Mariners Graphing Recap

8-10-12 Mariners Post Game Graphing

This was one of the most terrible nights of graphing for me in terms of total results. Most of the players were escorted out of the stadium by security including Jesus Montero (who rarely signs), Trayvon Robinson (who promised to sign tomorrow), and even Blake Beavan. Blake was cool as usual though and ended up signing a photo for me even though the security guard was telling us "NO AUTOGRAPHS." I love it when players decide to sign for us going against security.

Other Mariners who walked out and signed were Lucas Luetge and Brendan Ryan who are both always nice and signed for the fans. Unfortunately I had nothing for both players to sign. I hope tomorrow is better.

8-11-12 Angels vs Mariners Game

Today was a new day so I was hoping for better results than the previous night of graphing. The problem I had for this series is the fact that I don't have many Mariners cards who are currently on the active roster in my collection. The guys that I do have plenty of cards for either deserve a baseball to be signed first like Felix Hernandez or they are all injured like Charlie Furbush or in the minors like Alex Liddi.

Prior to the game I attended the Ernesto Frieri and Peter Bourjos signing at Stadium Nissan. You can read the recap in my other post.

After the signing I decided to do some pregame graphing with my friends. Today was a special day since my friends Josh and Alex from "Autograph North" aka "Dodger Stadium" were able to join me and Benson for graphing at "Autograph Central" aka "Angel Stadium." Those guys have been really helpful when we were graphing the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium so we figured it was our turn to return the favor. Alex decided to head out to the Shane Moseley signing in Claremont so we met up with him later at the game.

The first player to sign for us was Dustin Ackley who was one of the most elusive Mariners for me for quite some time. I've graphed the Mariners in Safeco Field, Petco Park and Angel Stadium this year and this was my first time I ever got Dustin Ackley's autograph. Finally I was able to add Dustin's autograph to my collection.

Dustin was really cool when signing. Dustin accidentally side panelled my friend Phil who requested that he signed for him again on the sweetspot of the same ball. Dustin obliged since he felt bad for signing it in the wrong spot. Then Dustin also signed a team ball for my buddy Phil. What a great guy. I had Dustin sign my ROMLB on the SS.

The next player to sign for us was Kyle Seager. Kyle signed my photo as well as my Topps 2012 card for me. Just like Ackley, Kyle Seager is another nice baseball player in person. He's never in a bad mood and rarely turns down autograph requests.

Next up was Trayvon Robinson who did keep his promise from the previous night and signed for me. Trayvon signed my 2012 Topps Heritage card and was also nice enough to personalize the autograph for me.

Following Trayvon, Eric Thames signed my 2012 Gypsy Queen Card.

Afterwards Kevin Millwood signed a ROMLB on the SS for me.

Courtesy of Benson, who gave me a 1988 Donruss Robby Thompson card, I was able to get Robby Thompson to sign it for me. Coach Thompson is always nice and very fan friendly.

Not a bad day so far considering it was just pregame graphing.

Inside the stadium Josh, Benson and I joined Alex. Tonight was Kids Angels Lunch Bag giveaway day for kids 2-14 years old. Since I had an extra ticket my friend Matthew ended up getting me this stadium giveaway. Thanks Matthew

As soon as I entered the stadium we headed towards the Angels side in left field where the Angels pitchers were fielding baseballs during BP.  Josh and Alex wanted prime positioning since they wanted to get Mike Trout or Mark Trumbo's autograph today.

I saw Jerome Williams field two baseballs at once thus I asked Jerome for a baseball and he tossed it up to me. It was quite shocking since I was fully decked out in Mariners gear so I didn't expect him to throw me a baseball. I normally dress up wearing the road team's gear when I go to Angels games for graphing and ball hawking purposes. The baseball I got from Jerome had a ton of usage. It was the dirtiest baseball I got this year but I like it since it has a lot of character. Thanks Jerome.

I ran into my buddy Ryan who was communicating with Ernesto Frieri through twitter all day. Ryan made a customized poster of Ernesto and set a meet up with Ernesto during BP so he can present it to him. Ryan also made an extra copy for himself so he could get it signed. I figured if I hung out with Ryan then i'd probably be able to get Ernesto Frieri's autograph today. Ernesto did end up signing for Ryan but there was a big crowd. Luckily I handed Ryan my baseball to get it signed on the sweetspot. Unfortunately Ernesto was in a rush so he ended up side panelling the signature. Luckily I used a BP ball and not a new ROMLB on that one. Here is a picture of Ryan's signed poster courtesy of Ernesto and my side panel ROMLB signed by Ernesto Frieri. Thanks Ryan for helping me get Ernesto's autograph.

There wasn't much action going on in terms of graphing so Ryan and I went to the Mariners side in right field to hopefully get Felix Hernandez's autograph. Felix has been eluding me since last year and i've had numerous close encounters with him before. He's always been one of my white whales. We noticed that he was playing toss with good old Jason Vargas, who is one of my favorite players.

My buddy Matthew was there as well. Matthew was able to get Felix's attention to sign some autographs. Matthew ended up getting the cleanest signature on the SS. As soon as Felix started signing a mob started to form as people were pushing up against me in the railing. I know how that feels since that's happened to me before when I got Albert Pujols' autograph at his press conference and when I got Andrew Luck's autograph this past year. I was in prime positioning to get Felix's autograph since Matthew was standing right next to me. For some odd reason Felix skipped over me even though I was decked out in Mariners gear. I even had a Felix Hernandez shirt on.

There is one really rude grapher at Angel Stadium who annoys the hell out of me since he always prevents us from getting autographs and unfortunately he always get his. Felix signed for this rude fan who always cuts and pushes even little kids away and he started to complain that Felix didn't sign his baseball on the sweet spot. I noticed that Felix was side panelling everyone today except for my buddy Matthew who is a kid and was the first to call him over. After Felix heard the complaint he stopped signing and left. The same aggressive rude grapher cost me an Adrian Beltre autograph as well in the Texas series. I was so fumed after I missed out on Felix again and I wanted to punch this idiot. I'm sure almost every stadium has an idiot grapher that ruins it for all of us. That's the part of graphing the annoys me the most since I know this guy is hyper aggressive since he relies on obtaining autographs for his income. It's sad since I know the baseball is going straight to eBay.

I knew I needed to cool down and I didn't want to graph anymore at that point so I went back to the Angels' side to join Josh, Alex and Benson. While I was away Alex and Benson were able to obtain Jesus Montero's autograph. Sadly Mark Trumbo didn't sign since he had a day off and Mike Trout only signed a few in the VIP seats.

Afterwards we headed up to our seats to watch the game. As you can see graphing all day can make you really tired. Here is a picture of Josh aka Dodgerbobble falling asleep after a long day of graphing at an Angels game.

Sorry to put you on blast Josh but I thought the picture was funny. I understand you were up since 4am graphing all day with us.

At the end of the game I met up with my friend Mike near the bullpen and we ended up getting Oliver Perez' autograph. Since I didn't have any Oliver Perez cards Mike gave me two cards and let me keep one card if I got both of the cards signed. Sure enough Oliver signed both cards and I ended up with his 2006 Upper Deck card. Thanks Mike.