tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34214225940350581172024-03-12T21:56:40.285-05:00The Texas Graphing Chronicles<center>A 2013 career change put me in the DFW area, with a return to autograph collecting. Most of my posts will be on hounding and TTM'ing, with a few generic sports and life posts here and there as well. Welcome, enjoy, and please comment! Language may get occasionally salty. Deal with it.<br>Blog is on indefinite hiatus as of November 2020.</center>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.comBlogger250125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-72274565010014200722022-01-10T19:49:00.006-06:002022-04-08T21:14:47.109-05:00Roadie Time<p>UPDATED APRIL 8...</p><p>It's official. It's happening. And here's my schedule of games...</p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Friday July 22</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">AA Birmingham (CWS) @ Rocket City (LAA), 6:30 pm</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Saturday July 23</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">AAA St. Paul (MIN) @ Indianapolis (PIT), 7 pm</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Sunday July 24</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">AAA Columbus (CLE) @ Toledo (DET), 4 pm</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Tuesday July 26</u><br /></b>AA Harrisburg (WSH) at Akron (CLE), 12 pm</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Wednesday July 27 through Sunday July 31</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">National Sports Collectors Convention, Atlantic City</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Thursday July 28</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">DL Williamsport @ Trenton, 7 pm**</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Friday July 29</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">Hi-A Jersey Shore (PHI) @ Wilmington (WSH), 6:30 pm</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Saturday July 30</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">AtL Lancaster @ Staten Island, 6 pm**</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Tuesday August 2</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">AA Erie (DET) @ Portland (BOS), 6 pm</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Wednesday August 3</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">AAA Durham (TBR) @ Worcester (BOS), 12 pm</div><div style="text-align: center;">AA Richmond (SFG) @ New Hampshire (TOR), 7 pm</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Thursday August 4</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">AAA Buffalo (TOR) @ Scranton-WB (NYY), 6:30 pm</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Friday August 5</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">MLB Pittsburgh @ Baltimore, 7 pm</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Saturday August 6</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">AA Bowie (BAL) @ Harrisburg (WSH), 6 pm</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Sunday August 7</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">AAA Nashville (MIL) @ Norfolk (BAL), 4 pm</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Tuesday August 9</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">AAA Jacksonville (MIA) @ Durham (TBR), 6:30 pm</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Wednesday August 10</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">Hi-A Jersey Shore (PHI) @ Greensboro (PIT), 12 pm</div><div style="text-align: center;">Hi-A Bowling Green (TB) @ Winston-Salem (CWS), 7 pm</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Thursday August 11</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">AA Montgomery (TBR) @ Chattanooga (CIN), 7:15 pm</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Friday August 12</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">AA Northwest Arkansas (KCR) @ Arkansas (SEA), 7 pm</div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Saturday August 13</b></u></div><div style="text-align: center;">AA San Antonio (SDP) @ Frisco (TEX), 7 pm**</div><p></p><p>Anything with a double asterisk (**) is subject to change.</p><p>Draft League and Atlantic League may not be worth the time when I could spend it just relaxing in Atlantic City.</p><p>And I'll be seeing San Antonio in Frisco in May so I may not want to do it again when I can just spend Saturday arriving home and recovering.</p><p>There are three teams we'll see twice (Harrisburg, Jersey Shore, and Durham) and nine organizations where we won't see one of their teams at all. If you go across my whole life, after this trip I will have seen a minor league affiliate for every Major League team.</p><p>I don't know what all I will do on here related to it, but I do plan on doing video as much as possible at each stop.</p><p>17-20 games, 6000 miles on the road. I'm thinking 500 autographs is a pretty solid goal for it, not including what I purchase at the National-- just IP graphs. In 2018, I set a goal of 300 and got 343 across 12 games (and 574 including purchases). 500 is doable across this (that's 25 per game), especially if I do some custom 4x6 photos and grab team sets.</p>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-76265263482139387852021-10-07T17:47:00.005-05:002021-10-14T12:05:19.993-05:00A Return?<p> Nah, just an announcement. Maybe next summer though.</p><p>So in 2018 you may remember I went on <a href="http://dfwautographs.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-national-final.html">a roadtrip to the National</a> when it was in Cleveland. And I've been planning on going to the 2022 show as well. Even though it was moved from Cleveland when it appeared the <a href="http://dfwautographs.blogspot.com/2020/09/oh-shit-no.html">IX Center was closing</a> (spoiler alert: it's not anymore!) and <a href="http://dfwautographs.blogspot.com/2020/10/so-atlantic-city-it-is.html">moved to Atlantic City</a>, I'm still planning on repeating the trip with Arron, but a week longer this time.</p><p>Yes, it's officially on.</p><p>The affiliated minor league schedules have dropped, and here's what we're looking at potentially doing...</p><p>FRIDAY JULY 22: Birmingham Barons at Rocket City Trash Pandas<br />SATURDAY JULY 23: St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds or St. Paul Saints at Indianapolis Indians<br />SUNDAY JULY 24: Columbus Clippers at Toledo Mud Hens or Erie Seawolves at Akron Rubber Ducks<br />MONDAY JULY 25: Off Day at Cedar Point<br />TUESDAY JULY 26: Reading Fightin' Phils at Erie Seawolves<br />WEDNESDAY JULY 27: National<br />THURSDAY JULY 28: National; indy league?<br />FRIDAY JULY 29: National; Jersey Shore Blue Claws at Wilmington Blue Rocks<br />SATURDAY JULY 30: National; indy league?<br />SUNDAY JULY 31: National; indy league?<br />MONDAY AUGUST 1: Off Day at Baseball Hall of Fame<br />TUESDAY AUGUST 2: Durham Bulls at Worcester Red Sox, Richmond Flying Squirrels at New Hampshire Fisher Cats, or Erie Seawolves at Portland Sea Dogs<br />WEDNESDAY AUGUST 3: Durham Bulls at Worcester Red Sox, Richmond Flying Squirrels at New Hampshire Fisher Cats, or Erie Seawolves at Portland Sea Dogs<br />THURSDAY AUGUST 4: totally depends on game times<br />FRIDAY AUGUST 5: Pittsburgh Pirates at Baltimore Orioles (IF Boog Powell is back in Baltimore)<br />SATURDAY AUGUST 6: totally depends on game times<br />SUNDAY AUGUST 7: totally depends on game times<br />MONDAY AUGUST 8: Off Day, hell if I know what we'll do!<br />TUESDAY AUGUST 9: totally depends on game times; likely Lynchburg Hillcats at Charleston River Dogs<br />WEDNESDAY AUGUST 10: totally depends on game times<br />THURSDAY AUGUST 11: totally depends on game times<br />FRIDAY AUGUST 12: Northwest Arkansas Naturals at Arkansas Travelers<br />SATURDAY AUGUST 13: San Antonio Missions at Frisco Roughriders<br /></p><p>The days of the National could also see us hitting games in the independent Atlantic and/or Frontier Leagues, or the College Development League depending on what teams are at home. Teams nearby include Staten Island, Lancaster, Sussex County, New York Boulders, New Jersey Jackals, and Trenton.</p><p>We're trying to limit to only driving 300 miles a day at most. Five days in August are currently wide open with so many teams all lumped close together in the northeast and on down to the Carolinas. And even the Pirates-Orioles game is open to change. I have two cards I need Boog Powell to sign. If he's not going to be there, we'll check out something else. We may also be able to do a few two-a-days if afternoon games happen to pop up.</p><p>Lastly for anyone looking to follow along with what I've been getting signed lately, a few links...</p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://twitter.com/DFWGrapher" target="_blank">Twitter</a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/DFWGrapher/" target="_blank">Instagram</a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/drewpelto" target="_blank">YouTube</a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ttmcast.com" target="_blank">Podcast</a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.dfwgrapher.com" target="_blank">Website</a></p>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-51471687884777115022021-04-19T16:39:00.000-05:002021-04-19T16:39:03.625-05:00In Memoriam: Chris from SASESportsSigs<p>Temporarily bringing this blog out of retirement to send out a RIP to a pillar of the hobby.</p><p>No one had heard from Chris over at SASESportsSigs for about two months, and his last Instagram post mentioned going to the ER with a fever and breathing troubles, followed by a positive Covid test. It wasn't like him to go that long with no info, so apparently someone reached out to him and got a response from his mother, informing that Chris died on February 23, 2021, only a week after his diagnosis.</p><p>For those who never saw his site (it's been linked here for a year), Chris was active in the online TTM community through his site and various forums for a good fifteen years, and had been a collector since at least the late 90s, maybe before.</p><p>The hobby has lost one of its best. I had it back in December, and it's not something I'd wish on anyone. I was lucky as I didn't land in the hospital and only have mild residual effects, but now this is the second person I know who has died from it. So for those of you who aren't taking this virus seriously: why? When is enough enough?</p><p>Go get vaccinated. Seriously. And we'll see you soon at the ballpark, hopefully.</p>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-50558043495139235532020-10-29T14:57:00.001-05:002021-01-18T10:51:11.313-06:00October 2020: The series finale<p>There's a lot to unpack here. Let's start with the month's autographs.</p><p>OCTOBER 1<br />Charlie Watts</p><p>OCTOBER 2<br />Storm Davis<br />Steve Swisher</p><p>OCTOBER 3<br />Craig McMurtry<br />Eric Plunk</p><p>OCTOBER 5<br />Johnny O'Brien<br />Glenn Borgmann<br />Ed Johnston<br />Luis Pujols<br />Billy Dea<br />Kiko Garcia<br />Mike Nykoluk<br />Marty Pavelich</p><p>OCTOBER 6<br />Tim Scott<br />Rene Lachemann<br />Don Marcotte<br />Ed Glynn</p><p>OCTOBER 7<br />Bob Paradise</p><p>OCTOBER 8<br />Scott Ruskin<br />Pat Rapp<br />David Newell<br />Len Matuszek</p><p>OCTOBER 9<br />Steven Rice<br />Marv Foley<br />Lou Angotti<br />Matt Ravlich<br />Floyd Smith<br />IP: Toby Harrah at a card show in Arlington</p><p>OCTOBER 12<br />Mark Miller<br />Jack Perconte</p><p>OCTOBER 13<br />Brian Noonan<br />Dick Groat<br />Trever Miller<br />Spike Owen</p><p>OCTOBER 14<br />Steve Comer<br />Frank Bolick</p><p>OCTOBER 15<br />Tom Runnells</p><p>OCTOBER 16<br />John D'Acquisto</p><p>OCTOBER 17<br />Scott Servais<br />Damir Haramina<br />Felix Millan<br />Tom Hutton<br />Jack Brohamer<br />Mike Tyson</p><p>OCTOBER 19<br />Mike Bielecki</p><p>OCTOBER 20<br />Del Unser<br />Denny Lewallyn<br />Mike Sadek<br />Jim Tracy</p><p>OCTOBER 22<br />Steve Renko</p><p>OCTOBER 23<br />John O'Donoghue<br />Dave LaRoche</p><p>OCTOBER 24<br />Wayne Gross (may be using a ghost-signer...)<br />Mark Kiefer</p><p>OCTOBER 26<br />Barry Foote</p><p>OCTOBER 27<br />Gary Roenicke</p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><b><u>Something to Address</u></b><br /></i>This week I stepped down from the Administrator position of the main Facebook group I was running. I was already planning to leave the position at the end of the year, but my timeline for it has moved up. My attorney has advised me not to comment further. The group has been left in highly-trusted hands and I believe Craig and Josh are more than capable as Administrators.</p><p>Among all of this, I spoke to a person regarding a known forger that I continuously try to flush out whenever his head pops up in the hobby. He expressed that the forger wants to go about making things right with the autograph community, but that constant exposure has left him unwilling and fearful of doing so. That seems to be a pretty flimsy excuse to me, but okay.</p><p>So look off to the right of the page: my lengthy warning about him is gone, leaving only links to other pages that warn about bad traders. It's been eight years, and even items on a credit report only last seven. If that's what's keeping him from stepping up and making amends, my contribution to that hurdle is now gone.</p><p>Your move, Mr. Miller. Here's your chance to do the right thing.</p><p><i><u><b><br /></b></u></i></p><p id="Finale"><i><u><b>TGC: The Series Finale</b></u></i><br />Lastly, after seven and a half years of writing, nearly 250 posts, and over 67,000 views, I believe this will be the final post I make on this blog. When I started it in 2013, I was excited to have a place to write every few days about my doings in the autograph world: the good/bad/ugly of in-person outings, TTM successes and failures, interview profiles of other collector friends, and really anything else that came to mind. I was about to return to a hobby I greatly enjoyed in a way that I hadn't been able to do since 2005 and I wanted to go all-in.</p><p>In that first year I was typically putting up multiple posts a week. For the last couple of years, it's been one a month. In 2015 and 2016 I was getting hundreds of reads per post within hours of posting. My latest one got 8 in six days. I'll be shocked if even fifty read this in a month. Print-only media is dying. Blogging isn't what it used to be, at least not on a larger platform without loads of links and non-text content. Microblogging, sub-300-character tweets, images, and videos have taken control, as we are first-hand witnesses to the phenomenon of our attention spans growing shorter but our lives growing longer. To quote my wife's favorite musician Kacey Musgraves, "Mary Mary quite contrary, we're so bored until we're buried." We as a culture have grown tired of any information that's larger than bite-sized and not entertaining enough. It's why the insultpolitik of Donald Trump & Co. is effective now after it spent decades failing: it's memorable, quick, to the point, and provokes immediate visceral reaction. Riding it to victory proves that the end justifies the means in American culture. Talking about the important things-- policies, plans, ideas-- at length gets boring and forgotten even though it's the meat of the future.</p><p>It's easier to have daily (or near-daily) updates elsewhere. So that's what I'm going to do.</p><p>Over the last few years especially while leading a Facebook group, I've had to endure doxxing, accusations of playing favorites, threats of litigation, use of my life and views outside the hobby as ammunition against me, threats of violence, and more "F you, Stalin" type of messages in my inbox than you can possibly imagine. I even had someone make ridiculous accusations of me showing up at his friend's job and getting him fired via a sexual assault claim-- either a case of recklessly mistaking my identity for someone else or an attempt at a completely fabricated hatchet job against me. It has gotten to a point where especially over the last two months I have had to ask myself numerous times if it is really worth waking up and wondering what sort of crap I'm going to end up taking from people. And all of this over a personal autograph collection!</p><p>I've hit a point where I feel like I can't make fair criticism and raise concerns without significant fear of overly-strong retribution. I'm even sitting here wondering who's going to take offense to this as I write it. Welcome to journalism in a post-Trump world.</p><p>Trying to put yourself out there to be a force for positive feels great until it turns on you. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Trying to constantly fight against me-first hobby negativity and unethical acts has led me to bordering upon paranoia about deciphering the meaning behind people's actions and words. I don't particularly enjoy that. I always joked I'd have a heart attack by 40 but this week has made me think it might not be a joke. The victories in this pro-hobbyist battle are largely Pyrrhic.</p><p>It's weird to call Twitter and YouTube positive places but in the autograph hobby they are so far. None of them have the cobwebs of a mostly-text blog. Disagreements I've had with people on YouTube have remained remarkably civil discussions of opinion; via Twitter I'm trying to avoid and unfollow accounts that are not 100% about the hobby; whereas the Facebook flareups I've seen and been involved in get out of hand quickly, and if I lay the hammer down from a position of authority I'm automatically the bad guy. Enough already! I've been banned from groups and accept that I probably deserved it when it happens. Many people I've dealt with while working with similar situations from the other side refuse to ever make that concession. The old "They hate us 'cause they ain't us" line is a load of crap: they probably hate you because you're an ass.</p><p>I've tried to be a positive in the autograph hobby. I want to keep out those who would do it harm, reduce the number of those who act solely with self in mind, and educate newcomers wherever possible. My favorite phrase is "The overall health of the hobby is more important than the size of your collection." And I truly believe that, for the size of your collection won't matter if the hobby is dead or at least unattainable for most.</p><p>And the number of positive comments I got from people about the effort I put in for so long following my decision to step down from the Facebook group is evidence to me that at least my intentions have been understood and appreciated. In fact, I have not had a single negative one put to me directly from it, and that means a lot in something that has largely been a thankless job for four years. You're never going to please everyone, so all you can really focus on are those who are important to you and those who appreciate your efforts.</p><p>If a hobby is getting to where it's not as fun for you anymore, you have to ask why you're trying to preserve it for others at such a cost to yourself. I already lost all enjoyment in my previous sports broadcasting career, something that has just now started to come back after leaving it for most of a decade. I haven't hit the point I did when I left it, but I want to stop any potential skid before it hits that crash point: I don't want to have my preferred avocation completely ruined for me too.</p><p>Every collecting world seems to hit a point of unsustainable growth. How many booms and busts can you name? You had the sports card boom of the 80s and early 90s where every product had cards and every town had multiple card shops, followed by its bust in the late 90s as overproduction brought about a diluted market; Beanie Babies had their boom in the late 90s that went bust just as fast; comic books, antiques, stamps, coins, toy fads... Even each of these areas has their own internal mini-booms and busts-- Kevin Maas, anyone? Cards are seeing a crazy boom again as well: how long will it last?</p><p>We're seeing a huge bubble happen in the autograph world in terms of participation. When I came down to DFW in 2013, Rangers games had a dedicated group of maybe 20-30 collectors at the average game. I knew most of them by name quickly and we helped each other out. The last game I was at, there had to have been over a hundred, and the only ones I recognized were a few I didn't like much. When I went to an Angels-Indians game in 2018, I didn't bother graphing and I'm glad I didn't: watching from a distance, the group was ten-deep all the way down the fence. The minor leagues are getting overrun by prospectors. People who had never TTMed before or hadn't in years are getting back into it during pandemic boredom. Players are getting swamped with mail to where many excellent free signers have stopped (Rick Reuschel) or are charging fees (Jerry Browne and Tom Brunansky), and many who already charged small fees are raising those (Bob Grich). While it has brought a few tough signers out of the woodwork (Harold Baines), is it worth the cost of losing so many others? A comment from a person helping to go through five years of Dave Stieb's mail mentioned that he has gotten numerous requests of 8 or more cards, some with lazily copied letters with another player's name crossed off and his written in, return envelopes with no postage (perhaps even no envelope at all), and even one person that requested a heap of both cards and index cards with specific inscriptions requested on each with no compensation-- and sent it twice. Billy Sample said he now tends to get an average of five requests a day whereas a decade ago, it was maybe five a week.</p><p>You may not care since you already got Reuschel, Browne, Brunansky, and Grich, or you're okay with paying for the latter trio, but what about a newcomer to to the hobby? What about a kid who loves baseball history but whose $10 a week allowance would take him almost a month to get Grich? They no longer have that ability. And someday you might end up in their shoes and miss out on someone who stops because it's gotten to be too voluminous, or whose fee is through the roof. This is why I think fighting to limit hobby greed is such an important enterprise. The hobby should be accessible to all who want to participate. Think before you act out of self-interest.</p><p>Unfortunately, there will always be those who care about the monetary profit more than the hobby enjoyment, and those types will be its downfall. Collectors who go in with profit in mind first tend to have a problem with self-control when it comes to milking their newfound cash cow, much to the hobby's detriment. It's the same with riding any other boom to (or past) its bust point.</p><p>Even non-monetary gains: do you really need 20 cards a year signed by Rick Reuschel, Frank Tanana, Danny Darwin, Charlie Hough, and Tom Foley? I've sent to Tanana twice in my life. I probably have another 50 cards of him sitting here. I have no desire or need to mail out even 1/10th of them. I gave four to a friend to mail off. If someone else wanted a few, I'd give to them too.</p><p>I know I'm not going to reach every collector with my reasoning, nor am I trying to be the autograph police, nor do I think I'm going to somehow spark a worldwide change (no matter how many times people try to strawman that those delusions of grandeur are somehow my goals). All I've ever wanted to do is whatever is within my grasp to help keep the hobby civilized and thriving. Think globally but act locally; be the change you want to see in the world; we not me; you know the cliches.</p><p>So, I'm scaling back. I'm focusing on my own collection and on continuing to practice those ethics myself. And that's going to mean less public involvement and leadership. If you get anything out of this (besides off my lawn), I hope it's heeding my request to exert self-control. Take those ten cards you want to send and pare it back to four.</p><p>Thanks for reading Texas Graphing Chronicles. As the great Hal Lebovitz used to sign off: "Stay well, and see you somewhere, I hope."</p>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-61162368086018427362020-10-23T20:30:00.001-05:002020-10-23T20:30:09.768-05:00So... Atlantic City it is.<p> The National officially announced that the 2022 show will be, as I suspected, in Atlantic City.</p><p>And thus begins the planning. On an even more positive note, I have a friend who may be able to hook us up with some amazing lodging as well.</p><p>So this actually works out well. Arron and I can expand our travel a bit and add New England to the itinerary. It's not out of the realm of possibility that we might drive up to Portland, ME and/or Manchester, NH for games in those cities before looping back down to New Jersey. That would also knock out two states I have yet to visit, and I could make it three if we drive through part of Vermont on our way to another spot like Hartford, Worcester, Syracuse, Binghamton, or Scranton-Wilkes Barre. Yeah, it's not direct but everything is close enough up there that it's certainly doable.</p><p>Yes, I plan to taunt them about how much better Ohio's maple syrup is. Vermont makes the most; Ohio makes the best. Don't @ me on this.</p><p>On the way up I can also knock out South Carolina with relative ease. Even if we can't go to a Charleston, Columbia, Myrtle Beach, Greenville, or Augusta game we likely will pass through it.</p><p>Midweek, we'll have Wilmington (1:40 drive time), Trenton (1:30), Jersey Shore BlueClaws (1:00), Philadelphia (1:00), Reading (2:00), and Lehigh Valley (2:00) as possibilities. Not quite as convenient as Cleveland's under-an-hour for the Indians, RubberDucks, and Captains, but still, we could handle this alright if a few of them play at home (preferably the first three).</p><p>Delmarva would be doable if they would just build something like the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel instead of making us take a ferry. Monday after, maybe?</p><p>So my goal of All 50 Before 50 will be even closer-- just lacking Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota in the following twelve years if we can hit all four aforementioned ones. And if we come back via the Midwest, I could knock out Nebraska with a game in Omaha, then Montana when my wife and I go to Yellowstone for a combination birthday/anniversary trip.</p><p>Here are the VIP free autograph signers for the last Atlantic City show in 2016: Ron Blomberg, Dave Cash, Von Hayes, Jim Lonborg, Greg Luzinski, Gary Matthews, Bake McBride, Kevin Mitchell, Don Money, John Montefusco, Bobby Shantz, Nate Archibald, Maxie Baughan, Bill Bergey, Seth Joyner, and Pete Retzlaff. Unfortunately, I only have a major need for a few of them (Blomberg 72 Topps, McBride 04 ATFF, Mitchell 90 DK) but I may be able to dig out a few photos on guys. Retzlaff died this year so he won't be on the list, clearly.</p><p>2020 was supposed to have Mickey Morandini, Tommy Greene, Everson Walls, and Joe Klecko (04 ATFF) to start with before its cancellation. So that gives something of an idea as to who we might see in 2022. I'll be hoping for some hockey, personally.</p><p>So, as plans come together in the next 21 months I'll keep posting on them here. Hopefully it'll be about this time next year that we start hammering down on teams' schedules-- and even their existences-- and start planning around where we can and can't go.</p><p>Other stuff: if you're on the Twitter, give me a follow <a href="http://www.twitter.com/DFWGrapher" target="_blank">@DFWGrapher</a>. I'm shutting down my current account when it hits 10,000 tweets (hopefully that last one will come on November 4) and starting this new one up, dedicated solely to autograph content and things that don't make me want to dropkick things across a parking lot. I made the mistake of following a bunch of political shit on my regular account which can be great at times (like the three tweets I've made with over 100 likes, including one with 2000) but I'd like to just eliminate most of the infuriating stuff-- which I think will be easiest to do just by starting over again.</p><p>Lastly, bad news: the Texas Air Hogs are no more, announcing today that they are <a href="https://www.americanassociationbaseball.com/texas-airhogs-terminate-membership-in-american-association/" target="_blank">terminating operations immediately</a>. A shame, because it was close by, had cheap tickets, and had opportunities for autographs from some former MLB players and prospects, some of whom have even returned to the majors (<a href="https://www.mlb.com/news/tyler-matzek-attempts-comeback-yips-braves" target="_blank">Tyler Matzek</a> and <a href="https://www.wholehogsports.com/news/2020/aug/18/former-razorback-eibner-called-big-leagues/" target="_blank">Brett Eibner</a>, anyone?). It's a nice ballpark, and I'm hoping someone will move in there. The American Association said they anticipate further 2021 Texas expansion; if so, I wonder if someone will buy the franchise's entry and bring back a team in the near future.</p><p>Then again, I've hoped for the same with the Fort Worth Cats and LaGrave Field, and <a href="https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article246498820.html" target="_blank">that's clearly not happening</a>.</p><p><br /></p>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-84908457821753915282020-09-30T19:36:00.002-05:002020-09-30T19:36:22.155-05:00August and September Mail<div style="text-align: left;">It feels weird to say September was slow, but compared to July and August, it was. August set me a new personal record for most autographs obtained TTM at 235 cards signed. July/August combined to a two-month record of 459, and July/August/September combined to a three-month record of 619. I also had 38 sigs on 8/31 (record) in 9 successes (tied a record). And lastly, I have surpassed a new record for most TTM-signed cards in a year (1067).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Anyways, I'll try to do better with a single month updated at a time. Granted, I said that on SCF too, and even have fallen off on daily updates of the YouTube channel.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I have a lot to list here, so I'm keeping it shorter than usual: date, name, fees, and just for the hell of it if I got a set card signed or something. Any specific questions (where I sent, how many, how long, etc.), just leave a comment.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">AUGUST 1</div><div style="text-align: left;"><div>Rafael Palmeiro</div><div>Deron Quint - added two Russian cards</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 3</div><div>Charlie Frye</div><div>Yvon Labre</div><div>Rob Ray</div><div>Kelly Miller</div><div>Roy Smith</div><div>Dan Schatzeder</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 4</div><div>Calvin Schiraldi</div><div>Doug Simons</div><div>Rob Ramage</div><div>Pat Peake</div><div>Bob Kudelski</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 5</div><div>Bob Shirley</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 6</div><div>Vladimir Malakhov</div><div>Mike Smithson</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 7</div><div>Zane Smith</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 8</div><div>Mo Sanford</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 10</div><div>Shane Schwab - Pacific soccer set project</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 11</div><div>Chad Kelly</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 13</div><div>Tim Cheveldae</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 14</div><div>Ken Linseman</div><div>Allen Pedersen</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 15</div><div>Juan Guzman</div><div>Dave Mlicki</div><div>Bob Aspromonte - 1972 Topps</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 17</div><div>Joe Negri</div><div>Davey Johnson</div><div>Tim Thompson</div><div>Larry Stahl</div><div>Burke Waldron</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 18</div><div>George Fernandez - Pacific soccer set project</div><div>Roger Federer</div><div>Brian Rafalski</div><div>Ed Asner</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 19</div><div>Jose Canseco - Paid signing with Chris Rifon</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 20</div><div>Stan Bahnsen - 1972 Topps</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 21</div><div>Al Santorini - 1972 Topps</div><div>Chuck Brinkman - 1972 Topps</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 22</div><div>Billy Jo Robidoux</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 24</div><div>Derek Lilliquist</div><div>Tom Kurvers</div><div>Steve Shields</div><div>Jeff Nelson</div><div>Jimy Williams</div><div>Joe Sambito</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 25</div><div>Phil Coyne</div><div>Billy Demars</div><div>Eddie Taubensee</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 26</div><div>Oddibe McDowell</div><div>Ron Brand - 1972 Topps</div><div>Kevin Mench</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 27</div><div>Garry Howatt</div><div>Doug Lidster</div><div>Mike Lalor</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 28</div><div>Charlie Puleo</div><div>Steve Dunning - 1972 Topps</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 29</div><div>Bill Virdon - 1972 Topps</div><div><br /></div><div>AUGUST 31</div><div>Buzz Schneider</div><div>Jeff Johnson</div><div>Jeff Tackett</div><div>Dennis Rasmussen</div><div>Tom McCraw - 1972 Topps</div><div>Dyar Miller</div><div>Dave Roberts</div><div>Pete O'Brien</div><div>Joe Moeller</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 1</div><div><div>Justin Masterson</div><div>Gary Mielke</div><div>Frank Thomas</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 3</div><div>Craig Muni</div><div>Charlie Manuel</div><div>Gorman Thomas - Diamond Kings and ATFF</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 4</div><div>Frank Seminara</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 5</div><div>Scott Pellerin</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 8</div><div>Scott Ruffcorn</div><div>Scott Kamieniecki</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 10</div><div>Will Middlebrooks - 1972 Minis</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 11</div><div>Rich Monteleone</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 12</div><div>Scott McGregor</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 14</div><div>Bill Haselman</div><div>Brooks Robinson - 1972 Topps</div><div>Lee Norwood</div><div>Ron Pruitt</div><div>Johnny Grubb</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 15</div><div>Xavier Hernandez</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 17</div><div>Russ Springer</div><div>Joe Randa</div><div>Mark Eichhorn</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 18</div><div>Jamie Langenbrunner</div><div>Dennis Powell</div><div>Paul Mirabella</div><div>Bobby Morgan</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 19</div><div>Rejean Lemelin</div><div>Dane Iorg</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 21</div><div>Bill Campbell</div><div>Bill Stein</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 23</div><div>Doug Sisk</div><div>Warren Morris</div><div>Bill Long</div><div>Derek Plante</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 24</div><div>Tom Poti</div><div>Matt Laporta</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 25</div><div>Brad Marsh</div><div>Barry Bonnell</div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 28</div><div>Rey Sanchez</div><div>Blas Minor</div><div>Dan Rather</div></div><div><br /></div><div>SEPTEMBER 29</div><div>Roger Mason</div></div>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-13653107338603810562020-09-16T16:34:00.002-05:002020-09-16T16:34:49.633-05:00OH SHIT NO!!!!!!!!!!!<p> Well. About that 2022 Cleveland roadtrip?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Sx3CyZm2epI/X2Je2KrVv-I/AAAAAAAAFig/2kUKq0FOMpEOfQaTOrxjNkNNYauvflFBgCLcBGAsYHQ/s616/NSCC-2022-change.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="616" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Sx3CyZm2epI/X2Je2KrVv-I/AAAAAAAAFig/2kUKq0FOMpEOfQaTOrxjNkNNYauvflFBgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h200/NSCC-2022-change.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The notice...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://media1.tenor.com/images/ad7c10a832459172f39fca4d3d705f90/tenor.gif?itemid=11932181" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="498" height="225" src="https://media1.tenor.com/images/ad7c10a832459172f39fca4d3d705f90/tenor.gif?itemid=11932181" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">...and my reaction.</div><div><br /></div><p>So. There's that.</p><p>What's going to happen?</p><p>Atlantic City?</p><p>Baltimore?</p><p>The new Huntington Cleveland Convention Center downtown?</p><p>A roadtrip will be happening in some way as long as there is baseball-- bank on that. We just don't yet know where it will be going. Or when exactly.</p><p>Smart money right now is either the Huntington Center in Cleveland to keep from having to make a huge change or Atlantic City to make up for the loss of this year's show. I'd set Baltimore third, and almost guarantee there's no other location. The last time the National was in a place other than Chicago, Cleveland, Atlantic City, or Baltimore was 2006 in Anaheim. Last one before that: 2000, also in Anaheim. And before that: the lowest-attended National of all-time, the 1999 Atlanta show.</p><p>To make the most of this on a baseball 'graphing perspective, I need it to stay east of the Mississippi, and honestly the further east the better. In Cleveland, that's potential access to the Indians, Pirates, Lake County, Akron, Toledo, Columbus, and Erie all within about two hours; plus Mahoning Valley if we want to try a short-season (we don't, and frankly they may not exist by 2022). Atlantic City gives us the Phillies, Mets, Yankees, Trenton, Lakewood, Lehigh Valley, and Wilmington, plus Staten Island and Brooklyn (meh; I hear Brooklyn's ballpark is nice at least). Baltimore gives us the Orioles, Nationals, Phillies, Trenton, Wilmington, Bowie, Frederick, Fredericksburg, Hagerstown, Delmarva, Harrisburg, and Reading, plus Aberdeen (short-season, blech). Anaheim would give us the Angels, Dodgers, Lancaster, Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino, and Lake Elsinore; but the teams in between here and there are FAR more limited than they would be going back east.</p><p>The National also has its hands a bit tied in terms of venues though. From speaking someone familiar with their selection procedures, they need 250K+ contiguous square feet of space, limited union restrictions on setup and takedown, willingness to book two-plus years ahead and not bump it off for something more lucrative, solid presence of hotels and/or public transportation nearby, and a major airport within a short distance. So for everyone asking "DOOD Y U NO PUT IN [insert city here]," that's probably why: they don't meet at least one part of these criteria.</p><p>So hopefully Huntington's 225K feet of space is enough and that they have an opening. If not, then it looks like our travel is going to shift to another city.</p><p>Well, damn.</p><p>I'll have an update on the TTMing soon. Been posting video of them all, but lazy about doing it here.</p>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-57029261270884552892020-08-05T17:38:00.005-05:002020-08-27T17:01:30.678-05:002022 NSCC Roadtrip? Yes!<div>Is it too early to start talking about the 2022 National?</div><div><br /></div><div>We don’t know where anything is going with COVID-19. The 2020 National has already been postponed once. Many are wondering if it will be outright canceled (apparently the Philly Non-Sports Card Show rescheduled for October has already been given the axe). If it’s still on for December, I’m exploring the possibility of flying up for a couple days of it. The plans right now are to hold it December 12-16 in Atlantic City-- that’s a Saturday through a Wednesday. If it’s still on, and if people actually do the right thing and mask up and distance themselves from now until then (haha yeah ok), and if we have a new president-elect who actually takes this seriously and has a plan to figure it out, then I may fly up late Friday to Newark, drive down to a hotel near AC, go to the show Saturday and Sunday, maybe part of Monday, and fly out late Monday night.</div><div><br /></div><div>If it gets canceled outright, do we see some movement with Atlantic City getting the 2021 or 2022 show, thus delaying the trip to 2023 or 2024?</div><div><br /></div><div>(MID AUGUST EDIT: It got canceled. As of right now, no, they aren't pushing everything back a year. 2021 is still Chicago, so I'm hoping/assuming 2022 is still Cleveland).</div><div><br /></div><div>Right now, the trip is still on for 2022. Arron and I have talked about extending the 2022 trip by a week if we can.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another problem: field netting and minor league contraction. We’re still planning on getting crazy with the minor league ‘graphing if we can. But how are teams going to handle the ever-growing scourge of pole-to-plate-to-pole netting? Will they have a few open spots for ‘graphers? Will they do like the Rangers did at the old Ballpark with the over-the-dugout netting and have it at least partially raised until the National Anthem?</div><div><br /></div><div>And what teams will be there in 2022? Will contraction even take place by then? I’ll be honest with an unpopular opinion: I LOVE the idea of minor league contraction. Baseball does not need three different levels of A-ball and a AAA level that is largely a storage spot for has-beens and won’t-bes. More and more players are making the jump from AA to the MLB level. Contracting the minor leagues will hopefully help to keep teams from wasting time, space, and money on the Zach Cones, Cody Buckels, and Royce Bolingers of the world and perhaps use the AAA level as something more than just a storage spot for veteran replacements for injured players.</div><div><br /></div><div>Knock out 30 to 60 teams-- have each team get affiliated AAA, AA, High-A (now to be known as just plain A), and Rookie teams (formerly Low-A), with short-season development done via the GCL and AZL teams at Spring Training complexes. Low-A and Rookie ball are redundant when you have High-A and short-season A. Five levels are plenty. Right now we just don’t know who’s in and who’s out-- and <a href="https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/all-42-teams-reportedly-up-for-elimination-in-mlbs-minor-league-reduction-proposal/" target="_blank">don’t give me this crap</a>, it’s not even remotely official and still changing. The contraction will likely be across all levels, which means some cities will need to change levels. There’s talk of demoting some AAA teams and adding others in from Sugar Land, St. Paul, and New Orleans, maybe moving Brooklyn and Bowling Green from A to AA, and more. It sucks for fans of the teams that are cut, but if the contracted teams are truly viable, independent leagues will take them in. Maybe you’ll even see an expansion of indy ball-- speaking of the Cones, Buckels, and Bolingers. Farm systems and affiliation killed the independent minor leagues that thrived from the dawn of baseball through WWII. Maybe this will help bring something of a renaissance for it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even if we go by that not-even-remotely-official list linked above, Binghamton, Erie, Lancaster, Frederick, Hagerstown, and all the short-season squads would fit fine into the Atlantic League. Perhaps the New York-Penn league continues its existence as an indy. Beloit, Burlington, and Clinton would fit into the American Association. Daytona and Florida could go to the Empire League to help out the Georgia and Puerto Rico teams to not be so isolated. Lexington, West Virginia, Jackson and Chattanooga could go to the Frontier League. The western Rookie teams could go to the Pacific or Pecos League, and the eastern ones could go to the Frontier, Empire, Atlantic, or the aforementioned newly independent New-York Penn League.</div><div><br /></div><div>So maybe it’s a little early to start talking about a huge ‘graphing trip, but at the same time I’m seeing stuff from the 2014 National and 2018 National Road Trip coming up on my Facebook Memories and it’s making me antsy. So, let’s imagine that COVID-19 is under control by late 2021, the 2022 National remains in Cleveland, and teams still make it possible to ‘graph pre- and postgame inside the ballpark. Let’s take a look at some plans…</div><div><br /></div><div>For the 2018 trip, we left Texas the Saturday before the National started. For 2022, we’re looking at going a week earlier than that. The show is likely to run Wednesday, August 3rd through Sunday the 7th. So I’m thinking we’ll leave Friday, July 22. That way, we can leave maybe at like 6 or 7 pm, drive 3-5 hours, and just get a jump on everything so we don’t have a 10-hour first day the way we did in 2018. We likely will try to limit ourselves to 300 miles of driving per day; so 3-5 hours from here in DFW puts us in Shreveport or Monroe.</div><div><br /></div><div>So Saturday July 23 would be our first game. If we hold tight to the 300-miles-per-day maximum, we’re pretty well limited from Shreveport-- the Mississippi Braves and the Memphis Redbirds are our only hopes. From Monroe we would have those two, plus the Jackson Generals as options, and if we violate the 300-mile rule just a little bit, we could do Birmingham or Montgomery, perhaps the Rocket City Trash Pandas if we want to really push it. I liked Birmingham, but it would also be nice to see another city. My vote would be either Rocket City, Montgomery, or Mississippi.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let’s say we push it to Rocket City for a Saturday game (450 miles... oof). Stay there for a night and on Sunday we have a lot of options. That’s why I like having the extra week-- we won’t have to hurry to Ohio and can stay south and east where teams are a lot closer together. Maybe we’ll even get lucky with some two-a-days with a 1 pm game in one city then a 7 pm in another one close by. Probably not Sunday though: twelve teams all fall in that 300-mile zone but unless it’s some combo of Rome, Chattanooga, and Gwinnett, it’s not happening. But sometime during the weeks, it’s happening. I mean, we did it once in 2018 and had planned to do it twice.</div><div><br /></div><div>Several teams are 120 miles or less apart from each other. I was going to list them all here, but it’s too many. Arron and I were able to do Cedar Rapids (noon AND ‘graphed postgame) and the Iowa Cubs (7 pm start time) both in one day and they’re 128 miles apart, so I figure that’s a good maximum target distance for any potential two-a-days.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let’s see how many teams will be in our potential range. I’m skipping Short-Season A and Rookie ball since it’ll be tough to get cards of those guys; granted, some teams may get moved up following any contraction that may or may not happen, but we’ll tackle those once those decisions are made. I’d like to stay north of I-20, west of I-95, south of I-90 and east of I-35 for everything-- both the trip up and the return. I could go a little outside those (Michigan, looking at you with this one) but I wouldn’t want to stray too far. Realistically, we could hit some combination of these teams on the way up and during the show:</div><div><br /></div><div>MLB: Atlanta, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, NY Mets, NY Yankees, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh.</div><div>AAA: Memphis, Nashville, Gwinnett, Charlotte, Durham, Lehigh Valley, Scranton-Wilkes Barre, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Toledo, Columbus.</div><div>AA: Mississippi, Montgomery, Birmingham, Rocket City, Jackson, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Richmond, Bowie, Trenton, Reading, Harrisburg, Altoona, Binghamton, Erie, Akron</div><div>High-A: Fayetteville, Carolina, Winston-Salem, Lynchburg, Salem, Fredericksburg, Frederick, Wilmington</div><div>Low-A: Rome, Augusta, Columbia, Greenville, Asheville, Hickory, Kannapolis, Greensboro, Bowling Green, Lexington, West Virginia, Delmarva, Hagerstown, Lake County</div><div><br /></div><div>On the return, possibilities include:</div><div>MLB: Detroit, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis, Kansas City</div><div>AAA: Columbus, Toledo, Indianapolis, Louisville, Iowa, Omaha, Wichita, Oklahoma City</div><div>AA: Springfield, Northwest Arkansas, Tulsa</div><div>High-A: None</div><div>Low-A: Dayton, Lansing, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Kane County, Clinton, Peoria, Quad Cities, Burlington, Cedar Rapids</div><div><br /></div><div>I’d like to try to avoid the non-Ohio ballparks we’ve already seen, but I’m not dead-set on that either. But still, if we can pass up on Birmingham, Lexington, West Virginia, Fort Wayne, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa, I’d like that. I know Arron wants to hit up Quad Cities if possible, and I’m definitely down for that: <a href="https://ballparkdigest.com/2020/05/03/grassley-three-iowa-teams-safe-from-contraction/" target="_blank">Chuck Grassley has apparently been told</a> that Iowa, Cedar Rapids, and Quad Cities are all safe (Clinton and Burlington, not so much) after QC was on the original leaked list of possible cuts. Now, that list implied either Quad Cities or Beloit would be on the list, but with QC being declared safe and Beloit getting approval for a new stadium that should save them, who knows what’s going to happen.</div><div><br /></div><div>Clearly a lot more will go into it than just plotting crap on a map depending on what teams are still around. Who’s at home on what days and at what time; who can we see on the road (gotta maximize the sheer number of teams we get to see-- there’s no sense in going to Bowie if we’ll see them in Akron, for example); what teams will have the most cards for my set needs (don’t forget, the 2021 Heritage sets will be in the 1972 design; I’d like to knock out as much as I can on those); what teams have players we’ll be likely to see in the near figure in Frisco (since we’ll see their AA squads we could eliminate the A-level affiliates of Texas, LA, Seattle, Kansas City, Oakland, San Diego, St. Louis, and Houston… or we could get them and use that as a time to grab team sets on them for future Frisco use); what ballpark giveaways will be going on. We’d also like to plan some rest days and some activities that don’t involve ‘graphing: maybe a day in Cooperstown, maybe a day out at Cedar Point, laundry time so we can lighten the clothing load, etc.</div><div><br /></div><div>We learned a lot about trying to construct the perfect baseball road trip in 2018; 2022 will be a good test for these things. Rest is good and sleep is important. We don’t need a cooler or even many snacks in the car because gas stations are a thing: only buy or bring what you will eat that day. I’m not going to practice the guitar and probably won’t need to do any busking so it can stay home (maybe the mandolin… maybe). Pack fewer clothes, get a roll of quarters, and spend a couple hours doing laundry each week. Stay in a hotel closer to the IX Center, even if it has to be in Parma: it’s not worth it to save $20 a night vs. trimming significant time off driving to and from five days of the show. Have small bills to buy VIP autograph tickets and carry extra cards to get signed; someone is always looking to dump a ticket or two and plenty of people need autographs of guys like Steve DeBerg and Andy Van Slyke to where you’ll have some great trade bait. </div><div><br /></div><div>Plenty of things we did worked out well. The small folding stool and water bottle are worth their weight in gold. Pay the extra money for the All-Access upgrade. My big folding map of the show was unnecessary but a notebook to jot down booth numbers is crucial. Buy important stuff early and frivolities late. Grab a minor league box the first day because you’ll undoubtedly pull cards of guys you need at games during the week and the way back. Ride the ferris wheel.</div><div><br /></div><div>I’m mostly just thinking out loud here. Or on paper. Or really into electrons. So much is still up in the air for the 2022 National, but it’s never too early to start at least considering some ideas and options. But again, going back to my original question…</div><div><br /></div><div>Is it too early to start talking about the 2022 National?</div><div><br /></div><div>Yes. Yes it is. My apologies for this Shaggy Dog Story of a post.</div>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-31997201367154605512020-07-31T18:52:00.002-05:002020-07-31T18:52:47.139-05:00Finishing Off JulyMay may have held the record for most items signed TTM for a bit, but that record has been shattered in July. Here's a list of new personal records now that we're through month #7...<div><br /></div><div>Most TTM sigs in a single day: 37 (July 6, 2020)</div><div><br /></div><div>Best single month of TTMs: 224 items signed</div><div><br /></div><div>Best two-month period of TTMs: 374 items signed in June and July</div><div><br /></div><div>Best three-month period of TTMs: 570 items signed from May through July</div><div><br /></div><div>All of those come up well short of my all-time record of TOTAL autographs in those categories (131, 270, 528, and 767, respectively), but considering I can't do any IP graphing and even TTMs are starting to see some changes due to the volume of collectors looking for a new project, I feel like those are some nice numbers.</div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of new projects, I've been helping a friend who is using TTMs as a summer geography lesson for her kids. She's started out with just Kansas City Royals (with successes from Mark Gubicza, Greg Gagne, Terry Leach, Kevin Koslofski, Jerry Don Gleaton, Jim Eisenreich, Rick Luecken, and Jeremy Guthrie all coming back in under two weeks so far) but plans to expand out to other teams soon.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyways, here's the rest of my month after the previous entry...</div><div><br /></div><div>JULY 13</div><div><div>Mark Teahen, c/o Sorso Wine Room, 4/4, 2 months</div><div>John Gordon, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks</div><div>Damian Rhodes, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div>Wallace Johnson, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div>David Maley, c/o home, 4/5, 2 weeks (did not sign Fleer Throwbacks or explain why he won't sign it)</div><div>Bob Rodgers, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div>JULY 16</div><div>David Segui, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div>JULY 17</div><div>Keegan Thompson, c/o home, 3/3, 1 month</div><div><br /></div><div>JULY 18</div><div>Rich Becker, c/o home, 4/4, 2 months (postmarked from FL)</div><div><br /></div><div>JULY 20</div><div>Steve Smith, c/o home, 6/4, 3 weeks (wrote back a short note and signed protective index card)</div><div>Lenny Randle, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div>JULY 21</div><div>Steve Searcy, c/o home, 5/5, 1 week</div><div>Mike Peluso, c/o home, 5/5, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div>JULY 22</div><div>Charles Hudson, c/o home, 4/4, 1 month</div><div>Sergei Gonchar, c/o home, 6/6, 1 month (postmarked from TX)</div><div>Jose Cruz, c/o home, 2/2, 1 week (paid $3 each)</div><div>Scott Pearson, c/o home, 5/5, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div>JULY 23</div><div>Olaf Kolzig, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div>Rick Schu, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div>JULY 24</div><div>Dustin Hermanson, c/o home, 4/4, 6 weeks</div><div>Steve Trachsel, c/o home, 3/4, 1 month, returned one unsigned</div><div><br /></div><div>JULY 25</div><div>Jim Slaton, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks</div><div>Rem Murray, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div>Jerry Reed, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div>JULY 27</div><div>Mark Kerlin, c/o home, 2/2, 1 month</div><div>Jeremy Sowers, c/o home, 4/4, 1 month</div><div>Don Robinson, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div>Marty McInnis, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks</div><div>Wayne Rosenthal, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div>Kevin Romine, c/o home, 6/6, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div>JULY 28</div><div>Clint Malarchuk, c/o home, 3/5, 2 weeks, kept 2 cards</div><div>Troy Loney, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div>Troy O'Leary, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div>JULY 30</div><div>Bryn Smith, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div>Rob Mackowiak, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks</div><div>Kevin Miller, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div>JULY 31</div><div>Ryne Sandberg, c/o home, 2/2, 6 weeks (paid $5 each)</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Lastly, I forgot to mention I did a <a href="https://ttmcast.podbean.com/e/adam-fuerst-president-trove-sports-dencom-and-catching-up-with-ttmer-drew-pelto/" target="_blank">second appearance on the TTMCast podcast</a> back in early June. Make sure you check it out (as well as all their other episodes)!</div>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-14524888568183715732020-07-11T16:37:00.000-05:002020-07-11T16:37:49.650-05:00June and first half of July updateIf you've subscribed to my YouTube channel you've likely seen these already. But June was a month almost on par with May for quantity of success and July is shaping up to be similar.<div><br /></div><div>My daily success streak ended at 25 days on June 9, but I did manage to set a few more personal records: most autographs obtained TTM in a day, second highest number of individual successes in a single day, second fastest response, most TTM autographs in a two-month span, and working on most in a three-month span.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've mailed out a ton and have even more ready to go soon. I should likely break my record for most mailings in a single year as well: I sent 357 in 2017 and I'm at 226 this year. I should be close to 300 by the end of the month. I could potentially hit 400-700 this year if I keep this up.</div><div><br /></div><div>Made a bunch of trades too, adding to several of my sets.</div><div><br /></div><div>And, if the current pandemic is manageable by December, I'm considering a trip to the National-- just for a weekend and not the full five-ish days. I can fly here to Newark late on Friday for $200 roundtrip, drive two hours down to AC, and stay outside the city in like Millville or Vineland and go to the show Saturday, Sunday, and maybe even early Monday, flying out late Monday. We'll see. Being close to Philly and NYC, perhaps the hockey content will be better than that of the Cleveland shows.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyways, the TTM recap...</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 1</u></b></div><div><div>Billy Sample, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 2</u></b></div><div>Dan Pasqua, c/o home, 3/3, 3 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 3</u></b></div><div>Don Hood, c/o home, 4/2, 2 weeks, added two signed photos, personalized all</div><div>Keith Lockhart, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 4</u></b></div><div>Jim Palmer, c/o home, 2/2, 1 month, $10 each fee</div><div>Steve Braun, c/o home, 2/1, 1 month, wrote note back, $4 fee</div><div>Dan Ford, c/o home, 4/4, 3 weeks</div><div>Dan Peltier, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 5</u></b></div><div>Richie Scheinblum, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks</div><div>Bob Grich, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks, $5 fee</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 6</u></b></div><div>Don Aase, c/o home, 4/4, 1 month</div><div>Ricky Bones, c/o home, 3/4, 2 weeks, kept one card</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 8</u></b></div><div>Lee Guetterman, c/o home, 5/4, 1 month, added signed card</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 9</u></b></div><div>Willie Fraser, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks</div><div>Terry Leach, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 15</u></b></div><div>Buck Showalter, c/o home, 3/3, 1 month</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 16</u></b></div><div>Kelly Holcomb, c/o home, 2/2, 2 months</div><div>Dave Goltz, c/o home, 3/3, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 18</u></b></div><div>Mike Paxton, c/o home, 3/2, 2 months, signed protective index card</div><div>Bruce Gossett, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 19</u></b></div><div>Ted Power, c/o home, 3/3, 1 month</div><div>Dave Lemonds, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks</div><div>Vance Law, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 20</u></b></div><div>Buddy Groom, c/o home, 4/4, 5 days</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 22</u></b></div><div>Joe Morgan, c/o home, 4/3, 1 week, wrote note back</div><div>Art Howe, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 23</u></b></div><div>Mario Marois, c/o home, 6/6, 6 weeks </div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 25</u></b></div><div>Jay Howell, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 26</u></b></div><div>Bill Mueller, c/o home, 3/3, 2 months</div><div>Ed Hobaugh, c/o home, 3/2, 2 weeks, signed letter</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 27</u></b></div><div>Bob Bailor, c/o home, 4/4, 6 weeks</div><div>Pat Neshek, c/o home, 4/6, 2 weeks, kept two cards</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 29</u></b></div><div>Rich Amaral, c/o home, 5/5, 7 weeks</div><div>Dave Johnson, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div>Scott Terry, c/o home, 5/5, 1 week</div><div>Anthony Telford, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JUNE 30</u></b></div><div>Don Gordon, c/o home, 5/4, 3 weeks, added signed card</div><div>Rick Kehoe, c/o home, 2/2, 1 week</div><div>Bob Tewksbury, c/o home, 5/5, 1 week</div><div>Jim Johnson, c/o home, 5/5, 1 week</div><div>Alexei Gusarov, c/o home, 6/6, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JULY 2</u></b></div><div>Vincent Damphousse, c/o work, 4/4, 2 months</div><div>Brad Jones, c/o home, 3/4, 2 weeks, returned one unsigned</div><div>Yuri Khmylev, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JULY 3</u></b></div><div>Kip Gross, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div>Tyler Stephenson, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks</div><div>Eddie Tucker, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JULY 6</u></b></div><div>Vida Blue, c/o home, 2/2, 1 month, $10 each fee</div><div>Chris Hammond, c/o home, 5/5, 3 weeks</div><div>Drew Henson, c/o home, 4/4, 3 weeks</div><div>Tim Stoddard, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks</div><div>Dimitri Khristich, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks</div><div>Mark Sweeney, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div>Phil Stephenson, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks</div><div>Jim Eisenreich, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JULY 9</u></b></div><div>Bubba Starling, c/o home, 2/2, 3 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JULY 10</u></b></div><div>Jose Tabata, c/o home, 4/4, 3 weeks</div><div>Jamie Moyer, c/o home, 6/6, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>JULY 11</u></b></div><div>Bob Weiss, c/o team, 3/5, a year and a half, kept two cards</div></div>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-17453831391480076462020-05-30T22:57:00.002-05:002020-05-30T22:57:37.575-05:00April Showers bring May FlowersAnd Mayflowers bring pilgrims. And I had a record setting number of cards make a pilgrimage to my mailbox this month!<div><br /></div><div>My last entry I mentioned being in way over my head with the combination of the 1972 project, All-Time Fan Favorites sets, and Diamond Kings; so much so that I almost decided to completely end my work on all but the 72s and trade off what I had.</div><div><br /></div><div>Instead, no. I'm going to keep working on them, but they're definitely getting de-emphasized. When it comes to paying for players who charge to TTM, the 1972 sets come first. Then the others second. I'll still keep trading and just working on freebies and cheapies any time I can.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sometimes you just need a momentary freakout to really clear your head.</div><div><br /></div><div>With the fact I'm a Moderator In Training at SportsCardForum, I was asked by their assistant GM if I might make some TTM success videos. This has now turned into an entire YouTube Channel. Check it out and subscribe!</div>
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<div>I also added on a few moderators to the Facebook groups I run.</div><div><br /></div><div>With the fact that I'm still working from home through the current pandemic, my wife was able to get unemployment since both of her jobs shut down, and we got our Donnie Dollars, I decided to go ahead and mail off a ton of TTM requests. Several tough signers have started picking up the pen, and a few long waits have come back to me. Overall, I got 193 sigs by mail, which breaks my previous single-month TTM record of 177 set in November 2017. That month saw me set three other personal records (Most TTM successes in a day, then did it again, and most total TTM sigs in a day) but never saw a streak of more than six delivery days in a row with a success.</div><div><br /></div><div>This month, no records for most in a day, but I've only had two delivery days without a success (with an 18-delivery day streak rolling into June) and the quality has been incredible.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>MAY 1</div><div>Charlie Hall, c/o home, 3/3, 1 week</div><div>Carl Hairston, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks</div></div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 2</div><div>Luke Walker, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks - <b>1972 Set Hit!</b></div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 4</div><div>Cleo Miller, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div>Rance Mulliniks, c/o home, 6/6, 1 week</div><div>Russ Courtnall, c/o home, 3/5, 1 week, kept two cards</div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 5</div><div>Lonnie Chisenhall, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks</div><div>Ruben Amaro, c/o home, 5/5, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 6</div><div>Dave Schmidt, c/o home, 5/5, 1 year - <b>DK Set Hit!</b></div><div>Jose Lind, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks, paid $1 per</div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 7</div><div>Kurt Stillwell, c/o home, 4/4, 3 weeks - <b>DK Set Hit!</b></div><div>Paul Assenmacher, c/o home, 3/4, 3 weeks</div><div>Mike Fischlin, c/o home, 3/4, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 8-9</div><div>The only two mail delivery days with no successes...</div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 11</div><div>Kevin Maas, c/o home, 5/5, 2 years - <b>ATFF Set Hit!</b></div><div>Jim Lachey, c/o home, 4/4, 3 weeks</div><div>Sal Bando, c/o home, 2/2, 3 weeks - <b>1972 Set Hits!</b></div><div>Steve Bono, c/o home, 5/5, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 12</div><div>Clay Carroll, c/o home, 2/2, 1 week, paid $5 each - <b>1972 Set Hits!</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>MAY 13</div><div>Rick Mirer, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 14</div><div>Elliott Maddox, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks, paid $5 - <b>1972 Set Hit!</b></div><div>Cleon Jones, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks, paid $10 each - <b>1972 Set Hits!</b></div><div>Steve Kemp, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 15</div><div>Rick Wise, c/o home, 4/3, 2 weeks, paid $5 each, he added an extra card - <b>1972 Set Hits!</b></div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 16</div><div>Tim McCarver, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks, paid $10 - <b>1972 Set Hit!</b></div><div>Andre Ware, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks - <b>Heisman CIC Set Hit!</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>MAY 18</div><div>Alex Dickerson, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks</div><div>Ben Petrick, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks</div><div>Erik McMillan, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 19</div><div><div>Lou Piniella, c/o home, 2/2, 1 month, paid $5 each - <b>1972 Set Hits!</b></div><div>Roberto Hernandez, c/o home, 6/6, 3 weeks </div><div>Harold Baines, c/o home, 3/3, 1 week, paid $10 total - <b>DK and ATFF Set Hits!</b></div><div>Terry Adams, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week</div><div>Bill Swift, c/o home, 6/6, 1 week</div></div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 20</div><div>Jim Acker, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week</div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 21</div><div><div>Ken Singleton, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks, paid $5 - <b>1972 Set Hit!</b></div><div>Franklin Stubbs, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks</div><div>Mark Chmura, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div>John Friesz, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div>Craig Paquette, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks</div></div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 22</div><div>Jeff Andretti, c/o home, 1/1, 3 weeks</div><div>Ken Oberkfell, c/o home, 6/6, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 23</div><div>Fredrik Modin, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks</div><div>Jeff Ballard, c/o work, 5/5, 2 weeks</div><div>Willie McGinest, c/o home, 5/5, 2 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 26</div><div><div>Steve Garvey, c/o home, 2/2, 9 months, paid $5 - <b>1972 and DK Set Hits!</b></div><div>Jean-Guy Talbot, c/o home, 4/3, 5 months, added a signed photo</div><div>Bryan Oelkers, c/o home, 3/3, 1 month</div><div>Denny McLain, c/o Top of the Mound Enterprises, 2/1, 3 weeks, paid $5, also signed protective index card - <b>1972 Set Hit!</b></div><div>Lee Elia, c/o home, 1/3, 2 weeks, returned two unsigned</div></div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 27</div><div>Michael Cuddyer, c/o home, 1/1, 3 weeks</div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 28</div><div>Jeremy Guthrie, c/o Texas Houston South Mission, 4/4, 1 week, kept a card, wrote short note back</div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 29</div><div><div>Jermaine Allensworth, c/o home, 5/5, 3 weeks</div><div>Dave Ford, c/o home, 3/4, 3 weeks, kept a double</div><div>R.A. Dickey, c/o home, 1/2, 1 week, kept one card - <b>2013 72 Mini Set Hit!</b></div></div><div><br /></div><div>MAY 30</div><div>Broderick Perkins, c/o home, 3/3, 1 month</div><div>Juan Marichal, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks, paid $10 each - <b>1972 Set Hits!</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>So if you're scoring at home, that's 19 new sigs added to the 1972 Topps set, one added to the 2013 72 Minis, four Diamond Kings, three ATFFs, and a Heisman Index Card.</div><div><br /></div><div>And that's only the TTMs.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've started listing my entire tradeable signed card inventory on SCN just to see if I can get a few bites. It's a hell of a process. We're talking nearly 5000 in baseball alone, another 3000 or so in hockey, and a bunch in basketball, football, auto racing, and indoor soccer. And there's no way to just upload the entire list as a spreadsheet or anything. We're talking player by player.</div><div><br /></div><div>But boy have I ever gotten some bites...</div><div><br /></div><div>I worked a few trades and purchases on SCN, ABC Unlimited, eBay, and Facebook. So far, I've gotten three for my ATFF sets (Tommy John and two Maury Wills) and two for 1972 (Dusty Baker and a likely-ghost-signed Joe Coleman that's at least a decent placeholder and was just a throw-in on the trade), plus I bought several signed Indians cards of Brandon Phillips. You may know he refused to sign Indians cards after being traded from them in 2006 (a policy he kept at least until 2010 and I haven't heard anything of him changing it in the last ten years).</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm awaiting shipment on several 1972s that I bought through a long-time collector on Facebook (Tim Foli, Moe Drabowsky, Bob Lemon, Paul Blair, Duke Sims, Phil Regan, Bob Barton, Jim Fregosi, Tommy Davis, and Mark Herrmann); a 1972 Don Eddy from a trade with a collector via SCN/Facebook; DKs of Kevin Seitzer and Keith Moreland plus a 1972 of Marty Pattin from a trade with a friend via Facebook; a 1972 Bruce Kison via a SCN trade; and a John Smiley DK from eBay.</div><div><br /></div><div>So once those are done, I'll be getting another 13 1972 sigs, and three DK sigs.</div><div><br /></div><div>And I'm working on another potential deal for some DKs right now. A collector on SCN has eight I need, and I have ten 1991 Upper Deck needs of his...</div><div><br /></div><div>The YouTube channel is likely going to get a lot of content put on it, even when I don't get any TTMs. Maybe a couple videos on advice for how to write letters, IP graphing etiquette, my sets, my collecting biography, spotlighting other channels and podcasts and forums and such, and anything else that comes to mind. Maybe if I get enough subscribers, some live streams and chats just showing off some items in my collection.</div>Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-65744338994425303722020-05-02T02:03:00.001-05:002020-05-02T02:03:29.441-05:00April report, and ... a thinning of the herd?Obviously, I have no IP reports to talk about. But I hit the mailing hard at the end of the month and plan to do so in early May as well.<br />
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APRIL 3<br />
Orland Kurtenbach, c/o Canucks Alumni, 3/2, 4 months, wrote a short note back<br />
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APRIL 7<br />
Luis Melendez, c/o home, 3/3, 5 months<br />
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APRIL 14<br />
Gene Alley, c/o home, 3/4, 5 months, returned one unsigned<br />
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APRIL 16<br />
Tom Tupa, c/o home, 4/4, 4 years<br />
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APRIL 27<br />
Keith Millard, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week<br />
Charles Nagy, c/o home, 5/5, 1 week<br />
Reggie Cleveland, c/o home, 1/1, 1 week, paid $2 signing fee<br />
Will Wilson, c/o home, 5/5, 1 week, personalized all<br />
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APRIL 30<br />
Chris Perez, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week<br />
Bobby Witt Jr., c/o home, 2/2, 1 week<br />
Goose Gossage, c/o home, 1/1, 1 week<br />
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MAY 1<br />
Charlie Hall, c/o home, 3/3, 1 week<br />
Carl Hairston, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks<br />
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From April 20-27, I've sent off 45 requests. I have enough stamps to send 55 more domestically, plus 20 outgoing stamps for international requests. One is going to Japan. I also have about $100 in cash to get some players who charge.<br />
<br />
And that leads me to something I'm thinking about. I might decrease my number of sets I'm working on.<br />
<br />
I don't plan to give up on the indoor soccer or hockey sets. I'm super close to being done on all of those. Football, Nascar, I could go either way on those.<br />
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But the baseball sets are pure hell. The 1972 Topps set has 787 cards and when you include all the multi-player cards, it'll take 863 sigs to complete (this includes a random cardless player/coach/owner/broadcaster/organist on the team card, and an umpire on each checklist). I have 383 at last count. I'll never complete it-- I mean Mays, Aaron, and Mike Marshall, all want well over $200 per sig, plus Clemente, Don Wilson, Jim McGlothin, Danny Frisella, Danny Thompson, Bob Moose, and Thurman Munson all died before 1980. And I plan to hit the 2021 Heritage sets super hard too-- by which I mean the regular, high numbers, AND minor league sets.<br />
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I also have been working on the 2003-2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites sets. 442 cards in them. I have 183 signed including several now deceased. But again: Mays, Aaron, Reggie Jackson, Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, and several others who charge way more than I can afford, plus several deceased that I never got. I'll never finish it either.<br />
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And I've been doing the 1982-1991 Diamond Kings because clearly I am a masochist; not even going to get into those.<br />
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Maybe it's time to scale back and drop the ATFF and DK sets. There's a LOT of trade bait in there-- Ernie Banks, Nolan Ryan, Yogi Berra, Jim Bunning, Don Sutton, Alan Trammell, Sparky Anderson, Ernie Harwell, Fergie Jenkins, Whitey Herzog, Goose Gossage, Harold Baines, Wade Boggs, Brooks Robinson, Duke Snider, Andre Dawson, Ralph Kiner, Ryne Sandberg, Monte Irvin, Tony LaRussa... and that doesn't include the non-HOFers like Joe Carter, Dale Murphy, Jim Kaat, Johnny Pesky, Don Zimmer, Jose Canseco... I think you get my point. And I didn't even touch on the DKs (Canseco, Gossage, Tony Gwynn, Tim Raines, Ivan Calderon...).<br />
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I hate giving up on a project that I've sunk so much time, effort, and money into, especially when the 1972 is a comparatively recent thing for me (I started the ATFF sets in 2007, the 1972 Topps set in 2014, and the DKs around maybe 2016). But sometimes you just have to know when to turn your attention to something a bit more viable. At the very least, maybe someone will be willing to trade my ATFF Fergie Jenkins for their 1972s, my ATFF Brooksies for their 72s, something like that. I don't know. It's not official yet, but I'm giving it some major consideration.<br />
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Meanwhile, expect to see a lot more of me (screenname of *censored*) at SportsCardForum. I've become a made man... err, I mean a moderator there. I have a training period to go through first, but I'm on my way moving up the ladder there. With that, I'm going to be adding a few moderators to the Facebook groups in which I'm an admin (Baseball TTM Autographs; Ballpark Graphers; Baseball Autograph Traders) this weekend.Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-18385819296937348232020-04-01T19:57:00.000-05:002020-04-01T19:57:18.411-05:00March ReportDespite quarantines and all the hilarity that has not ensued, I've hit a couple nifty milestones this month. I completed a set and harpooned a white whale.<br />
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I've also been forced to probably cancel the West Texas trip as it appears there won't be any baseball until at least July 4.<br />
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Anyways, a quick report...<br />
<br />
MARCH 5<br />
Frank Stams, c/o home, 5/4, 3 and a half years; wrote a short note back<br />
<br />
MARCH 13<br />
Dion Phaneuf, c/o parents' home, 4/4, 3 months<br />
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MARCH 18<br />
John Van Boxmeer, c/o home, 3/2, 4 months; also signed protective index card<br />
<br />
MARCH 19<br />
Dmitri Bykov, c/o team, 2/1, 2 and a half months; also signed protective index card<br />
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Yes, you read that correctly: I got a TTM success to and from Russia! I figured that of the final 11 I needed for Topps Total that Bykov might be the last one I get. He only spent a year in the US and played in Boston (where I lived at the time) before the card came out. So I never had the chance to get it signed myself, and I knew no one who had gotten it signed. The postal system in Russia typically sucks so I didn't think TTMing would be possible. But when I found he was coaching a team in Moscow, I figured that was worth a try (apparently mail to Moscow and St. Petersburg is decent, but it's highly questionable anywhere else).<br />
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So, pro tip if you send to him, address your envelope in both English AND Cyrillic. It should look like this...<br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Dmitri Bykov | Дмитрий Быков</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">HK Krasnaya Armiya | ХК Красная Армия</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">CSKA Ice Palace | Ледовый </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Д</span><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">ворец Спорта </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">ЦСКА</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Leningradskyi Prospekt 39/41 | Ленинградский П</span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">роспект 39/41</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">125167 Moscow | 125167 Москва</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Russia | Россия</span><br />
<br />
Your SASE can be in English alone. But do yourself a favor and GET PROPER POSTAGE FOR IT!<br />
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I went on eBay and got a 45-ruble stamp. It cost me about $3 and it had to be shipped to me from Moldova, but it was worth it, clearly. Your outgoing envelope needs a US Global stamp (runs something like $1.20).<br />
<br />
And so with that, I sit at 10 cards remaining for the Topps Total set: Paul Kariya, Jason Allison, Mike Richter, Mark Messier, Todd Bertuzzi, Tommy Salo, Lubomir Sekeras, Espen Knutsen, Miroslav Satan, and Andrei Nikolishin. A friend in Finland has my Nikolishin card hoping to get him with the KHL team he is with, and I have someone who may be able to help with Bertuzzi. Satan has been known to sign occasionally TTM, ditto on Richter, Salo, Sekeras, and Knutsen (though I have failed on all at least once). I think I can safely say that my white whales now are Messier and Kariya; as one would expect. Allison may be the third-toughest.<br />
<br />
I put a few posts out on Facebook and Instagram hoping for some trades. And I got even better: Mike from Minnesota helped me out with the last card for my 2008/09 Upper Deck Rookie Class set, sending me the signed Steven Stamkos card that graced my mailbox today. So I'm now at three complete sets...<br />
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My hockey want list now sits at 50 cards. I may have help coming on as many as 15 of them from various trade talks and even a long-running 50/50 deal.</div>
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Lastly, I made my return to the broadcast booth a couple weeks ago, calling games for the Texas Open Floorball Tournament in Arlington. The games were originally going to be broadcast online, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, the broadcast crew was unable to make it, so we tried to cover the games as best we could with a three-person crew, a camera, a computer, and a couple mics. As soon as they're on YouTube, I'll post some links here.</div>
Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-81016024844896985232020-03-04T10:21:00.000-06:002020-03-04T10:21:35.455-06:00February Recap, and a trip previewAs expected, it was a light month. On the positive side, the guitar amp is out of the shop and sounding incredible. So barring any unforeseen expenses, I should be back to mailing out pretty soon. We're also only a month away from the start of baseball season, so Frisco runs should start happening pretty soon too.<br />
<br />
FEBRUARY 1 – Dallas Renegades Practice<br />
Lance Dunbar, 3/3<br />
Eric Dungey, 2/2<br />
Landry Jones, 4/4<br />
Frank Alexander, 1/1<br />
Daryl “Moose” Johnston, 3/3<br />
Greer Martini, 2/2<br />
Sean Price, 1/1<br />
Hau’Oli Kikaha, 4/4<br />
Derron Smith, 2/3<br />
Bob Stoops, 1/1<br />
Tre Watson, 2/2<br />
<br />
FEBRUARY 7<br />
Rick Wilson, c/o business, 1/1, 1 year<br />
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FEBRUARY 19<br />
Brad Maxwell, c/o home, 4/4, 1 month<br />
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FEBRUARY 21<br />
Ken Holtzman, c/o home, 1/1, 1 month<br />
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FEBRUARY 22<br />
Terry Labonte, c/o home, 4/4, 10 months<br />
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FEBRUARY 25<br />
Ryan Reed, c/o team, 3/3, 10 months<br />
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I'm also looking at doing another graphing mini-trip with Arron in early June. We can catch Corpus Christi at Midland, Las Vegas at El Paso, Salt Lake City at Albuquerque, and Midland at Amarillo all in a four day span on June 3 through June 6. So that's pencilled in on the calendar. It's a good holdover until the 2022 National trip.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Speaking of that, we're now less than a year away from the 2021 Topps Heritage set being released with the 1972 design. I plan to go nuts on this set with TTM and IP and trading to get as much signed as I can in the base set, the high-numbers set, and the minor league set. I already have an improbable piece of work with the 1972 set project; I might as well add more to the Sisyphusian task.</div>
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Help me out here fans/collectors: what's my best way of doing this? Buy a hobby case? Retail case? Blaster case? Just grab a few complete sets off eBay? Snag a bunch of base lots from people breaking cases? Maybe a combination of a blaster case plus a box or two of hobby or retail?</div>
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<br /></div>
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I'm not looking to make a killing on inserts or SPs or anything like that, but I'd like at least two complete base sets, preferably three or four just for an overabundance of preparedness. And I'd like to do it in the most cost-effective way possible, knowing I'll have to lather-rinse-repeat in the fall with the high-number and minor league sets.</div>
Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-61067851381969420342020-01-31T14:34:00.000-06:002020-01-31T14:34:38.337-06:00January UpdateVery light month. Had a bunch of car repairs and my new guitar amp is in the shop too, so any spare money has gone toward those instead of mailing stuff out. On the positive side, most of my Canadian requests have come back successfully<br />
<br />
JANUARY 3<br />
Bob Baun, c/o home, 4/4, 3 weeks<br />
Dick Duff, c/o home, 5/3, 3 weeks, added a short note and signed photo<br />
Brad Park, c/o Bruins Alumni, 3/3, 2 months<br />
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JANUARY 6<br />
Tyrone Bogues, c/o home, 4/4, 1 year<br />
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JANUARY 7<br />
Bobby Rousseau, c/o work, 4/3, 1 month, added signed photo<br />
Reggie Leach, c/o home, 2/2, 1 month<br />
Leo Boivin, c/o home, 2/2, 1 month<br />
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JANUARY 9<br />
Larry Hillman, c/o home, 4/4, 1 month<br />
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JANUARY 11<br />
Gilles Gilbert, c/o home, 3/2, 1 month, signed protective index card<br />
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JANUARY 13<br />
Pete Koegel, c/o home, 2/1, 2 weeks, signed protective index card<br />
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JANUARY 21<br />
Rogatien Vachon, c/o home, 4/4, 2 months<br />
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JANUARY 22<br />
Marcel Dionne, c/o work, 1/1, 3 weeks, $10<br />
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JANUARY 25 - Rangers' Peek At The Park<br />
Tyler Phillips, 1/1<br />
Taylor Hearn, 1/1<br />
Ivan Rodriguez, 1/1<br />
Willie Calhoun, 3/3<br />
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JANUARY 28<br />
Murray Costello, c/o home, 2/1, 1 month, added a short note<br />
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Dallas' XFL team has an event tomorrow that I'm going to hit up. Looks like my major card batch is getting here in time despite having a SportLots dealer who decided to sit on my order for a while. Players I'm hoping to get: Moose Johnston, Jim Jeffcoat, Bob Stoops, Simmie Cobbs, Landry Jones, Jonathan Massaquoi, Lance Dunbar, Cameron Artis-Payne, Derron Smith, Hauoli Kikaha, Sean Price, James Quick, Eric Dungey, Tre Watson, Greer Martini.Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-88430712421677050682020-01-06T11:38:00.004-06:002020-01-06T11:39:44.575-06:00Capping off 2019 and previewing 2020And starting 2020 as well!<br />
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Winters are always light on the IP front, especially with the Rangers being so woefully underprepared for the Toy Drive. I didn't go this year. I heard they didn't announce who was in what group until people were already in line inside. I have never understood why the organization has such absolute disdain for its fans.<br />
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I did at least get to go to a practice for the new XFL team and got a few there. I might have to see about going and graphing some of their games. Several former NFLers are on teams' rosters, coaching staves, and front offices. And I know I have cards of a few. I'll give a rundown at the end of the post.<br />
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DECEMBER 5<br />
Johnny Bucyk, c/o Bruins Alumni, 3/3, 3 weeks<br />
Casey Cox, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks<br />
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DECEMBER 6<br />
Don Money, c/o home, 4/4, 3 months<br />
Terry Harper, c/o home, 2/2, 1 month<br />
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DECEMBER 7<br />
Ken Hodge, c/o home, 2/2, 3 weeks - He signed one on the back and added a note that Ed Westfall is depicted on the front<br />
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DECEMBER 9<br />
Bill Baker, c/o home, 2/2, 3 weeks<br />
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DECEMBER 12<br />
Jim "Mudcat" Grant, c/o home, 1/1, 3 weeks, $10<br />
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DECEMBER 13<br />
Jim Craig, c/o home, 3/2, 1 month<br />
Rob McClanahan, c/o home, 2/2, 1 months<br />
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DECEMBER 14<br />
Bryan McCabe, c/o Florida Panthers, 4/4, 1 month<br />
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DECEMBER 14 - Dallas Renegades XFL practice<br />
Stacy Coley - 2/2<br />
Jim Jeffcoat - 3/3, 5/5<br />
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DECEMBER 21<br />
Steve Christoff, c/o home, 2/2, 1 month<br />
Bruce Savage, c/o home, 7/6, 1 month<br />
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DECEMBER 23<br />
Mario Andretti, c/o home, 1/1, 3 months<br />
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DECEMBER 24<br />
Ed Westfall, c/o Bruins Alumni, 3/3, 6 weeks<br />
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JANUARY 3<br />
Brad Park, c/o Bruins Alumni, 3/3, 2 months<br />
Dick Duff, c/o home, 5/3, 3 weeks to Canada<br />
Bob Baun, c/o home, 4/4, 3 weeks to Canada<br />
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I also got my new guitar amp bought. A nice Craigslist find netted me what appears based on the serial number to be a 1975 Fender Twin Reverb. At the very least it's a silverface with no tail on the Fender logo and the push-pull master volume knob to turn the overdrive on and off-- so 1974-1980. New caps and tubes on it, and I love the sound it gets. I've tried all my guitars through it just clean without pedals. And I still have about $200 left to spend on other pedals and/or a keyboard.<br />
<br />
Or stamps. Maybe stamps. Yeah, probably stamps. $50 for stamps, $25 for a noise gate pedal, and $125 for a keyboard. I like that. (EDIT: I just ordered the noise gate pedal)<br />
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So, XFL. I'm sure there are more than these guys, but just off a cursory reading of the rosters, here are guys that are involved and that I'm relatively certain have cards...<br />
<br />
DALLAS: Daryl "Moose" Johnston, Jim Jeffcoat, Landry Jones, Stacy Coley, Simmie Cobbs<br />
DC: Ray Hamilton, Kurt Gouveia, Tyree Jackson, Cardale Jones, Donnel Pumphrey, Malachi Dupre, Eli Rogers, Sam Montgomery, Scooby Wright, Matt Elam, Orson Charles<br />
HOUSTON: Chris Miller, Connor Cook, Akrum Wadley, Andre Williams, Sammie Coates, Jalen Saunders, Kony Ealy, Ed Reynolds<br />
LOS ANGELES: Winston Moss, Mike Wilson, Jerry Fontenot, Pepper Johnson, Otis Smith, Martin Bayless, Josh Johnson, Keyarris Garrett, KD Cannon, Jordan Smallwood, Nick Novak<br />
NEW YORK: CJ Ah You, Cris Dishman, Matt McGloin, EJ Bibbs<br />
SEATTLE: Jim Zorn, Mike Riley, BJ Daniels, Chase Litton, Austin Proehl, Keenan Reynolds, Cyril Richardson, Stansly Maponga, Will Sutton<br />
ST. LOUIS: Jonathan Hayes, Chuck Long, Az Hakim, Chris Crocker, Jordan Ta'amu, Taylor Heinicke, Christine Michael, Daniel Braverman, Jordan Lasley, L'Damian Washington, Terrance Williams, Will Hill, Marquette King<br />
TAMPA BAY: Jerry Glanville, Aaron Murray, Rannell Hall, KJ Maye, DeAndre Goolsby, Jalen Collins<br />
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St. Louis is pretty stacked and play Dallas' home opener on February 9. I might look into that and see about how much tickets are and what I have in the way of cards. At the very least, there might be some solid TTM opportunities.<br />
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Winter Caravan dates and places are out-- mostly at the Miller Tavern at Texas Live on Thursday nights, and midweek afternoons at a few Whataburger and Comerica Bank branches. The only weekend event is the annual Frisco event on Saturday January 18. Last year you were limited to ONE autograph line. No thanks. I might check out the Thursdays since it's right up the road. We'll see when they decide to announce what players will be there.<br />
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Last but not least, <a href="https://ttmcast.com/2019/12/22/ttmcast-collectors-corner-drew-pelto/" target="_blank">my TTMCast appearance</a> is now online!Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-20061772110733530852019-12-12T10:09:00.003-06:002019-12-12T10:09:45.431-06:00Coming soon: a podcast appearance!Back in December 2016 my friend Lee messaged me asking about the possibility of doing an autograph-related podcast. I liked the idea though it had been years since I had done one and I didn't really know how to do one with solid autograph-related content. And things just got busy with my joining a band and him getting married and having a kid, so we both just kind of forgot about it.<br />
<br />
Enter Jeff Baker. Jeff is from Massachusetts and is a longtime collector who has gotten back into TTMing recently. Back in January of this year, he started putting together a weekly-ish podcast about TTM collecting, simply called <a href="https://ttmcast.com/podcasts/" target="_blank">TTMCast</a>. On it, he has interviewed various collectors, players, and hobby bigwigs about all things sports collecting, but with an emphasis on TTM autographs. Come of the names you may recognize: Rich Mueller of Sports Collectors Daily, Scott Kozlowski of Sports Card Forum, collectors like Nick Diunte, Paul Miles, and Scott Lomoglio, author and former ultimate Jose Canseco supercollector Tanner Jones, and guys you may have written to like John Bucyk, Bob Lilly, and Jim Kaat.<br />
<br />
TTMCast <a href="https://www.sportscardforum.com/forums/768-TTMCast-Podcast" target="_blank">linked up with SCF</a> to cross-promote each of their sites and projects and so when I saw it linked on SCF, I knew I had to check it out. I also got in contact with Jeff and said if he needed an interview subject that I was more than willing to jump on board, and so we set one up for early December.<br />
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Long story short, We had a good long chat about the hobby last night, and it should be coming up online in the next few weeks.<br />
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In the meantime, I highly recommend checking out <a href="https://ttmcast.com/podcasts/" target="_blank">past episodes of the podcast</a>. All are available on his site and they're great for collectors of any sport, and at any level from the seasoned veteran collector all the way down to the newest of the newcomers.Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-27202941007688263802019-12-05T11:47:00.000-06:002019-12-05T11:57:02.724-06:00November (and early December) 2019I'm sure a few of these names will need clarification, so I'll just get that out of the way now.<br />
<br />
As you probably know by now, I'm a musician. I played bass and keyboards in a band called Leisuresuit Salesmen when I was in 8th and 9th grade for a talent show and New Year's Eve party, drums in a band called 45 Percent for my high school's variety show as a senior, drums (with some keyboard, guitar, bass, and vocal contributions) in CC40 in college (not the CC40 Blues Band that comes up first on Google, but a short-lived punk/alternative project from Boston that had the name long before they did), and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJbJ1bHOiPA" target="_blank">drums</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdPkD0lAOGI" style="outline-width: 0px !important; user-select: auto !important;" target="_blank">guitar</a> with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWA8CwG2u6E" target="_blank">Death Before Breakfast</a> for a few years. Recently I joined a new project called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/The-Nothing-100238394720982" target="_blank">The Nothing</a>. I was in my high school's orchestra as a percussionist. I also play a little mandolin and possibly could still play some trombone if I tried. I might record some solo stuff that I've written, and maybe some covers of some Great Lakes folk songs.<br />
<br />
Anyways, my biggest influences and favorite bands list would likely change a lot from day to day, but the Top Five always tend to be Guns N' Roses, Weezer, Dropkick Murphys, the Funk Brothers (Motown's backing band), and the New Bomb Turks. You probably know the first two reasonably well, perhaps the third. The fourth is a little more esoteric since they were rarely credited-- the Motown marketing machine tended to concentrate on the singers while the musicians were left largely uncredited until Marvin Gaye released <u>What's Going On</u>, and then got pretty well screwed over by the label moving to Los Angeles with no warning given to them. Several of them found out by showing up to play and finding a note on the door. The Brothers finally started getting recognition on a wider scale with the release of the book and documentary <u>Standing In The Shadows Of Motown</u>. Only two of them are still living: guitarist Joe Messina and percussionist Jack Ashford.<br />
<br />
Anyways, the last one, the New Bomb Turks, are a garage punk band of my fellow Clevelanders who assembled in Columbus, OH in the early 90s and accidentally kicked off the garage rock revival of the late 90s and early 00s. Without the album <u>!!Destroy-Oh-Boy!!</u>, there's a good chance you wouldn't know The Hives, The Hellacopters, The Vines, The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Black Keys, The Dandy Warhols, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, and a ton more. It wasn't until I was in high school, around 2000 or so, that I really started getting into punk rock. The Turks parted ways not long after, with their final album coming in 2003. And since I had parents who believed you might fall off the edge of the earth if you go west of Euclid, I never got out to many (any) shows.<br />
<br />
Over the next 15 years, NBT would occasionally get together and play a couple shows, do a short tour, play a festival, whatever. None came near me though. The closest was Austin when I was in Wichita Falls, but having close to no disposable income at the time and having to work on weekends, I had to miss it.<br />
<br />
So when I found out they were going to open for Rev. Horton Heat in Detroit and Chicago with the Voodoo Glow Skulls (both of whom I saw back in February together in Dallas), I knew I had to try to go. Long story short: we went to both shows, I got an album signed by two members, got one of the drummer's sticks, got called out from the stage by their lead singer in Chicago, and then had him swipe my hat and beat a couple people with it in Detroit. Awesome show, 10/10 would recommend. My only complaint is they did not play <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lCXTmmdauY" target="_blank">Defiled</a>.<br />
<br />
So, when you're asking yourself "Who are Eric Davidson, Jim Weber, and Sam Brown?" now you know. I missed having Brown and bassist Matt Reber sign my album, but I'm sure I'll get them eventually.<br />
<br />
I also was able to get my grandfather's 12-string guitar from my uncle when we passed through Michigan. I need a new high G string (tee-hee-hee, yeah yeah, laugh it up) since it broke when I tuned it, but aside from that it's good.<br />
<br />
NOVEMBER 9<br />
Dave Schultz, c/o Hammer Enterprises, 2/2, 1 month, included fee of $10 per<br />
<br />
NOVEMBER 12<br />
Curtis Granderson, c/o Marlins ST, 1/1, 9 months<br />
<br />
NOVEMBER 15<br />
Ty Dillon, c/o Germain Racing, 4/4, 6 months<br />
Bobby Knoop, c/o home, 3/3, 6 weeks<br />
<br />
NOVEMBER 18<br />
Nick Fotiu, c/o home, 2/2, 1 week<br />
Ted Harris, c/o home, 3/2, 1 week, also signed protective index card<br />
<br />
NOVEMBER 19<br />
Tony Oliva, c/o Twins ST, 1/1, 9 months<br />
<br />
NOVEMBER 20<br />
Bobby Hebert, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week, personalized all<br />
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NOVEMBER 21<br />
Phil Roberto, c/o home, 3/2, 1 week, added signed photo<br />
Eric Nesterenko, c/o home, 3/3, 1 week<br />
Jim Pappin, c/o home, 2/2, 1 week<br />
<br />
NOVEMBER 22<br />
Bob Froese, c/o home, 4/4, 1 week<br />
<br />
NOVEMBER 23<br />
Bert Marshall, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks<br />
<br />
NOVEMBER 24 - Dallas Card Show<br />
Rocket Ismail, 1/1<br />
<br />
NOVEMBER 25<br />
Dave Keon, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks<br />
Ralph Backstrom, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks<br />
<br />
NOVEMBER 26<br />
Harry Sinden, c/o home, 1/2, 2 weeks, kept the second card<br />
Don Marshall, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks<br />
Fred Stanfield, c/o home, 2/2, 1 week<br />
Alexei Yashin, c/o home, 2/2, 1 week<br />
John Harrington, c/o home, 2/2, 1 week<br />
<br />
NOVEMBER 29<br />
Jim Rutherford, c/o team, 3/3, 3 weeks<br />
Jim Schoenfeld, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks<br />
Grant Mulvey, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks<br />
Joe Watson, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks<br />
Steve Janaszak, c/o home, 3/2, 1 week, also signed protective index card<br />
<br />
NOVEMBER 29 - Voodoo Glow Skulls, New Bomb Turks, Rev. Horton Heat concert<br />
Eric Davidson, 1/1<br />
<br />
NOVEMBER 30<br />
Mike Davis, c/o home, 3/3, 2 years<br />
Mark Wells, c/o home, 3/2, 2 weeks, also added signed business card, paid $5 per<br />
Phil Verchota, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks<br />
Craig Patrick, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks<br />
<br />
NOVEMBER 30 - Voodoo Glow Skulls, New Bomb Turks, Rev. Horton Heat concert<br />
Jim Weber, 1/1<br />
Sam Brown, concert-used drum stick<br />
<br />
DECEMBER 2<br />
Mike Anderson, c/o home, 4/4, 2 weeks<br />
<br />
DECEMBER 3<br />
Jack Ashford, c/o home, 1/1, 2 months<br />
<br />Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-3342477699650420112019-11-06T10:34:00.000-06:002019-11-06T15:33:15.685-06:00Two-month updateI got a little busy: joined a new band, had the find of a lifetime while sorting which I'll get to at the end, and am preparing for a couple trips later this month. So I'll sneak in this update while I have half a moment.<br />
<br />
SEPTEMBER 6<br />
Jaime Jarrin, c/o home, 2/2, 1 week<br />
Carlton Fisk, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks, $40<br />
<br />
SEPTEMBER 7<br />
Dick Tracewski, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks<br />
Joe Tait, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks<br />
<br />
SEPTEMBER 9<br />
Monte Moore, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks<br />
Dave Lemonds, c/o home, 2/2, 2 weeks<br />
Steve Zungul, c/o home, 1/1, 2 months<br />
<br />
SEPTEMBER 10<br />
Steve Brye, c/o home, 3/3, 3 weeks<br />
Enrico Ciccone, c/o Quebec Parliament, 2/2, 1 month<br />
Mark Karpun, c/o home, 1/1, 3 weeks<br />
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SEPTEMBER 11<br />
Fred Cambria, c/o home, 2/2, 1 week<br />
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SEPTEMBER 12<br />
Syd O'Brien, c/o home, 3/3, 1 week<br />
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SEPTEMBER 13<br />
Bob Heise, c/o home, 3/3, 1 week<br />
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SEPTEMBER 14<br />
Al Spangler, c/o home, 3/3, 2 weeks<br />
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SEPTEMBER 17<br />
Denny Matthews, c/o home, 2/2, 3 weeks<br />
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SEPTEMBER 19<br />
Booker T. Jones, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks<br />
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SEPTEMBER 26<br />
Charlie Hough, c/o home, 4/4, 6 weeks<br />
Bob Gallagher, c/o home, 3/3, 3 weeks<br />
Mel Behney, c/o home, 2/2, 1 month<br />
<br />
OCTOBER 1 - Rangers Development Camp<br />
David Garcia 1/1<br />
Josh Jung 1/1<br />
Julio Pablo Partinez 2/4<br />
Jonathan Ornelas 2/4<br />
Leody Taveras 2/4<br />
Cole Winn 4/4<br />
<br />
OCTOBER 5 - Rangers Development Camp<br />
Sam Huff 1/1<br />
Josh Jung 1/1<br />
Davis Wendzel 1/1<br />
Cole Winn 2/2<br />
Leody Taveras 1/1<br />
Julio Pablo Martinez 2/2<br />
Jonathan Ornelas 2/2<br />
David Garcia 1/1<br />
<br />
OCTOBER 15<br />
Hal Lanier, c/o home, 3/3, 6 months<br />
Mason McReakin, c/o home, 4/2, 1 week, added a signed IC and a note<br />
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OCTOBER 22<br />
Gene Clines, c/o home, 1/1, 1 week<br />
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OCTOBER 25<br />
Ted Giannoulas, c/o home, 3/2, 2 weeks, added a note<br />
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OCTOBER 29<br />
Tony Esposito, c/o home, 1/1, 2 weeks, $10<br />
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NOVEMBER 1<br />
Pete Mahovlich, c/o home, 2/1, 2 weeks, $10, added an extra signed card<br />
<br />
So yeah, quite a hodge-podge in there. Three that I paid for, which I rarely do, but I had some spare cash on hand and needed them for sets. Two IP outings. Fifteen new additions to the 1972 Topps project (plus three I bought on eBay). Two for the Topps/OPC Archives hockey set. Two for the MISL project. One for the Fleer Throwback hockey set. And three just for the hell of it. Clines finished the 1971 Topps dual with Cambria, McReakin pitched in the Braves org in 2018 and is a member of the Facebook autograph groups I run, a well-known mascot in Giannoulas (The Chicken!), and Jones is my first music-related success.<br />
<br />
So, the new band. We're called The Nothing. Right now I'll likely be splitting time on drums and guitar. I'm most comfortable on drums, but as long as I can stick to rhythm guitar then I'm competent on six strings. We're still looking for a bassist and hopefully a lead guitarist (so that I can be solely on rhythm and the lead singer can stick to just vocals instead of both vocals and rhythm guitar). I do need to get a better guitar amp soon though.<br />
<br />
Which brings me to the find of a lifetime.<br />
<br />
With the baseball autographing season winding down in September, I figured it was time for a cleanup. It had been a couple years since I had sorted any new additions into my inventory of stuff. I had several boxes of unsorted/barely sorted cards across pretty much every sport, whether purchases, gifts, or stuff I had pulled from inventory and failed to get signed. So to clean up, organize, and just overall make sure I had my shit together so that I didn't forget something when pulling for an outing, I decided to spend a few months sorting. We're in mid-November and I'm almost done-- I just have to finish hockey R-Z and soccer. I'll be done by Thanksgiving.<br />
<br />
Anyways, as I was searching and sorting, within the span of about 24 hours I found three BIG cards I didn't know I had, just sitting in boxes: Patrick Mahomes' 2017 Prizm RC, Mike Trout's 2012 Topps Heritage card...<br />
<br />
... and the 2018 Topps Ronald Acuna Jr. bat-down photo variation.<br />
<br />
I had pulled it from a random pack a while back. I remember even getting it in the pack and just going "Wow, an Acuna RC, cool" since this was not long after my friend Arron pulled the 2018 Pro Debut Acuna auto. I figured okay, maybe this would be a $5-10 card, not knowing about the photo variation. So I just stuck it in a box and forgot about it.<br />
<br />
Over the next few months I forgot I had it, but saw a few posts on Facebook groups about the card heating up and going for big money and thinking to myself "Man, I never have pulls like that." So when I pulled it out from this random box, I was hyperventilating and close to shaking-- pretty sure my wife was about to dial 911.<br />
<br />
I put it in a sleeve and case and immediately made preparations to run it over to Beckett-- along with the Trout, the Mahomes, my 1989 UD Griffey RC, and an old T-205 gold border tobacco card that my in-laws had given me. A month later, I picked them up yesterday...<br />
<br />
Mahomes: 9 overall with subs of 9.5/9.5/9/8.5 (I knew the centering was bad)<br />
Griffey: 9 overall with subs of 9.5/9.5/9/9<br />
Trout: 9 overall with subs of 9.5/9.5/9/8.5 (somehow the surface got knocked down)<br />
T-205 Tom Downey: 1 overall, no subs, which I expected; I mostly just wanted to protect it in a slab<br />
<br />
The Acuna came back as one of the 32 best in the population report. There is one Black Label 10, and 27 regular 10s. There are only four 9.5s that have subs of 10/10/9.5/9.5 including mine.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="640" src="https://i.imgur.com/13rd2Ts.jpg?1" width="300" />
</div>
<br />
Considering the range of 9.5s have all gone for $400-600 over the last two months, I'm hoping the two 10 subs and two 9.5 subs will get me $1000. I mean really, you cannot get a better 9.5, and I've only seen two 10s come up for sale, both of which accepted a Best Offer on eBay so I don't know the actual price-- only that they were originally listed at $3000, $2300, and there's one up now at a price of $2350. PSA 10s are going in the $1500 range. I figure a BGS 9.5 with 10/10/9.5/9.5 subs has to be about equivalent to a PSA 10, right?<br />
<br />
So, I figure that's how I'll get that new guitar amp.Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-27992099745386637012019-10-01T11:46:00.002-05:002019-10-01T12:07:33.768-05:00Phantom Parallels: The Checklist ReplacersI'll have my September update coming in the next week or so. Got a crowded few days ahead of me including some baseball IP outings!<br />
<br />
In almost every base set for four decades, Topps produced the loathsome checklist card. No one wanted to pull it from a pack: it didn't feature a player, just a list of who was on what card. In the early days, kids would mark them off and use them for their intended purpose. In later days, everyone wanted a 100% mint condition set, so it was little more than space-filling junk.<br />
<br />
1992 birthed the brainchild (or spawned the brainbastard, depending on your outlook) of the parallel set. Take the base set, tweak something but change nothing else, and whammo, new tough-to-find collectible! Topps Gold was the first to do this before every company followed suit and now today you have the crazy rainbow chasers who need every single variety of a guy's Chrome or Prizm or whatever card.<br />
<br />
So of course, the last thing ANYONE would want is for their short-printed parallel that they pull from a pack to be the checklist card. Instead of leaving gaps in their sets, Topps printed what I call the phantom parallels: inserting players to replace the checklists, but those players didn't have a regular card.<br />
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I'm always interested in oddball cards to get autographed so I started to wonder how many of these would be possible to get signed. I haven't gone that far, but I did finally assemble a list of who the phantom parallels were in each set.<br />
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1992 BB Gold<br />
131: Terry Mathews<br />
264: Rod Beck<br />
366: Tony Perezchica<br />
527: Terry McDaniel<br />
658: John Ramos<br />
787: Brian Williams<br />
132T: Kerry Woodson<br />
<br />
1992 FB Gold<br />
109: Freeman McNeil<br />
218: David Daniels<br />
316: Chris Hakel<br />
341: Ottis Anderson<br />
452: Shawn Moore<br />
563: Mike Mooney<br />
759: Curtis Whitley<br />
<br />
1992-93 BK Gold<br />
197: Jeff Sanders<br />
198: Elliot Perry<br />
395: David Wingate<br />
396: Carl Herrera<br />
<br />
1992-93 HK Gold<br />
525: Alan Conroy<br />
526: Jeff Norton<br />
527: Rob Robinson<br />
528: Adam Foote<br />
<br />
* * * * * * * * * *<br />
1993 BB Gold<br />
394: Bernardo Brito<br />
395: Jim McNamara<br />
396: Rich Sauveur<br />
823: Keith Brown<br />
824: Russ McGinnis<br />
825: Mike Walker<br />
<br />
1993 FB Gold<br />
329: Terance Mathis<br />
330: John Wojciechowski<br />
659: Pat Chaffey<br />
660: Milton Mack<br />
<br />
1993-94 BK Gold<br />
197: David Wingate<br />
198: Frank Johnson<br />
395: Will Perdue<br />
396: Mark West<br />
<br />
1993-94 HK Gold<br />
263: Martin Lapointe<br />
264: Kevin Miehm<br />
527: Myles O’Connor<br />
528: Jamie Leach<br />
<br />
* * * * * * * * * *<br />
1994 BB Gold<br />
395: Bill Brennan<br />
396: Jeff Bronkey<br />
791: Mike Cook<br />
792: Dan Pasqua<br />
<br />
1994-95 BK Spectralight<br />
197: Keith Jennings<br />
198: Mark Price<br />
395: Chris Webber<br />
396: Mitch Richmond<br />
<br />
1994-95 HK Special Effects<br />
274: Rudy Poeschek<br />
275: Michael Peca<br />
549: John Druce<br />
550: Matt Martin<br />
<br />
* * * * * * * * * *<br />
1995 BB Cyberstats<br />
395: Darryl Strawberry<br />
396: Luis Alicea<br />
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It doesn't look like Topps did any phantoms for the 1994 Football Special Effects set. Shame, as I'd love to have seen some punters or long snappers represented. The parallel craze died (for Topps at least) following the 1995 Series 1 baseball. Of course Pacific ran the concept into the ground in the late 90s, but they also didn't print checklist cards in the base set. Topps got smart and eventually made the checklists as a random one-per-pack insert that wasn't part of the set, then took from Upper Deck and put them back in the set but put a player or something interesting on the front with the list on the back.<br />
<br />
There were a few similar to this in the O-Pee-Chee baseball sets that I'll need to assemble a list of as well. I know Delino Deshields and Nate Minchey both had a 1988 card after the Expos drafted them (Deshields replacing Earnest Riles and Minchey replacing the Nolan Ryan Record Breaker card), and there were several cards replacing the All-Stars in the 1992 set. O-Pee-Chee also typically denoted trades on their cards, such as Dennis Lamp's 1987 card that shows him as a Blue Jays but has Chief Wahoo and a "Now with Indians" notation, and even gave Blue Jays catcher Rick Cerone his own 1977 card instead of just stashing him on the Rookie Catchers card that Topps had, where he was still with the Indians. Granted, the OPC set usually was an abbreviated set rather than a true parallel and a guy might be on card 630 in Topps, but then on 390 in OPC. But aside from that, the cards look the same. So finding a card that wasn't in the Topps set but was in the OPC set is kind of a phantom in its own right.<br />
<br />
EDIT: There's <a href="http://ohmyopc.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">a blog on the OPC variations</a>!<br />
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Of course, some of these guys might not sign, and some-- such as Rod Beck and Terry Mathews-- may even be dead. But if you're looking for some oddball items to potentially get signed, look no further than the phantom parallel.Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-72553228348791391632019-09-04T13:58:00.002-05:002019-09-04T13:58:36.392-05:00August reportAs they come to a close I noticed 2019 was a vastly slower year for my baseball IP outings. 9 games (plus two just watching) vs. close to 30 last year. Even non-ballgames, this year had the Vegas MISL event, whereas last year had the NFL and NHL drafts, the National, and the NASL event.<br />
<br />
Is my career winding down? Do I just need a break? I dunno. Maybe a little of both. I'm 35. This certainly isn't a hobby that's viewed favorably by the masses when done by anyone my age or older, even when done by those of us who aren't in it for a fast buck. I think I'll have a major resurgence once the 2021 Heritage sets come out-- though MLB IP graphing will suck in the Rangers' new ballpark. But 2022 should be a banner year with the 2021 Heritage Minors set and another planned roadtrip to the National. I'll have to hit the TTMs pretty hard for the MLB guys.<br />
<br />
Anyways, a recap of the month...<br />
<br />
AUGUST 1<br />
Dave Hoggan, c/o home, 5/5, 3 weeks<br />
<br />
AUGUST 2<br />
Joe Torre, c/o MLB Offices, 4/4, a year and a half<br />
Von Hayes, c/o home, 1/1, 3 months<br />
<br />
AUGUST 17 - DallasCardShow and Kansas City T-Bones at Texas Air Hogs<br />
Tatu, 17/17<br />
Shawn O'Malley, 1/1<br />
Daniel Nava, 3/5<br />
Henry Owens, 3/3<br />
Chris Bando, 6/6<br />
<br />
AUGUST 22<br />
Dale Mitchell, c/o home in Canada, 7/7, 5 weeks<br />
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AUGUST 24<br />
Tim Wittman, c/o home, 3/3, 3 weeks<br />
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AUGUST 24 - Northwest Arkansas vs. Frisco<br />
Scott Blewitt, 3/4, 1/1<br />
Zach Lovvorn, 2/2<br />
Brady Singer, 1/1<br />
Daniel Tillo, 3/3<br />
Blake Perkins, 4/4<br />
Khalil Lee, 1/1<br />
Tyler Zuber, 1/1<br />
Doug Henry, 9/9<br />
Gabriel Cancel, 2/2<br />
Abraham Nunez, 3/3<br />
Kevin Merrell, 3/3<br />
Walker Weickel, 3/3<br />
Greg Hibbard, 4/4<br />
Jackson Kowar, 1/1<br />
Leody Taveras, 1/1<br />
<br />
AUGUST 26<br />
Bobo Lucic, c/o team in Slovenia, 3/3, 7 weeks<br />
<br />
AUGUST 28<br />
Bobby Brown, c/o home, 1/1, 1 week, 3 weeks<br />
<br />
AUGUST 29 - KC T-Bones at Texas Air Hogs<br />
Shawn O'Malley, 1/1<br />
Daniel Nava, 3/3<br />
Erik Manoah, 1/1<br />
Carlos Contreras, 5/5<br />
Zech Lemond, 9/9<br />
Chris Bando, 9/9<br />
Henry Owens, 3/3<br />
Brett Eibner, 1/1<br />
Kevin Joseph, 2/2<br />
<br />
AUGUST 31<br />
Bill Crook, c/o home, 5/5, 7 weeks<br />
<br />
I mailed off several in the last few weeks, with a few more ready to go soon. I'm venturing out into a few musical requests as well this month: custom index cards to Booker T. Jones and Steve Cropper (of Booker T and the MGs), as well as Jack Ashford and Joe Messina (the last two living members of the Funk Brothers, Motown's instrumentalists).<br />
<br />
Speaking of music, my previous band kicked me out, so I'm in search of a new one. Also, <a href="https://www.sportscardforum.com/threads/2477408-From-Memorabilia-to-Music-The-National-Treasures-Box-Guitar" target="_blank">I built a guitar</a> out of a National Treasures box.Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-58540365708804957692019-08-09T11:41:00.000-05:002019-08-09T14:20:04.862-05:00Friday Free-For-All: Trade ChainsIt's been a while since I've gone totally off the topic of collecting, but I was thinking about this recently and figured I'd put it out there into the world.<br />
<br />
What's the longest trade chain that you can think of in current baseball?<br />
<br />
By this I mean picking a player who was acquired by his current team for a player, who was traded for a player, going on back as far as you can get until you hit a wall with a player who was drafted or signed as a free agent.<br />
<br />
A recent example would be the Indians: Yasiel Puig was acquired for Trevor Bauer, who was acquired for Shin-Soo Choo, who was acquired for Ben Broussard, who was acquired for Russell Branyan. That goes back to 1994: not bad.<br />
<br />
Travis Fryman was an interesting one for the Tribe just because of the sheer volume of third basemen involved: Fryman for Matt Williams, for Jeff Kent, for Carlos Baerga, for Joe Carter, for George Frazier, for Toby Harrah, for Buddy Bell. Of the eight players involved, six played at least a significant bit of time at third for the Indians and spans a 1969 draft pick on up to a 2002 retirement. You can even sub in Jose Vizcaino for Jeff Kent: both were acquired for Baerga and both were shipped out for Williams and both played a bit at third in their careers (though only Kent did for the Indians).<br />
<br />
Of course, the longest one for the Tribe now is Corey Kluber, who can be traced back through eight trades to Jerry Dybzinski's 15th round selection in the 1977 draft (14 slots after him? NBA All-Star Danny Ainge!). And with the trade rumors that have circulated around Kluber for the last year-plus, that chain could grow longer (Currently: Kluber for Jake Westbrook for David Justice for Kenny Lofton for Willie Blair for Alex Sanchez for Bud Black for Pat Tabler for Dybzinski).<br />
<br />
Looking through the closest team to me geographically, the Rangers don't really have any longer than one or two links: most acquisitions have been via free agency and drafts lately, or a single chain like Willie Calhoun for free agent signee Yu Darvish. Even most departing players have been as free agents or retirements with zero return (Matt Garza, Julio Franco, Josh Hamilton, Mitch Moreland).<br />
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So, who has the longest current chain in all of baseball? Who has the longest one for your team? Any fun oddities like the third-base-heavy chain of Bell to Fryman?<br />
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EDIT<br />
A few fun ones from some googling, as the question has been asked before...<br />
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The Mets can trace Robinson Cano's acquisition back to drafting Tim Bogar<br />
Martin Prado of the Marlins goes back to Charles JohnsonDrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-90775164240740458942019-08-03T18:13:00.001-05:002019-08-03T18:13:43.180-05:00Super Collector? Fingers crossed...Every four years or so, I make it a point to go to the National Sports Colllectors Convention because it's typically in my hometown of Cleveland. <a href="http://dfwautographs.blogspot.com/search/label/National" target="_blank">I went last year, I went in 2014</a>, and before missing a few years in the 2000s due to a lack of funds, I went in 2004, 2001, and 1997. This year's show in Chicago is getting skipped, as almost certainly will next year's Atlantic City show and 2021's Chicago show. But I'll be back to Cleveland in 2022. The plans are already being set in motion...<br />
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Meanwhile, you may know my favorite baseball player of all-time is <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/snydeco02.shtml" target="_blank">Cory Snyder</a>. Ever since I was four years old, I have no idea why, but Snyder was my favorite and remained my favorite even after the Indians shipped him to the White Sox, and he bounced on to the Blue Jays, Giants, Dodgers, Red Sox org, Padres org, and finally Spring Training in 1997 with the Cardinals. I even had a Dodgers hat when I was in third and fourth grade.<br />
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Anyways, out of 1068 career games, Cory Snyder played 657 of them in an Indians uniform.<br />
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So you can imagine how dumbfounded I was when I heard he was one of the VIP autograph signers at the National this year. Not one of the Cleveland shows, but in Chicago, where he played a whole 50 games (and batted only .188, thanks to Walt Hriniak's "my way or no way" approach to coaching hitters).<br />
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So, I'm missing out on a chance to meet my favorite player. But I did apply for Cory Snyder Super Collector status over at SCF today (the same day he's signing at the National).<br />
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While I wait for approval or denial, <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/131089103@N04/albums/72157710076594141" target="_blank">take a look at some of the photos</a> I took of my collection. I don't have all the cards photographed, but here are a few of the better items and oddities.<br />
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<br />Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-27472322559586091352019-07-31T14:41:00.000-05:002019-07-31T14:41:23.821-05:00The rest of JulyJULY 8<br />
Rich Robertson, c/o home, 1/1, 2 months<br />
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JULY 14 - Amarillo at Frisco<br />
Hudson Potts - 7/7<br />
Luis Torrens - 1/2<br />
Owen Miller - 2/2<br />
Jimmy Jones - 4/4<br />
Peter Van Gansen - 1/1<br />
Brad Zunica - 1/1<br />
Ivan Castillo - 1/1<br />
Taylor Kohlwey - 1/1<br />
Lake Bachar - 1/1<br />
Phillip Wellman - 1/1<br />
Rodrigo Orozco - 1/1<br />
Dauris Valdez - 1/1<br />
Nick Margevicius - 2/2<br />
AJ Kennedy - 1/1<br />
Collin Wiles - 5/5<br />
Leody Taveras - 1/1<br />
Tony Sanchez - 2/2<br />
Walker Weickel - 4/4<br />
Charles Leblanc - 1/2<br />
Hunter Pence - 1/3<br />
Jonathan Hernandez - 5/5<br />
Joe Barlow - 1/1<br />
Blake Bass - 1/1<br />
Andretty Cordero - 1/1<br />
Brendon Davis - 1/1<br />
Michael De Leon - 1/1<br />
Demarcus Evans - 1/1<br />
Alex Kowalczyk - 1/1<br />
CD Pelham - 1/1<br />
Tyler Phillips - 1/1<br />
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JULY 19<br />
Tim Fedewa, c/o team, 4/3, 6 months, added in another signed card<br />
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JULY 24<br />
<a href="https://pacificsoccersigs.blogspot.com/2019/07/finishing-with-sure-thing.html" target="_blank">Bernie James</a>, c/o team, 1/1, 2 weeks<br />
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JULY 26 - Tulsa at Frisco<br />
Yadier Alvarez - 2/3<br />
Justin De Fratus - 2/2<br />
Josiah Gray - 1/1<br />
Adam Melhuse - 2/2<br />
Jared Walker - 2/5<br />
Rob Zastryzny - 2/2<br />
Logan Bawcom - 1/3<br />
Connor Wong - 1/3<br />
Jonathan Hernandez - 2/2<br />
Charles LeBlanc - 1/1<br />
Leody Taveras - 1/1<br />
Brock Burke - 3/3<br />
Tony Sanchez - 1/1<br />
Jake Lemoine - 3/3<br />
James Jones - 2/4<br />
Wade Lamont - 2/2<br />
Michael De Leon - 1/1<br />
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JULY 27 - Arkansas at Frisco<br />
Evan White - 1/2<br />
Luis Liberato - 2/2<br />
Aaron Knapp - 3/3<br />
Wyatt Mills - 3/3<br />
Logan Gilbert - 2/2<br />
Joe Odom - 1/1<br />
Kyle Lewis - 1/1<br />
Isiah Kiner-Falefa - 2/3<br />
Greg Hibbard - 3/3Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3421422594035058117.post-50670087444419474462019-07-07T14:48:00.000-05:002019-07-07T14:48:42.969-05:00A (mostly) IP reportGlad I got the May-to-mid-June one out of the way, so I can just knock out the end of the month through this past week.<br />
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<b><u>JUNE 20</u></b><br />
Jim Evans, c/o home, 1/1, 2 months<br />
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<b><u>JUNE 24</u></b><br />
Mark Eaton, c/o home, 4/4, 6 months<br />
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<b><u>JUNE 30</u></b> - Midland at Frisco<br />
Bobby Crosby 4/4<br />
Zack Erwin 6/6<br />
Logan Verrett 5/5<br />
James Jones 3/3<br />
LeDarious Clark 1/1<br />
DeMarcus Evans 1/1<br />
Tony Sanchez 2/3<br />
Grant Holmes 2/2<br />
Daulton Jefferies 6/6<br />
Taylor Motter 2/2<br />
Mikey White 6/6<br />
Kevin Merrill 3/3<br />
Leody Taveras 1/1<br />
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<b><u>JULY 2</u></b> - MISL40, Day 1<br />
Brad Smith, 3/3<br />
Dave MacKenzie, 9/9<br />
Alan Mayer, 8/8<br />
Juli Veee, 10/10<br />
Godfrey Ingram, 19/19<br />
Gordon Jago, 4/4<br />
Perry Van der Beck, 9/9<br />
Gerry Gray, 7/7<br />
Zoltan Toth, 16/16<br />
Nick Megaloudis, 1/1<br />
Guy Newman, 1/1<br />
Norman Piper, 1/1<br />
Dave D'Errico, 1/1<br />
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<b><u>JULY 3</u></b> - MISL40, Day 2<br />
Gus Mokalis, 8/8<br />
Jim Sinclair, 1/1<br />
Len Bilous, 1/1<br />
Kai Haaskivi, 26/26<br />
Doc Lawson, 16/16<br />
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For more on the MISL40 event, check out my <a href="http://pacificsoccersigs.blogspot.com/2019/07/misl40-recap.html" target="_blank">entry on it on my Pacific Soccer Autograph Project blog</a>.Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07044382663551298382noreply@blogger.com0