TTMCast Preview
On this month’s show, Arron and I talk about road trip preparations in Grapher DIY as we prepare for this year’s trip to the National and all points in between. We also have a chance to win some SigSpot cards as this month’s listener drawing. Plus all our regular segments including our TTM successes.
You can listen to this episode here.
Also, we’re taking orders for SigSpot cards now for our May 25 printing.
TTM Successes
Gareon Conley
Conley was a member of Ohio State’s 2014 National Championship winning squad and later a 2017 first-round draft pick of the Oakland Raiders. Injuries derailed a promising NFL career, but he’s made it on with the UFL’s DC Defenders following a brief retirement.
Gareon signed these in two weeks via the UFL, and even included a “Conley Island” silicone bracelet.
Deandre Baker
Baker spent four years as a Georgia Bulldog before being drafted by the Giants in the first round in 2019. After signing with the Chiefs, a broken femur ended his time in the NFL, but he’s found a home in the UFL with Conley in DC, and has twice been named to the All-UFL team.
He signed these in two weeks via the UFL.
Cody Latimer
Latimer was a second-round pick from Indiana, likely one of the school’s best football players of all-time before this past National Championship season. He was a part of the Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 winning team, and spent time with the Giants and in the XFL prior to becoming a UFL coach, handling Birmingham’s receiver corps.
He signed these in two weeks via the UFL.
Morgan Shepherd
Shepherd was known for roller skating around the pit area during his racing career and serving as a minister to the NASCAR community after coming back from alcoholism that altered his career early on. He charges $1 per autograph, which is a more than acceptable price: he’s been battling Parkinson’s Disease for six years so I’m sure signing isn’t the easiest thing for him. He also signed the back of one: I’m assuming it’s because it’s a game card that has “Lose 10 Laps,” which no driver wants to have happen.
He signed these for me in 4 months via his North Carolina home.
Gilberto Reyes
Reyes had the ultimate hard-luck career. Making his debut at age 19 as the Dodgers’ youngest catcher ever, he found himself stuck behind veteran Steve Yeager and up-and-coming future All-Star Mike Scioscia. When Scioscia was injured during the 1988 World Series, he scrambled to get to Oakland for Game 5 and a chance to play in the potential clinching game, and he arriv ed in the dugout just as the team was coming off the field from ceebrating.
He then got traded to the Expos where he was stuck behind Mike Fitzgerald, Nelson Santovenia, Marty Pevey, and Jerry Goff. Developing a drinking problem, he dealt with a 60-day suspension that an arbitrator later ruled should not have been given to him to begin with, and eventually a 15-month drug trafficking sentence that was overturned, as he was able to prove he was unaware that the furniture he was moving was loaded down with 400 pounds of marijuana.
Today Reyes works in a nursing home but still loves talking about his World Series minute.
Reyes signed these for me in three months via his Florida home.
I plan to mail out a few more UFL requests here quickly as we’re midway through their season. 3 for 16 may not be the best stats, but they’re honestly better than I expected after a month. I’m thinking some may catch up on mail after the season.
IP Upcoming
It’s nice taking a couple weeks off from in-person graphing but I also do miss it a bit. And so, the next few weeks I’ll have some opportunities to get some Sharpie time in before hitting the road in July. Here’s the approximate schedule for May and the notable names with each:
May 9: Cleburne Railroaders Meet the Team Event (Delino DeShields Jr., Cole Foster, Pete Incaviglia)
May 10: Northwest Arkansas Naturals at Frisco Roughriders (Eight of the Royals’ Top-30 Prospects)
May 16: Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks at Cleburne Railroaders (Tucupita Marcano)
May 23: San Antonio Missions at Frisco Roughriders (Seven of the Padres’ Top-30 Prospects including MLB #99 Ethan Salas)
In praise of the minor league team set
When you’re a cards-first grapher like me, the minor leagues can be tough. Sure, all the big prospects get their Bowman Draft, Bowman Prospects, and Topps Pro Debut cards, but so many of those guys get burned out on signing rather quickly. Once that card hits the market, you know there’s some jerk chasing Single-A ballplayers and getting indignant when the prospects won’t sign 18 of the exact same card for them every day.
Furthermore, the lesser-knowns rarely get that respect: a few may end up in those sets, but for the most part they’re cardless on a national level. The Rookies App has made it easier to create your own cards of them, but it’s still time consuming and how long will it be before they get shut down over trademark and copyright violations? And this is why I love minor league team sets for both in-person and TTM graphing.
Of course, there are exceptions to that rule…
What percentage of minor league ballplayers get time in the majors? Depending on how you measure it, that number is somewhere in the range of 6-18%. That remaining 82-94% tend to get forgotten. A letter about their career asking them to sign some of the few cards they got on could absolutely make their day, getting to reminisce about the time spent chasing a dream.
Minor league team sets have vastly improved over the years. Back in the 80s, TCMA, ProCards, Star, Cramer, Fritsch, and Best put out some sets, but the card stock was often flimsy, the backs were minimal, and the designs and photography could get repetitive.
It wasn’t until about 1990 when CMC put out their “Pre-Rookie” set of green demi-framed AAA players, along with the wood-framed AA players that minor league cards took a major leap forward in quality, The photography was still repetitive headshots, but the overall quality was vastly improved.
Over time, team sets have been reduced to two companies: Grandstand and Choice. Despite this limited competition, both have put out some excellent designs for teams over the past few years with some visually referencing some vintage and junk era sets. My personal favorite was a Choice design from 2018 that kept it simple: borderless with a strike carrying the player, team, and position, giving a lot of room for some ink.
So pick up a card set from your local team. Grab old sets on the cheap if you see them. Even if you don’t get them completely signed in-person, you never know whose day you might make someday down the line by mailing it off to them.
