April 12-13, 2025, Graphing of Stripers at Tides

This past weekend a couple weeks of torturing myself with card searching and prep culminated into graphing two more AAA teams across two days.  It didn't help that work has been busy and I haven't had a lot of time to go through boxes.  I had Chris and Jesse here at the house searching boxes on Friday to get me ready to go to Norfolk for games Saturday and Sunday.

Chris had to work, so it was my buddy Jesse and I hitting the hotel Friday night.  Since Norfolk's game on Friday had been rained out, we weren't in a hurry to make the two-hour drive up there.  We found the guys we could find, hit the road and got into the hotel around 10pm.  I powdered the cards and loaded the books so we would be ready to do arrival Saturday morning.  The weather sucked; it was chilly and windy all day out there, but Jesse had a sweater and I remembered to bring a hoodie.

We graphed outside with a Norfolk grapher named Jeff.  We hit the Tides side on arrival with a couple tries at some Gwinnett guys, hit Gwinnett inside pregame and their side again outside on departure.

We were really hoping to get Alex Verdugo, who we got outside on arrival when we saw the second Gwinnett team bus come in.  Jesse Chavez signed for us outside on arrival, which was really cool.  I got denied by Sandy Leon (Hola Sandy) on arrival but he signed everything we had on departure.

James McCann was really nice as well.  He was one of the last players out on departure, but it was worth getting him on my Orioles card.  

Luke Williams was a bit tougher, but he did sign for us.  We missed several people like Luke Waddell, Jake Marisnick and Hurston Waldrep.

I had some nice Jesse Chavez cards, but missed one that was stuck behind other stuff in my slider box.  It was also good to finally get Chuck LeBlanc on my Frisco team set card.

There were a bunch of Tides guys that I needed on this trip.  We got really lucky to get Samuel Basallo and Coby Mayo at the same time outside.  The 2025 Topps insert if Mayo turned out great.  The Basallo I got done was from 2024 Bowman Draft.  Jesse helped me get a 2024 Bowman Chrome.

My 2024 Pro Debut Chrome gold refractor of Jud Fabian turned out awesome.  It was also great to get all of the Vimael Machin cards I had pulled for the Independent League last year done.  He is continuing to hit like crazy.  I hope he gets called up to the big leagues again.

One of the toughest cards that eluded me for a while was Triton, the secondary mascot of the Tides.  I finally got that one done for the 2024 team set.

Finally, Terrin Vavra's exclusive deal expired.  So, I was able to get several of his cards signed. His Topps Now card had a lot of miles on it.  This card traveled with me to the Orioles Caravan a couple years ago as a "just in case", then on to Norfolk last year as I tried to get some ink on it.  The card is finally signed an can now reside in the binder.

Jesse and I had a great time, catching 3 games as opposed to the two we originally had thought we would when we planned the trip.  The Tides went 1-2 while we were there but we got to see homers by Fabian and Mayo.

In all, we got the following autographs: Jordyn Adams x 2, Samuel Basallo x 2, Dylan Beavers x 4, Jud Fabian x 2, Coby Mayo x 2, Vimael Machin x 4, Corbin Martin x 12, Terrin Vavra x 4, Thaddeus Ward x 2, Triton x 1, Eddy Alvarez x 1, Matthew Batten x 1, Jesse Chavez x 5, Garrett Cooper x 1, Jose Devers x 2, Chuck Leblanc x 1, Sandy Leon x 9, James McCann x 2, Enoli Paredes x 2, Alex Verdugo x 2, Jordan Weems x 5, Luke Williams x 4, Livan Soto x 6, Carlos Tavera x 1, Luis Vazquez x 1 and Chandler Seagle x 6 (84 total autographs).

June 29 and 30, 2021, Graphing of Gwinnett Stripers at Durham Bulls

Because I had taken last week off, and the Wood Ducks were out of town, I decided to take some time and do a little out of town graphing.  I originally wanted to take a trip out of state, but with a lot of teams still restricting access to players, I went the safe route and stuck around Durham and saw the Stripers.

Chris, Ale and I met up with Dugan and Jackson to graph arrival and the games.  We did an awesome job, I think.  The 2020 Topps at the top of the post is a Jason Kipnis card, and it just so happened to have Phil Ervin on the card, as well.  They are both on the Stripers now, and I was able to get both signatures on the card.

We got Kipnis on a bunch of cards; he was super nice, and generally signed 2 per whenever we saw him.  I think Ale got him on 3 one time, but he was mostly 2 per.  I got some really nice cards signed by him, which was great.

Orlando Arcia was pretty tough; he avoided me until I popped the card I wanted (above, left, 2017 Bowman Chrome Rookie of the Year Favorites parallel) out of my book.  The card looks amazing.  Of course, he signed two cards for Ale; I should have handed Ale the two other cards that I really wanted to get done.  Oh well, I was happy with what we were able to get.

I did tell my friend, Gerard, that I was planning on going to this series, so he sent me a few cards for a 50/50; we got Yolmer Sanchez on his birthday, which was cool.  Jesse Biddle was super nice; Jackson had a really good photo of he and Biddle that he got signed.  He even gave a copy to Biddle.

I was really happy to get a few Travis Snider cards out of my boxes, especially the 2010 Topps National Chicle (above; top left).

Most of the players were one per, but a few of them signed multiples.  The one per made it tough to finish guys off, but I was happy with everything we were able to get.  Some of the Kyle Wright cards were really great; I enjoyed the two different Topps Archives Wrights that I got signed.

I felt really bad for Yoan Lopez; a panhandler came up to everyone as he was signing and berated everyone, including Lopez.  The guy was clearly out of his mind, so I had to move the boys away from the spectacle.

Matt Tuiasosopo signed the 4 cards I had, but I had to do two at a time, pre and post game.  After the game, he asked if he had signed for me before and that he wouldn't sign for anyone he signed for earlier in the day.  Before I could respond, he signed the two cards I had left and moved along.

We were able to get Luis Patino on some really nice cards.  I wanted to get him on one of the Bulls team set cards, but I was completely ok with him signing these instead.  I had pulled the 2021 Panini Diamond Kings; the other two came from a recent card show.

I finally got to see Joe Ryan and Shane Baz; the boys got Baz for me after the second game, as I was still on the Stripers side.  Apparently, I had just missed him when I walked over.

We got Vidal Brujan on a bunch of cards, which was great, since I just found out that he is about to be promoted.

We bought Durham Bulls team sets, and worked to get them signed while we were there.  There were already several guys in the set who aren't with the team anymore (Wander Franco).  Still, it was fun to get some signed.

I doubt we will finish the team sets, but it was nice to add the cards to the books and see what we could get done.

In all, Chris, Ale and I got: Victor Arano x 2, Orlando Arcia x 5, Jesse Biddle x 7, Ryan Casteel x 1, Johan Camargo x 4, Phil Ervin x 6, Nolan Kingham x 3, Jason Kipnis x 19, Travis Snider x 7, Yoan Lopez x 3, Tanner Roark x 3, Yolmer Sanchez x 7, Touki Toussaint x 3, Bryse Wilson x 6, Ryan Sherriff x 1, Ryan Goins x 4, Kyle Wright x 9, Jasseel De La Cruz x 2, Matt Tuiasosopo x 4, Shane Baz x 4, Adam Conley x 4, Vidal Brujan x 20, Wool E Bull x 3, Mike Ford x 2, Louis Head x 2, David Hess x 8, Dietrich Enns x 3, Tristan Gray x 3, Rick Knapp x 4, Nathan Lukes x 2, Brent Honeywell x 2, Chris Ellis x 2, Sean Poppen x 2, Josh Lowe x 11, Kevin Padlo x 9, Joe Ryan x 10, Brett Sullivan x 3, Kyle WIlson x 4, Brady Williams x 4, Luis Patino x 6, Drew Strotman x 6 or 210 autos total.