August 2019 Graphing Recap of Keys at Wood Ducks

The Frederick Keys made their last stop in Kinston on August 26-29, culminating with a meet and greet with the Wood Ducks team on August 29, since that was the final home game of the regular season.

During this series, I got everything I had of Cadyn Grenier signed, which turned out to be a ton of cards.

I had help from Chris and a few other folks who were at the games.  Grenier was really nice, but if you had multiples of the same card on a page, he would not sign more than one of them.

He also wouldn't call you out if you got him more than once in the series, which really helped.  So, I got a lot of stuff done, and also helped out a bunch of folks with their 50/50s.

I got cards from a couple different Delmarva team sets, along with the Carolina League All Stars from the Keys, and this season's Keys team set.

I really like this season's Keys team set, and was able to get a bunch of the cards signed.

Chris and I enjoyed talking with the Keys players, as always, and one of the best was Brenan Hanifee.  He was really cool the last time I saw him come through, and this time around, Chris was there, and spoke with him at length.

I was surprised at all of the team set cards I was able to get done.  I don't think I missed anyone, save for one Bobby Rose card from the Carolina League All Star set.

I was disappointed to learn a couple days ago that all of the coaches for the Keys will not be retained for next season.  While that may provide an opportunity to see some new faces coaching them, I liked Ryan Minor, and will miss talking to him next season.

I was glad to get a lot of these cards signed, so I won't have to keep up with many unsigned ones from the sets for next season.  I don't necessarily mind, as a lot of the guys will show up at Orioles Fan Fest, or be at other MiLB stops in their system.

This series marked the last home series of the Wood Ducks regular season.  I knew Chris and I would be out of town for the first round of the playoffs, so he and I treated it like it would be the last seried of the year.  Unfortunately, we turned out to be correct.  I am glad we were able to meet and greet the team during that last game.

May 12, 2018 Graphing of Delmarva Shorebirds vs. Columbia Fireflies

It's fun graphing stadiums for the first time, especially when you have no clue as to where the players come out, and how accessible a stadium is.  Luckily, I was still successful last weekend at the Columbia Fireflies game.  I had a ton of cards for the Shorebirds, since they are the Single A affiliate of the Orioles.  I probably took away from some future graphing of the Keys, but since none of these guys are guaranteed of advancing, I went ahead and knocked them out.

I was most excited about meeting Ryan Ripken, son of Cal.  He was really friendly, and chatted with us for a bit.

My friend, Michael, picked up an Aberdeen set for me last season, and a few of those guys moved up to Delmarva to start the year.  That afforded me an opportunity to get quite a few cards done.  One interesting note, Zach Jarrett is a fellow graduate of UNC-Charlotte, which I made sure to point out to him.  What I didn't know up until a week before the game was that he is the son of former NASCAR champion, Dale Jarrett.

Justin Lord, one of the Shorebirds coaches, was the first auto we got.  He was at the wall talking with his family and signed for us after I helped take a photo of his family for him.

I was able to get some older Aberdeen set cards done that I had been sitting on for a while.  I also was glad to get a few of my 2013 Perfect Game cards signed that I got at the National last year.

Matthias Dietz was really nice.  He had a pretty cool mustache going, and we talked about that for a bit while he was signing these cards.  I especially like the Maryland Flag jersey on the 2017 South Atlantic League Prospect card.

Finally, here are some of the other Ryan Ripkens that I got done.

I wanted to get the Fireflies postgame, but we were all tired from a busy day, so we left early (after 14 total runs were scored) and went out to eat.  I plan on going back this season and graphing with my brother.  I'm sure he would be up for some graphing...