2024 National Paid Signer - Omar Vizquel

Back to the National for a moment, I paid to meet Omar Vizquel and finally get this photo signed of he and Chris at the last game of the Wood Ducks 2018 season.

I could have sent the photo to a private signing, but I wanted to see him sign it in person and hope for any kind of reaction.

I did get a reaction, which was cool.  He saw it and said "this looks familiar..." and laughed.  He then showed the picture to his handler, which was cool.  The signature looks cool in gold Sharpie.

I appreciated Vizquel coming to the National and signing.  His price wasn't too bad, which helped. I've now framed the picture and put it on my wall in my home office room.

Aug 31-Sept 3, 2018, Graphing of the Dash at Wood Ducks

The day has come where there are no more Wood Ducks games in 2018.  They ended the season in last place, one year after winning the Carolina League Championship.  Such is life in Minor League baseball.  With the turnover of teams form year to year, it is hard to sustain any kind of dynasty.  I accepted that a long time ago, and have continued to enjoy the games, whether the Wood Ducks are in first place or last.

During the final series against the Winston-Salem Dash, Chris and I hit every game.  We got a ton of cards signed, and almost finished up with everything we had.  I was especially happy to knock out a bunch of Omar Vizquel cards that I have had for as long as I have been collecting.  However, I was most excited about the newest Vizquel in my collection, the above 2018 Bowman Chome National Exclusive.  This will look awesome in my binder, and turned out really well.

A fellow grapher got my 1987 Topps 30th anniversary insert signed, which was nice.  The red paint pen actually does well on the card.

The series before (against the Pelicans), Chris and I met a kid Chris's age names Kolby.  Kolby is a grapher that comes to games, and he and Chris really hit it off.  Kolby is a really nice kid, and offered to help me get stuff signed.  So, he got a few Omars done for me during the series as well.

Chris and Kolby were the ones who called Omar over on Friday, and he signed for them.  On Saturday, they called him over, and he responded with "Whaaaat?  Oh, I signed for you already.  I remember you from yesterday.  It's the glasses..."  Chris now wears Rec Specs for baseball, and Omar recognized him.  Of course, Chris responded with "Oh, no, you've never met me before!"  Omar responded with "Oh, it must have been your evil twin brother."  Well, he signed for Chris on Saturday, anyway.  On Sunday, he recognized Chris again, and Chris told him "Yeah, and I'll be here tomorrow, too!"  So, before the game on Monday, Chris and I decided we would try to throw Omar a changeup.

We went to a local party store and picked up a 'disguise'.  Omar thought it was hilarious, and agreed to pose for this photo with Chris.  He also signed his card, as usual.  Omar will be in the Hall of Fame one day, but Chris will always remember "playing a trick on him."  I'm glad he has a sense of humor.

The Winston-Salem Dash are a stacked team.  The White Sox have a good number of prospects with the team, so that made for graphing them a lot of fun.  Nick Madrigal is a recent call-up to Winston, and I was abe to get everything I had done for him across the four games.

It was even more exciting to get Luis Robert on a few cards.  I got my three cards signed, and one for my good friend, Gerard.  Apparently, Robert is a pretty tough sig, but he signed for us three out of the four days.

I knocked out a bunch of my Blake Rutherford cards over the four days.  He signed 2-per for us, but we were able to get him before and after most of the games.  I hated bothering him so much, but he has a ton of cards, plus he was in the just released Carolina League Top Prospects set.  I got one for me, one for Chris and one for Gerard.

He also signed my 2017 South Atlantic League All Star set card, and some older stuff that I had.

No relation to the Diamondbacks World Series Hero, but Luis Gonzalez is a pretty decent White Sox prospect, nonetheless.  I got everything I had of him completed.  Chris missed his South Atlantic League Top Prospects card, so one must hope Gonzalez starts the season in Winston-Salem next year.

I got two other South Atlantic League All Star cards signed, by Mike Morrison and Kyle Kubat.  Also, Kolby didn't want the coach cards from his Winston-Salem set, so he gave them to me.  I got Charlie Poe and Matt Zaleski to sign these.

I found the top two Guillermo Quiroz cards in a dime box at the National.  The bottom was a leftover that Chris missed back in April, and of course, I got Kolby's team set card signed.

I had a couple Gavin Sheets cards that weren't here during the previous series.  I found the 2017 Bowman refractor at the National, and 2018 Pro Debut came from my box that I ordered.

 

Lincoln Henzman is another recent callup to the Dash that I had cards for.  This Elite Extra Edition came from the National.  I was happy to get a 2013 Perfect Game card signed, as well, since I still have a ton leftover from the 2017 National.

Alec Hansen was recently demoted to the Dash from AA Birmingham.  He only would sign one-per, but I was still able to get a few nice cards signed.

I got a few Spokane team set cards done as well, from the guys who used to be Wood Ducks.  Ti'Quan Forbes left in the Miguel Gonzalez trade, but he is still popular in Kinston.

Yeyson Yrizzari wasn't a Wood Duck for long, and was on the DL for this series, but he still traveled with the team, and signed my Spokane card.

Each of these Leody Taveras cards came from the National.  I actualy finished every Leody card that I had, which I didn't think would be possible.

The Wood Ducks made one last call-up to the team with Tyler Phillips.  He started the next-to-last game, and was available to sign the last game.  I had two Hickory team set cards, and a Spokane card, so I was able to get those done.

Thanks to a 50/50 from Gerard, I got this Ricky Tyler Thomas card.  I have one of my own, somewhere, but haven't been able to find it since he was called up to the Wood Ducks.  I imagine he will be here next season; plenty of time for me to find where I misplaced the other card.

They did an entire team signing session before the Sunday game.  I was able to knock out a few more Spike Owen cards.  I'm not certain he will be back next season, but if he is, I doubt I will push too hard to get anything of his signed.  We hit him a lot this season.

Finally, continuing with getting my close graphing friends on 1987 Topps checklists, I was able to get my good friend, Jackson, on one.  He has an amazing autograph that he has been practicing for years.  I somewhat helped him get a job with the Wood Ducks this season.  I enjoyed him coming and sitting next to me at the ends of the games once his on-field promotions duties were over.

With that being the last series of the season, I recently counted up how many games I had attended, and how many autographs Chris and I obtained.  By my rough potato math, I counted that I attended 45 baseball games this summer.  That includes 39 MiLB (31 Wood Ducks), 2 MLB, 1 independent, 1 exhibition, 1 All Star and 1 college games.  We amassed 2,055 autographs on cards (plus a couple photos, some balls and a Rafael Palmeiro bat) between the January 9 Hot Stove Event, Orioles Fan Fest and all of the aforementioned games.  This doesn't include the autographs I got at the National.

May 18-20 Graphing of Dash at Wood Ducks

After my almost month-long break from Wood Ducks games, I hit Grainger Stadium hard the last week by weeing three different teams, and getting a ton of cards signed.  During the three-game series against the Winston-Salem Dash between May 18  and 20, I was able to get quite a lot done.

Chris and I caught all three games, even though the Saturday game was rained out.  It was pushed to Sunday, where we were able to see a double header.

I finished up a bunch of 50/50s, and am almost done with what I had gotten pre-season for the Wood Ducks.

I also am already just about done with new addition, Eric Jenkins.  I didn't have many of his cards as it is, but I got all of my stuff and most of the 50/50s done.

I missed Guillermo Quiroz during the last series with the Dash, but I was able to get all of the cards I had for him completed.

 I got Chris's Luis Basabe from the 2017 Carolina League Top Prospects set done.  I also was able to get Zach Thompson, whom I missed last time.

These two horizontal cards turned out really nicely, especially since I kept missing this 2015 All-Star Basabe.

I added a few more Dylan Cease.  He dominated the Wood Ducks on Friday night.  I doubt he will be in the Carolina League much longer.

I had picked up a whole bunch of Blake Rutherford's cards in the offseason, and was able to get a few of them done, along with a bunch of 50/50s.

These two Rutherfords are probably the ones I like the most.

I was able to finish off these two Yeyson Yrizarri cards that I had from Hickory sets.  He was once a Wood Duck, but was traded to the White Sox last season.

I was really glad to add some Omar Vizquels to the collection.  I got his 89 Topps Traded RC signed, along with some other Topps issued, 1997, 2006 and 2009.

This 2006 Allen & Ginter Vizquel really came out nice.  I got a bunch of mine done, so next time I see him, I will be getting a few 50/50s taken care of.

These last two are of Anthony Gose and a 2018 Bowman Talent Pipeline Rangers card with Taveras.  My friend, Ethan, said he would finish the card for me.  I hope he can.

Graphing The Wood Ducks vs A Stacked Dash Squad

Whatever bubonic plague I was suffering from on Monday wasn't going to keep me from my goal of graphing the Winston-Salem Dash when they came to town.  This is the team that I was most looking forward to seeing this season, mostly because of their manager.  Future Hall of Famer, Omar Vizquel was named the manager of the Dash during the off-season, and I had to make sure that I got him on a baseball.

Because I was pushing for the ball, I couldn't present my book for him to sign as well, but luckily, CHris made sure he signed my two best cards.  I found both of these cards at the Chantilly show, and was so glad they turned out well.  I had bought a pack of Steadtler pens for the Bowman Hi Tex, but they didn't get here in time.  The blue Sharpie worked just fine, and I was really happy Chris thought to make sure those were the two he signed.

An unexpected highlight of the night was that White Sox prospect, Gavin Sheets, wasn't in the lineup.  So, while the game was going on, he had to wait by the fence to come onto the field.  While he was waiting, I chatted with him for a bit about his being in Winston.  He actually attended Wake Forest University, so it was a bit of a homecoming for him.  Sheets was really nice, and friendly.  He came back by at the end of the game and signed for us.

I had gotten Dylan Cease before, when I was at Andrew's last season.  He was with South Bend, and was traded.  He signed 2 per for us.  I really was glad to get a 2013 Perfect Game card out of my box.  I'll be sitting on a ton of those for a while, I think.

Micker Adolfo doesn't have much of a signature, but I was able to get him taken care of.  I also used up another card from my 2017 Carolina League Top Prospects set.

I finished off all of the Michael Matuellas that I had, which was nice.

I also took some custom cards in a 50/50, and they turned out great.  This Ledarious Clark might be my favorite of the bunch.

I got a good many of the customs done, but the other guy ended up with more (the guys who don't sign duplicates like Taveras).  I'll have a few to work on for a while.

In this series, I missed out on Dane Dunning and Blake Rutherford.  I wanted to catch a second game, but due to being sick, I decided I would stay home, get better and try again another time.

In all, I got Omar Vizquel x 2, Gavin Sheets x 5, Micker Adolfo x 4, TiQuan Forbes x 3, Luis Basabe x 4, Dylan Cease x 4, Michael Matuella x 7, Spike Owen x 2, Jonathan Hernandez x 2, Christian Torres x 2, Ledarious Clark x 2, Josh Altmann x 2, CD Pelham x 3, Anderson Tejeda x 3, Leody Taveras x 1 and Ricky Valencia x 2.

And I got a Gold Glove Award ROMLB signed by Vizquel.