A Rare Breed

That's what U.S. Soccer international and current New York Red Bull, Dax McCarty called me when he signed an autograph for me this past February.

I called him over when he got off the team bus and asked him if he'd sign my card. He walked over to me and I handed him my card and Sharpie. He said to me as he began signing, "just one?" I told him "yes, I never ask for more than one and this is the only time I will ever ask for your autograph." He seemed to like that answer as he smiled and said "you're a rare breed. I wish more people were like you."

I'm not posting this to bash those who ask for multiple items to be signed. I get why a lot of people do it. Some are set collectors, trying to get every card in that particular set signed, others are collecting for themselves and friends/relatives who may not be able to attend, and then there are those who just want every card that they get signed.
Those are typically the honest collectors. Of course, there are people who get autographs and then post them immediately for sale on eBay and Instagram.
I'm not a fan of the latter. While I don't seek out autographs on eBay, I do follow a lot of collectors on Instagram. Sadly, many have their eBay store links in their profiles. I refuse to follow any of those people.

Even when autograph collecting became a hobby for me back in 1992, I was a one-and-done collector from the start. I can remember that memorable day when it all began. I was on the practice putting green at my local golf course. An employee approached me and asked if I liked baseball and then told me that Blue Jays pitcher, David Wells was golfing that day. I immediately ran home (the course was less than half a mile from my house), and went straight to the W's in my alphabetized box of baseball cards. Instead of just grabbing all of my Wells' cards, I went through and picked the one that I thought would look best with an autograph.

I think I kept the "1 per" policy going because I didn't want to carry a ton of baseball cards to spring training and Minor League games. I just wanted to focus on getting as many different players autographs, rather than getting the same people over and over.

While I have kept this policy of mine going for several years and have no intention of ever breaking it; it does make opening packs of cards less enjoyable.

I recently bought a pack of 2016 Bowman Baseball. Six of the cards in the pack were of players that I already had autographs of.

Yoenis Cespedes

Anthony Alford

Jung Ho Kang

Alen Hanson

Andrew Knapp

Nick Williams

A lot of collectors would be happy with this pack and would look forward to getting these new cards signed. As for me, I flip through the pack and mumble to myself, "already have his" as I place them in a separate pile and then make them available on my Sportlots page.

Yoenis Cespedes

Anthony Alford 

Jung Ho Kang

Alen Hanson

Andrew Knapp

Nick Williams

I like being a rare breed. My box of cards of players that I don't have autographs of is big enough. I don't need to add players that I already have to it.

2016 Bowman Baseball

Been a while since I've posted here. Haven't been buying any packs lately, just a bunch of random singles from Sportlots and getting a whole lot of them autographed. I plan to post some highlights from spring training as well as some that I've gotten early in the Minor League season.

For now, I'll share my lone pack of Bowman cards that I picked up today.

A Brewers fan would have been happy with this pack, as there were 4 Brewer cards inside.

Jorge Lopez

Orlando Arcia

Though, I was happy to get a card of David Denson...I didn't need 2 in the same pack.

David Denson

David Denson

Bowman likes to split the packs with MLB stars and Minor League prospects. While I prefer the prospects half of the pack, I was okay with the MLB half, which gave me my first Jose Fernandez card, as well as a Francisco Lindor Sophomore Standouts insert.

Jose Fernandez

J.D. Martinez

Francisco Lindor

Ryan Howard

I was extremely happy to pull this Jhailyn Ortiz card. He's currently playing in extended spring training near my home, so I should be able to get this card signed real soon.

Jhailyn Ortiz

Since I live in the Rays market, it's cool to pull a Rays prospect. I'll probably have to wait until January to get this signed, assuming Garrett is invited to the Rays annual rookie development program at Tropicana Field.

Garrett Whitley

I'm very pleased with this year's set. I look forward to buying more and hopefully getting several of them signed.

Half an Autograph

I've seemed to have neglected posting here after the succession of soccer related posts, but I have just been busy going to spring training games this month.
So far this spring I have gotten 79 different cards signed. Well, actually, make that 78½.

I went to the Phillies Minor League complex today to see the AAA and AA Phillies host the AAA and AA Pittsburgh Pirates. Unfortunately, the teams decided to switch the schedule, and instead it was the A ball teams playing each other, while the AAA and AA Phillies traveled to Bradenton to play the Pirates at their home complex. I didn't have many cards of the lower level guys, so it was a little disappointing to show up not knowing things had changed.

However, I did have a card that I was excited to get signed. The man in charge of the Phillies player development, Joe Jordan. Joe played one professional season in 1985 with the Everett Giants. He was there long enough to have a baseball card made of him. It took me quite a while to track down, but I was finally able to acquire it. I just chose the wrong day to try to get it signed.
All spring, the weather has been in the 70's/80's, shorts and t-shirt weather. Today was different, it was very cold and extremely windy.

The Joe Jordan card is not made of your typical card stock. It's small and almost feels like a magazine page. Since it was small, I felt that if Joe signed it, he should probably use a hard surface to keep it on. So, what I did was had the card sticking out of the nine-pocket page when I called Joe over. Joe got a laugh at seeing the card and one of the Phillies coaches got an even bigger laugh when he took a look at it. Sadly, Joe never fully pulled the card out of the page when he signed it, so a portion of his signature is on the page itself.

Here's a closer look at the card in the page.

The final outcome.

Kind of comical and just makes this autograph experience even more unique.

Tampa Bay Rays Fan Fest 2016

It was back to getting baseball cards signed today, as the Tampa Bay Rays held their annual fan fest at Tropicana Field.

I always look forward to this yearly gathering, mainly for the 40+ retired baseball players who show up and sign for free. Though, many of the same players return year after year, which means less and less new players to add to my collection.
The alumni players are split into 3 groups, each signing for an hour before the next group comes in.

Group 1 

Of the 15 players listed in group 1, I already autographs from 11 of them from previous years. Unfortunately, one of the players listed (Casey Cox) was a no-show. I had ordered a really nice card of him this past Monday night and amazingly it arrived on Friday, just in time for today. Hopefully he'll show up next year.
I still ended up with 4 autographs from group one. Josh Fogg, who spent several seasons with the Pirates and Rockies, was not listed with any of the groups, yet, he was there to sign. He's appeared at these fan fests before, but I just never had a card of him. Thankfully, a fellow collector had extras on him and gave me one.

Here are the aforementioned 4 autographs from that first group.

Mike DiFelice

Brian Stokes

Josh Fogg

Glenn Beckert

I was really happy to get that Glenn Beckert card signed. I bought that card last year anticipating him to be at the 2015 fan fest, but he didn't show up.

I breezed right through the second group. I only needed 2 listed, but one was pushed back to group 3, which meant I was standing in line for 1 guy.

Group 2

Rick Reichardt

Rick Reichardt signed this 1981 TCMA card of players from the 1960s.

I only needed 4 players from the third and final group, which included the last player listed in group two.

Group 3

Bill Stein

Aaron Ledesma 

Seth McClung 

Dewon Brazelton

You have no idea of the fear I had watching Seth McClung sign that 2007 Topps card. Recently, Zach at autocards.blogspot.com posted his 2007 Topps autographed cards. However, because of the glossy finish, some of those cards came out very poorly. Luckily, mine came out practically flawless.

I try to stay away from cards with pre-printed signatures on them, but this was the only card that my local card shop had of him.

After the alumni players were finished signing, I decided to walk around to see who else I could get.

I spotted Hall of Fame writer, Peter Gammons doing a Q&A with Rays manager, Kevin Cash and team President of Operations, Matt Silverman. When it concluded, I approached the stage near where Gammons would be exiting.

Peter Gammons

I was fortunate to get him. Security immediately whisked him away when he handed me my card back.

It's not uncommon to see Rays players walking around to different parts of the stadium. They're always with at least 1 security guard who is basically there to thwart people from asking for autographs. While a lot of players won't sign, they do often stop to pose for pictures. There are players that will sign. I was able to find three of them.

Corey Dickerson

Mikie Mahtook

Hank Conger

Coming home with 13 new autographs is a pretty successful day, I must say.

It felt good to get some baseball autographs after spending most of the month of February getting soccer cards signed.

My Last Soccer Post...For Now

When I first started this blog, it was just going to be about baseball and baseball cards. I had no other intentions for it.
Even the name, 'Keys to the Batter's Box,' based on a common prank used on new batboys, signifies a baseball related website.

This blog is just over a year old. I don't pay attention to dates and just now noticed that I created this site on February 5, 2015. Sorry, no anniversary post for me.
That first post had a total of 18 views. My highest rated baseball related post, Meeting the Mets, had 246 views. That was largely aided by comedian Jim Breuer RT'ing me about that post.

This month I started posting about soccer autographs, a new hobby that I picked up, thanks to me discovering that 6 Major League Soccer teams were having their pre-season near my home. I quickly started buying singles and team sets, hoping to get them signed.

My last post, Yeah, Yeah, Another Soccer Post, far outnumbered my Jim Breuer aided post. A week old and it's had 960 views. The lack of comments is a bit of a downer, but I'm just happy to have people visiting my site.

I never even promoted that post. I just wrote it up and hit send. Didn't share it on any social networks.
Thanks to that post, the US, my home country, is no longer my biggest audience. The Ukraine now leads in that department.

The MLS pre-season is wrapping up. The last matches for the teams training here are this weekend. My autograph collecting wrapped up when the 11 remaining cards I had were signed last night.
I ended up with 30 autographs from the 6 MLS teams this month.

It will be back to baseball posts shortly. Actually, I've already gotten several baseball cards signed this spring. I just haven't shared them on here. I'll get started on baseball related posts this weekend. The Tampa Bay Rays are holding their annual fan fest on Saturday, so I'll hopefully have some autographs to share. Many former players will be in attendance signing autographs.

Sadly, these future posts will cause me to lose my Ukranian readers. At least I should gain some Americans, and maybe get a few comments, too.