia x 2, Maximo Acosta x 1, Ryan Garcia x 6, Benyamin Bailey x 6, Adisyn Coffey x 6, Wes Kath x 1, Jared Kelley x 8, Guillermo Quiroz x 7 and Norge Vera x 4 (54 total autographs).