I Finally Finished a Set!

On Saturday, I received an autographed 2007 TriStar Prospects Plus card of Austin Romine as part of a 50/50 trade.  Now normally, this development wouldn’t excite me as much as it did on Saturday.  However, this happened to be the last card that I needed to complete my first ever set of autographed cards.  It took me  2 years to get all 100 cards in the 2007 TriStar Prospects Plus set signed.  It was a pain in the rear, but I was finally able to finish it through a combination of in-person collecting, through-the-mail requests, and trading with other collectors.  Thanks to all that helped me!

(Not) Getting Autographs at Cleveland Indians Games

BY: T.C.

I persuaded my wife to go on a one-day road trip to Cleveland with me on Saturday, August 1st.  First, we went to the National Sports Collectors Convention at the I-X Center in Cleveland.  This part of the trip was very cool, as it was my first trip to the National.  It was a bit overwhelming, and I couldn’t really look at everything in great detail because I knew my wife would have a limited attention span.  We were at the show for about 2 hours, which was mainly spent opening boxes and redeeming wrappers for the on-site redemption programs from Razor and Panini.  As long as my wife was opening packs, she was having fun.

Once we finished up at the National, we headed over to Jacobs…errrrrr…Progressive field to catch the Tigers vs. Indians game.  They open the gates in the outfield at 4:30 so you can watch B.P. from the stands.  They don’t open up the rest of the park until 6 pm for a 7 pm game.  This is very troublesome from an autograph collector’s standpoint it because you have no access to the players at all during B.P. (which is usually the prime time to snag some ‘graphs).  Once the rest of the park opens, you have to sneak down the base line and hope to get one of the players to come over after they are done stretching (which is always tough).  In the best case scenario, you might walk away with 1 or 2 autographs.  Other than Yankee stadium, this is the worst access to players that I’ve seen at a stadium.  If you’re planning on ‘graphing an Indians game, you better either go to the player hotel or stand outside the stadium and get them as they come in.  Once they’re inside the stadium, your chances are slim and none.

Getting Autographs at Kansas City Royals Games

BY: T.C.

Work took me to Kansas City this week, which worked out well because the Tigers were in town to play the Royals.  After flying in on Tuesday, I grabbed lunch and hit the Negro League Baseball Museum.  I would highly recommend it to anyone that appreciates baseball history.  They have some really interesting diplays and a neat video that was narrated by James Earl Jones.  The admission is only $8, and they have a pretty cool gift store, too.

I ended up arriving at Kauffman stadium around 2:30.  I wandered around the outside of the stadium and found a small cluster of ‘graphers.  I had actually corresponded previously with a couple of them on sportscollectors.net.  It was nice to be able to put some faces with the names. 

The ‘graphing outside of Kauffman is really good…one of the best MLB ballparks that I’ve been to from that standpoint.  Almost all of the visitors walk right past you to get in the stadium (there are two places they can enter from, which are illustrated in the graphic below).  Many of the Royals also park right out in the public lot in front of the stadium, which makes it pretty easy to get them, as well.

Inside the stadium is a bit tougher.  If you want to ‘graph the visiting team, you should enter the stadium when the OUTFIELD gates open at 4:30.  You can watch BP from the outfield until 5:30 pm, at which time all of the gates open.  Once it is 5:30, you have to hurry down to the home plate side of visitors’ dugout on the 3rd base side of the stadium.  There is a small place to stand on the right side of the dugout that accomodates about 3 or 4 people.  If you don’t end up in that spot, you will have to do “ball toss” over the dugout, or try to call players over from up the 3rd base line (which didn’t look like it worked very well).

Overall, I really like the stadium.  It is very spacious and has some cool ameneties in the outfield (mini baseball field & various games) for families and kids.  The fountains give it a great atmosphere, and the scoreboard is incredible!

The game itself was pretty painful from the standpoint of a Tigers’ fan.  Grienke pitched for the Royals and was lights out after giving up one run in the first.  It’s amazing to watch that kid throw pitches from 62 mph up to 96 mph from the exact same arm slot.  He really has it going right now!

When it was all said and done, I filled up about 1/2 of my Tiger team ball, with ‘graphs from: Magglio Ordonez, Fernando Rodney, Rick Porcello, Ramon Santiago, Bobby Seay, Adam Everett, Nate Robertson, Dane Sardinha, Gerald Laird, Jeff Larish, Ryan Raburn, Josh Anderson, Brandon Lyon, Zach Miner, Ryan Perry, and Curtis Granderson.

I also got pretty lucky and got several Royals on the way out, including: Billy Butler (x 3 cards), Mark Teahen (x 3 cards), Robinson Tejada (x 2 cards), John Gibbons (x 2 cards), Kevin Seitzer (1 card), Trey Hillman (x 1 card),  Jamie Quirk (1 card), Tony Pena (1 card), Frank White (ball), and Zach Grienke (x 2 balls).

Charleston RiverDogs @ Lexington Legends (5/13/09)

BY: T.C.

I had to go down to Kentucky for a wedding, so I decided to leave early to check out this game.  I was excited to see Charleston because of all of the guys that had major-issue cards on their team…not to mention Andrew Brackman, who was one of the last 3 guys I needed to complete my 2007 TriStar Prospects Plus set.  Another reason I was excited was to see Pat Venditte, the pitcher that throws with both hands.

The game didn’t disappoint, as Hector Noesi threw a no-hitter through 7 innings.  In the 8th, Charleston brought in Casey Erickson and he retired the side 1-2-3.  That set the stage for a no-hitter going into the 9th inning!  To make things even better, Venditte entered the game.  Pat retired the first batter, but disaster struck with one out in the ninth.  Ronald Ramirez, Lexington’s shortstop that is batting less than .200 took Pat deep for a home run.  DAMN IT!  Pat went on to get the next two outs without allowing a hit, so I got to see a one-hitter.

Before the game, I was able to ‘graph both teams with the help of my wife, my brother, and his girlfriend.  I ended up with quite a haul!  Here are my totals for the day:

Lexington:

• Jay Austin, 9/9
• Tom Lawless, 5/5
• Jordan Lyles, 5/5
• Ross Seaton, 5/5

Charleston:

• Mitch Abieta, 8/8
• David Adams, 8/8Abraham Almonte, 1/6, 1/6 (only one per)
• Carmen Angelini, 4/9, 3/9
• Andrew Brackman, 9/9, 6/6
• Dan Brewer, 5/5
• Brandon Braboy, 3/3
• Pat Venditte, 5/5, 1/1 (Signed 3 cards, his ESPN the mag article, and a baseball on the sweet spot with both hands)
• Taylor Grote, 9/9, 9/9
• Corban Joseph, 7/7
• Mike Abiso, 3/3
• Mike Lyon, 5/5
• Brett Marshall, 7/7
• David Phelps, 3/3
• Chase Weems, 1/1

Peoria Chiefs @ Lansing Lugnuts (5/5/09)

BY: T.C.

My wife bought me a partially signed official 1984 World Series baseball for Easter.  It is a great starter ball, as it already had autographs of: Sparky Anderson, Jim Campbell, Lance Parrish, Alan Trammell, and Chet Lemon.  Since ‘84 Tiger Barbaro Garbey is a coach with Peoria, I figured it would be worthwhile to make the trip up to Lansing to get my ball signed by him.  Barbaro was a VERY friendly guy and gladly signed the ball and chatted about the 1984 team for a few minutes with me.  Overall, the Peoria guys were great signers, with Josh Vitters being the only one that didn’t sign everything I had (he did sign 4, though, which is plenty).  Here are all of the ‘graphs that I obtained:

• Barbaro Garbey, 1/1
• Marty Pevy, 2/2
• Josh Vitters, 4/9
• Rebel Ridling, 3/3
• Luis Flores, 3/3
• Kyler Burke, 9/9
• Ryan Flaherty, 9/9
• Josh Harrison, 8/8
• Jeff Beliveau, 1/1
• Josh Whitlock, 1/1
• Chris Huseby, 8/8
• Aaron Shafer, 8/9 (asked to keep a card that had him & Dusty Coleman on it, which I gladly gave him)
• Chris Carpenter 1/1
• Justin Bristow, 4/4

Colombus Clippers @ Toledo Mudhens (4/17/09)

BY: T.C.

The Mudhens had a weird start time for a ballgame tonight (5:30 pm).  We got there at about 4:15 pm and they already had the gates open.  This is unusual becasue the gates don’t usually open until 1 hour before the game.  I’ll have to figure out if it was some sort of “weird start time phenomenon,” or if they are opening up gates earlier this year.

Anyhow, I accomplished my goal of getting Matt Laporta’s signature on two items (with the help of my wife).  The first was a one-of-one printing plate from the 2008 TriStar Projections set.

The second item was his 2007 TriStar Prospects Plus card.  This is the 95th card from the set that I’ve gotten signed…only 5 more to go!

I also had a cool experience tonight with Torey Lovullo and Rey Palacios.  Torey is the manager for Columbus and signed his 1989 Fleer card for me.  The cool part came in when Rey Palacios showed up in the crowd to say hi to Torey, who was an old teammate of his.  I got to talking to Rey and finally put two and two together that he was the other dude on the card that I had Torey sign!  Anyway, Rey, Tony, and I all had a good laugh when we figured out this little bit of serendipity. 

Here are the other autographs I came away with:

• Luis Valbuena 3/3 cards
• Jordan Brown 9/9 cards
• Andy Cannizaro 5/5 cards
• Wes Hodges 1/6 cards
• Andy Marte 3/9 cards
• Michael Brantley 1/9 cards
• Tony Sipp 2/4 cards
• Wyatt Toregas 1/1 cards
• Stephen Head 2/2 cards

Fort Wayne Tin Caps at Lansing Lugnuts (Opening Night 4/9/09)

BY: T.C.

I froze my butt off at the Lansing home opener on Thursday night.  The graphing was pretty good, though.  There were only 3 people doing the Fort Wayne side, so I was able to get just about everyone I brought cards for.  Here is what I came away with:

• Alexis Lara, 1 card 
• Simon Castro, 1 card
• Sawyer Carroll, 9 cards…and a smart-assed comment about eBay–which I hated becasue I have NEVER sold an autograph that I’ve gotten myself.
• Drew Cumberland, 5 cards
• James Darnell,  9 cards
• Nick Schmidt, 8 cards, I also gave him an Arkansas jersey card of his that I pulled, which he thought was very cool.
• Jeudy Valdez, 3 cards
• Allan Dykstra, 7 cards
• Blake Tekotte, 9 cards
• Dan Robertson, 1 baseball with “NWL MVP 2008″ inscribed

Spring Training Trip: By the Numbers

BY: T.C.

Since I’ve always been a math geek, I have always loved statistics…which means that I always loved seeing the “by the numbers” type of stories in magazines and newspapers.  Because of this, I figured I’d do my own “by the numbers” column for my spring training trip.  When it was all said and done, here are all the facts:

• Days in Florida: 10
• Teams I saw: 8 (Braves, Astros, Pirates, Reds, Tigers, Twins, Red Sox, Mets)
• Total cost of airfare, hotels, and rent-a-car: $954 (‘gotta love Priceline!)
• Cards signed: 446
• Balls signed: 29
• Total autographs obtained: 475
• Average cost per autograph: $2.01
• Autographs of Hall of Famers: 4 (Rod Carew x 2, Paul Molitor, Phil Niekro, Peter Gammons)
• Best inscriptions:
  1. Denard Span (“Human Highlight Reel” on a ball)
  2. Pat Neshek (“I should not have thrown that pitch!” on an A-Rod road to 500 HR card)
  3. Bill Virdon (“N.L. ROY ‘55″ on a ball)
  4. Tommy Hanson (“AFL MVP ‘08″ on a ball)
  5. Jimmy Williams (“Boston Red Sox 1999 M.O.Y.”)
• Top 10 Signers:

1.  Pat Neshek: 12 items

2.  Jason Heyward: 10 items

3.  (tie) Denard Span, Todd Frazier: 9 items

5.  Jordan  Schafer, 8 items

6.  (tie) Ryan Perry, Jason Kubel, 7 items

8.  (tie) Russ Ortiz, Jair Jurrjens, Brian Buscher, Johnny Gomes, Chris Speier, Ian Snell, Jeff Keppinger, Brandon Moss, Chris Valaika,  Kelly Johnson, Devin Mesoraco, Matt Capps, J.R. Towles, Drew Stubbs: 6 items

• First autograph: Gregor Blanco
• Last autograph: Donnie Kelly

2009 Florida Spring Training Tour, Day 9 (New York Mets @ Detroit Tigers)

BY: T.C.

My cousin and his wife flew into Orlando on Thursday to take their kids on a Disney vacation.  Before the trip, my cousin and I had planned on taking my godson (Caden), who is 4 years old, over to Tigertown to see a spring training game.  This day really wasn’t about ‘graphing for me…it was more about making sure that Caden had a good time.  We got to the game early and lined up outside the gate.  Our timing must have been perfect, because after standing in line for about 5 minutes, a couple of girls that work for the Tigers came by and asked Caden if he’d like to take the resin bag out to the mound before the game!  This turned out to be a really cool experience for the little guy.  He got to go out on the field with the players during the national anthem, and also got to spend a little bit of time in the dugout before the game.  When it was time, he ran out to the mound to drop off the resin bag.  Somwhere on his way to the mound, though, he forgot the instructions he was given on where to put the bag.  As he got out to the mound, he walked around it, trying to figure out where to put the resin bag he was carefully holding in his hand.  The crowd started cracking up as he walked up on the mound and looked around.  He finally just figured that he’d walk up to the pitching rubber and set it down there.  When he did this, the whole crowd lost it.  They were laughing and clapping for him–which brought a huge smile to his face.  Once he made it back to the dugout, he got some high-fives from the players and coaches.  He even got a baseball handed to him by Rafael Belliard (that he had Jim Leyland sign).

All in all, this day was a great experience.  It was spring training ball at its laid-back best.  I did manage to get a couple of ‘graphs (Donnie Kelly, Michel Abreu, and Fernando Martinez), but I really didn’t care.  Today was all about making sure that a little guy had a memorable experience…which he most certainly did!

2009 Florida Spring Training Tour, Day 8 (Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros)

BY: T.C.

My original plan on this day was to go to Viera to see the Nationals play the Astros.  However, after 7 straight days of driving all over Florida, I just didn’t feel like getting up early and making the drive all the way over to Viera.  Instead, I woke up and headed back to the Braves’ camp, which was only a 5 minute drive from my hotel.  The Braves were playing an away game that day, so I was hoping to get a couple of the stars that didn’t make the trip.  Unfortunately for me, most of the stars DID make the trip on this particular day.  There was one lucky occurrence, though.  This happened to be one of the days that Phil Niekro was in town as a guest instructor.  After spending a couple of hours there, I was able to get a few ‘graphs…including Phil Niekro on a ball!

Once I got Niekro’s autograph, I considered my day at the Braves camp to be a success (even though I only got a couple of other autographs).  I then decided to head over to the Astros’ camp to see if I could get a few ‘graphs as guys that didn’t make the trip to Viera left practice.  I ended up getting there just as practice was ending.  A lot of the Astros’ big guns stayed back (Berkman, Lee, Oswalt, Tejada), but they didn’t sign.  I did get a few ‘graphs, but nothing great.  Honestly, I really didn’t care that much.  I was ecstatic that I got Niekro earlier in the day!  Here is what I ended up with for the day:

Tim	Byrdak	Card	x	1
Mike	Hampton	Card	x	1
Tommy	Hanson	ROMLB	x	1
Latroy	Hawkins	Card	x	1
Jair	Jurrjens	Cards	x	3
Phil	Niekro	ROMLB	x	1
Russ	Ortiz	Cards	x	6