TTM Success - Derek Holland

Derek Holland turned out to be a bit of a tough TTM to get.  I had to send to him twice, and finally got this 2013 Topps back signed.  The ones I sent before this one have never come back.

Holland (b. 1986) played in the majors from 2009 to 2021 for the Rangers, White Sox, Giants, Cubs, Pirates and Tigers.  He had a record of 82-83 with 1,241 strike outs and a 4.62 ERA.

I mailed to Holland on March 8 and got the card back on April 28 for a 51-day TAT.

Another TTM Success From Sam McDowell

This 2001 Topps Archives card of Sam McDowell was in one of my boxes for quite some time.  I knew I wanted to send it out to him TTM, but I kept putting it off.  I finally put it in the mail last November, and it came back in April.  The card turned out great.  2001 Archives is a nice set, and there are several cards I'd like to send out or get done at some shows.

I mailed to McDowell on November 14 and got the card back on April 28 for a 165-day TAT.

TTM Success - Quinn Brodey

Here are some cards that I got back signed TTM from Quinn Brodey.  I was going through my old Bowman box and pulled these Brodeys to try TTM. 

He signed both a Bowman Draft and a Bowman Draft Chrome.  I don't mind that he signed them in black. I was just glad to get a couple out of the box and into the autograph album. 

Brodey (b. 1995) was a 3rd round pick by the Mets in the 2017 June Amateur Draft out of Stanford.  He played in the Mets system from 2017 to 2019 and 2021 to 2023, reaching AAA.  He had 350 hits, 36 home runs and a .229 batting average. 

I mailed to Brodey on March 28 and got the cards back on April 25 for a 28-day TAT. 

TTM Success - Ken Sanders

With all of my National and graphing posts lately, I have neglected my TTM stack.  I need to get the stack knocked down, so here's one of the successes I got back.  I got this nice 1971 Topps back from Ken Sanders.  The card turned out great. 

Sanders (b. 1941) played in the majors in 1964, 1966, 1968 and from 1970 to 1976 for the A's (Kansas City and Oakland), Red Sox, Brewers, Indians, Angels, Mets and Royals.  He had a record of 29-45 with 360 strike outs and a 2.97 ERA.  He led the AL in saves in 1971 (31).  That season, he finished 16th in the AL MVP race.

I mailed to Sanders on April 15 and got the card back on April 25 for a 10-day TAT. 

August 26, 2025, Graphing of the FerryHawks at Blue Crabs

With some PDOs to burn, I took time off on Tuesday to make a quick trip to Southern Maryland.  The Staten Island FerryHawks were there, with Pablo Sandoval in tow.  Chris wanted to see him again, and I was happy to oblige.

I bought a bunch of team set cards to bring along to get signed, and for the most part, I wasn't disappointed.  One of the cards I found was this Cards Against Humanity-style card of Brian McKenna.  He told us while we were sitting behind the bullpen at the game about why the card existed.  The team he played for (The Joliet Slammers) had been purchased by Cards Against Humanity, so each player got their own card.  He told me that the cards are pretty hard to find.  I agreed; I paid 10 bucks for it.  I'm glad it got signed, and that McKenna was cool.

I found some cool team set cards of most everyone. Also, there were a few guys with mainstream cards, like Eddy Diaz with 2021 Bowman cards.  My favorite from this group was the Long Island Ducks card of Tyler Dearden.  It's just a cool card.

Drew Maggi also had some mainstream stuff.  I had gotten him before, and he was easy to spot.  McKenna also had a Florence Y'alls card, which looks nice.

The card Sandoval signed was a Topps Archives card using the 1986 Topps design.

I found some cool cards of Jamari Baylor and Connor Overton.  The 2022 Topps Chrome Sapphire orange refractor turned out great.  I also finally got Andrew Thurman, who I had tried a couple times TTM and never got anything back.

Ethan Wilson was nice.  We got him outside pregame.  I hated bothering him, but he was nice enough to sign.  I also got my Myrtle Beach team set card of Jarod Wright out of my box.

Nate Roe was nice.  He liked how I had found some of his older stuff.   He pointed them out to another player who was nearby.  Also, Kolby Johnson was super nice. 

For the most part, Chris and I had a great time.  We ran into a very rude player while we were graphing outside after the game. I'm not going to give him any more of my energy.  Aside from that, we had a great time and the weather was beautiful. 

In all, we got the following autographs: Robbie Baker x 2, Mark Contreras x 3, Tyler Dearden x 3, Eddy Diaz x 7, Durbin Feltman x 2, Clay Helvey x 2, Kolby Johnson x 2, Trayson Kubo x 2, Drew Maggi x 3, Brian McKenna x 3, Christian Rodriguez x 2, Nate Roe x 2, Pablo Sandoval x 2, Matt Scheffler x 2, Kirby Snead x 2, Jamari Baylor x 7, Sam Dexter x 2, Connor Overton x 3, Andrew Thurman x 6, Ethan Wilson x 5 and Jarod Wright x 5 (67 total autographs).

August 19-24, 2025, Graphing of the Jackals and Boulders at Bird Dawgs

The last week of graphing at the Bird Dawgs for the season was last week.  There were two three-game series; one against the New Jersey Jackals and one against the New York Boulders.  I had been looking forward to the Jackals coming back because Jake DeLeo signed with them.  I got every DeLeo card signed the first game of the series, which was great.

I had gathered all of my DeLeo cards for my trip to see the Washington Wild Things this summer.  He had been released and I was stuck with my cards.  I was glad to get them all signed.

I picked up some team set cards for New Jersey and got those done.  The Michael Esposito cards got smudged when he signed prior to the first game.  I wiped two of them and got them redone on Wednesday.  Esposito commented how he had signed for me the day before, but I told him about them being smudged.  He came over and signed the two of them, but one got smudged again.  I gave up fixing that one.  Oh well.

I had also picked up several team set cards of some of the new Bird Dawgs cards.  They all got done during the Jackals series.

I got a couple more of the customs that my friend Josh made.  He corrected the "error" of misspelling Stephen Ditomaso's name.  

Jesse, Chris and I caught the last Bird Dawgs home game of the season on Sunday.  Several of the players came up to us after the game and thanked us for our support the entire season.  It meant a lot to us that they noticed that we were there the majority of the time.

During the week, we got the following autographs: Tyler Blaum x 1, Kalae Harrison x 7, Jackson Hicks x 3, Caden O'Brien x 3, Luke Trueman x 3, Jake DeLeo x 13, Michael Esposito x 6, Albert Gonzalez x 4, Joe Testa x 9, Jaylen Smith home run #6 signed ball and Stephen DiTomaso x 1 (51 autographs).

August 17, 2025, Graphing of the Sounds at Bulls

A couple weeks ago, I went on my own to Durham to catch the Nashville Sounds while they were in town.  I was pretty much by myself at the visitors dugout pregame, until a woman from Nashville joined me.  She was really good at identifying the players, so that was helpful in getting a good many of my cards signed.  My friend, Josh, ended up showing up and helped get a few extras done.  

I had picked up a few cards from the National, like the above 2024 Topps Chrome Oliver Dunn.  It turned out nicely.

I was excited to get Jorge Alfaro on several cards.  The 2023 Topps gold parallel was a nice addition to the autograph album. 

Alfaro signed for me inside, and again outside.  I knocked out a lot of different stuff, so that was great.

Daz Cameron did almost an entire page both times I saw him.  My green shimmer refractor 2017 Bowman Chrome (bottom far left) was another National pickup.  It was the first card that Cameron hit, and that was a good feeling.

Raynel Delgado (top, left) was really friendly.  He signed the one 2018 Bowman that I was able to find.  Oliver Dunn signed everything that I had.  Josh helped me get my light blue parallel from 2024 Topps Heritage (middle left) signed.  Eric Haase signed during the game at the bullpen.  That was really nice of him.

I happily added a couple more Freddy Zamora to the album.  He was nice when he came through a few years ago with the Mudcats.  I thought I had already gotten the 2021 Heritage Minors signed, but it looks like I hadn't.

Bruce Zimmermann didn't seem like he wanted to be bothered signing, but he did stop.  I can't complain; he signed two of four.

Finally,I got over to the Durham side outside after the game, almost too late.  We were graphing Nashville on their side outside, then the bus left.  When we got over to the Durham side, the only guys we could get were coaches abd trainers.  I had bought a 2025 team set; however, it was great getting the trainers.  They usually are the hardest people to get because they get to the park so early and leave so late.

In all, I got the following autographs: Jorge Alfaro x 6, Daz Cameron x 16, Raynel Delgado x 1, Oliver Dunn x 6, Eric Haase x 3, Jared Oliva x 1, Jeferson Quero x 2, Garrett Stallings x 1, Freddy Zamora x 3 and Bruce Zimmermann x 2, Tsutomu Kamiya x 2, Tyler Ladendorf x 2, Chrystal Rowe x 1 and Kris Russell x 4 (50 total autographs).