April 6, 2025, Graphing of the Space Cowboys at Bulls

On Sunday, the Durham Bulls held a "meet the team" event in Durham prior to their game against the Sugar Land Space Cowboys.  Chris, Jesse and I made the trip and racked both teams.

A big reason I wanted to get to the signing was to try and get Eloy Jimenez on an Orioles card.  I got him on the 2025 Topps, which looks great and becomes the first 2025 Topps to get into the album. A couple came in TTM, but they haven't been scanned yet.

I spent hours on Saturday prepping for the trip.  It was worth it.  I cleaned out all of my Morgan Ensberg cards, along with several other players.

I was happy to see Jonathan Hernandez again; I talked to him about the Wood Ducks for a bit.  I had purchased several Sean Hunley cards, thinking I'd see him with Charleston or Bowling Green, but I missed him.  I cleaned all of those cards out as well.

Chris and Jesse helped me with some good Eloy cards. I also got Joey Krehbiel on his Norfolk card.

Coco Montes stopped to admire the 2024 Topps Finest.  He had never seen the card before.  The Tanner Murray was a pickup at the National out of a parallels box.  I was lucky to remember that I had it.

The 2014 Bowman Chrome Jamie Westbrook was a quick last-minute find.  I knew I had his cards somewhere. I saw that I had gotten him TTM a while back and his extra cards were sitting in the same spot on my other desk since 2021.  Kind of sad.  I was glad to get my Carson Williams 2024 Panini Prizm parallel signed.  It turned out nicely. 

I bought a few cards for the trip like the two 2022 Topps parallels of Cole Sulser.

In talking with Jonathan Hernandez about the Wood Ducks, I had him sign this extra Wood Ducks team card from the 2017 team set.  I had found this card in a random box here at the house.  It's possible it was Chris's at some point.

I almost sold this 2023 Bowman Chrome pearl parallel of Kenedy Corona.  I had gotten it thinking I'd see Corona with Fayetteville. I didn't and wasn't sure it would ever get signed.  I got it done on this trip and was really happy to add it to the album. 

Miguel Castro was really nice.  I was disappointed that I couldn't find his 2019 Topps Update card showing him as an Oriole.  I took what I could find on the trip and he signed everything.  The Colton Gordon was a lucky find in a stack of 2024 Panini Crusade that I happened to purchase.  The coolest find in the box of shame was the 2017 Buies Creek team set card of Nick Hernandez.  His 2017 Carolina League All Star Card was an ebay purchase prior to the trip.

The above Joe Thurston relic is numbered 001/100, which I thought was cool.  I was also glad to get my 2019 Midwest League All Star Card signed by Cesar Salazar.

We waited outside for quite a while to get the Sugar Land guys.  Their plane flight was scheduled to leave at 9pm and it was 4pm when we got outside.  We were able to get some Bulls on their side while waiting.  It worked out for us that we were able to maximize who we saw.

The 2023 Topps Update Astros Rookies card (signed by Salazar) is a black parallel that I was lucky enough to find in one of my boxes.  I was disappointed to see tonight that my buddy Max got a 2022 Topps Update card signed by Tanner Banks.  I could have completed the card but didn't think to look and see if I had one signed already.  Maybe I'll see Sousa again sometime. 

We had a great time graphing with some awesome weather. In all, we got the following autographs: Garrett Acton x 2, Dru Baker x 4, Morgan Ensberg x 9, Joey Gerber x 2, Jonathan Hernandez x 13, Sean Hunley x 6, Eloy Jimenez x 3, Joey Krehbiel x 1, Coco Montes x 4, Tanner Murray x 1, Eric Orze x 1, Joe Rock x 3, Connor Seabold x 13, Ian Setnour x 3, Chandler Simpson x 3, Cole Sulser x 2 Jacob Wagiespack x 1, Jamie Westbrook x 2, Carson Williams x 1, Miguel Castro x 9, Kenedy Corona x 2, Colton Gordon x 1, Nick Hernandez x 2, Tyler Ivey x 6, Brice Matthews x 4, Jacob Melton x 2, Nick Robertson x 3, Cesar Salazar x 4, Bennett Sousa x 1, Joe Thurston x 1, Brandon Walter x 14 and Blake Weiman x 1 (125 total autographs).

September 14, 2024, Graphing of the Tides at Bulls

When planning my birthday week, I realized that I hadn't seen Norfolk all season, and that they were going to be in Durham when I was coming back from Maryland.  So, Chris and I planned to hit Durham on Saturday, September 14 (my birthday) to do some more graphing.

We left Hagerstown Friday night and drove about an hour and a half south til I was too tired to drive any further.  We stayed overnight just past DC and got up the next morning to head to Durham.  I wasn't planning on doing arrival there, but as we were walking toward the stadium, we saw our good friend, Billy, outside graphing with two other graphers we knew, John and Jacob.  We got Daniel Johnson almost right away, so we stuck around and graphed with them, then went to get a drink to wait til the gates opened.

One of the highlights of this trip to Durham was knocking out several more Morgan Ensberg cards.  I got my steps in as I was following him when he signed, but we did knock out 10 more of his cards.  I also added one more card to my 2024 Durham team set in Michael Gomez.

Jacob Waguespack was easy to spot; he may as well have been wearing a name tag.  His shirt had his name on it, advertising his family's business.

I finally finished this 2024 Topps Heritage Mini Jacob Lopez.  I busted two boxes of Mini, and loved them.  Once the word got out on them, the boxes got tough to find.

I chipped away at my 2023 Norfolk team set while in Durham, hitting three coaches and Nick Vespi.

I hit all of the Garrett Cooper cards that I could find in a pinch, since I had sent him out for a 50/50 a while back.  I also had picked up a few of his cards while I was at a card shop.outside of Hagerstown the day before.  I also got a bunch of Corbin Martin done.  I found even more after I got home once I figured out where I had sat the hoard I piled up when I thought I'd see him with Buies Creek years ago (I was wrong, he was beyond BC by then).

Forrest Wall and Daniel Johnson cleaned us out, which was great.  There are still some Johnsons in a box somewhere around here that I had pulled for 50/50s, but I have no idea where I sat them.

Finally, here are a couple Levi Stoudt cards that I got signed.  He was a really nice guy and credit to the little kid who called him the wrong name, which Stoudt corrected and said "No, I'm Levi".  Thanks for the help, kid!

In all, we got the following autographs: Morgan Ensberg x 10, Michael Gomez x 1, Jacob Lopez x 1, Jacob Waguespack x 1, Samuel Basallo x 2, Buck Britton x 1, Garrett Cooper x 5, Daniel Johnson x 5, Corbin Martin x 12, Chayce McDermott x 1, Justin Ramsey x 1, Ramon Sambo x 1, Levi Stoudt x 4, Nick Vespi x 1 and Forrest Wall x 5 (51 total autographs). 

Jackson Comes Through With Ensberg

Morgan Ensberg wouldn't sign for me this season when Buies Creek came to Kinston, so I had to rely on my friend, Jackson, to try to get me some cards signed.  I had bought 8 nice Ensbergs, and hoped to get them all done, but I missed out.

Jackson got these two done right at the end of the season, so I was at least able to add two to my album.  I'll have to try the rest of the cards next season.

Thanks for getting these signed for me, Jackson!