If you have read these posts over the years, a person who I have gotten many autographs from always comes through for me. Chris L (ChrisL999 on SCN) lives near Washington, DC and chases the minor and major league parks for me. He does a great job and treats my stuff as if they were his own. Today I received a box of baseballs and other items from him he got signed since the beginning of the season. I already sent him another dozen baseballs and some cards and tickets and he already put a dent in them! Today’s box contained the following:
Joey Gallo 2023 Topps Heritage #345
Byron Buxton 2023 Topps #326
Bo Bichette ML Debut ticket
CJ Abrams ML Debut ticket
Trey Lipscomb OMLB
Ralphy Velazquez OMLB
Enrique Bradford OMLB
Bubba Chandler OMLB
Jackson Jobe OMLB
Justin Crawford OMLB
Kenni Gomez OMLB
Mitchell Parker OMLB
Doug Nikhazy OMLB
Tommy Mace OMLB
Andrew Walters OMLB
Chris has a great finger on the pulse on which minor leaguers will turn into studs so watch for these names in a few years in the Major Leagues!
A Whole Lotta Tickets!
I rarely trade my items much less sell them but when Jake Cave signed with the Phillies, Emily P (part of the Facebook ticket collecting group) reached out and asked if I had a ticket for Jake’s debut. I only had one and it was signed already. Since Jake was one of my son’s most favorite players, I had a really hard time moving it but she acquired it from me. Fast forward to recently when Jake was released by the Phillies and Emily made the ticket part of a lot of a huge pile of tickets for sale. I jumped at the chance to bring that ticket back home. Included with it were signed debut tickets for:
JT Chargois
Brandon Kintzler
Jurickson Profar
Christian Bethancourt
Vince Velasquez
Francisco Mejia
Michael Kopech
Adam Haseley
Bailey Falter
Logan Gilbert
There were about another 50-60 unsigned debut tickets that will keep me busy too! It was a fun lot of tickets to go through!
3000th Hit
A while ago I had sent a ticket to Tom O (orr23mj on SCN) for a private signing he was going to have with Dave Winfield. It was a ticket from his 3,000th hit game. It was the first of three 3,000th hits I saw in person and remember it like yesterday. I had my second ticket I bought from that game signed at Twinsfest years ago but he did not inscribe 3,000th hit so when I saw Tom was going to see him, I sent in my ticket. As luck would have it, I got it back but he forgot the inscription. Tom was cool and told me to send it back to him and he would get Dave to add it next time he saw him. Today it arrived with “3000th Hit”. I was a little nervous since the marker tip might be different or the color or anything else that might look like it was not signed and inscribed at the same time but Tom did an awesome job matching it up. You cannot tell that the signature and inscription were signed around four months apart! I am excited to have this in my collection!
Just Grate(rol)
The 2020 Topps Heritage card #74 features the Twins’ Lewis Thorpe and Brusdar Graterol on it. I had one card signed by Graterol and another signed by Thorpe but not one with both. So, when I saw that OneWay77 was having a signing with Graterol, I sent in the card already signed by Thorpe. Now I have one card completed with both players signing it. Interestingly, OneWay77 had a signing with Graterol a while ago and that is how I got that card signed! If I see Thorpe signing at an event I will send in the other card but I am not going to worry about it at this point!