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).

Autograph Care Package From Nick

With my TTM stack shrinking to a more manageable size, I can now try to get some signed cards that were from trades, care packages and 50/50s scanned and into my album.  The first one of these that I wanted to move was a small package of cards from fellow 1987 Topps set builder, Nick.  He needed some of the cards that I had (it may have even been a signed 86 Topps), and sent me these that he had gotten.  I love the above 2017 Bowman Trevor Rogers.  I had gotten him TTM, but that card was personalized.

Nick sent five 2017 Bowmans and three 2018s.  I am glad to add these to the autograph album.

With all of the cards that I am set to scan and post, I am going to fill up an album pretty fast.  I need to change my closet around to house all of these albums.  That may be another project that I do while I am off, if I am unable to travel where I want to this weekend.

Thank you so much for the cards, Nick.  I hope you like the one I sent you.

TTM Success - Trevor Rogers

There weren't a whole lot of TTMs that I sent this year to active players during the season.  The slow return of Spring Training TTMs is one of the reasons, paired with the continued tension regarding COVID restrictions.  Still, I sent out to a few active players during the season, and one of the best returns I got was from Marlins pitcher, Trevor Rogers.  He signed my 2017 Bowman Draft and 2018 Bowman and inscribed them to me.

Rogers (b. 1997) was a first round (13th overall) pick in the 2017 June Amateur Draft out of Carlsbad High School in Carlsbad, New Mexico.  He made his debut in the 2020 season, and now has a record of 8-10 with 196 strike outs and a 3.24 ERA.  He was an All Star this year and is a possibility to win the NL Rookie of the Year Award.

I mailed to Rogers via the Marlins stadium on April 14 and got the cards back on July 12, for an 89-day TAT.