June 2022 Graphing of Drive at Crawdads

Following what was a tough week-plus, I finally got some graphing in.  We had a death in the family the week prior, then we had to put our dog, Rocky, down last week.  I wasn't really feeling graphing, but made myself go on Friday to Hickory while I was in the Winston area for my dad's annual race.  The race was Saturday, so I had plenty of time Friday night to relax and get some ink on some cards.  Chris was at my sister's house, so I flew solo, but actually made a friend while I was there.  We'll see how that goes.

One of the bigger surprises for me on this trip was that Luisangel Acuna has completely opened up to signing, finally.  He was the first player out of the clubhouse, and signed everything I had on the page.  I was impressed, and happy to get the stuff that I had brought, done.

I knocked out several more Hickory team set cards.  I have a different marker this time, and it stood up much better to the team set cards than my Staedtler did.  I still have a bunch to do, but have gotten most of them out of the way; especially the tough guys like Acuna and Evan Carter.

I also knocked out most of what I had left for Aaron Zavala.  Hickory had the SAL League Top Prospects set in, so I opened one and got Carter to sign the card of him in there.

Robby Ahlstrom was recently promoted to Hickory, so I was able to finish off the card I had left for him.  This card scanned so awesome.

This 2019 Bowman Chrome Draft Progression card is going to be tough to finish, but I got Chris Seise on it, and maybe I can get the other two guys at some point.

Finally, I had only a handful of Greenville guys, and even fewer stopped to sign.  I did get this 2021 Bowman Draft Tyler McDonough done, and it turned out nicely.  I tried a few other guys, but wasn't successful.  It didn't help that the players didn't have numbers on the front of their jerseys.

The Crawdads were wearing Thor themed jerseys, and I won Cody Freeman's (of course).  It will be shipped to me signed, and looks pretty cool.  I was glad to win another Cody jersey, and was even happier seeing him again.

In all, I got the following autographs: Luisangel Acuna x 6, Ben Amderson x 1, Robby Ahlstrom x 2, Evan Carter x 2, Carlos Cardoza x 2, Frainyer Chavez x 2, Randy Florentino x 2, Jon Goebel x 2, Spencer Mraz x 1, Keyber Rodriguez x 2, Thomas Saggese x 2, Chris Seise x 5, Ricky Vanasco x 2, Owen White x 3, Aaron Zavala x 3, Matthew Lugo x 1 and Tyler McDonough x 1 (39 total autographs).

Graphing Recap - April 10-11 Crawdads at Dash

The minor league season is up and running, and I have already put my first road trip to bed for the season.  I picked up my friend, Alex, in Richmond last Friday night, and we stayed at my parents' farm Friday night and Saturday night with the intention of checking out the Hickory Crawdads at Winston-Salem Dash.

I used the opportunity to visit family, as well, since I have a new niece.  Poor Alex got a crash course in just how large my family is.  I was also happy that Hickory was in Winston, since most of the Wood Ducks from last season moved up to Hickory.  We sat on the Hickory side both games, and reconnected with a bunch of the guys, like Cody Freeman, Nick Krauth, Mason Englert and Owen White.  Carlos Cardoza, manager of last year's Woodies, is now managing the Crawdads, and noticed me when he was coaching third about halfway into Saturday's game.  He came over after the game to chat and thank me for coming out.  My sister and her husband also came to the Saturday game, and were able to meet Cody and some of the other guys.

I was told by one of the players that I had missed Luisangel Acuna; he had injured his hamstring during the Friday game and had been sent back to Arizona.  Luckily, Acuna hadn't actually left yet, and I was able to get him to sign the above cards on Sunday after the game.

I was really excited to finally get some Chris Siese cards signed, since he never made it to Kinston.  He had been hurt much of the last several seasons, and when the leagues flip flopped, I knew it would be tough to get him.

I had even tried to get Siese TTM, but those cards were returned to sender.  They ended up getting signed, though.  I made sure those were the first cards in the auto book since they had so many miles on them already.

TK Roby wasn't at the Wood Ducks for long last season, and left before I could get the above Panini Prizm cards signed.  I found the above 2020 Bowman First Edition blue foil at a show in the offseason and was happy to move it into the autograph album.

I had the 2020 Bowman and Panini Prizm Trevor Hauver cards left over from missing him last season when I traveled to Hickory.  They got out of the Box of Shame and finally got signed.  I didn't realize I had any Scott Kapers until I was looking for someone else in my Spokane team sets, so I bought his Perfect Game card in a lot of 3.  My friend, Gerard, ended up getting one of them, and I'll use the other as trade bait, probably.  I didn't have any cards of Aaron Zavala until after last season was over, so it was nice to finally add him on a few cards.

Since Hickory is so tough to get pitchers at home, I was really glad that I could add some of the team set guys to the album.  I had help from Nick Krauth, who sent Joe Corbett and Spencer Mraz over to sign for me.  Nick is such a good guy.  I wish he had cards.  I got Owen White on the one different card that I didn't have during the season, the Bowman Platinum.  I also got Chris's signed, even though Owen had told Chris over social media that Chris could send to him TTM any time.  Chris and Owen have gotten close, and talk quite a bit.  Owen was disappointed that Chris had to work that weekend, bur I promised that we would come out to Hickory in June and see everyone.

Because I wanted to spend time on the Hickory side, I didn't bring much for the Winston-Salem guys.  I had James Beard cards in the book, but he had gotten sent to Kannapolis; and we missed Matt Thompson.  Thankfully, I was able to finally add Danny Farquhar and Nicky Delmonico.  My friend, Max, had gotten a couple Delmonicos signed for me a while back.  I had missed Farquhar last season, and misplaced a 2014 Topps Red Hot foil, which I found this past week when I wasn't looking for it.  Story of my life.

Most importantly, my friend, Alex, enjoyed his first minor league game away from the Richmond Flying Squirrels.  He enjoyed seeing Winston-Salem, and if he was bored meeting the family, he didn't show it.

In all, Alex and I got two signed baseballs from Cody Freeman, along with all of the signed cards: Ben Anderson x 5, Joe Corbett x 6, Trevor Hauver x 5, Scott Kapers x 4, Spencer Mraz x 5, TK Roby x 5, Chris Siese x 12, Josh Smith x 7, Owen White x 5, Aaron Zavala x 7 Luisangel Acuna x 4, Evan Carter x 6, Chris Siese x 12, Nicky Delmomico x 9 and Danny Farquhar x 3 (94 autographs).

I had a great time, and it was even better because I could see some of the players who we saw last season and had gotten close to.  I wish Chris could have gone to the games, but he will have more time this summer when tennis is over.  Stay tuned to see the rest of the graphing I did this past week.

May 25-30 Graphing of Nationals at Wood Ducks and a Few Unlikely Autos

When we were planning to graph our next series of the Fredericksburg Nationals at Wood Ducks, Chris and I had no idea that some pretty big names were in town.  It took until Wednesday night to realize, but Bob and Bret Boone were in town watching Bret's son (Bob's grandson) play for the Nationals.  Bob Boone is also a special assistant in the Nationals organization, so his trip was also in an official capacity.

Bob Boone was really cool, every time we spoke with him.  We ended up having decently long conversations with him each time we talked to him.  I even had him sign a ball, which I have already put away.  I thought it would be a good idea to get Bob and Bret on the above 2016 Topps Archives Father & Son card, with also adding Jake to it.  Maybe someday, I can add Aaron Boone to the card.

I was able to get a nice assortment of Boone cards signed.  He was really friendly, which led to some nice conversation.  He is very opinionated, but was cool about it.  When I had asked him to sign my ball, I asked him for an inscription related to what we had chatted about the day before, but he said no, smiled and laughed.  It was really cool, though.

I was glad to get all of the cards I found signed, because I didn't realize Boone was there until Wednesday night.  I stayed up til 1:30 in the morning Thursday morning trying to locate cards.  I finally found a decent assortment in my to-be-TTMed box next to my Bret Boones.  I should have looked there first.

I got some nice Bret Boone cards signed.  I didn't do an extensive search for his stuff.  I had put a few aside a while back to send to a private signing that I ended up missing.  It turned out well, as I got quite a few of them done, and they all look great.  Chris got Bret first, and Bret told him it was his first time signing in a park as a fan.  Bret told me that he actually had played at Grainger Stadium when he was on the Peninsula team a long time ago.

In my planning for this series, I was able to find a 1990 CMC AAA in a box that my mom had given me.  I went to Sportlots to find some other cards of Pat Rice, and Jorge Mejia.  I was lucky to find a 2008 Bowman Chrome Mario Lisson in my boxes.

These three 2004 Bowman Jorge Mejias were really nice.  I had to order them.  The blue chrome in the middle was actually in one of those Topps sealed cases that I had to take apart to get the card out.  I think I paid a quarter for the card, so the case will be a shipper in the future.

Mitchell Parker pitched great in this series, even coming out after 6 no hit innings in his last start.  He had reached a pitch count.  He was super nice and signed everything we had.

I had found this Jeremy De La Rosa card in my 2021 Bowman box, so I was glad to get it signed.  I got another signed for a 50/50.

I finally got my 2019 Hickory team set card signed by Abdiel Mendoza.  My friend Gerard sent me two 2020 Bowman First Edition Tekoah Robys, so I was able to keep one.  Also, Thomas Saggese (pronounced Suh-Jay-See) was brought up, and he signed the one card we had.

Finally, I got these three 2019 Bowman Chrome parallels signed by our buddy, Mason Englert.  He had a rough outing today, complete with an ejection.  It sucks, but he talked to us afterward and let us know what had happened.  It was unfortunate, but doesn't change our opinion of him.  Chris and I both really like Mason, and he has pretty much become our go-to Wood Duck this season.  We also had a great conversation with Cody Freeman today, who seems like a great dude.

We had an awesome time this series, and got some very unlikely autos.  I was glad to be able to chat with Bob Boone.  Now time to wait for the next series, against Kannapolis in 2 weeks.

In all, we got: Mitchell Parker x 27, Bob Boone x 11, Bret Boone x 6, Evan Carter x 6, Antonio Cabello x 22, Abdiel Mendoza x 2, Tekoah Roby x 20, Leury Tejada x 25, Thomas Saggese x 1, Jayce Easley x 1, Randy Florentino x 1, Jake Boone x 1, Par Rice x 6, Mario Lisson x 1, Jeremy De La Rosa x 2, Jorge Mejia x 5, Mason Englert x 5 and Steve Mintz x 2 (144 total autographs).