BY: T.C. WINGROVE

On the second night of my work trip to Washington, D.C., I went to see the Frederick Keys play the Wilmington Blue Rocks.  I got to the Frederick area early (about 4:30) and was lucky enough to find a little baseball card shop nearby.  I have to plug the shop because the guy that worked there was really cool.  The prices weren’t the best around, but the personnel and atmosphere made up for it.  The name of the place was Burton’s Coins & Baseball Cards, located at 5831 Buckeystown Pike.  I opened a box and a few loose packs of the high number TriStar Projections and hit two triple autograph cards.  Based on those hits, I think it’s safe to say that they’re not searching their products.  That’s good to know in this day and age.

Anyhow, after my excursion to the card shop, I headed over to the game and got in when the gates opened at 6.  I have to say that Harry Grove Stadium is the crappiest minor league stadium that I’ve been to (not to mention one of the worst names—I don’t even want to mention the image that the name conjures up in my head).  The team shop is nothing more than a little booth with a very small selection of merchandise.  The food selection was very poor, as well (although, the buffalo chicken strips were good).  The one positive, though, is that from an autograph seeker’s point of view, this is the BEST stadium that I’ve been to.  The amount of access that you have to the players at this stadium is incredible.  You can literally walk up to their clubhouse door and wait for them to come out.  They have to walk right past you on the stadium concourse to get down to the field.  There are no ropes, ushers, etc. between you and the players.  You can just walk up to them and ask them to sign.  I literally set a personal record with the number of cards that I got signed at this game (well over 100).  Almost all of the players were really cool, with my favorite being Pedro Beato.  He is a really nice dude.  He took time to talk and sign for everyone…no matter how many things they had for him to sign.  I liked Freddy Deza, too.  I had one of his 2006 blue Bowman cards numbered to 150 or 250 or something.  He said he’d never seen it before, so I gave it to him.  He seemed really appreciative and signed everything I had.  He also asked me if I had anything else to sign!

My overall assessment on going to a Frederick Keys game—If your goal is to go and enjoy a baseball game, don’t bother.  You should find another stadium to go to.  If you’re going to get autographs, you better stock up on cards because you’ll probably be getting everything signed that you bring with you.  A picture of Harry Grove Stadium and the prime autograph areas is below.

BY: T.C. WINGROVE

I had a work trip to the Washington, D.C. area last week, so I decided to catch a couple of minor league games while I was there.  The first night, I went to Bowie to see the Bay Sox take on the New Britain Rock Cats.  I got there a little before the gates opened at 6 pm.  Once I got into the park, I noticed that there wasn’t a player in sight, which is a little unusual.  Generally when I get into minor league games at 6, the visiting team will still be taking infield practice.  Another kind of strange thing is that both clubhouses were out past the foul poles in left field (visitors) and right field (home).  ‘Graphing during pre-game was tough because no players came out until after 5:30 (and they came out from total opposite ends of the park).  This made ‘graphing solo a pain in the butt.  Although, I will say that having the clubhouses in the outfield helps with ‘graphing after the game because all of the players have to walk right by you.  If you don’t get a player before the game, you still have a good shot as they leave the field after the game. 

The first player I saw was Ryan Keefer.  I have to point this out because Ryan is a really cool dude.  He noticed the soccer jersey I was wearing and immediately shouted out “Man City!”  I was shocked for a couple of reasons: A) Most Americans don’t recognize soccer jerseys and B) He not only knew of Manchester City, but he recognized the jersey.  I went down and chatted with him for about 5 minutes about soccer and my recent trip over to London when I saw West Ham play.  I wish more people had Ryan’s attitude…he’s a genuinely nice guy.

OK, so back to the graphing…I did a lot of running around before the game and managed to get about 60 cards and a couple of balls signed.  In addition to all of the minor leaguers, I was also able to get Alex Cintron who was doing a rehab assignment that day.  I was bummed out before the game because Matt Wieters didn’t sign.  However, after the game he stopped and signed for everyone that was left.  He signed a ball and a couple of cards for me.  Luis Montanez also came over and signed after the game (he’s another I’ll give props to for being a really nice guy).

When it was all said and done, I ended up with over 70 signed cards and a few signed balls.  All in all, Bowie is a pretty average minor league experience.  The stadium is very mediocre and the ‘graphing before the game is a little tough because of the setup.  Having on-field access to the players after the game does help, though.  A map of Prince George’s Stadium is below.

BY: T.C. WINGROVE

Recently, I was lucky enough to have one of the most unique sports-related and autograph-related experiences I’ve ever had.  My wife (Tiffany) had to travel to Manchester, U.K. for work.  I decided to go over there so that when she was done working, we could have a mini-vacation in the U.K.  My parents also decided to come along because they can fly for free (my dad retired from Delta) and they have never been to Europe before.  On the Wednesday that we landed in Manchester, Tiffany had to work the entire day, so my parents and I had to find something to do.  On the Monday before we left, I was trying to figure out an activity and someone mentioned the British Open.  As I did some research, it turned out that the British Open was being played in Southport, which is only about 40 miles from Manchester.  I talked my parents into going over there with me for the practice round and it was a blast.  It was a complete pain in the ass to get there, but it was well worth the trouble. 

When we arrived, we got to ride on a shuttle bus from the parking area that was one of those double-decker busses that you always see in pictures of England (of course, this really excited my mom).  As we arrived at the course, we checked out the souvenir stand.  I saw some pin flags and decided to grab a couple for the outside shot that I might be able to get a player or two to sign them.  As we started to watch the players, it struck me how difficult the conditions were.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  The wind was gusting up to 50 mph and swirling in different directions.  We actually saw a couple of players go to putt their ball, only to have the wind start blowing it around the green!

Anyhow, after watching the players fumble around the course for about an hour, we headed over to hang out around the 18^th green and see if we could grab some ‘graphs as players came off the course.  I was delighted to see how friendly and accommodating most of the golfers were.  My mom and I both got over 20 signatures on our pin flags, including sigs from: David Duval, Nick Faldo, Adam Scott, Michael Campbell, and lots of others.  It was really cool to be able to do something like that with my mom and to see how excited she was as she got their autographs.  The only guy that was really a jerk was Greg Norman, which really disappointed me because I used to like him.  Not only was he rude to my mom, myself, and the 15 or so other fans that were there, he was really mean to an 8 year old kid, which really ticked me off.  He actually grabbed the kid’s autograph book to sign it, walked behind a 7 foot fence, and then threw it over his shoulder without looking back.  The book landed face down on the ground and the fall kind of messed the book up.  C’mon, Shark…if you don’t want to sign, then fine…but don’t ruin a little kid’s autograph book.  I definitely won’t be buying any more of his golf gear!  It was actually kind of fun, though, because it gave my mom & I someone to root against for the week.  Nobody was happier to see the grumpy old fart choke again than we were! 

BY: T.C. WINGROVE

On Wednesday, July 3rd, my brother and I went to see the Reds play the Nationals at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.  I’ve ‘graphed a few of the Reds’ games now and usually do pretty well there.  This day was another good one (in spite of a little bit of rain). 

We arrived at about 2:00 pm and decided to ‘graph the opposing team players’ entrance.  Generally, this is a good place to be early in the day because the opposing teams stay at the Westin downtown, which is only about a 5-10 minute walk.  Many players choose to walk down or take a short cab ride down to the stadium.  From 2-4 you can nab several of the players as they walk down or get dropped off on the Broadway entrance on the east side of the stadium (look for an open garage door with some ‘graphers outside of it).

If you decide you want to do the Reds, you need to go to the underground parking garage on the south side of the stadium (E. Mehring Way).  You can stand at the front of the parking garage and some of the Reds might roll down their windows and sign on their way in or out of the game.

At around 3:30, we walked up to the Westin and waited outside the team bus.  Several players signed, as well as Hall of Famer Don Sutton (who is now a broadcaster with the Nationals).  After getting our autographs, we headed to the Machine Room to get a bite to eat before the game.  (I would highly recommend this strategy, as the doors for the Machine Room open at 4 pm.  The food is good and you don’t have to fight the lines getting into the game.)

Once in the stadium, we ‘graphed the Nationals side for a few minutes and got a few guys to sign.  We also went over to the Reds’ side to get Brandon Phillips to sign the jerseys that we brought down (which we were able to do…Brandon signs before almost every game).  When all was said and done, we got about 30 ‘graphs, including: Don Sutton, Luis Ayala, Collin Balester (super nice guy), Joel Hanrahan, Odalis Perez, Saul Rivera, Wil Nieves, Felipe Lopez, Ryan Zimmerman, Brandon Phillips, and Gary Majewski.

I posted some pics of the ‘graphing areas below.

If you ever go to a Great Lakes Loons game in Midland, here is the overview of where to go for ‘graphs:

By: T.C. WINGROVE

I’m currently working on getting 2 complete sets autographed.  It has been a rewarding, albeit sometimes frustrating, experience.  I’m putting this post out there to see if there are some fellow collectors that might be able to help me complete them via: selling me the cards I need signed, doing 50/50’s (I send you two cards and you get one signed for me and keep one for yourself), or trading me for some autographs that I have doubles of (I have hundreds of signed items up for trade).  The first set I started was the 2006 TriStar Prospects Plus set.  It has 100 cards in the set and I have managed to get 93 of them signed.  Here are the ones I need help with:

11         Emmanuel Burriss

15         Jeremy Jeffress

38         Tyler Colvin

54         Brandon Wood

59         Roger Clemens (yeah, right!)

82         Angel Villalona

92         Troy Tulowitzki

The second set that I’ve started on is the 2007 TriStar Prospects Plus set.  So far I have 70 of the 100 signed.  Here is what I need:

5          Weathers, Casey

11         Heyward, Jason

12         Ramirez, Neil

13         Lotzkar, Kyle

14         Hamilton, Brandon

19         Runion, Sam

22         Schmidt, Nick

25         d’Arnaud, Travis

26         Burgess, Michael

27         Hagadone, Nick

28         Moskos, Daniel

33         Adkins, James

41         Payne, Danny

44         Roemer, Wes

45         Brackman, Andrew

49         Mills, Beau

50         Gilmore, Jon

52         Bachanov, Jonathan

54         Doolittle, Sean

60         Easley, Ed

64         LaPorta, Matt

65         Simmons, James

70         Poreda, Aaron

74         Vineyard, Nathan

77         Middlebrooks, William

80         Rasmus, Colby

81         Mather, Joe

85         Rizzo, Anthony

87         Romine, Austin

88         Mayberry, John

93         Cardenas, Adrian

95         Bell, Bubba

Again, I would love to buy or trade people for any of these autographed cards.  I have hundreds of items up for trade; here is my list of trade items.

BY: T.C. WINGROVE

Ever since I was a little kid, I have had a fascination with EPL soccer.  I’m not sure why, but I always gravitated toward Arsenal and the style that they play.  Recently, I watched the movie “Green Street Hooligans” and formed a small interest in West Ham United because, well, it was just a damn cool movie!

While I was in London for work this past weekend, I was determined to get to my first EPL match.  With Arsenal being out of town, I decided to scalp tickets (called “touting” tickets in England) for the West Ham United vs. Aston Villa match at Boleyn Ground (West Ham’s home stadium).   It was West Ham’s final game of the season, and I had been advised that it would be a particularly rambunctious crowd.  Since I love rambunctious crowds (almost as much as using the word rambunctious), I just had to see if being there is as cool as it looks on T.V.

Before the game started, the crowd was a lot of fun to watch.  In this video clip, the West Ham supporters were singing their ”theme” song right before kickoff (the song is an altered rendition of the old “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” song).

The game started out with both teams attacking pretty aggressively.  West Ham scored first on a free kick from just outside the 18 (below). 

Aston Villa tied the score a short time later on a well-placed shot from the left side that was tucked nicely past the diving West Ham goalie in the bottom right corner of the net (below).

At halftime, the game was level at 1-1.  In the second half, Aston Villa came out the aggressor and managed to score first, sending the Villa fans into a tizzy and the West Ham fans into angry tirades that questioned the manhood of aforementioned Villa fans (I think I heard the c-word that rhymes with punt more times during that game than I’ve heard in my entire life…literally). 

With under two minutes left in the game, and with many of the West Ham fans starting to give up hope, a great shot by Dean Ashton leveled the score at 2-2 and set off quite a celebration in the stands.  Almost immediately after the celebration subsided, the West Ham fans started a mocking chant at Villa about not going on the “European Tour” next year (Villa needed a win to finish in the top 5 of the Premier League, which would qualify them for next year’s UEFA cup).

While the game was a blast, the post-game festivities were really something to witness.  As we walked along Green Street after the game looking for pubs, we stumbled on the one that must have been the inspiration for the pub in the movie “Green Street Hooligans.”  (By the way, if you haven’t seen the movie, it’s a must-watch…and after going to a game, I have to say that it really captures what it’s like to be at a game…probably not the organized fighting afterward, though…that was a little hokey).  Outside of the pub, fans were drinking, chanting, and kicking balls all over the place—including in, over, and across the streets.  If you were unfortunate enough to be driving a car by, well…just check out this video clip.

We watched the revelry for about 15 minutes or so and it was all fun and games…until someone decided to stop their car and lip off.  Bad move, dudes.  They’re lucky that London’s finest showed up to bail them out of trouble, otherwise I have a feeling these two little field hockey stick-wielding boys would have been in really bad shape.  Check out what happened in this video clip.

And check out the remains of their car:

Moral of the story, if you ever see a “footie” match outside a pub in the streets of London, just give a wave and drive on as fast as possible…kinda like this guy.

I must admit that the whole experience has left me a huge fan of West Ham United football!!!

By: T.C. WINGROVE

Every time I go to a single A minor league game, it reminds me of why I love collecting autographs.  The players are always so friendly and the stadium layouts make them incredibly accessible.  Oldsmobile Park in Lansing is no exception.  I went to the Peoria Chiefs vs. Lugnuts game on Wednesday, April 23rd with my wife.  My primary reasons for going were to get Ryne Sandberg’s autograph (who manages Peoria) and to get the autographs of a few guys that I need for my 2007 TriStar Prospects Plus set.

We got there one hour before game time and Tiffany immediately jumped in line to wait for Ryno’s autograph (there were about 10 people in front of her).  Sandberg usually comes out about 15-20 minutes before game time and signs for 10-15 minutes (usually 2 or 3 per person).  While Tiffany was in line, I ran around and grabbed ‘graphs from the players.  In just over 45 minutes of ‘graphing inside the stadium, I got over 50 autographs!  Here are the signatures that I got:

Josh Vitters, 4 cards, 1 baseball

Josh Donaldson, 4 cards

Kyler Burke, 7 cards

John Tolisano, 4 cards

Mike McDade, 1 card

Darrin Mastroianni, 2 cards

Trystan Magnuson, 7 cards

Justin Jackson, 6 cards

Chi-Hung Cheng, 2 cards

Raul Barron, 2 cards

Kevin Ahrens, 9 cards, 1 baseball

Ryne Sandberg, 4 baseballs

I have to give extra props to one of the Lansing players, John Tolisano, as well.  John not only signed all of the cards I had of him, he actually asked me who else I needed and hollered (yes, I just said hollered) at them to come over and sign for me!  John, if you ever read this, thanks a ton!

For those of you that want to ‘graph at a Lugnuts game in the future, here is a diagram to show you where to go for autographs:

By: T.C. WINGROVE

It’s been awhile since my last post.  I’ve been quite busy with a bunch of through-the-mail (TTM) requests, filing all of the autographs from spring training, and trying to ‘graph at a few Tigers games and minor league games.  Speaking of minor league games, I thought I’d start sharing some of my experiences from the various minor league games that I attend this season. 

Fifth Third Stadium in Toledo is one that I try to make it down to at least 4 or 5 times every summer.  The stadium is fantastic (one of the nicest minor league parks that I’ve been to) and the baseball is usually very high quality.  Most of the teams that come through have a couple of highly regarded prospects who are fun to chase for autographs.  This past Sunday, I went down to see the Mudhens play the Louisville Bats (Cincinnati Reds affiliate).  Gates open one hour before gametime, so I generally try to arrive a few minutes before that.  Once in the stadium, I head over to the visitors’ dugout to try and grab some ‘graphs as players come out to warm up before the game.  See the image below for a detailed picture of all the autograph areas:

After the game, I usually head outside to try and grab ‘graphs from some of the guys as they are leaving the ballpark.  The picture above also details the areas you’ll want to go to for both Mudhens and visiting players.

On this particular day, I did very well.  I ended up with 34 autographs from the following players:

Justin Lehr, 2 cards

Gary Majewski, 3 cards

Adam Pettyjohn, 2 cards

Tom Shearn, 2 cards

Tyler Pelland, 2 cards

Jerry Hairston, Jr., 3 cards

Chris Dickerson, 1 card

Alvin Colina, 3 cards

Jolbert Cabrera, 2 cards

Jay Bruce, 5 cards, 1 baseball

Homer Bailey, 1 card, 1 baseball (side panel)

Scott Saurbeck, 2 cards

Andy Green, 1 card

Ted Power, 2 cards

Curtis Granderson, 1 ball

One highlight was Jay Bruce signing everything in sight.  He did 5 cards for me, and probably would have signed even more if I had them.  He also signed and personalized the sweet spot of a ball for me (he will usually only sign sweet spot if he personalizes, otherwise it’s side panel under the logo).  Another highlight, and somewhat of a surprise was the fact that Homer Bailey signed for a bunch of folks as he was getting on the bus after the game.  I managed to get a ball signed by him and I finally got his 2006 TriStar Prospects Plus card signed, bringing my total for that set to 86 of the 100 cards signed…only 14 more to go!

By: BRIAN SCHUMAKER 

On Sunday, I was at a card show with T.C. and decided to try my luck with the National Treasures football. I had watched several people open boxes over the past couple of weeks and they had hit some really nices pieces. This would be my first leap into the ultra expensive market,  paying $375 for this product.

The packaging is very nice. It comes in a wooden box with a tamper proof interior box that contains 7 cards. There is one (1) base card and six (6) Autograph/Memorbilia cards per box. Here is how I did…

Base Card Daryle Lamonica 83/100
Rookie Auto Jeff Rowe 6/299 (QB Bengals)
Emmitt Smith 3 piece jersey 21/25
Jack Lambert single color jersey 21/25
Hank Stram 3 color suit 94/99
Bob Waterfield Cut Auto 1/100
Redemption Rookie Signature Silver Non RPS Aaron Ross

For a product that carries an MSRP of $500, this is an awful breakdown. Having been in the hobby for a long time, I understand that not every box is going to be a home run.  However…this box couldn’t get a ball back to the pitcher in a little league game.  First off, they include a rookie auto of a guy that has NO CHANCE of ever playing (sitting behind Carson Palmer) and I am not sure that he is even on the roster anymore.  Then, I get single-color jersey pieces of Lambert and Smith. The two decent pieces I pulled are numbered to a ridiculously high 100. 

After doing a little research on eBAY, I found all the cards I pulled…and most of them don’t have any bids on them…They all started at $0.99!!! In total, I figure that I have about $40 in value out of a box that cost me $375.  It’s a horrible return on my money and it wasn’t even fun to bust the box because I had to see all that crap.  When you add to this that all the auto’s were on stickers (except for the cut auto) you get a very poor product value.  DONRUSS…YOU CAN AND SHOULD DO BETTER!!!

On our sports geekly scale, this product goes off the charts…I give it a -2/10…which is equivelant to getting gang raped in the prison shower.

Don’t buy this product, it is junk!