Recent Autograph Tales

I didn't know whether or not to make this an autograph adventure. There were definitely an adventure involved in getting some autographs you will see later in this entry. But, I'll start with some of the through the mail autographs I've gotten recently.

In early September, I had seen that Mets outfielder Eric Young Jr. tweeted that he signs his fan mail. Knowing that, I sent two 4x6 photos to Citi Field. About a month later, I was happy to open my mail and find these inside. As you can see on the photo to the left, Young had written some sort of inscription that I haven't seen before. It looked to read #R2BI the first time I looked at it. Confused, I sent a tweet to @EYJr to ask what it said. To my delight, he favorited, retweeted, then responded to my tweet as you can see below. If you look at some of the pictures he has posted on his account, you see that he has written that inscription before and constantly tweets about his interactions with fans. 

Former Braves catcher Greg Olson signed a card and a photo for me. I really like the picture of him that I found online after a quick search for his name. 

Now it's time for the autograph adventures part of this blog entry.

As I might have mentioned in an earlier blog entry, I am currently a SUNY Albany student. A few weeks ago, I was working in my room at night. Suddenly, one of my friends told me that there was a reception going on for a famous Broadway actress named Carolee Carmello, who happens to be a UAlbany graduate. She had performed a concert on campus and there was a reception in her honor following. My friend went on to show me the autographs he got, as well as a picture he took with her. I looked it up, and luckily for me, the reception was still going on.

I grabbed a sharpie, brought my autograph book, and went to where the reception was being held. I wasn't allowed to go where the reception was because I didn't have a ticket, so I waited in the lobby of the building near where the only exit was. After about 20 minutes of waiting, Carmello walked down to the lobby where I was. I went up to her, and told her that I was sorry for missing the performance and asked her if she could sign some things for me. She was happy to sign something that I ended up giving away as a gift, as well as a program for me. I found a stack of programs on a table in the lobby and figured it would be better than my autograph book. While she had my sharpie, a few other people showed up wanting autographs, and she was happy to oblige anyone that asked. Before I left, I took a picture with her, shook her hand, and thanked her for everything. She thanked me for coming and I went back to my room to thank my friend for letting me know about the event.

Thanks for reading! Best of luck graphing! 

Autograph Adventures: Aberdeen Ironbirds

As a student at the University at Albany, I have access to a wide variety of sports teams. Recently, I attended a couple of Tri-City ValleyCats games. The ValleyCats are the Short-Season Class A affiliate of the Houston Astros.  The most recent game I attended was a playoff matchup against the Aberdeen IronBirds, the Baltimore Orioles affiliate.

I got to the game as soon as the gates opened. I had printed out an Orioles logo on a large piece of photo paper. I had also printed out a basic Orioles 4x6 photo and a 4x6 photo of Zach Britton. Britton was rehabbing with the IronBirds, but unfortunately he wasn't at the game.

Chace Sisco                                                                 Chance Sisco

Trey Mancini

Trey Mancini

Hunter Harvey, the Orioles' 1st round pick in the 2013 draft, was scheduled to pitch in the game. Some of the other people graphing at the game informed me that Bryan Harvey, Hunter's father and a former MLB All-Star, was in attendance. After someone pointed him out to me, I walked over to Bryan, and he signed a page in my autograph book. A nearby usher was confused as to why people were asking Bryan to sign things. Bryan's response to that was, "I was a big leaguer." Classic response. 

As I always do, I brought my glove with me to this game. The ValleyCats have a policy where fans can enter and exit the stadium as much as they want, as long as they get their hand stamped by an usher first. During the game, I just stood in the area behind home plate, waiting for my chance to try and get a ball. It would come. 

Foul Ball I got in the 5th inning 

In the bottom of the 5th inning, Hunter Harvey was pitching to Yonathan Mejia of the ValleyCats. Early in the at bat, Mejia fouled off a pitch. The ball ended up flying out of the small Joseph L Bruno Stadium and going into the parking lot on the third base side. As soon as I saw the ball go out of the park, I was running full speed toward where I thought the ball would go. When I reached the parking lot, I saw that nobody else was there. Suddenly, I noticed a small speck on the pavement about 100 feet away from where I was. I sprinted in that direction, and found the ball lying on the ground right next to a car tire. I am pretty sure the ball bounced, hit the car tire, and came to rest right there. It was a beauty too, perfectly rubbed up with mud. I took the photo on the right as soon as I went back into the stadium. 

That alone made my night, as I have never been able to get my hands on a game foul ball from a major league stadium, so getting the foul ball felt good. Later on, in the 8th inning, I was still standing in the same spot. In the top of the 8th inning, ValleyCats closer Gonzalo Sanudo was pitching to Jared Breen. Early in the count, Breen fouled off a pitch that went out of the stadium on the first base side. Once again, I was running to the direction of where I thought the ball was going to be. After looking for a couple minutes, I gave up and decided to go back into the stadium. As I was walking back in, I heard a ruffle in a tree near the side of the stadium. I looked up to see that Breen had hit another ball out of the stadium. This one hit a tree, and was coming straight to me. The ball hit the tree, bounced off the pavement, and then I caught it in my glove before it could go past me. I took a photo of the tree from the spot where I caught the ball after the game. Just like that I had actually caught a foul ball, and gotten my second one of the night. I took a (slightly blurry) photo of that ball when I came back into the stadium as well. 

I had gotten two foul balls during the game, and I was happy to say the least, as you can see in the photo below. 

After the game, I hung around the IronBirds clubhouse and got pretty much the entire time to finish signing my photo paper. I also got former big leaguers Alan Mills (Pitching Coach) and Matt Merullo (Manager) to sign a Orioles 4x6 logo photo that I printed. Mills quoted different verses of the bible on both autographs I also got Hunter Harvey to sign it as he may be in the big leagues one day in the near future. 

Here is the big photo paper I got signed by almost everyone. 

Here is a list in no particular order of everyone that signed it. 

Coaches- Matt Merullo, Alan Mills, 

15- Paco Figueroa

Players: 

30-Steven Brault  16-Garret Cortright 

33-Donnie Hunt  23-Hunter Harvey

26-Michael Joseph  56-Dylan Rheault

13-Austin Urban   12-Sebastian Vader

21-Jimmy Yacabonis  19-Jack Graham

35-Chance Sisco  9-Jared Breen

2-Jeff Kemp  34-Ronarsy Ledesma

51-Trey Mancini 10-Tanner Rust

6-Hector Veloz  53-Conor Bierfeldt

17-Manny Hernandez 

28-Mike Yastrzemski 

If I missed anyone let me know! I think I got everyone. Best of luck graphing!