Some new pickups over the last month

Here is a small recap of the recent pickups over the last month that didn't really fit into any of my previous blog posts.

The one and only autograph I got over the Dodgers vs Rockies Series in June was from Troy Tulowitzki who signed my 2010 All Star baseball under the logo. I also picked a full sig Tulo baseball signed on the SS. Tulo is a potential MVP candidate so it was nice to add his auto to the collection especially his full sig auto which he never signs anymore.

Next one was from a trade with my friend Ryan who ended up trading me his Stephen Strasburg baseball.

I finally got my Brandon Phillips replacement baseball from my friend Matt. I traded one away over the summer so I needed a replacement since I missed him when the Reds were in town earlier this year.

Last but not least A-ROD. I recently purchased this one for a good price. Came with full MLB authentication. I know everyone hates A-Rod since he is a douche in person and never picks up a pen in Anaheim but we can't deny his greatness over the last decade even though he was implicated for using PEDs. Regardless of this fact he is still an important part of MLB history just like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemens.

Cardinals Graphing Recap

Here is a brief recap of graphing the Cardinals over the weekend.

I took full advantage of my Dodger Pride Rewards card aka MVP pass to get into the stadium early. I was able to take some photos of the Dodgers warming up.

Here is a photo below of the Dodgers stretching.

A photo of Ryu playing catch with Paul Maholm.

And Ryu posing as a batter while Clayton Kershaw pitches.

In terms of graphing the Dodgers it was terrible today. Nobody except Chris Perez picked up a pen. Sadly I had nothing left to Chris to sign since he signed all of my cards last time I was at the stadium.

I blame the asinine rule that Dodger Stadium implemented to prevent graphers from maximizing their opportunities. They block out the baseline seats to prevent graphers from getting autographs. Thus unless you have baseline seats it's tough to get autographs from the Dodgers as well as from opposing teams during batting practice. The rule is that the player has to summon you over for you to be able to get an autograph since the ushers are strict and take their jobs way too seriously at Dodger Stadium.

I was able to get one autograph inside the stadium today which was from Seth Maness who signed a card for me. Seth was cool about signing. I had to explain the rules of the stadium to him to convince him to summon me over to get his autograph over the baseline seats.

Here is a photo of Seth below signing for fans with baseline seats.

The cards pictured below is what I got over the weekend either via pre or postgame graphing.

The biggest tease was when I saw Frank Thomas on the field since Fox was televising the game.

Sadly I had no access to him so I couldn't get his autograph. The picture above shows him talking to Matt Kemp on the field.

Despite the asinine rules implemented by Dodger Stadium security and staff I was still able to pick up some quality autographs from the Cardinals this past weekend.

Matt Carpenter signed a 2013 All Star ball for me under the logo with the 1st All Star Game inscription.

I ended up getting ROMLBs signed on the SS by Trevor Rosenthal and Carlos Martinez.

Allen Craig on a 2011 World Series ball under the logo.

Lance Lynn on a 2012 All Star ball. Sadly he politely declined when I asked him for the 1st ASG inscription.

Finally Adam Wainwright on a 2006 World Series baseball under the logo.

Angels vs Twins Graphing 6-25-14

Since I got out of work early today, I was able to attend the Angels vs Twins game. Thanks to my buddy Kyle, I was able to attend the game for free since he had an extra ticket for me. Thanks again for the ticket Kyle. Everyone go check out Kyle's facebook page and hit him up on Twitter. He does amazing artwork.

The goal today was to get Paul Molitor's autograph. Today was the 1/2 Way to Christmas Santa Hat Giveaway day. When I arrived at the stadium the Angels decorated the entire stadium with a Christmas Holiday theme.

They even had artificial snow blowing out of the front gates and also had reindeer in front of the stadium gates.

When I entered the stadium the Twins were already warming up.

The first autograph I got was from Kyle Gibson who signed a ROMLB on the SS for me. Kyle was cool with the fans as he made sure everyone got an autograph today.

The biggest surprise of the day was finally getting Joe Mauer's autograph. He ended up signing about 10 autographs over the dugout. I decided to have him sign a 2009 All Star baseball for me since that was his MVP season.

I also ended up getting cards signed by Kevin Correia and Kurt Suzuki.

Although I missed out on getting Paul Molitor's autograph today, I was happy with the results especially since I was finally able to add Joe Mauer's autograph to my personal collection.

Angels Mystery Bag Rangers Pregame Graphing 6-21-14

I decided to attend the Angels Mystery Bag event for the third year in a row. Last year I was lucky enough to get Mike Trout's autograph from a mystery bag so I was hoping for the same type of luck this year. Each bag was sold for $40 and contained one autographed baseball from a current Angels player. The team also randomly inserted a gold ball as well which grants the winner four tickets to a future Angels game and also a chance to meet and greet players on field for batting practice.

The Angels were scheduled to sell each mystery bag at 5pm. People were camping out since noon to get in front of the line. 

To kill some time I did some pregame graphing at the stadium. The first autograph I got was from Leonys Martin who signed my ROMLB on the SS. Since I collect Cuban baseball players I had to get him on a baseball.

I also ended up getting autographs from Joakim Soria and Colby Lewis.

Tyler Skaggs also signed my ROMLB on the SS with the "Go Halos" inscription.

Now back to the mystery bags. Each person was allowed to buy three bags at a time and had to get back in line if they wanted to purchase any additional mystery bags. The Angels did a poor job of mixing each bag as I ended up getting three Garrett Richards autographed baseballs from my first three bags I purchased. I later on found out that other fans ended up getting three autographs from the same player with some lucky fans getting three Pujols baseballs. I couldn't complain since Garrett is one of the top pitchers for the Angels this year but I didn't really need three signed baseballs from him. Thus I ended up trading one of my Richards baseballs with my friend Jeremy who traded me his Josh Hamilton ball. I later on sold the Hamilton ball to my friend Julio to reduce my cost of buying all these baseballs today. Since I lost faith in the way the event was organized this year I ended up buying one additional baseball which ended up being a Joe Smith baseball.

After a few days I ended up trading my second of three Richards ball as a part of a larger deal with my friend Warren who traded me his Konerko 2010 All Star baseball he got signed during the day of the Konerko incident at the stadium a few weeks ago.

The winner of the day was my friend Lori who pulled an Albert Pujols ball from one of her mystery bags. Congrats to Lori on the nice pickup.

LA Kiss vs Portland Thunder Game 6-14-14

Thanks to my friend Michael I was able to attend my first AFL game at the Honda Center. The LA Kiss were playing against the Portland Thunder at the Honda Center.

When I arrived at the stadium I was given a Media Pass thanks to Michael.

Tonight was also bobblehead night.

You can tell that the team really tried to create a rock star concert environment inside the stadium. Since the team is owned by members of Kiss they played all of the classic Kiss songs inside the stadium. If you look closely they even had go go dancers in a cage at each corner of the stadium and motorcycles on the field.

Here was my view of the game from the press box.

Warren Moon was in attendance today and he stopped by the press box to conduct an interview. Luckily I was able to get my HOF mini helmet signed by Warren Moon.

I want to thank my friend Michael for hooking me up with the media passes today. The game itself was a high scoring affair as expected from an arena football game with the LA Kiss beating the Portland Thunder 69-61.