Rain Shortened Graphing

Last night, the Wood Ducks were supposed to play an exhibition game against Mount Olive University, but ominous clouds lingered well before the gates opened.  A storm was set to come through, but my son and I headed to Grainger Stadium anyway.  I had placed an order for some Wood Ducks cards last week on COMC, and they were set to come in yesterday.  Of course, when I got home after 5:00 from work, the mail lady was late, so I had to wait around until she came.  Luckily, she got here around 5:20.  Chris and I thrashed to get some baby powder on the chrome parallels, and head to the park.

We were able to get Jairo Beras on a few cards before it started raining.  The above 2013 Bowman Chrome blue shimmer mini turned out awesome.  It is numbered 196/250.  I love how it scanned.  I may seriously have to get some more of these shimmer parallels, because they really look great.

These two 2016 Bowman parallels look equally as nice.  Neither of these cards are numbered, but they look really nice.

We waited out the rain after getting Beras by picking up some food and eating dinner underneath an overhang and chatting with one of the park employees (who happened to be an Orioles fan - woo hoo a new friend!!) and checking the MLB At Bat app to see how the O's were doing (walk off home run by Mark Trumbo really made my night!).  Finally, the rain let up and we made our way back to the field.

We watched Brett Martin throw for a bit, while the PA announcer let us know that the exhibition was canceled.  Martin came up to us and signed everything that Chris and I had.

The best part about meeting Martin was that he remembered Chris's name from when we met him the night before.  He spoke with us for a while about how he liked Kinston and where he was from.  It turned out that he was a big racing fan and is into cars, so I plan on getting him a signed photo of my dad's drag car.  I think it would be really cool to hand it to him since he was so nice to us.  One phone call to my mom got this taken care of.

I'm excited, too, that Martin will be the Wood Ducks starter for their home opener.  I plan on cheering for him (and the other Wood Ducks, obviously) next week.  I am torn about whether or not I will be graphing the rest of the Wood Ducks cards that I have or do some Winston-Salem Dash cards that I picked up in the same COMC order.

Check back here often; I plan on posting a lot more items from the Wood Ducks and other minor league games.

TTM Success - Roberto Hernandez

I was really excited about this TTM success from Roberto Hernandez right when it came in.  It had some really cool cards included, which turned out really well.  The success was highlighted by this really cool 1997 Stadium Club Matrix card.  The scan turned out pretty nice, but the card looks amazing in person.

This 1997 Fleer Metal card is equally as impressive.  The scan didn't quite capture the signature, but it looks so cool, trust me.

It is hard to tell but the 1994 Upper Deck (top left) is an Electric Diamond, Upper Deck's answer to Topps Gold that year.  I also added a 1997 Upper Deck SP and two Topps base (1994 and 1995).

Finally, this 1993 Flair turned out really well.  It, along with the Stadium Club Martrix, was treated with baby powder before I mailed the cards away.  The baby powder technique works so well on Flair cards.  I have had a couple Chrome cards come back that still bubbled some, but over all, the power seems to be doing the trick.

Hernandez (b. 1964) played in the majors from 1991 to 2007 for the White Sox, Giants, Devil Rays, Royals, Braves, Phillies, Mets, Pirates, Indians and Dodgers.  He had a career record of 67-71 with 945 strike outs and a 3.45 ERA.  He had 326 saves in his career (16th All-Time).  He appeared on the 2013 Hall of Fame ballot, but didn't receive any votes.  His best finish in the Cy Young voting was 6th (1996 AL) and was a 2-time All Star (1996 and 1999).

I mailed ot Hernandez on February 27 and got the cards back on March 9, for a 10-day TAT.

Baseball is Back In Kinston

Since the end of the 2011 season, professional baseball has been missing from Eastern North Carolina.  The Kinston Indians picked up and moved to Zebulon, outside of Raleigh and assumed the team name of the Carolina Mudcats, who had relocated to Pensacola Florida.  I have missed having a minor league team close to home since Zebulon is about an hour away.

The Texas Rangers have stepped up and now own a Carolina League affiliate and have placed them in Kinston.  They are known as the Down East Wood Ducks.  While I don't care much for the "Down East" moniker, I do think the Wood Duck logo is pretty cool.  The team colors are also really nice, it seems that their jerseys will be green and orange.

The hats the guys wore today were tan with the Ducks logo, but they didn't have any of those hats for sale.  I picked up the black one shown above.  It is tough for me to don another hat other than my O's one, but I do believe in backing this team fully.  I hated when the Indians left, so I plan on letting it be known that I am happy that these guys are here.

They had a meet the team event tonight which coincided with their first ever practice.  This was open to the public, so Chris and I decided to head to Grainger Stadium and check the team out.

Chris tried his hand at "graphing" the limited amount of cards that we had.  We had cards of coaches Howard Johnson and Bobby Rose; and one Bowman Chrome card of Rangers prospect Michael O'Neill.  Above, you can see Chris chatting it up with Rangers prospect, Jairo Beras.  I ordered some cards of the Rangers prospects, but they haven't come yet.  I'm hoping they come tomorrow for the exhibition game against Mount Olive College.

They did a really good job getting historic Grainger Stadium ready for the season.  It is just like I remember it from when they were the Indians.

I'm really happy that the Rangers are the ownership group of this team.  That means that they have the capital to ensure that things are taken care of and can invest in the upkeep of the stadium, regardless of how ticket sales are going.  My hope is that ticket sales won't be a problem, but I'm sure that some days will be better than others out there.

The concession stands were open while we were there, so I went ahead and tried a hot dog tonight.  It was pretty good.  Not as good as the mac n cheese and crab dog, but I enjoyed it.

I was able to "rack" while I was at the event tonight.  I got coach Bobby Rose before the game, and talked to him a bit.  He was really friendly.  I also got Howard Johnson.  I was really prepared for Johnson,  I had a bunch of his cards to get signed, and had my auto book set up.  I did really well in getting stuff signed.  The above 1992 Upper Deck Iooss Collection card came out really well.  I had a silver Sharpie at the ready, and am glad it came out the way it did.

These two cards came out really nice, as well.  The hologram card looks so great in person.

I got these above cards taken care of as well.  The 1987 Topps was the card that I really wanted to add to the autograph album; some of the others were ones I liked, but that 87 had to get done.  Thankfully, I was able to pull it off.

Surprisingly, these are two of the only three Bobby Rose cards I could find in my entire card collection.  I went through a 4,000-count box at my LCS, and still wasn't able to find one.  He was really friendly, though, and I will have to pick up some more of his cards.

Michael O'Neill was the only prospect card that I was able to find, and I was happy to get this 2014 Bowman Chrome signed.  He is the nephew of former Yankee Paul O'Neill.  His wife and my sister-in-law are actually cousins.

Finally, I was able to get this pocket schedule signed by the entire team, sans coaches.  I didn't bring any baseballs, so this was all that I could find on such short notice.  It will looks really cool, and I will eventually have it framed.

Tomorrow, I have the exhibition game against Mount Olive College.  I hope to get a few more autos tomorrow, as I hope my COMC order comes in.

TTM Success - Doug Rader

I added some really cool older Topps cards with this success from Doug Rader.  Starting with this 1968 Topps, I had a few really nice cards that I sent out, and I am happy that I got them back.  I had read that some folks had sent cards to him, and didn't get a return.  I believe they sent to the wrong place, though.

I got another awesome airbrushed card signed (the 1976 Traded Padres card).  I also like the Astros jersey on the other 1976.  The 1974 and 1990 manager card also turned out great.

Rader (b. 1944) played in the majors from 1967 to 1977 for the Astros, Padres and Blue Jays.  He had 1,302 hits, 155 home runs and a .251 batting average.  He was a five-time Gold Glove Award winner (1970 to 1974).  He appeared on the 1983 Hall of Fame ballot, but did not receive any votes.

He managed the Rangers from 1983 to 1985; the White Sox in 1986 and the Angels from 1989 to 1991.  His career managerial record is 388-417 (.482 %).

I mailed to Rader on February 27 and got the cards back on March 9, for a 10-day TAT.

A TTM Success From Billy O'Dell and a Trade

I had already gotten Billy O'Dell via TTM a while back on a ball.  It was actually in 2012 while I was away at the National.  You can read that post and his stats here.

My purpose of sending to O'Dell a second time was because he is the only Oriole left in the 1955 Topps set that still signs TTM.  So, since I wanted to make sure I had an Oriole from each Topps set, I sent out a 1955 Topps for him to sign.

When I got my return, there were these two really nice signed post cards, but no 1955 Topps anywhere in the envelope.

I'm not sure what happened with the card, but I was happy to get something back.  The post cards are really nice.  When I posted them on my Instagram, a fellow Orioles collector commented that he had an extra 1955 Topps signed by O'Dell and was wondering if I could trade him something in return.

So, we worked out a deal that had me send him an Anthony Santander signed post card from Fan Fest and he would send me the O'Dell signed '55.  In the end, we are both happy and we both got what we wanted.

I sent to O'Dell on February 10, and got the post cards back on March 9, for a 27-day TAT.

TTM Success - Bruce Bochy

I have virtually stopped sending out baseballs TTM.  I learned the hard way that the only right way to do a baseball TTM is to send out an Official MLB baseball, and those generally go for $20 a piece, unless you can get a decent deal on a case.  China balls are worthless, and eventually, the autograph that you sought to get becomes a blurry mess (or fades completely).  So, I have jumped headfirst into sending cards TTM and haven't looked back.

That being said, I will send a ball from time to time.  If I am certain that the ball will come back (mail mine back, Jim Bunning!!), then I will send one out to a worthy recipient.  Hence, this Bruce Bochy success.

I mailed to Bochy on February 8 and got the ball back today (April 1) for a 52-day TAT.

Bochy (b. 1955) was born in Landes de Bussac, France, one of only 8 former major leaguers to have been born there.  His father was an Army sergeant and had been stationed there.  Bochy played in the majors from 1978 to 1980 and 1982 to 1987 for the Astros, Mets and Padres.  He had 192 hits, 26 home runs and a .239 batting average.

Bochy would, then, manage the Padres from 1995 to 2006 where he had a 951-975 (.494 winning %) record.  He led the Padres to the World Series in 1998, which they lost to the Yankees.  Bochy moved to the San Francisco Giants in 2007 and has managed there ever since.  He has a record of 838-782 (.517 winning %) and three World Series championships (2010, 2012 and 2014).  His overall managerial record is 1,789-1,757 (.505 %).  He was the Manager of the Year in the NL in 1996.

Bochy is a likely Hall of Famer when he decides to retire.  I figured I would be proactive and get a ball now, just in case.

TTM Success - Franklin Stubbs

My incoming TTMs have slowed down tremendously.  I have a ton out there pending return, they just haven't come in as steadily, for whatever reason,  That has helped me knock my stack down some, but there still are a lot more to post.  Taking care of this TTM success from Franklin Stubbs does help, though, since he signed a ton of cards.

I got another 1987 Topps out of the return.  I never get tired of seeing these come in.  There was once a time where I was trying to put my huge 1987 box off on anyone who would take it.  Now, I have really enjoyed getting these signed.  I don't think I will ever pursue anything close to a set, but it is kind of fun to see what all I can get signed from it.

Lost in some of my posts is my admiration for Topps Traded cards.  Starting in the mid 80s, they used a different card stock, and the fronts of the cards seem smoother (but not over-glossed or anything) than a typical Topps Base.  I feel like it helps the colors stand out more on some of them, and the autographs definitely stand out.  Maybe that's just me.

Finally, I got four other Topps cards signed (1989, 1991, 1992, 1993).  I had a lot of Stubbs cards to choose from, but I put the Topps Traded in, ahead of some of his Fleer and/or Donruss.

Stubbs (b. 1960) is a North Carolina native, born in Laurinburg.  He played in the majors from 1984 to 1992 and 1995 for the Dodgers, Astros, Brewers and Tigers.  He had 602 hits, 104 home runs and a .232 batting average.  He won the Wotld Series with the Dodgers in 1988.

I mailed to Stubbs on Februart 27, and got the cards back on March 9, for a 10-day TAT.