September 13, 2024, Graphing of the Revolution at Flying Boxcars

Last week was birthday week, so Chros and I took a little trip up to Baltimore for a Peark Jam concert on Thursday, September 12.  The day after, he and I drove an hour west of Baltimore and checked out the new ballpark in Hagerstown.

This season is the first season for the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars.  Their new ballpark is really nice, and it looks like Hagerstown is on a path toward affiliated ball again. 

I didn't have many cards on hand for the Flying Boxcars, so I did two Sportlots orders a week before we left.  One of the packages came in, and the other one was at the house by the time we got home.  The 2019 Topps Update showing Parker Markel was one of the cards I picked up.  The Yeudy Garcia at the top is one of the cards I had already, along with the 2009 O Pee Chee Manny Corpas.

Corpas was really nice.  He told Chris and I that we should make sure to get Markel as soon as possible, since he was about to retire.  Markel confirmed as much, but was super nice.

I got several 2016 Bowman Chrome Nellie Rodriguez signed that I picked up at the National.  I also cleaned out a few 2010 Pro Debut and 2010 Bowman Cito Culver cards from my box.

I had heard horror stories about how hard it was to graph at Hagerstown.  Chris and I got everyone we needed in the span of less than 10 minutes once the players started coming out of the dugout.  I treated it like being at the dugout in Durham; I put the book through the entrance in the netting and had no problems. 

In all, I got the following autographs: Manny Corpas x 4, Cito Culver x 4, Yeudy Garcia x 1, Parker Markel x 5 and Nellie Rodriguez x 3 (17 total autographs). 

May 4, 2024, Graphing of Revolution at Rockers

This past weekend, Jesse and I made the trip to High Point so Jesse could knock another stadium off of his list.  He also had never been to an independent league game, so that was new to him also.  Jesse turned me onto the above 1993-95 Cardtoons of "Frankie Violin".  I didn't recall seeing this card before, so when he showed me, I bought one to take to High Point to get signed.

Viola signed everything we had right before the game was set to start.  Once he hit the last card on Jesse's page, the rain started to fall.

We got the game in, though.  Viola ended up being ejected when the Umpires heard some chirping coming from the Rockers dugout.  Unable to identify who it was, he tossed Viola.  It was a bit of extra entertainment added to an already entertaining game.

I knocked out 10 cards (including the Viola) from my 2023 High Point set.  I missed Jeremy Rhoades, but he did start the game, so if would have been tough anyway. I forgot to look for him post-game outside.

We were lucky to get Kyle Barraclough.  He was picked up by the Rangers today.  I finally got the two Ryan Meisinger cards shown above signed.  I had been waiting to get them done for a while. I had been waiting longer to get Peter Solomon, though.  His 2018 Carolina League top prospects card had floated around my boxes since that season.

My friend, Gerard, sent some supplemental cards that I couldn't get in a pinch like the above 2019 Bowman green parallel of Evan Edwards.

Colin Moran was signed to High Point last Thursday, so I was able to find 8 of his cards before I pulled out of the driveway on Friday.  He signed for us twice, doing one per each time.

Jamari Baylor was the only York guy that I was able to get.  I missed Ethan Lindow and Will Stewart.  I'll try to get them sometime later this season. 

In all, we got the following autographs: Ben Aklinski x 1, Kyle Barraclough x 4, DJ Burt x 1, Evan Edwards x 4, Ryan Grotjohn x 1, Jamie Keefe x 1, Ryan Meisinger x 3, Colin Moran x 4, Neil Ramirex x 4, Austin Ross x 1 Peter Solomon x 8, Frank Viola x 17, Ryan Weiss x 1, Zander Wiel x 1 and Jamari Baylor x 8 (59 total autographs).