We start with thanks to Jason Christensen,our good friend in Binghamton New York.
Jason worked on my B-Mets team set along with some players from the Trenton Thunder (Yankees).
Cory Vaughn,Danny Muno,former Oriole Rhyne Hugnes and Ceasr Puello were notable Mets with Mikey O'brien and Tyler Austin among the nice Trenton additions.
The Lexington Legends finished up their third visit to Hagerstown and I really didn't have much for them.
Lexington's team set came out very late and wasn't there,so that hurt the numbers a bit.
The best additions were Bubba Starling and Raul Mondesi Jr. on their Bowman Top 100's with Starling and Brent Mooneyham of the Suns signing their USA Champions cards..
The Potomac Nationals wrapped the Frederick autographing season and I worked on the Potomac team set.
Most of the pickups were team set cards except Matt Purke on his Suns and USA Champions cards and Michael Taylor on his Carolina League prospect card,but a surprise was Matt Skole,who was injured in his first series of the season at AA Harrisburg.
Matt was traveling with the team,I had been tipped that he could be there so I was able to add Matt on his Senators card...
The Hagerstown Suns hosted the West Virginia Power for the Northern Division title in the SAL playoffs.
I didn't have much for the Power,but I did have a few.
Josh Bell on his Topps Debut and Luis Heredia on two cool cards-the Bowman Blue Wave and a Gold refractor on a Bowman Platinum.
Other interesting pickups were Jimmy Rider on a Bowman Silver Ice (Rider has since been traded),John Kuchno on a Bowman refractor (John added GO BUCKS from the former Buckeye) and manager Michael Ryan and coach Miles Durham on old Indianapolis cards...
I also added three Suns on their Auburn cards-Jake Johansen,Austin Voth and Issac (Don't call me Cat) Ballou.
This series was also notable for a group of fans traveling with the Power,including their top fan-"the toastman".
Filled with chants and generally obnoxious (albeit light hearted) behavior,the toastman burned some chants in Cherie and I's head that remain there months later....
Thanks to Bil Cover,who added my two Pirates from the NY/Penn Prospect set when he went to State College.
The two cards of Harold Ramirez and Jin-De Jhang were the only cards of Jamestown players this season.
Thanks to Kendall Morris for picking me up auto cards of former Pirates Jeff King and Stan Belinda along with former Giant infielder Dave Anderson.
We wrap up with the SAL title series against the Savannah Sand Gnats (Mets).
Savannah has never appeared here in the years that I started doing this and all were rooting for them to make the title series so they would have to.
The person everyone wanted to see was Frank Viola as the former Cy Young winner was super as a signer and seemed like his pitchers loved him.
From my seat in the top of the stadium,I clearly heard Viola yell at Pedro Severino "to move his ass to first base" after Severino glared at a Sand Gant pitcher that hit him with a pitch.
I asked Frank about this and he sheepishly asked "did you hear that?" and added "he shouldn't have shown up my pitcher".
Viola also remembered my asking the day before about his chances of being in AA Binghamton in 2014 and after signing after the set "See you in Harrisburg" next year....
Most of the Sand Gnats were team set cards as we gambled on the Gnats being the opponent and ordered a set for them,even though we weren't sure that would happen.
The gamble paid off as we then had plenty to get signed.
Nice additions were former first rounder Brandon Nimmo (very nice and easy to root for),Stephen Matz on his Appy league prospect card,Gregory Pron on a Topps Debut and Phillip Evans on a Donruss Elite.
Mets pitcher Jeurys Familia was in town on a rehab assignment,but I wasn't able to get him on anything.
From the non-baseball department
Football
Former Buckeye linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer-Certified Auto-Card Show
Former Eagles quarterback Brad Goebel
Former Texas Longhorns and Browns running back Eric Metcalf
Basketball
Former Cavalier center John Lambert-Certified Auto-Card Show
Looks like the next and maybe final signing front will be all from my friends and helpers,so look for that soon!!
No comments:
Post a Comment