Angels vs Orioles Game 7-7-12

I decided to spend the full day at Angel Stadium today to graph the Orioles today. Thanks to my friend Benson who is a season ticket holder for the Angels he had an extra ticket for me so I was able to attend the game.

The first Oriole to sign for us was Wilson Betemit who signed my 2011 Topps card which was given to me by my friend Scotty since I don't own any sets prior to the 2012 season except my 2011 Allen and Ginter set. Thanks again Scotty.

The next Oriole to sign is one of my favorite players, Mark Reynolds. Mark is cool about signing multiples for fans and is one of the nicer players you will meet. He signed four cards for me today and signed multiples for just about everyone who had cards for him to sign. I had him sign my 2011 Allen and Ginter, 2012 Topps Heritage, 2012 Gypsy Queen, and 2012 Topps Archives cards for me.

The next Oriole to sign was Matt Wieters who signed my ROMLB on the SS.

Following Wieters, Pedro Strop stopped and signed for the fans who recognized who he was. Thanks to Benson, who had an extra 2010 Upper Deck Pedro Strop card for me, I was able to get him to sign the card for me.

I was hoping to get Jim Palmer's autograph today but he signed yesterday so I didn't expect him to sign today. Sure enough he politely declined our autograph requests since he signed yesterday.

In game graphing has been relatively weird for me this year, experiencing the highs of getting Derek Jeter's autograph but also striking out completely and not getting any autographs during BP like when the Diamondbacks were in a town a few weeks ago. I normally do better during pre and post game graphing than during BP inside the stadium. I was also informed by the regulars who graph during BP that the ushers have been really strict on letting us hang out near the dugout especially if you don't have a ticket. Graphing has become a bit more difficult inside the stadium compared to last year since more fans are showing up to the games due to the entire Pujols effect as well.

Thus Benson and I decided to hang out near right field during BP to do some ballhawking and maybe get lucky and get a few of the Orioles pitchers to sign for us. Similar to the Diamonbacks series there wasn't much autographing going on so we devoted most of our time ballhawking during BP. I ended up with two baseballs.

During the tail end of BP we decided to try graphing near the Angels dugout area. As usual there was a huge crowd of newbie Angel fans trying to get autographs. Mark Trumbo and Mike Trout did sign but there were just too many people crowding them. Thus I struck out. I really wanted to get them to sign my 2012 All Star Baseball. Luckily I racked up on them last year so striking out wasn't a big deal. Hopefully i'll get them next time. I wonder where all these newbie fans were last year when the Angels were sucking. Oh how I miss the good old days.

The Angels ended up shutting out the Orioles 3-0 and Jered Weaver once again threw a gem. He is now 10-1 with a 1.96 ERA. I really hope he keeps it up and wins the Cy Young Award this year.

After the game Benson and I decided to try graphing the Orioles in the visitor's tunnel hoping to get Jim Thome's autograph. Jim signed the previous night for a few fans but one of the graphers ruined it for the rest of us tonight. Last night, as Jim was running with a black sharpie this fan complained when he signed his card in black saying he wanted it signed in blue. Jim responded by telling the fan that he should be happy just getting an autograph. Well fast forward to tonight. Jim once again walked out but saw the same fan who complained and said he signed for that particular fan last night so he politely declined signing for the rest of the fans tonight. I hate it when rude people ruin it for all of us.

Newbie graphers along with the idiots who ruin it for all of us need to read this post http://www.autographu.com/10-rules-of-autograph-etiquette/. If everyone followed Matt's rules then this world would be a much happier place for graphers and we would all get our items signed.

Afterwards Chris Davis and Darren O'Day walked out of the tunnel together. What was funny was that Darren was riding out on a one wheeled segway called Solowheel. You can check out his twitter page since he has pictures of him riding around everywhere on that thing Darren O'Day. Now I want one of those. It looks fun and also can be beneficial when I graph at the stadium since I can ride on the Solowheel if I need to run from the front of the stadium to the back of the stadium. Since I didn't have any cards of him I had him sign my mini helmet.

Chris Davis signed my 2012 Topps Card.

That was pretty much it for graphing at the visitors tunnel so we walked over to the front of the stadium to hopefully get Brady Anderson's autograph or Buck Showalter's autograph since they are usually the last ones to leave. This is a perfect time when I could have used the Solowheel. When we walked back to the front of the stadium we found out that about five graphers ended up getting Jim Palmer to sign on the way out which is rare since he never signs coming out. Again we missed out on Jim Palmer. Hopefully i'll get him tomorrow. Otherwise i'll have to wait until next year.

Luckily Brady Anderson did walk out again and signed for us. He signed for fans three straight nights. Brady is a class act. I ended up getting Brady to sign my ROMLB on the SS. Brady has one of the coolest and longest signature ever as it wraps around almost the entire section of the baseball.

It was a long day of graphing, but I was happy with my results. Time to rest up.