May 7-12, 2024, Graphing of the Hillcats at Wood Ducks

This week, the Lynchburg Hillcats came back to Kinston to one per me to death.  I had picked up some cards off of Ebay of Wood Ducks coach, Jorge Cortes.  The above 2005 Bowman Heritage relocation card was a cool pickup that I was able to get signed.  Even Cortes commented on how cool the card was.

I had also gotten Cortes's 2004 Bowman and 2004 Bowman gold, along with a Hillcats team set card.

It turned out that former Wood Duck, James Jones, was in town as a roving instructor for the Rangers.  I got a couple of his cards signed, once I dug them out of my boxes.

The Hillcats were rough.  Juan Benjamin did one-per, so it took me some time and a little help from Jesse to get the cards i brought of him signed.  Angel Genao is now personalizing, but he was super nice about it. He seems like a really nice kid.  Ralphy Velazquez was hard to get a read on.  He seems genuinely miserable about being here one day, then super nice the next, followed by absolutely miserable again.  Who knows what the deal was.  I only had one card of him, so I didn't have to ask much of him.

The series was close all-around, topped off by a walk-off win in extras today.  We had a good time this week, even though graphing was a bit tough.

In all, we got the following autographs: Jorge Cortes x 4, Gleider Figuereo x 6, Alejandro Rosario x 3, Alex Clemmey x 6, Angel Genao x 7, Tommy Hawke x 3, Juan Benjamin x 3, Jaison Chourio x 6, Christian Knapczyk x 3, Ralphy Velazquez x 1, James Jones x 3 and Jose Pastrano x 2 (47 total autographs). 

April 4-7, 2024, Graphing of The Hillcats at Wood Ducks

The final Wood Ducks season started nicely this week, first with a meet the team event that i thought I was going to miss, followed by a three-game series against the Lynchburg Hillcats.  

I was out of town this week when the Woodies held an exhibition game against Lenoir Community College.  I was also supposed to be on my trip when the Wood Ducks were going to hold an open practice followed by the meet and greet, but weather postponed the event to Thursday, and I was back in time to catch it with my friend, Jesse.  We racked the Woodies who had cards, and I got a ball signed by 99% of the team.

The Wood Ducks that had cards were Gleider Figuereo, Danyer Cueva, Julian Brock, Chandler Pollard and Marcus Smith.  I also had a team set card of Thomas St. Clair that i picked up last season when he was in town auditioning to be a coach in the Rangers system. 

Before the season began, my friend, Ryan, informed me that former Oriole, Tony Arnold, was a coach on Lynchburg. I was glad to get another 1991 Crown Orioles card signed.

I had a few of my own cards of the Lynchburg guys, but did have to buy a few prior to the start of the series. A couple didnt even come in, in time.  Maybe when they cone back, the cards will be in.

I was glad that I got my multi-colored Tommy Hawke card signed that he sent back unsigned TTM.  My younger brother, Andy, came to town on Saturday and caught the game with us.  He actually went to the same high school as Hawke, so that was pretty cool. 

Jeison Chourio and Angel Genao were really tough.  I had some help getting extras of those guys signed.  Genao called out my brother Saturday by saying "I signed for you yesterday, I remember you." When Andy told him "I came down from Winston-Salem this morning", Genao said "Sure."  I guess Andy does look like me.  Oops.  It was still funny.

Ralphy Velazquez only has Elite Extra Edition cards, and one of my friends was reappy wanting his auto, so I dug out two of these 1994 Score Cleveland cards to get him on.  I figured that was good enough, and my friend is happy.

The very best part of this weekend was that Andy surprised me on Sunday by bringing my niece, Millie, to her first baseball game.  He was in the area this weekend to pick her up from her grand parents, who live on thr Outer Banks.  I thought they were going to make the hand off and he was going to head home.  Instead, he brought Millie to Kinston and she got to spend 7 innings at the game with Uncle Bill.  She did pretty well, and I hope she had fun!  That really made my day, today.

In all, I got the following autographs: Julian Brock x 10, Danyer Cueva x 8, Gleider Figuereo x 18, Chandler Pollard x 11, Marcus Smith x 5, Tony Arnold x 2, Jaison Chourio x 10, Angel Genao x 6, Christian Knapczyk x 13, Carlos Maldonaldo x 2, Jesus Moreno x 1, Brian Pozos x 1, Thomas St. Clair x 1, Alex Clemmey x 26, Tommy Hawke x 11, Jose Pastrano x 5, Alonzo Richardson x 9, Ralphy Velazquez x 2 and Jack Jasiak x 5 (146 total autographs). 

May 2022 Graphing Recap of Hillcats at Wood Ducks

This past series of the Hillcats at the Wood Ducks may be my most successful series graphing in a long time.  I was able to knock out a ton of cards, and helps several folks with 50/50s.  I took a few team bags of Carolina League coaches from my awesome friend, Max, and started him off right with a bunch of signed Omir Santos cards.  I really loved this 2006 Bowman Sterling that Max provided.

I had also ordered a few Santos cards off of Sportlots, and they came in just in time.  The 2006 Bowman Heritage that Max sent turned out great, along with the other cards I got signed (a 2006 Bowman, 2006 Bowman blue parallel, 2009 Topps Update Gold, 2010 Topps gold and a 2009 Bowman).

There were a few Hillcats players with cards, and fout of them had 2021 Topps Heritage Minors cards.  I added these four of Milan Tolentino (Milan is pronounced like the city in Italy), Carson Tucker (brother of Cole Tucker), Isaiah Greene and Yordys Valdes.

Tolentino and Valdes had cards in 2021 Topps Pro Debut (base), and both were landscape oriented.  The cards were very similar and I had mixed them up on my pages at least once.  

I actually had pulled the blue parallel of Greene's Pro Debut insert out of my boxes last year, so it was nice to get it signed and not have to buy one.

Greene was also in 2020 Bowman Draft and 2021 Bowman.  He was really nice, but very quiet.  His signature isn't much, but the cards are signed.  I can't complain there.

Milan Tolentino was the toughest of all of the players, and after all was said and done on Sunday afternoon, I had only two cards left over, and they were Tolentino.  They went back to Gerard, so he could try again another time.  I also was able to get Jake Fox on two new cards for the album; this is a different Jake Fox than the former Oriole farmhand who lit up Spring Training a while back.

I added a few new Guilder Rodriguez cards to the album.  This is a 2015 Topps mini that Gerard sent along.

Sharnol Adriana was the rover this week, and I got him on two Hickory team set cards.  He was helping out with hitting instruction this past week.  I also added a Guilder Rodriguez chrome refractor and x fractor from 2015.

The Rangers finally moved Cam Cauley and Ian Moller to the Wood Ducks.  Both were drafted last summer, and I have been picking up some of their cards.  I got a ray wave parallel of each guy, along with their respective Perfect Game cards.

My friend, Jesse, gave me a Teodoro Ortega card from the Spokane team set, and Gerard gave me a few more parallels of Dylan MacLean.  I also added some Mitch Bratt parallels.  Jesse hooked me up with a Junior Paniagua Elite Extra Edition.

Finally, here is the die cut parallel of Dylan MacLean's Elite Extra Edition that Gerard sent along.  I had gotten one of these done for him already, so this was my end of the take.

In all, I got the following autographs: Today's graphing recap of Hillcats at Wood Ducks: Maximo Acosta x 6, Mitch Bratt x 9, Dylan MacLean x 15, Cam Cauley x 14, Yosy Galan x 4, Ian Moller x 15, Milan Tolentino x 26, Leury Tejada x 12, Guilder Rodriguez x 13, Carson Tucker x 34, Omir Santos x 16, Yordys Valdes x 17, Junior Paniagua x 3, Bradford Webb x 2, Tucker Mitchell x 2, Isaiah Greene x 25, Sharnol Adriana x 2, Teodoro Ortega x 1, Jose Rodriguez x 1 and Jake Fox x 12 (229 total signatures).

A highlight of the series was meeting some fellow graphers who had traveled from the NJ/Philly area, Brian and Joshua.  I have talked to both of them for years on Instagram, and Joshua has read my blog for even longer than that.  It was really nice putting some faces with the names, and helping the guys have a fun and positive experience graphing at my home stadium.

July 10, 2021, Graphing Recap of Hillcats at Mudcats

A snap decision to take a look at the Lynchburg Hillcats while they were in Zebulon facing the Mudcats led me to almost missing getting several cards signed.  I had a couple guys send me Lynchburg cards to get signed as a 50/50 just in case I saw them, and I had some put aside from 2020 and 2021 Bowman.  I missed the guys I had pulled back in 2018 and 2019 and put aside in a Carolina League graphing box that I had put together.  Thankfully, about 15 minutes before we left for Zebulon, I remembered that I had that stash of cards.  I got them all prepped and into my snap case in time to leave for the game, then loaded them into my books for pre-game.  One of the cards was the above 2018 Bowman Chrome gold refractor of Lenny Torres.

The day actually called for a double header, and I came only armed with Hillcats cards in three books; me; my son, Chris and my friend, Tyler.  We were able to finish up everyone by the start of the second game, which was great, because it was super hot and humid out there.  We ended up leaving halfway though the second game since we were really tired and thirsty (and didn't want to continue to pay $6.00 for bottled soda).

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to finish off some of the cards, since this would be the only time I would see the Hillcats.  Luckily, none of the players limited, and we were able to see all of the ones I had brought cards for.  Daniel Espino was especially nice, signing everything that each of us had, and also carrying on lengthy conversations with each grapher he came into contact with.

I had a whole bunch of different Espino cards, and I was really happy with how they all turned out.

I was worried that I would miss Petey Halpin.  He walked by before the first game and said he would come back.  Turned out, he meant he would come back after the first game.  He did, and signed everything we had.

Finally, we were able to get Josh Wolf, who also was really nice, and talkative.  The whole group of Hillcats that we saw were all super nice and talkative.

We ended up getting: Espino x 21, Christian Cairo x 5, Petey Halipn x 4, Korey Holland x 3, Gabriel Rodriguez x 2, Lenny Torres x 6, Yordys Valdez x 3 and Josh Wolf x 10, or a total of 54 signatures.

July 2019 Graphing Recap of Hillcats at Wood Ducks

Running low on Wood Ducks card, I was glad that I got my 2019 Carolina League All Star and Top Prospects sets in from my friend, Michael.  Additionally, I was able to add Noah Bremer back to my autograph album, since he was activated from the DL recently.

The coolest thing about his card in this year's team set is that I actually own the jersey that he is wearing on the card.  Also, my dog is on the jersey, so my dog now has a baseball card.  When I asked Noah to sign this, I told him about the jersey, and he remembered me getting it that night, which was cool.

My friend John, in Texas, sent me some Frisco team set cards that I was able to get done by Jairo Beras.  Tim Brennan was called up from Hickory, so I got his card done; Diosbel Arias has an All Star card, and Bubba Thompson took care of his Top Prospects card.

I was able to get Yanio Perez on his team set card, as well.  Of the Wood Ducks left on this team (and not out injured), that leaves me with JP Martinez to get for my set.  The rest are waiting on returns from the DL, and the stack I sent out to John.

I had a few Hillcats that I needed to get, especially this relic card from 2019 Pro Debut of Will Benson.  Benson was one per, but he was really nice.  I had him sign this card first, and it looks awesome.

I also got these done, a 2019 Midwest League All Star card, 2017 Bowman Chrome and a 2017 Heritage Minors.

Oscar Gonzalez was in the Carolina League All Star set, and the Top Prospects set, so those got done.  Tyler Freeman was really tough but I did come away with these two cards, so I was happy with the results.

Justin Garza was really nice, so I got the die cut Elite Extra Edition and a Stars and Stripes completed.

Finally, I hit Juan Hillman for quite a few cards, but the only ones I needed were the Elite Extra Edition and Carolina League All Star.

Graphing Recap of Lynchburg Hillcats at Down East Wood Ducks

The Lynchburg Hillcats rolled into town a couple weeks ago, and Chris and I got a good many cards signed.  I was glad to get this Eric Ortego card signed, as it was the last one I needed for the 2018 Carolina League All Star set.  I missed Ortego last season when Lynchburg came into town, so I was glad he returned this season, and signed the card for me.

Nolan Jones was super nice.  He came out late the first game, but the next two, he signed all we had.  He had a rough game the second game.  After committing 2 errors in the inning, he was being heckled pretty hard by a local community college team.  Even after the tough game, he came over and cut up with a group of kids after the game.  It showed me that Jones is a good guy, and would be able to handle some of the tough crowds thart he would likely see when he is called up to the majors.

Juan Hillman was also really cool.  He couldn't sign pregame before the first game, but agreed to sign outside afterward.  He signed every single card that we had, and was really cool about it.

I was able to get some old cards out of my Donruss box and have them signed by Jim Pankovits.  I also got a 2013 Perfect Game card signed by Jonathan Teaney.

I got more of my Hickory and Spokane team set cards done.  I've almost finished what I can of the guys who are with the Wood Ducks this season.

The pitchers have been the toughest.  Since I don't see them all face to face each time, it is hard to recognize them sometimes.  They also don't always come by where we sit, so you have to be patient.

The Woodies have been playing really well lately, and I'm exciting to be getting back to my season ticket seats this weekend.

July 26, 2018 - Hillcats at Wood Ducks

With all of my National posts, I fell behind on my graphing posts.  So, here are some cards I got signed when the Lynchburg Hillcats came to town right before I left for the National.  I got a bunch of 50/50s done, and a few for myself.

The above Stars and Stripes Justni Garza was part of a 50/50 for Gerard.  I didn't have any of these, so it was nice to add one to the album.

I was really happy to get a few of these 2013 Perfect Game Micah Miniard cards signed.  Chris ended up with one, since I had several.

I was able to get a few 2017 Bowman Ernie Clement signed.  He was super nice, and ended up going on the DL right after I left for the show.  He has since been promoted to Akron, after playing only 33 games in the Carolina League.

Finally, I got a few cards signed by Leody Taveras.  He has been tough this year because he only signs one card per person.  So many people have asked me if I can take 50/50s of him, I finally had to start refusing stuff.

Graphing the Last Wood Ducks Regular Season Home Series

It has been a long Wood Ducks season, but as the calendar winds down, I have experienced the last home series of the 2017 Wood Ducks season.  This series was the only time that the Lynchburg Hillcats would visit Kinston, and I did my best to maximize my efforts while graphing.  I think by the end of the series, some of the players were tired of seeing us, but we were pleasant and friendly with them, nonetheless.

I took 50/50s from my friend, Gerard, and also picked up some cards to send out to my friend, Parker and his brother, since they are big Indians fans.  I had 4 of the above 2017 National Exclusive Bowman Chrome Triston McKenzie, and got them all done.  Parker, Hayden, my son Chris and I all will take one.

McKenzie was one of the nicest non-Wood Ducks that we met this season.  He graciously signed everything we had.  I talked with him each time he signed across the three days.  He pitched the first game of the series, and did really well.  The kid has a ton of talent, and I will enjoy seeing him progress through his career.  The purple Asia exclusive parallel isn't numbered.

I had a lot of different stuff of McKenzie. I really hope he of all people wasn't annoyed with us.  I knew we wouldn't see him again, as I have a feeling that he will rise very quickly through the Cleveland system.

Ka'Ai Tom was also really nice.  He helped me with the pronunciation of his name (pronounced Kuh-eye) and explained that the apostrophe in Hawaiian acts as a pause.  He was really cool, and I appreciated him signing for us and helping with my butchering of his name.  The purple Bowman Chrome refractor is numbered 147/250.

Between McKenzie and Argenis Angulo, I got two more cards signed from my 2017 Carolina League Top Prospects set.  I also added another 2010 Bowman USA card in that of Sean Brady.  He is almost unrecognizable with a full beard now.  Of course, he was 16 in this photo and that was a while ago.  The purple parallel (left) is not numbered and the blue (right) is numbered 67/199.

I got to say "Go O's" a few times to former Oriole, Kyle Hudson.  He also chatted with Chris and I about playing for Buck Showalter, and alongside Nolan Reimold.  Of course, he had great things to say about both guys.  This Hudson 2012 Topps Mini gold parallel is numbered 21/61.

I had picked up a few cards for this series off of COMC.  One of which was this Bowman Heritage card of Kevin Howard.  I really like how this card turned out.

I added a 2012 Topps from Hudson to my Topps Autograph Project.  The 2004 Howard is actually a Topps Rookies and Traded, so it won't count toward the 2004 base set.  The 2004 Bowman is actually a refractor, but the scan didn't pick it up.

Rigo Beltran was a really cool signer.  I had to walk across the stadium to the visiting bullpen to get him, but when I got there, I ended up chatting with him for about 15 minutes.  We talked about McKenzie's talent and then about former Frederick Key, Austin Hays, who is tearing it up in AA Bowie now.  Hearing Beltran's analysis of Hays was really cool, and I could talk to the guy about baseball all day long if I could.  I really hope to run into him again, as he was such a nice guy.

I did have a few Wood Ducks left over.  I almost missed recent call-up, Kyle Cody.  I had him in my 2017 Hickory set and also my 2017 South Atlantic League set.  He has been really good so far for the Wood Ducks and I don't think he will be in this league for long.  I imagine he will start next year for AA Frisco.

I finished up all of the 50/50s I had of Howard Johnson for my friend, Gerard.  I also knocked out a bunch of the ones I had remaining in my snap case.  I really appreciate how Howard has stopped and signed for us this season.

Johnson was a star when I first started watching baseball, so to have some conversations with him this season, and to get his autograph several times has really been awesome.  I plan on cutting back on getting him next season, as I really don't think there are any cards left of his that I don't have in my album.

I might possibly go to the Buies Creek game against the Wood Ducks next Saturday and graph one final time this season.  I am leaning heavily toward it, especially since Brett Martin is starting.

If I don't go, however, I will end today's graphing having had a grea time this season.  I enjoyed doing the 50/50s for my friends and helping others work on auto sets.  By my math, between the Orioles-Tides exhibition game to today's final home game, I have gotten at least 894 baseball cards signed.  I added up all of the numbers and was amazed by how many I had gotten done.  I, of course, had a lot of help and need to thank my wife, my son, my nephew, my brother Andy, Nikolas, Logan, Angela, Andrew, Max and Gavynn for helping me out this season.