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).

Some Cards From Dugan

It took him a while, but my good friend, Dugan, sent me back cards that he had tried to get signed for me last season, and added a couple nice cards in the process.

I love the deckle edge Ryan Mountcastle card from 2018 Heritage.

The above Richie Martin patch auto from Leaf Trinity was really nice.  I didn't know this card existed.

Finally, Dugan was able to get two of the cards I sent to him signed.  Rain cut his trip short, or he would have been able to get a couple Columbia Fireflies done for me.  Oh well, I appreciate the effort.

Thanks so much for the cards, Dugan.

An Autograph From Ryan

My friend Ryan went to a Richmond game toward the end of the season and tried to get a few more cards signed for me.  They were playing Bowie, but the only autograph he was able to come away with for me was Ryan Mountcastle on this 2016 Bowman.  The card looks really nice.

Thanks for getting it signed for me, Ryan!  I can't wait to go back next season!

2017 National Card Show - Trade Night Pickups

One of my favorite things from this year's National was that a fellow Instagrammer hosted trade nights at a neighboring hotel for a couple nights after the show.  We made it to trade night for Friday and Saturday nights.  At the trade nights, I was able to pick up a couple nice Trey Mancini autos from a couple folks that I'll show with the rest of the Mancini suff that I picked up.  I also was able to purchase two different Bowman's Best Riley Pint autos from a guy named Phil.  He had the Pint cards because he used to play against him in local ball, but was ok with letting them go for cheap.

I believe I picked up both Pint autos for a total of $30.  I was really happy with that, and will likely hold onto both of them as I follow Pint's career.  I have shuttered my Sonny Gray side PC, since he is a Yankee now, and am likely to sell off all of those cards.  It will be nice to transition to another player who isn't an Oriole.  It also helps that I have met Pint in person.

Another fellow Instagrammer made a point to seek me out at the trade night and work up a deal for me to land this Cal Ripken auto from Upper Deck Sweet Spot.  This is a rare Sweet Spot auto that didn't fade all to crap, but the surface of the card itself is pretty jacked up.  The trader (TimHudsonfan) made a great deal with Max for the card, and I then bought the card off of Max for cheap.

Remember the lady I spoke about who helped me with Ron Davis?  Well, I had told her about the trade nights, and her and her boys showed up on Saturday.  It turned out that her oldest son was someone I traded with on Instagram back when I was first getting started.  We worked out a deal for another Trey Mancini auto, along with this Mountcastle patch auto.  We also discussed a future 50/50 since both of the boys are Indians fans and I will be seeing Lynchburg soon.

I also met a fellow Instagrammer (santiagosportscards) who has been following me for a long time.  We discussed an orange parallel that I had gotten out of my box of Pro Debut.  I was just going to give it to him, but he insisted I take this Jonathan Schoop auto, as well.  He also had a gold refractor auto Schoop from 2014 Topps Chrome.  I almost walked out of the trade night with that card, but he said he didn't really want to sell it.  So, I told him that he should keep the card, but let me know if he ever wanted to move it.

Finally, I got this graded 1987 O Pee Chee Barry Bonds RC as a throw in to one of the deals that I made at the trade night.  I can't remember who I got it from, but I figured I would pick it up since it was a nice RC that I didn't have.  Also, since it was a throw in, I couldn't argue about the price!

So, I know that if I go next year, I will definitely make time for the trade nights, if they are being hosted.  I had a great time and left with some really cool stuff!

Three Days of Graphing the Keys at Wood Ducks

This was the most anticipated series this season at Grainger Stadium for me.  The Frederick Keys were scheduled for only one trip to Kinston this season, and I made sure I was prepared to rack some future Orioles, as well as some Wood Ducks.

I made a few COMC and Ebay purchases so I would have some "different" cards for this series, and I also raided my Orioles PC boxes for some players who were on the Keys.  Finally, I picked up a couple team sets to round things out so I could get autos of some guys that I may not have been able to, otherwise.

This 2017 Bowman Chrome orange refractor of Josh Morgan was an Ebay purchase, and turned out really nicely.  The card is numbered 6/25.

I had help, of course, for this series.  I had my son, Chris, and my nephew, Jacob, helping out.  Their payment was a couple stacks of autos, once I completed 50/50s for my friends Gerard and Andrew.  Another Andrew from Instagram sent along a couple cards, as well, which we were able to get taken care of.

The above Jeremy Moore was a COMC pickup.  He even asked about it, "Why is this one orange?"  I explained to him that it was a factory set parallel.  This card is numbered 60/190.

These Ti'Quan Forbes came from COMC.  The red white and blue isn't numbered, but the orange is numbered 45/60.

Since the Wood Ducks aren't producing a card set this season, I picked up the 2017 Hickory Crawdads set.  Several of their players have already been promoted to the Wood Ducks, so I went ahead and got a few signed.

The cards are really dark, but they still turned out really nice.  I'm glad I was able to get a few of these guys, especially Shaq Matta.  He stops and chats with me briefly before every game, and always is smiling.

I also picked up a couple Aberdeen Ironbirds sets, hoping I could use some of them on the Keys.  I was able to get a few signed, which was nice.

A couple of the players were in multiple sets, so I was able to get a couple different cards signed, Like Ricardo Andujar.

Andujar was a New York-Penn League All Star in 2015, so this card is pretty cool.  I like how he signed it, as well.

Believe it or not, I began looking up team sets because I wanted cards of Alexander Wells and Austin Hays.  I got those guys, but they aren't with the Keys.  The Keys guys were a bonus.  I was happy to get an extra card of Keegan Akin to go along with the 2017 Pro Debut that I picked up at the card show.  His signature is really small and thin, but I like it.  He was actually the first auto I was able to get during this series.

Randolph Gassaway has been in the Orioles system for a long time, as evident by the 2013 Bowman and Bowman Chrome.  He has been playing really well, as of late, and may be on the Orioles radar, finally.

I figured that since Cody Sedlock was on the DL with a forearm strain (thank God it isn't a torn UCL), he wouldn't have made the trip to Kinston.  Thankfully, I was wrong.  We racked Sedlock.  He is such a nice guy.  He posed with the boys Sunday after the game, and on Monday, signed their photos.

I got a whole bunch of different cards signed by Sedlock, and took care of all of my 50/50s.

I even got his Aberdeen team set card signed.  On Tuesday, I wished him well, since I won't be seeing him anymore this season.  I hope he gets healthy and can contribute this season.  I am excited to see him progress, and he has two new fans in Chris and Jacob.

I had a bunch of Brian Gonzalez cards in my Orioles boxes, so I pulled all of them out and got all but one of them signed during this series.  They all turned out really nice, and will look so cool in my album.

Josh Hart is another player who's cares were scattered all over my Orioles boxes.  I was really happy to get some nice parallels taken care of during this trip.

The orange refractor is one of my favorite cards in all of the ones I got signed.

Hart is injured, and was another player who I thought I wouldn't be able to get while the Keys were in town.  I saw him come out onto the field right before the game started on Sunday, but I was able to get him post game.  He walked right up to me on Monday saying "You don't even have to ask me, I know what you want."  He then signed everything I had in my book at the time.  He was really nice, and smiled while signing.  I think he saw that my book was turned to his page (he must have recognized his cards), but my back was to him because I was answering a question for Jacob.  I turned around and there Hart was.  I thought it was pretty funny.

I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to get Ryan Mountcastle, mainly because I thought he would get called up before the Keys ever got to Kinston.  Luckily, he was still with them this week, and I was able to get every card I had of him signed.  He is one of the top Orioles prospects now, so I wanted to take advantage of my opportunity and get what I could done.  The cards will happily take a place in my album.

Mountcastle is in a bunch of different sets, so I had a lot of cards to choose from.  Trips to the card shop facilitated this venture as well, since Wendell has a few boxes of loose prospect cards to look through.

I actually pulled the yellow Mountcastle while I was in Illinois with Andrew.

He has some nice Bowman cards, so I was glad to get these signed.  The purple parallel turned out really nice.

I had a nice little mini PC of Alex Murphy that I started right when he was drafted.  The cards were in a box under my guest bed, so I went ahead and put everything in my graphing bag for this week.  I got everything signed, and am really happy with the results.  The green chrome is numbered 21/75; the silver wave is numbered 17/25 (and I remember it being from an early Instagram trade), while the rest of them are not numbered.

Finally, I used to not like seeing 1/1 cards signed, but since I spent the rest of the Murphy PC on graphing, it was only right that the printing plate end up in my album with the rest of its cousins.  It actually turned out really nice, and I am glad I got it signed.

Here is the stack of cards that Chris, Jacob and I got signed.  We got 129 cards signed, one photo each for the boys and I printed out a photo of Grainger Stadium and got 6 Wood Ducks on that.

During the final game of the series, Brett Martin pitched for the Wood Ducks.  He looked good out there, and is still working his way back to form from his back injury.  He took a hard-luck loss, with a few runs scoring on some fluke hits.  I think only two balls hit off of him were really squared up.  I made sure to ask each manager prior to the game for the lineup cards, and they both came through.  I think I will frame these and hang them up, instead of taking them to the games for signatures.

So, We all had a great time at the games, and my nephew has put together a graphing book that he can take with him to Winston-Salem Dash games.  I hope he sticks with it, because he seemed to really enjoy himself, and the stack of autos he is taking home with him.

I'd like to thank my friend, Neil, for the tickets to each game, as well.  The seats were great and we had an awesome time.