June 10, 2023, Graphing of the Blue Rocks at Grasshoppers

The plan this weekend was to go to Greensboro and do a little graphing while the Wilmington Blue Rocks were in town.  I was in the area for work and stayed the weekend at the farm.

I was lucky I had a ball and blue pen in my bag, because the first person I saw come out of the tunnel to the clubhouse was former World Series winning manager, Jack McKeon.  I got my ball signed, and it turned out pretty well, save for the J in Jack. 

When I left on Wednesday, I didnt check to see if Wilmington's roster had changed.  Brady House had been called up to Wilmington from Fredericksburg.  Of course, my House cards were left at home.  I did find a few at the LCS in Winston-Salem. In the end, House only signed one card outsode after the game.  He was pretty tough, but i was lucky enough to get him.

I didn't have a whole lot of cards for either team, but I made do with what I had.  I got every card I brought for Jake Bennett and Jared McKenzie signed.

I had my little cousin Ale with me, so he was able to get an extra Jeremy De La Rosa signed for me.  De La Rosa used to sign everything, but has gone down to one per.

I also didn't have much for Greensboro. I got everything signed that I brought for the Grasshoppers, which was nice.  The Blue Rocks won the game and I had a good time.

In all, I got the following autographs: Jase Bowen x 3, Thomas Harrington x 2, Robby Hammock x 1, Jake Bennett x 2, Jeremy De La Rosa x 2, Jared McKenzie x 2, Brady House x 1 and Jack McKeon x 1 (13 total autographs).

Another TTM Success From Jack McKeon

Even at 91 years old, Jack McKeon is still a very prolific TTM signer.  I had this 1974 Topps card of him turning up lots of times through my TTM box, it seemed, so I decided to finally drop it in the mail.  The card turned out great, plus it afforded me the opportunity to add a couple different 2010 Topps Franchise History cards to the mailer.

I have a bunch of these cards pulled so I can send them out, but have kind of stalled out in sending them.  I was able to get two of them out of the stack by sending to McKeon, so that was pretty cool.

I mailed to McKeon on December 14 and got the cards back on December 20, for a 6-day TAT.

Another TTM Success From Jack McKeon

We frequent the same restaurant, so it seems, so it was natural that I should try to get a few more cards signed by Jack McKeon.  I haven't run into him while I eat at the O'Charley's in Burlington, NC, but I have seen his signed photo on the wall.  I wonder if he enjoys the Louisiana Sirloin as much as I do.

I mailed to McKeon on January 7 and got the cards back on January 14, for a 7-day TAT.

TTM Success - Jack McKeon

I was able to add a really nice TTM success fairly quickly from former manager, Jack McKeon.  He lives in NC, so my request got to him pretty quickly.  I got the cards back 10 days after I sent them and was pretty happy with the results.

I have now added a few of these team cards with manager's signatures to my project.  They're a good way to get some managers who otherwise wouldn't have any cards, or they have cards in older sets that carry more of a premium.

I bought an assortment of 1970s cards from the Columbia antique shop and was able to use some of them in my TTM requests.  I bought them in bulk, so I got a great deal!

I was also able to find in one of my dime boxes, this 2006 McKeon.  I have very little 2006 remaining, since my box of extras tipped over when I moved.  The box fell out of the truck when I opened the door, and all of the cards spilled out into the curbside drain.  I wasn't too happy with that.  Luckily, I have still been able to find some of them, and have now gotten a few signed.  This one turned out nice, except the over-gloss caused the auto to bubble up a bit.

McKeon (b. 1930) managed from 1973 to 1975 with the Royals, twice for the A's between 1977 and 1978, for the Padres from 1988 to 1990, for the Reds from 1997 to 2000 and the Marlins from 2003 to 2005 and part of 2011.  He is best known for guiding the Marlins to the World Series Championship over the Yankees in 2003.

He had a career record of 1,051-990 for a winning percentage of .515.  I mailed to him on April 20 and got the cards back on April 30 for a 10-day TAT.