December 1st Midlothian Card Show: Expect the Unexpected

Card shows are very plentiful around Richmond, Virginia right now and the region as a whole has one nearly every weekend of the year.  The only thing holding me back from going to every single one is life in general and of course the funds to do so.  I had planned on attending this particular show more as a collector instead of vendor, and because its the closest to my home (a 20ish minute drive).  I actually expected to find Orioles cards from recently released products like Stadium Club, Allen & Ginter, and Topps Update and maybe some Topps Chrome Update in the dimeboxes and bring home all the broken dreams and salty tears to my collection.  It didn't really work out that way.  

It really was a stretch to find cards that I wanted and only spent about $7.  That includes the package deals I bought for my nephew who was visiting from out of town came with me. I like Brenton Doyle since he's a localish kid from Warrenton Virginia where I spent time with my aunt and cousins when I was a kid (probably long before he was even born!).  He's underrated because he plays for the Rockies, so I was able to buy this card for a Quarter.

In the same box I was there was a pile of the Signature Rookies and Team Best autographs.  Ainsworth actually ended up playing for the Orioles for a bit in the mid 2000s. He was traded over in the Sidney Ponson deal from the Giants.  Vaughn Eshelman was drafted by the Red Sox in the Rule 5 draft before he played in the majors for the O's.  He's pictured here on the AA Bowie Baysox. I recently learned that Vaughn passed away at the age of 49 in 2018 while I was sorting through some Orioles cards to send out TTM.  Couldn't resist picking up an auto of his for the collection knowing I'd never be able to meet him in person or write a TTM.  RIP Vaughn Eshelman.

I actually didn't have a ton of time to dig and dig like I normally do at shows.  I got a text from my good buddy Blake on Friday asking if I'd be able to help him man his table because his other planned help couldn't make it.  I was happy to help out since I was going to be around anyways.  It all worked out since there wasn't a lot I found to be to my liking (and in my price range).  A huge advantage to setting up with Blake is getting in early "to set up shop". He's a real hustler and had everything set up by the time I got there so that left for plenty time to shop the other vendor's wares.  One guy had a box of random mid 2000s cards including a ton of Bazooka base sets and minis.  This mini of Orlando Hudson fits into the binder collection of "Orioles Cameos".  Notice Brook Fordyce sliding in to second base.  

It appears to me that this play was from the day game at Camden Yards on August 24th, 2002.  Bottom of the 3rd inning Brook Fordyce reached base on Eric Hinske's 20th error of the season.  Next batter Mike Bordick grounded to shortstop Chris Woodward where they turned a 6-4-3 double play.  It will forever be immortalized here on this card.  The Orioles ended up losing this game 4-1.  It was rescheduled from the July 23rd rainout.  They ended up losing both ends of the doubleheader (they did a lot of losing in the 2000s), as a team struggling to find an identity after the retirement of Cal Ripken.  I have no recollection of this doubleheader because I was in my first week of my college as a Freshman at Radford University.  I only lasted one semester there, but everything has worked out fine for me and the Orioles are finally good again. **Playoffs not included**

Now concludes this episode of CSI: Baseball Reference. Hope you enjoyed this episode! 

Speaking of Playoffs, this Heston Kjerstad Chrome parallel card from Stadium Club is from the warm ups before game one or two of the 2023 ALDS. You can tell by the playoffs logo on his hat (under his sunglasses).  Its a happy coincidence that the O's embarrassed themselves (well, Bryan Baker and Jacob Webb did.  I'm not bitter or hold anything against those two bums) against Jack Leiter's Rangers.  Leiter wasn't on the team yet (still a minor leaguer at that point).  Hopefully both of these guys establish themselves in the majors this coming season and make this one dollar purchase totally worth it! Its crazy how Kjerstad was the only Orioles card I purchased for myself.

You just don't leave vintage cards in the quarter box.  It should be against the law.  I'm a goody-goody and I will gladly add this '71 Topps beauty to my collection.  I don't even like the Phillies.  For a combined buck, I got the Doyle, 2 autographs, and this card for a buck.  Hooray for collecting on a budget!

A while back I pared down my Ichiro collection. Recently, I've taken more of an interest in collecting Japanese major league players and created a binder in my collection just for them.  The early Bowman Heritage is not cut weird or anything, just a terrible scan job on my part.  Looking at the Topps insert it still boggles my mind and its incredible how good Ichiro was as a player.  10 SEASONS WITH OVER 200 HITS! There's no doubt in my mind that he already cleared his schedule is planning a trip to upper state New York this coming July. 

Like I mentioned before, I was happy to help out my friend Blake run his tables at the last minute.  It was unexpected but it all worked out.  As a token of his gratitude, he gifted me with this blue refractor auto of Jordan Westburg!  Westburg has become a quick favorite player of mine with his no-nonsense play, and meek shall inherit the earth demeanor.  He reminds me a lot of JJ Hardy!  Blake didn't have to hook me up like he did but that's the kind of guy he is! He was also very kind to my nephew which also makes me feel good because of the tough situations my family has gone through this year.  My nephew has taken a liking to football cards and sets up at his monthly card show in his local mall, selling off his extra cards.

I also ran into 2 different of my co-workers from the plant.  It was quite unexpected to see them there even though they were there with their kids and grandkids.  I don't know if they were more shocked I was there or it was the other way around.  We talk about over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and how bad the company treats us, not sports or Pokemon cards!

I also ran into another person I had just met about 2 weeks ago.  Our neighborhood restaurant recently hosted a standup comedy show from the local area that my wife and I attended.  It was a great to have a good time and laugh with friends from the neighborhood and even make some new friends thanks to my wife's social butterfly tendencies.  The first comic on the evening was set up at the show selling basketball cards.  Once again, at the standup show, you don't normally talk about sports cards so I had no idea he was into it or vice versa.   Small world it really is!

My nephew being the awesome kid he is, brought his uncle a hanger box of 2024 Topps Update.  The kid really knows how to pick baseball cards.  One box and BAM, rare Jackson Holliday insert.  I believe that the Stratospheric Stars are like 1 in 330-something hanger boxes.  Hangers are bangers! Totally unexpected!

Being the lucky pack ripper he is, he had recently opened his own Super box of 2024 Topps Update.  He pulled a small stack of Orioles cards as well as these two Hollidays.  He was kind enough to give them to me (don't worry, I hooked him up with some cards that he may show on his own blog).  The little lapel pin that comes in the super boxes was the Jackson Holliday one.  Friggin' Lucky Duck!  Whenever he is around, he'll be picking the packs or blasters for me since I never seem to pull Orioles cards at all... Mostly Dodgers and Reds.

Overall it was a great ending to Thanksgiving weekend.  Many unexpected things happened to me and my collection.  Once lesson I've learned this year is that you have to roll with the punches and expect the unexpected.

Contest Winnings from Judson of My Cardboard Habit

I've done a lot of emailing and chatting with Judson from My Cardboard Habit recently.  He recently finished up his Gypsy Queen set for 2013 and he decided to celebrate by giving away a bunch of the hits he acquired while doing so.  I was a late entry to the contest but I also made a post on my blog about it and ended up scoring a bunch of extra entries.  I appreciate everybody saying that they heard about the contest through my blog.  Hopefully each of you followed Judson's blog since he does have a knack for writing interesting posts.

So on to my prize package.  I was not expecting the huge bounty he sent me.  I knew I'd get some hits but definitely not 7!

First up are the autographs.  I think my favorite is the Wally Joyner.  There aren't many cards being produced these days.

I got 2 full sized relic cards too.  I really dig the orange swatch on the Matt Cain card and the white swatch on the Uggla makes it look like theres a hole in the card.

I like mini relics but I've never understood why Topps couldn't make the card inside as big as the frame.  I just don't like them sliding around.  I just noticed how I scanned these cards.  It actually looks like Nolasco is pitching to Brian McCann!

Since I pimped his contest, I also wanted to pimp his Group Break he's got going on.  He's breaking some 2013 Allen & Ginter.  Hurry on over and claim your spot!

Thanks for the awesome prize pack Judson!

Not-Quite-So-Late-to-the-Game 3 Blaster Break Report: 2013 Bowman

I'm almost caught up with the retail purchases that I made earlier this Spring.  I've been a big fan of Bowman in the past but recently I've started to lose interest in the product offerings.  For the first time last fall I didn't collect the annual Draft Picks and Prospects set.  I decided not to collect the regular Bowman set this year either.  I'm not sure what has started to make me turn my attention away from Bowman but I guess I'm going to save some money now!

Even though I'm not collecting the set, I still picked up a total of 3 blasters.  While not usually a fan of blasters, I usually buy rack packs, hanger boxes, or value packs.  I could have bought a hobby box for that price but this time it was worth me buying blasters.  You'll see why if you keep reading.

Everyone has seen the base set design.  No need to rehash it.  The first 2 blasters I got had great collation.  Not a single dupe.  I should have stopped there.  The 3rd blaster I got was a mix of the first 2 blasters almost card for card.  Even the gold bordered parallels were almost the same!  It happens but it would have been nice to get more than one Oriole card out of the entire 3 boxes!

Onto the inserts we have the crappily scanning Top 100 inserts.  I got #73 of some Red Sox guy who used to be a Dodgers guy.  Not sure what the white speckles are in the scan.  I was not eating powdered doughnuts over the scanner.

My lone refractor was of this Jello-Itch guy for the Reds.   This was just about the only different card in blaster box #3.  The advantage of getting a lot of doubles was that I got 2 base and 2 chrome Prospect cards of Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa so there's that!

I destroyed the odds (I like to think so) on getting 2 Orange bordered parallels from box 1 and box 3.  The Darvish is on hold for right now buy please send me your best trade offers for the Maronde.

This nice little autograph came out of blaster box #1.  I think this card is what inspired me to buy another blaster of the product.

So I got this autograph in the second box.  Not too bad.  I was inspired once again to buy a 3rd blaster but the House won that time and stuck me with a ton of duplicates!  Buying packs is a mild form of legal gambling in Virginia I'm convinced and it usually kicks me right in the butt!

This one is also on hold, pending a trade.

I was on a 3 blaster streak of pulling autographs going back to my Gypsy Queen blaster in April.  I tried rolling the dice again and my luck ran out!

Overall, Bowman has a pretty nice design this year but I'm not collecting it just to collect it like I've always done.  I really used to enjoy reading the Scouting reports on the backs of the cards in the past but I just don't have the time or patience to do that any more.

Here's a full listing of the notable cards I have for Trade:

I have a bunch of base cards.  Send me your list and I'll try to knock some of them out:

Gold Parallel: 48 Sale, 49 Price, 50 Pujols(2), 51 Longoria, 55 Lynn, 92 Wright(2), 94 Heyward(2), 99 M. Montero, 109 Phillips, 132 Beltre, 133 Gose, 134 Beachy(2), 145 Motte, 151 C. Santana, 153 Beltran, 182 Stanton(2), 184 J. Santana
Hometown Parallel: 90 Butler, 102 Halladay, 124 Shields
Prospects International Parallel: BP6 Salazar, BP7 Hahn, BP31 Robles
Silver Ice Parallel: 98 Holliday
Orange Parallel: 129 Maronde 112/250
Cream of the Crop Mini Refractors: CC-NYM1 d'Arnaud, CC-MM-2 Yelich, CC-MB3
Chrome Refractor Parallel: BCP15 Gelalich #d160/500
Bowman Top 100: 73 Allen Webster
Bowman Prospect Autograph: BPA JC Ji-Man Choi

What I Got For Christmas

I hope that everyone had a Merry Little Christmas.  I know I did.  The last few days I've driven over the hills and through the woods to visit family members and friends and I used today as a little reflection time and to do what I love to do: stare at pictures of men!  More specifically I'm staring at new pictures that I got as gifts.  I think I had a pretty nice haul.  I got a blaster to 2011 Bowman Chrome from a friend, a hobby box of 2010 Bowman Chrome from my wife, and a couple rack packs of 2011 Topps Update in my stocking.  I didn't get much of note out of the Bowman Chrome blaster but the 2010 Bowman Chrome hobby box was loaded with some really nice hits and a bunch of cards towards the set:

Here's the "lesser" hit of the box.  It's a pretty nice looking card of a team that I don't really care for.  BTW, it's numbered 86/150 for those of you that are interested.

 This card is actually a bonus hit out of the box.  Team USA autographs are tough pulls at 1 in 207 packs so I'll venture to say that this is a case hit.  This card is especially cool because he was drafted by the Orioles this past summer.  I'll most definitely be hanging onto this card!

Here's my promised autograph of the box and it turns out that it is a refractor.  Not bad!  I think he's one of Minnesota's top prospects because I have heard of him.  I did look up the price range of this card and it does book for 80 bucks!

 Here's the most awesome card I pulled.  SUPERFRACTOR! SUPERFRACTOR! SUPERFRACTOR!  These are really tough pulls dropping at 1 in 5625 packs.  That's one in every 26 cases.  I have no idea whether I should hang onto this one or try to sell it.  I've pulled a couple printing plates and 1 or 2 1/1's in my pack busting career, but this one is bar none my best 1/1 card.  I can see why Superfractors are sought after because they look amazing!

Coming down from the excitement of a Superfractor, I got this Liquorfractor of Tom Terrific out of on one my Update rack packs.  I did also get 2 Diamond Giveaway codes that I don't know what to do with.  I've already cashed out my portfolio and hadn't planned on getting anymore.  Heck, I even traded all 37 of my unique rings away and deleted the shortcut to the site from my favorites.  I ended up with
10 Orioles rings, 12 Browns rings and 15 Cal Ripken rings.

So as you can see, there was some real Christmas magic in the packs I received this year.  I hope everybody else's card gifts were as wonderful as mine!

Box Breaks: 2011 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects (with Chrome!)

I'll admit that I've gone a little crazy with all of the box breaks lately but this should be my final one at least until Christmas.  Bowman Draft Picks is a product that has for the most part been a hit with collectors over the last few years.  Since I am a pretty big Bowman fan, I actually jumped feet first into the fray and bought 3 boxes on preorder way back in the summer.  Lets see what I got:

 I got just got one blue refractor and its of a Yankee. This one is numbered 2/199.  Good luck Brandon cracking that lineup with A-rod blocking your progression to the majors.

I got one gold refractor of a Braves prospect that I don't know anything about.  I still don't know anything about him because there is no patented Bowman scouting report on the back.  BTW, Kyle is #'d 41/50.

 Now this is a little more like it, I know who this guy is.  I got a TTM back from him during Spring Training and have been following him a little bit here and there since.  Not a bad looking border considering the team he plays for.  Mike is #'d 339/499

My first Autograph is of the Giants 47th pick in this years draft?  I was a little underwhelmed to say the least until I did a little online research.  Topps screwed the pooch on this one, he was actually the 47th player taken overall!

 This relic actually came out of a blaster box I picked up at Target.  Not a bad player to get a relic of I guess.  It's numbered 168/199

Here's my next autograph of Taylor Jungmann.  I think its pronounced "Young-man". Anyways, it's a pretty nice looking card except for the terrible photoshop job on his hat.  Enough with the awful photo manipulation Topps!

Here's my favorite card of the 3 boxes.  Its the refractor version of the autograph and it really looks good.  Brandon is an interesting story as he comes from Wyoming.  There is no High School baseball in the state so he was drafted on the merits of his American Legion and Travel team play.  Not only was he drafted, he was drafted in the 1st round.  I read about him in my sports weekly and I'll be following his career to see how he turns out.  Also of note, I'm glad that Brandon takes pride in his penmanship.  His signature is legible and neat.  I hope that it doesn't degrade into chicken scratch as he moves up the minor league ranks.

To say that I really enjoyed this year's Bowman Draft Picks product would be stretching the truth.  I'm still a fan of all of the new players but there just seems to be something missing from the product this year.  I was able to finish off the base set and base prospects set so that's a plus but I'm still far from completing the Chrome sets.  I'll get a want list up eventually for those.

Here's a listing of the paralells that I have up for trade:

Gold Parallel: 42 Shaw, 72 Presley, 88 Vizcaino, BDPP52 Snell, BDPP95 Clifton, BDPP98 Farinaro, BDPP100 Meadows

Blue Parallel: 1 Moustakas, 31 Dirks, 59 Cozart, BDPP1 Hicks, BDPP24 Crick, BDPP103 Pabst

Refractor Parallels: 5 Beato, 13 Hamburger, 21 Sosa, 30 De La Rosa, 39 Godfrey, 60 Alburquerque, 65 Lynn, 73 Pestano, BDPP4 Armstrong, BDPP34 Gagnon, BDPP45 Hope, BDPP48 Anton, BDPP55 Martin, BDPP60 James, BDPP65 Reynolds, BDPP72 Gamache, BDPP94 Ciuffo

Blue Refractor: 26 Brandon Laird #'d 2/199

Gold Refractor: BDPP74 Kyle Kubitza #'d 41/50

Birthday Breaks: 2011 Bowman Chrome and more

After kind of a crappy day at work I was finally able to get out of there and make it home.  When I got home my wife was waiting there with a birthday gift for me.  She bought me a hobby box of 2011 Bowman Chrome!  What a great gift since I'm working on the set.  Since I have a hard time leaving cards in their packs, I ripped everything immediately!  Here's the two highlight cards of the Chrome box:

This is not a gold refractor, its an Orange numbered 5/25.  I'm not sure if that is his jersey number or not but its still a sweet card.

It's like Deja Vu because I already got this card out of my box of Chrome that I bought.  But there is one difference!  This card is the refractor version of the autograph.  I really hope Jean turns out as a major league player because I now have 2 of his chrome autos.

Heres the insert cards I got out of the box:
Refractors: 86 S. Drew, 94 A Jackson, 197 Duda, 205 Espinosa, BCP191 Cain
2001 Throwbacks: 5 Taillon, 6 Myers, 7 Green
Diecuts: 5 Green, 12 Singleton,
Diecuts Refractors: 8 Allie
Bowman's Best Prospects: 56 Moore, 58 Colon

Also, when the mail finally came, there was a thick envelope from my in-laws among the other junk mail and birthday cards.  I opened it up and 2 packs of cards popped out!  1 pack of 2011 Topps series 2 and 1 pack of 2011 Topps Update.  Out of the Topps series 2 pack I pulled this card:

 Apparently my wife's pack picking mojo came from her mama!

Post Season TTM's!

I sent these 2 TTMs out later in the season and got them back after I got back from the honeymoon.  I guess these guys opened all of their fan mail after they had gone home for the winter.  

Unfortunately for me I tried a new way to send out TTM's and it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. You can't really tell from the scan but the autograph smudged in the middle of his last name.  You can see it rubbed off in the envelope and reapplied to the card on the white portion near the bottom.  This is what I get for sending Chrome cards through the mail expecting that every player has a Staedler pen to autograph cards.  Lesson learned.  Nonetheless, I am very pleased to get Zach's autograph for my collection

I had the opportunity to get Nolan's autograph at Fanfest last winter and decided to get him on an 8x10.  I ultimately wanted to get a regular card signed sooner or later at the ballpark or TTM.  I wasn't able to get him while I was in Atlanta because he either rode the team bus or snuck in through the Braves team entrance with Nick the Stick.  I thought I would try my luck through the mail and perseverance pays.  Both of these cards look great signed.  If I had to pick a favorite of the 2 it would have to be the Topps Heritage because of the All-Star rookie logo.

In case Nolan or Zach reads this, Thanks for signing my cards and sending them back to me!

Trade with Kirk of Eutaw Street Cardboard

I'll start off this trade post saying that it was pretty epic between two Oriole collectors.  Kirk made a post a little while back wanting to bolster his vintage Orioles collection.  I was happy to oblige since I had some doubles that I got from ebay purchases and other trading ventures.  He sent me a nice little package of in person autos and certified Orioles from past releases.  Here's part of my haul:

I'm very happy to have my first certified Brian Roberts autograph card.  Technically you could say my 8x10 from fanfest this past January could be certified by me but that's no good on the open market.  There seems to be a lot of empty space on this card.  Donruss/Leaf/Playoff/Pinnacle/Score/Pannini or whoever could have made the team logo or player picture a little bigger.

 Dennis Martinez was a favorite of my dad's to watch.  Plus he kinda looks like my uncle.

 This is my second Brady Anderson relic card.  This one from 2001 Fleer E-X features a swatch of jersey and his number is diecut.

 Chris Hoiles is one of my all-time favorite Orioles players and I'm happy to have an autograph of his in my collection.  Fleer Ultra 1991 is underrated in my humble opinion and looks great autographed!

 This is the only non-auto, non-relic card of the package but a good one.  I believe this is the only card featuring these 2 O's players from overlapping eras.  Cal's last season was '01 and Roberts got the call when Mike Bordick went down with an injury.  Brian didn't have his breakout season until 2003 but is the last link to Cal still with the team today.

Thanks Kirk for the great package of cards you sent over.  I hope that we can trade again in the future!

Box Break: 2011 Topps Chrome Hobby

I preordered this box a little while back and had almost forgotten about it until I got the shipping notification. I started to get cautiously excited knowing the debacle that 2010 Topps Chrome was.  It had been nearly 2 weeks since I opened any packs (which is a long time for me!) so it was good to smell that new card smell again.  So I ripped a few packs and was pleasantly surprised to see that the cards were of a pretty high quality.  No pringle warping, no surface gouges, no dinged corners, no off-center or miscut cards and hardly any roller marks that plagued last year's edition.  I am happy to see that Topps fixed these issues for this years release.  Even the non-card collectors that work there know that those cards were of totally crappy quality!

I'm going to list the "lesser" inserts here:

Topps Heritage Chrome: Nelson Cruz, Carlos Quentin, Neil Walker, Brandon Beachy

Nothing to really write home about here...

Topps Chrome Throwbacks: Aroldis Chapman, Freddie Freeman, Felix Hernandez, Brian McCann

I know the back of the package says Vintage Chrome, but I hardly consider 1996 Topps Chrome to be "vintage".  I'll just call them throwbacks since Pepsi can call their 1990's designs throwbacks!

Refractors: Brandon Beachy, Carlos Pena, Dustin Pedroia, Andrew Cashner, Ichiro, Vernon Wells, Jonathan Sanchez, Jorge Posada

The Refractors from this box produced the exact amount of cards allotted for the box.  The odds were 1:3 packs.    I really cleaned up on Brandon Beachy and overall Braves in this break.  The Jorge Posada card is kinda funny because it says he is a Designated Hitter but the picture is of him in catchers gear chasing a foul pop up

My Astros lucky streak continues with this Sepia Refactor.  I particularly pull a bunch of Parallels of JA Happ.  I think I got an Orange parallel from 2010 Bowman, a Blue from 2011 Bowman and now this Sepia Refractor.   I could take or leave this version of refractor.

I think the Atomic refractors are kind of neat but to me they just look like a zoomed in version of the flagship Diamond Anniversary parallels.

Blue Refractors make their return.

This gold I was happy to get since they are numbered out of 50.  I'm not really thrilled about the player because he hasn't played in nearly a season and a half.  Oh well, you can't win them all.

My first promised autograph is actually the refractor version.  Somehow the scanner didn't pick up the rainbow coloring.  I thought that Crow was once a hot Starting Pitcher prospect and it wasn't that long ago.  KC fans help me out here, I'm interested to know why he is pitching out of the bullpen.  Did he totally tank as a starter?

Here's my second promised autograph of the box.  This was probably the second best autograph (in my opinion) I could have pulled next to Zach Britton.  Earlier in the season, Pineda was lighting it up and a shoo-in for Rookie of the Year.  The league caught up to him but he is still a very solid pitcher and seems he will form a tough 1-2 punch with King Felix for years to come.

I'd give this box a 4.5 out of 5.0 score only because I pulled 2 Orioles from the entire box (Markakis and Derek Lee base cards).  Otherwise I was very pleased with the results and I think the cards look great in Chrome.  The flagship was only so-so in my book but be chromed, they look a little more dignified.  I'm still scratching my head about the double team names around the baseball and logo though.

All cards are for trade except the Pineda.  I want to hang onto that card for a while, unless I get an offer I can't refuse.

7-2-11: Baltimore Orioles at Atlanta Braves

Saturday was a long day that had me and my friend about 12 hours at and around the ballpark. We got ready and went over to Turner Field for the tour. It was relatively educational and getting to see all the different areas of the ballpark was pretty nice. I even got picked on by the tour guide because I was more or less dressed from head to toe in Orioles gear. After the tour was over we looked around the Braves Hall of Fame and then walked across the street to a Restaurant call "The Bullpen". The food was good and it had air conditioning. It was stifling in Atlanta all weekend.

Luckily for me, the Orioles player's entrance was basically right across the street from The Bullpen. When I showed up, I was informed that I missed Matt Wieters. Dang it! I had an 8x10 that I really wanted signed. Next up Chris Jakubauskas and Blake Davis arrived via cab. Chris told us it was our lucky day and he was feeling "saucy"... whatever that means.. I used a Blank from 09 OPC on Chris and a blank 10 Upper Deck shot of Camden Yards on these guys. I was the only one that had anything for Davis to sign. He seemed shocked that nobody else wanted his signature.

Next to show up at the park was the Orioles starter for that day, Jake Arrieta. He seemed to be in a good mood and signed for everybody that wanted one. I got his rookie card from 2010 Topps Chrome signed. Its my favorite CARD I got signed all weekend. The blue ink just pops right off the card and his name is fairly legible. See for yourself:

While I was 'graphing all 3 days I met a nice lady who had season tickets for the Braves. Mike Gonzalez is her favorite player I learned after inadvertently bashing him when striking up a conversation. Mike has pitched much better lately and I hope he keeps it up. I think a switch back to his old mechanics has something to do with it. Anyways, he showed up at the players entrance after the team bus and couldn't have been nicer. He took pictures and willingly signed for everybody. Here's mine:

Around this time, about 4:30, we decided to head inside the park. I really like that the Braves allow fans into the stadium 2 and a half hours before first pitch. It seems like a good business model because hot and hungry fans standing are liable to buy concessions and souvenirs when they don't have much to be interested in.

I wasn't interested in eating or buying any souvenirs. I was interested in batting practice and autograph opportunities. We found our seats in right field RIGHT NEXT to the Braves bullpen and watched the Braves take batting practice until we couldn't stand the little ankle biters yelling "HEY""HEY" at the players on the field for a ball. I politely told them to call the players by their names and you might have better luck. They didn't listen, so, annoyed I headed for the Orioles dugout.

Luckily, Mark Reynolds came out and took some ground balls and before heading to take some hacks came over and signed some autographs. Blue ink on the Gypsy Queen cards looks awesome. Check it out:

No other players signed while I was standing there until minutes BEFORE first pitch. Adam Jones signed only minutes AFTER I had left the O's dugout. I happened to glance back and much to my chagrin he was signing away for some of the kids gathered where I was standing.

Fast Forward to the top of the 4th inning. Mark Reynolds at the plate, he crushes a long fly ball to center that clears the fence for his 16th homer of the season.

Here's a link to the video: http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=16518661

Now, this may not seem that significant to you but to me it is. Yeah it gave the O's the early lead (which Luke Scott helped relinquish), but is was more significant. I have that very ball. Yes THE homerun ball. I am not in the video but watch where it lands. I'll wait....

The security guard from the Braves bullpen walked all the way over to centerfield and picked up the ball. Apparently, security is not allowed to toss baseballs into the stands because he had it in his hand until he got back into the dugout and tossed it to the bullpen catcher, Eddie Perez. He looks at it and sees 2 scars from hitting the railing and looks around. He sees me, the only Orioles fan in the area, dressed head to toe in my O's garb and tosses it to ME! I couldn't beleive it! I've gotten balls at AA and AAA games but never at a major league game. Not to mention a homerun ball!

So the Orioles ended up losing the game so I decided to stake out the players entrance again. Upon reaching the gate, I told a few people about my good fortune and showed them the ball. About this time, Robert Andino comes out of the door. One of the ladies who I showed the ball to calls out his name. (I find out later that she got to know him really well at Spring Training). He smiles and motions for her to come over. He gets her in the gate and direct access to the players as they board the team bus. It's nice to have connections like that! About 10 minutes later, I hear "Hey Oriole Guy, come over here!" from the lady behind the gate. I hurry over and she asks me for the ball and my ticket and tells me he (Mark Reynolds) is going to sign both of them for me! BADASS! He signs it and hands it back to her and she brings it to me. Check it out:

I'm sorry for the blurry picture, but my camera is old and I don't have any good batteries for it at the moment. You can make out the scars from where it hit the railing or whatever in center field on the right and top of the ball. The signature looks great and Mark even took the time to put the date on it. So I have Mark Reynolds' 136th career home run ball, Autographed. A True 1/1 collectible!

Overall it was a great day! I got plenty of autographs including 3 from Mark Reynolds! Anything that happened on Sunday was just gravy!