September 13-14, 2025, Graphing of the Tides at Bulls

Graphing season is winding down.  My birthday week usually signals the end of the season is near, so I try to take some time off of work and cram a few games in.  I'll miss the final week of the mi or league season due to a conference, so I am working to get as much graphing in as I can.  Last weekend, I went up to Durham to see the Bulls and Tides for the final time this year.  Chris went with me to both games; Aidan met us Saturday and Jesse came with us on Sunday.

The Orioles sent a few guys to the Tides on rehab.  We missed Tyler O'Neill, but were able to see Gary Sanchez and Jordan Westburg.  The above Sanchez is a super thick card that I found at the National.  I have no idea what this card is, but it looked cool.  It was a bargain bin find that is now signed and in my album. 

I finished off several Tides team set guys, and a couple guys we didnt see the week before, like Colin Selby.  I got the last Panini Select card of Jud Fabian thatI found at the National signed.  I also got Gary Sanchez on a 2025 Topps, which has him in an Orioles uniform. 

I added four more Jordan Westburg to the album. I regretted later that I didn't get him on his 2021 Topps Heritage Minors card.  I'll have to try for that one another time.

We still struggled a bit in getting Bulls guys.  I did get Tre Morgan, which was nice.  He comes out the front entrance, so it's tough to catch him sometimes.

I finally got a couple Matt Thaiss cards out of the box.  He has been a bit elusive, but at least two cards are now out of the box. 

I got every Jesse Scholtens card that I had signed.  I also was able to catch Forrest Whitley outside.  He's another tough one.

Speaking of tough ones, Joe Boyle again has laid claim to the "second worst" experience. He's just not friendly, and this time, as he came out of the clubhouse (with only me, Chris and Jesse sitting on the bench), I asked him "Mr. Boyle, may we please have your autograph?" His reply was "No, not for you guys."  Ouch.  What a guy.  Anyway, he's nit going to steal my joy, as they say.

In all, we got the following autographs: Silas Ardoin x 2, Jud Fabian x 5, Billy Facteau x 1, Gary Sanchez x 2, Colin Selby x 6, Reed Trimble x 3, Thaddeus Ward x 2, Levi Wells x 5, Jordan Westburg x 5, Jonathan Hernandez x 5, Dominic Keegan x 2, Trevor Martin x 3, German Melendez x 1, Tristan Peters x 1, Brian Reith x 1, Jesse Scholtens x 9, Matt Thaiss x 2, Jamie Westbrook x 1, Forrest Whitley x 4, Logan Workman x 1, Jose Barrero x 1, Tre Morgan x 2 and Santiago Suarez x 1 (66 total autographs).

September 21-22, 2024, Graphing of the Sounds at TIdes

The final graphing trip of the season came last weekend when Jesse and I took a trip to Norfolk.  I wanted to finish off all of the stuff I had compiled all year for the Tides.  We met my friend Michael at the stadium on Saturday and caught arrival.  Another big reason to make the trip was to hit all of the Orioles who were with the Tides on rehab assignments.  I'd say we did pretty well. 

Trevor Rogers was good for two per most every time we saw him.  We waited for him to come out post game on Sunday, but Jesse and i missed him.  We got him whenever else we saw him, though.

My friend Ryan met us on Sunday and hooked me up with a couple Coby Mayo cards signed ce he got sent down on Saturday.  I wasn't anticipating that move, so Mayo's cards had been left at home in the Orioles box.  Ryan came through in the clutch and helped me out.  I also had a bunch of cards of somr Norfolk guys that my friend Max sent me.  Those all got done, as well.

We finished off all of the Samuel Basallos that I had.  He was awarded his GED while we were in Norfolk, which was a pretty cool moment.

I cleaned out all the Beavers in Norfolk.  I had a ton of Beavers cards, and handed off some to a group of kids who were next to us while we were sitting by the wall.  One free card brought a swarm of 7-8 year old.

Michael was kind enough to share this on his Instagram.  He changed it a few minutes later with the Foo Fighters My Hero in the background.  Thanks Michael.

The best part of the whole thing was that the kid I gave the first card to (his name was Grayson) yells to his friends "this guy gave me a character card." Another kid "that's not a character, that's a person!" Grayson "He's a character to me!"

Anyway, we didn't get many autographs pregame before the first game.  The real graphing was outside.  

Surprisingly, the toughest graph was Rip Tide.  We wanted to get him during the game on Saturday, but couldn't find him.  We got him by the wall pregame Sunday.  We still need to get Triton.

Jesse and Michael hit it off during the trip.  They bounced a lot of jokes off of each other (mostly at my expense), but it was a great time.

We started graphing on Saturday at 11am and finished around 11pm, then went on to Waffle House.  The waitress tried to convince us to go out and get some cake instead of our Texas Melts.  She was pretty funny.

As you may be able to tell, we got so many cards signed on this trip.  This was probably the best two-day graphing trip I've had in some time. There wasn't a single person we tried for that wr didn't get.

I finished off almost everyone, with very few cards needing to go back into the box.   For example, JD Davis hit everything we brought.  I had brought a few extras in case Michael needed them.  I inly had left overs of Trevor Rogers and a few of the guys who weren't there to begin with (Daniel Johnson, Matt Krook, Bruce Zimmerman).

I bought a Norfolk team set on Saturday so I'd have some cards of a few of the guys I didnt bring anything for.  I got almost everyone I needed from the set.

There may be 7-10 cards left from the set of guys, but they're ones who were gone from the team.

I had told myself in the days leading up to the trip that I wouldn't try to get Nashville guys.  I pulled some anyway, and got a few done.  I had to run from the home side to the away side to get Jacob Misiorowski on my 2024 Pro Debut chrome parallel.  Aside from almost having a stroke, I was glad I got it done.  I did the run again on Sunday and got him on the Pro Debut base card to finish him off.

In all, we got the following autographs: Justin Armbruster x 1, Samuel Basallo x 6, Dylan Beavers x 5, Garrett Cooper x 9, JD Davis x 33, Tucker Davidson x 4, Jud Fabian x 4, Shayne Fontana x 1, Maverick Handley x 1, Hudson Haskin x 4, Nolan Hoffman x 1, Adrian Houser x 7, Blake Hunt x 3, Buck Britton x 1, Corbin Martin x 10, Nick Maton x 4, Coby Mayo x 4, Mike Montville x 1, Ryan Mountcastle x 4, Alan Rail x 1, Trevor Rogers x 8, Ramon Sambo x 1, Colin Selby x 5, Levi Stoudt x 2, Kade Strowd x 3, Ramon Urias x 2, Brandon Young x 1, Nick Vespi x 4, Jordan Westburg x 2, Forrest Wall x 12, Easton McGee x 1, Jacob Misiorowski x 2, Mitch White x 3, Jon Medici x 1, Justin Ramsey x 1, Rip Tide x 2 and Brewer Hicklen x 1 (155 total autographs).

TTM Success - Jordan Westburg

Finally, my first TTM success from 2024 Spring Training came in, which was also my first signed 2024 Topps.  I sent out 50 TTM requests, starting early February, and a month later, one of the last ones I sent back in as my first success.  That may not be a good sign.  Every season, I tell myself that I'm going to send less Spring Training requests, yet here I am, sending out 50 again.  I had heard Jordan Westberg would be a good subject to send to, so once I got my hands on an extra 2024 Topps, it went in the mail.

Westberg (b. 1999) was a first round (30th overall) pick by the Orioles in the 2020 July Amateur Draft.  He made his MLB debut last season with 54 hits, 3 home runs and a .260 batting average. 

I mailed to Westberg on February 22 and got the card back today (March 4) for an 11-day TAT. 

May 2022 Graphing of Yard Goats at Baysox

With the Wood Ducks out of town this weekend, I decided to head to Bowie and catch a few Orioles prospects that I had missed in the past.  I had the above 2021 Bowman Chrome aqua shimmer refractor of Jordan Westburg that I absolutely wanted to get signed.  He signed it, even though it is personalized.  That doesn't really matter to me, except for one of the guys I was with took one of my Gunnar Henderson cards and said "I'll get him to sign it for you."  I told him that Gunnar would ask his name an personalize the card and the guy said "That's ok, I'll tell him my name is William, too..."

So, I let him take my 2020 Topps Heritage Minors Gunnar Henderson, and he proceeded to tell him "Oh, my name is Carl..."  Meaning, he personalized the card to Carl.  I told Carl, "Hey, it's no big deal, you can keep the card.  I have a few other of these, so I'll bring one next time."  Carl said, "Oh, no, I don't want it.  It's funnier if you have a card in your collection with someone else's name on it."  I would have much rather he kept the card, though.  To be fair, he's my friend's uncle, and he was fun to talk to about baseball during the game, and he did seemingly have a good time.  I just don't think he quite understood how I enjoy getting autographs and put a lot of time in preparing for trips like this.  To each their own, I suppose.

I finally was able to move several Adam Hall cards out of my box.  My Staedtler seems to be dying; the cards at the top were signed with the dying Staedtler and were in my friend, Alex's book.  The ones on the bottom were signed with a new type of marker that I found at Hobby Lobby.  The new marker seems to be doing really well and is substantially cheaper than a Staedtler.

I also was able to get a couple cards signed out of my 2019 Delmarva team set.  Dean Kremer was rehabbing with the Baysox, but he ignored us.  Hudson Haskin also ignored us pre and post-game.  We also were ignored by Zach Watson.

Speaking of Watson, I almost missed that he was on the roster.  While thrashing on Friday to find some of his cards, I found two Riley Pint cards that I had picked up from a dime box at last year's National.  I also had found the 2020 Heritage Minors Michael Toglia card while looking for some 50/50 stuff.  So, after the game, Alex and his aunt and uncle left; I stayed behind and was able to get the two Yard Goat guys I had cards of.  I got them outside, which was a lot easier than I remember from the last time I was in Bowie.

Personalizations aside, I had a great with with Alex and his family, and I would definitely go with them to another game.  Bowie is really easy to graph at, even if you have some guys ignoring you.

In all, I got Adam Hall x 6, Gunnar Henderson x 1 (I'm not counting Carl's card), Jordan Westburg x 1, Kyle Moore x 1, Drew Rom x 1, Joey Oriz x 1, Riley Pint x 2 and Michael Toglia x 1 (14 total autographs).