June 23-24, 2026, Graphing of the Brockton Rox at Bird Dawgs

Before I left for vacation a few weeks ago, I caught two games between the Brockton Rox and Down East Bird Dawgs. I caught Tuesday and Wednesday's games, and was able to get a few cards signed.

I was glad to get this card of Derek Bender signed. I wasn't sure what to expect from him, as he is the former Twins minor leaguer who had tipped his team's pitches to his opponent so his team's season would end early. Allegedly.

I got a few Perfect Game cards signed by Hayden Travinsky. I like having the option of getting Perfect Game cards signed; I just hate that they're so cumbersome to find.

I also got a few random team set cards signed. I bailed on the Thursday game since I still had cards to locate for my vacation. This is the last time I'll see the Bird Dawgs until mid-August.

In all, I got the following autographs: Derek Bender x 2, Brendan Bell x 4, Joe Kemlqge x 4 and Hayden Travinski x 6 (16 total autographs).

June 9, 2026, Graphing of the Miners at Bird Dawgs

Last week, the Sussex County Miners were in town. While I went all week, it took me only one game to get all of the autographs I needed. I had bought some nice Mahki Backstrom cards for the series. He was on the IL when the series started, but made the trip anyway.

When we got Backstrom on Tuesday, he told us he was happy to be there because they were activating him for that game.

I also should now be out of Chris Widger cards. I found these three in the offseason and got them done on Tuesday.

I went Wednesday through Sunday and got nothing else signed. It was nice to relax and just enjoy the games. 

In all, I got the following autographs: Mahki Backstrom x 14 and Chris Widger x 3 (17 autographs).

May 26-31, 2026, Graphing of the Titans at Bird Dawgs

Last week, the Ottawa Titans came down from Canada and took on the Bird Dawgs. There were a few guys on the Titans who had some team set cards, so I picked up some for the week. The above card of Michael Funrman was the last one to come in and get signed. The card is really nice. I wish it was easier to get the Canadian team sets, because it seems these guys do tend to bounce around the league.

Brett Garcia was really cool. I missed him the first day, but got him the second. He told me that he missed most of the team sets for teams he was on as he move right before the team set came out or got to a team right after. He was impressed that I found his cards that did exist though, and was glad to sign them.

Here are the other cards that I got signed this week. Jesse missed a couple games and had to catch up, but he got his stuff done, as well.

In all, we got the following autographs: Michael Fuhrman x 1, Brett Garcia x 2, Daniel McElveney x 15, Yohanse Morel x 16, Myles Smith x 4, Dwayne Matos x 3 and Heitor Tokar x 2 (43 total autographs).

May 15, 2016, Graphing of the Jackals at Bird Dawgs

Graphing the Frontier League has its challenges. The hardest challenge is getting cards of guys that you'll see. In the case of the New Jersey Jackals, I was only able to find cards of Felix Stevens prior to the series.

I ordered cards of Stevens from gosportscards, and got all of them signed during the first game of the series on Friday. He was really nice and jad a good series, hitting a few home runs. 

In all, we got the following autographs: Felix Stevens x 10. 10 total autographs. The next series should be much better.

May 12, 2026, Graphing of the Capitales at Bird Dawgs

The Down East Bird Dawgs home opener was on Tuesday against the Quebec Capitales. Quebec has won what seems like the last 4 Frontier League championships. The Bird Dawgs have retained maybe half of the guys from last season, with quite a few new guys on the team. One of which is Australian, Jackson Grounds.

Grounds has some cool Stars and Stripes relic cards, which I picked up, along with one of his Australian cards. Rolando Heredia-Bustos and Lyle Miller-Green are two of the other new guys on the team with cards. Heredia-Bustos pitched pretty well, and Miller-Green seems to be a pretty good hitter. Grounds has been pitching in relief so far this season. 

Quebec had a bunch of guys with cards, so I put an order in at gosportscards.com and got some cool team set stuff.

In all, we got the following autographs: Ruben Castro x 1, Nelvin Correa x 8, Nic Deschamps x 4, Torin Montgomery x 4, Adam Shoemaker x 6, Ian Villers x 4, Lyle Miller-Green x 4, Jackson Grounds x 5 and Rolando Heredia-Bustos x 2 (41 total autographs).

February 27, 2026, Kinston Hot Stove Dinner

On Friday, Jesse and I attended the Down East Bird Dawgs hot stove banquet, which featured Ross Atkins being inducted into the Kinston Baseball Hall of Fame. I had known about the event for some time, so I picked up a few older minor league cards to take with me to have signed.

One of the cards, which was the actual card used to create his over-sized card for the ceremony, was missed when he was signing. Oh well. I'll be fine.

I found some old Akron Aeros team sets from the mid 90s. I believe there are two different 1998 and a 1999.

The event was fun. I'll never turn down King's BBQ. I could have gotten a couple cards signed by Chris Hatcher, but i didn't pull his cards. He was there, and talked to me for a bit. The best conversation I had was with Ross Atkins's mom. She was very nice, and was happy to chat.

I got 6 total autographs from Atkins at the event. A decent start to graphing season.

August 5-10, 2025, Graphing of the Sussex County Miners at Down East Bird Dawgs

After getting a lot of the stuff posted from this year's National (with more on the way), I now have to catch up on some graphing that I have done recently.  The Sussex County Miners came through town earlier this month.  I had a bunch of cards for the team pulled and they all got signed.

Former Major League catcher Chris Widger was the manager of the team.  His son CJ used to play in Kinston, so we talked about that while he signed.  He was really nice and signed everything we had. 

Mahki Backstrom was also with the team.  I had a bunch of his cards and got them all signed.  I also got the above card signed by Will Zimmerman.

A couple new Bird Dawgs with cards were on the team, and some of the stuff I had ordered had come in like my Colby Backus University of Tennessee cards (bottom row, above).  My friend Josh also made a few customs, and I got a few of those done.

In all we got the following autographs: Mahki Backstrom x 21, Chris Widger x 13, Will Zimmerman x 2, Kalae Harrison x 2 and Colby Backus x 7, Ryan Sleeper x 10 and David Tiburcio x 1, Emmanuel Tapia x 1, Yassel Pino x 1, Trotter Harlan x 1 and Stephen Ditomaso x 1 (60 total autographs). 

July 11-13, 2025, Graphing of the Boulders at Bird Dawgs

When we got back from our road trip, we had a three-game series in Kinston between the Bird Dawgs and New York Boulders.  There weren't many guys on the team with cards.  The cards that I was able to find were quality.  I got another 2019 Midwest League All Star Card signed by Austin Dennis.  I saw someone recently finished the set.  I doubt mine will get finished, but it is nice to run into someone from the set.

I knocked out a couple 2010 Topps Pro Debut during this series, which was great.  It is getting harder and harder to get cards from that set signed, and I have gotten three of the guys this year in the Frontier League.  Finally, I got Alfredo Marte on his 2013 Topps, as well.  I thought I had a lot more Marte cards, but only found four.  I also could have sworn that I had more Tyler Vail, but nope.  I only had his 2010 Pro Debut.

I also got an 8 x 10 with the two Bird Dawgs All Stars signed.  My buddy Jesse made the custom photo of Steven DiTomasso and Brandon Kaminer.  I've already put it away for safe-keeping.

In all, I got the following autographs: Austin Dennis x 1, Alfredo Marte x 4, Tyler Vail x 1, Steve DiTomasso x 1 and Brandon Kaminer x 1 (8 autographs).

While I Was Away

When I was out of town, the Trois-Rivieres Aigles came to Grainger Stadium to face the Bird Dawgs.  Jesse took some cards and got them signed for me.

I had a few Jonathan Albaladejo cards that I had found for the series before I realized it would be when I was on vacation.  I even found two more of his cards after I got home.  Albaladejo is a coach with Trois-Rivieres, so hopefully he will be there next year.

I had also ordered cards of Jesen Therrien, which Jesse got signed as well.  Thanks for helping me get these out of the box, Jesse!

June 17-22, 2025, Graphing of the ValleyCats at Bird Dawgs

Another week has gone by and another Bird Dawgs series is in the books.  The Tri-City ValleyCats came to town this padt week.  There weren't many guys with cards on the team other than last year's ValleyCats team set.  I went ahead and bought a team set, and my buddy Gerard bought one as well.  I also bought the other cards of the few guys who had them.  One of the cards I found was the above Wake Forest card of Jake Reinisch.  I was glad to add this to the album. 

Oscar Campos was one of the other guys who had team set cards from other teams.  He stopped and signed for me and added the different uniform numbers he had each year.  He was really nice.

I got probably half of last year's team set signed.  I'm not sure what I'll be able to do with the other unsigned cards, but they're here in case those guys show up elsewhere.

John McHenry was the last of the ValleyCats guys with other team set cards.  I dod get a couple new cards of guys on the Bird Dawgs; a card of Brett Wellman, the Bird Dawgs manager, and a 2024 Rancho Cucamonga card of David Tiburcio.  I had bought two 2024 Rancho Cucamonga sets for my upcoming road trip since most of those guys are on Great Lakes now. It worked out that one of the extra guys was able to get signed. It was even better that it was a Bird Dawg.

In all, I got the following autographs: Austin Dill x 2, Demias Jimerson x 2, Jake Reinisch x 1, Greg Tagert x 2, Ian Walters x 2, Javeyan Williams x 2, David Tiburcio x 2, Oscar Campos x 5, John McHenry x 4, Kyle Novak x 2, Gino Sabatine x 2, Tom Thornton x 2, Arlo Marynczak x 2, Brett Wellman x 1 and Easton Klein x 2 (33 total autographs).

June 3-8, 2025, Graphing of the Capitales at Bird Dawgs

Another Canadian team came into Kinston and left sweeping the Bird Dawgs. A 6-game series sweep was rough, but we enjoyed the games.  The weather was rough as well.  Still, I got some graphing done on some cool team set cards I picked up from gosportscards.com. The above Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis was the exception; a card picked up off of Ebay and shipped from Australia.  It's a really cool card, and Brodie was really nice.

Of course, the Cole Roland Wake Forest card was another ebay pickup (sorry, I forgot).  He was also really nice.  The team set cards are all a lot of fun to get signed.  A lot of the players are happy to see them, which makes it even better.

Finally, cards of Bird Dawgs coach, TJ White came in.  Thr above Cedar Rapids Kernels card looks really sharp with his signature. 

I also got several of his Chattanooga Lookouts and one of White's Fort Myers Miracle cards.

The big highlight of the series was the no hitter thrown by Quebec in the first game of Friday's double header.  Yeah, it was a 7-inning game, but still on record as a no hitter.  I got the pitcher, Braeden Allemann and catchers, Arturo De Freitas to sign my ticket.  I had two extra tickets to the game, which i gave to each of them.  Both were really happy to get them.

I all, I got the following autographs: TJ White x 14, Pier-Olivier Boucher x 3, Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis x 2, Christian Inoa x 10, Cleiverth Perez x 6, Cole Roland x 2, Gilberto Chu x 4 and Arturo De Freitas x 7 and Braeden Allemann x 1 (49 total autographs). 

May 2025 Graphing of the Mud Monsters at Bird Dawgs

Last week, the other Frontier League expansion team (the Mississippi Mud Monsters) was in Kinston for a 6-game series.  I missed Tuesday's game for family reasons, and Wednesday's game was a day game, so I got to 4 of the 6 games. I only needed two to get all of the cards I picked up signed.

I used gosportscards.com to find most of the cards; I had three of them on my own.  I was really glad to get my 2010 Topps Pro Debut Jamie McOwen cards out of my box.  I also got my Luis Devers 2022 Myrtle Beach team set card done.

My 2023 Augusta team set card of Tyree Thompson also got done.  I was also pleasantly surprised at the quality of Rodney Theophile's autograph. He took his time and put a great signature on my stuff.

A highlight to Saturday's game was that my brother, Philip, brought his family to the game.  My nephew, Lonnie, was picked to be the 'Play Ball' kid.  He got to go on the field and yell play ball to start the game. 

Lonnie had a blast at the game.  Something tells me he will be back to another one soon.

In all, I got the following autographs: Last night's graphing recap of the Mud Monsters at Bird Dawgs: Chris Barraza x 2, Luis Devers x 3, Victor Diaz x 4, Ti'Quan Forbes x 1, Jamie McOwen x 2, Karell Paz x 3, Jay Pecci x 3, Sergio Sanchez x 11, Rodney Theophile x 8 and Tyree Thompson x 2, Kyle Booker x 11 and Davis Bradshaw x 1 (51 total autographs).

May 2025 Graphing of Jackals at Bird Dawgs

The New Jersey Jackals came to town last week and I was able to get some nice cards signed.  I had some help from Chris and Jesse.

It was cool that a former major leaguer was on the Jackals.  Miguel Gomez was really nice and signed everything we had.

Chris got a bunch of them done which helped me out since I missed the Wednesday day game.

I also had some nice 2018 Bowman Chrome Arbert Cipion.  I had gotten him a while ago when he was with the Mudcats.  I also got some team set cards of Colt Webb signed.

In all, we got the following autographs: Albert Cipion x 5, Miguel Gomez x 30 and Colt Webb x 4 (39 total autographs). 

May 9-10, 2025, Graphing of Titans at Bird Dawgs

The Bird Dawgs had their opening series this past weekend versus the Ottawa Titans.  There were a few guys with cards on the Titans.  Lamar Briggs (above) had a team set card from the 2024 Tri-City ValleyCats.  I bought two of that card and they both got signed right away.

Brandon Marklund had a card in 2020 Topps Heritage Minors, but I didn't have any of those in my boxes. My buddy Gerard had several, and I was able to take a 50/50 for him.

Prior to the season, I bought a lot of 15 Tom Carcione minor league cards off of Ebay.  Carcione was really cool and signed everything we had.  He took my book and was showing the cards off to one of the Titans players.

I got one more Bird Dawg, Carter Raffield, on his 2019 Leaf Perfect Game card.  There's one more guy who signed with the Bird Dawgs in the offseason that hasn't been here yet, if I get him, all of the Perfect Game cards I bought for the team will be done.

I took some photos from Opening Day.  Grainger Stadium has changed a bit, but it still has the same charm.  Attendance for Opening Day was 2,666; a sellout.

Here is Carcione signing for us.  My friend Jimmy Kilpatrick took this awesome picture.

Saturday was Star Wars night.  I didnt get his autograph, but I did get a picture with Darth Vader.

Finally, I won a jersey auction.  I got Tyler Blaum's jersey (I also won Cameron Masterman's).  Blaum practices with former Wood Duck, Josh Trentadue in the offseason and had heard of us prior to us meeting him at the first exhibition game. I was glad to win his jersey and get this picture with him post-game.

In all, we got the following autographs: Lamar Briggs x 2, Tom Carcione x 15, Brandon Marklund x 5, Carter Raffield x 10, Tyler Blaum x 1 and Brandon Fields x 2 (35 total autographs).