TTMCast Preview
It’s the third week of the month so Les Wolff joins us for our More From Les segnebt: this month he’s appraising listeners’ items. Drew and Troy talk about upcoming releases, shows, and their latest TTM successes.
You can listen to this week’s show here.
TTM Successes
Derrick McKey
McKey was a member of the 1988 All-Rookie Team and a two-time member of the All-Defensive Team. He was part of the Pacers’ Eastern Conference Championship squad in 2000 and won the 1986 FIBA World Championships with Team USA.
He still lives in Indiana and signed these for me in just over a month.
Dennis Bonvie
As a fan of the tough guys of the hockey world. I’ve always liked the smaller guys who engage in some absolute slugfests: guys like PJ Stock, Ryan Vandenbussche, and Bonvie were all 6 feet or less and would throw down with– and usually beat– almost anyone. Bonvie is an AHL Hall of Famer and the league’s all-time penalty minute leader with over 4400 minutes in the box. His three cousins Dean, Rob, and Stan Melanson were certifiably nuts as well, combining for eleven seasons of 200+ PIM in the minor and junior leagues.
Bonvie is now a scout for the Bruins and signed these for me in three months.
In-Person Report: The Season Ends in Frisco
We’ve been lucky the last few years with some bonus baseball in North Texas. The Frisco Roughriders won the Texas League championship in 2022 and appeared in this year’s playoffs. The American Association’s Cleburne Railroaders have made the playoffs in each of the last four years. This helps to make up for a Texas Rangers team that threw massive contracts totaling $800 million at Corey Seager, Jon Gray, Marcus Semien, Jacob DeGrom, Andrew Heaney, and Nathan Eovaldi and managed to get into the playoffs once since 2016 despite a constantly expanding field of qualifiers.
As first half champs for 2024, we knew we were getting some extra baseball– notably against the second-half champion Midland Rockhounds, Oakland’s AA affiliate. The great thing about Midland is that a lot of their players and coaches have legitimate, nationally-released cards, so we were setting up for a possible graphing bonanza to close out the season. Six pitchers, nine position players, and three coaches appear on cards outside of annual team sets. Plus Frisco had a few late callups, including their top prospect Sebastian Walcott.
I showed up early on Thursday, hoping to pick off a few players at the batting cage before we got inside. Unfortunately I forgot that in addition to Walcott, the Rangers also moved Cam Cauley up, and I left my cards of him sitting in my future Spring Training stuff. And as one would expect, he signed, so I missed out on him.
The rather inauspicious start continued as Denzel Clarke of the Rockhounds came through. The #10 prospect for the A’s has never been a friendly signer, typically dropping just a C or a D as his sig in the rare event he signs. Typically, he’d rather yell about how he’s not signing for anyone, but this time he came over and seemed willing to sign. Instead of even giving us a single letter, he took our pens and drew a smiley face on a card for each of us.
Lesson to be learned: just because they have cards doesn’t mean they’ll be willing to sign them.
As I stood there dumbfounded, I was able to recover enough at least to get the rest of Midland’s hitters that came to the cage. Euribiel Angeles signed one-per. Catcher and #11 prospect Daniel Susac signed everything for everyone, and #5 prospect Henry Bolte signed a solid two-per person. Jeisson Rosario has always signed three-per and did the same this day, and hitting coach Juan Dilone signed all three that I had.
Inside the park, I was finally able to get Jeremy Eierman after having terrible luck with him the last two years: he signed for me in 2022 but then missed all of Midland’s trips to Frisco in 2023 and 2024 due to injuries. Fortunately he was back and good to go in the playoffs, signing everything I had with me.
Up at the bullpen, the pitchers all signed fairly well early: Tyler Baum and #6 prospect Mason Barnett each usually will do one-per and this game was no exception. Lincoln Henzman signed the four I had of him, and Domingo Robles signed the only two I could find of him. Back down at the field, Angeles signed one more card, and manager Gregorio Petit was great as always, signing the three cards I had for him. Over at the dugout I got #26 prospect Brayan Buelvas: injured but still traveling with the team, he signed the lone card I had on him.
I tried one more time at the bullpen, but pitching coach Paul Abbott warned all his players that anyone signing would get hit with a $100 fine. So Seth Elledge and Ryan Cusick both said they’d sign after the game.
Well, they didn’t: Midland was one strike away from sweeping the series when Elledge gave up the tying home run to Abimelec Ortiz, and Frisco walked it off in the 11th. No one was in a signing mood after that. Jordan Groshans signed for two, then getting to me he glared at me and said he’d get me tomorrow before walking off. I saw Jack Perkins sign for a few but I had nothing for him; same with Daniel Susac.
On Frisco’s side several players were hanging out a little longer chatting with fans and I was able to get Maximo Acosta to sign a card. This was a pretty nice score as I’ve had limited luck with him so far this season. Outside the Roughriders were obviously in a good mood, extending their season for at least one more day. Acosta signed one more for me as did pitcher Mitch Bratt. The aforementioned Sebastian Walcott signed the only card I had of him, as did the night’s hero Abimelec Ortiz. Even the occasionally-prickly Cooper Johnson signed one for everyone.
I hit up the batting cage again on Friday where Midland’s players seemed pretty focused– Clarke and Angeles didn’t acknowledge us, but Jeisson Rosario signed the last card I had of him. Henry Bolte again signed two-per, and fortunately Jordan Groshans was true to his word, signing one for me. I had nothing left for Daniel Susac who, as usual, signed for anyone who had anything for him.
Inside I got starter Jake Walkinshaw to sign a card– he said he usually doesn’t sign before a start, but since he was out early, I only had one card, and I was the only one asking he was willing to do it. Paul Abbott was also willing to sign one card for me– a bit of a departure from when he signed three for me at Spring Training, but also a step up from his gruff threats of fining players the day before.
Groshans and Bolte both signed again coming in, and I finally was able to get Junior Perez on three cards– I didn’t see him the day before, sneaking in late at some point since he wasn’t starting. Up at the bullpen, Tyler Baum and Seth Elledge completely ignored us, while Cusick and Barnett said they would sign after the game.
This time Midland was able to pull out the win, so we hoped for some better moods, that maybe I could finish off my last few cards on these guys. Well, not quite: Angeles, Baum and even Cusick again ignored us, Groshans yelled that he had already signed for us, but Mason Barnett did at least sign as promised; so I wasn’t leaving completely empty-handed.
Overall across two games I got 57 cards signed, bringing my total to 990 in-person for the year. I was hoping to surpass the 1000 mark, but that will have to wait until the celebrity hockey and softball events that I have coming up in two weeks. My in-person record for a single year is 1,085. That is certainly within striking distance with those events plus the Rangers Toy Drive yet to come.
If you have any graphing questions, you can reach Drew via email at [email protected]
Related Stories:
TTM This Week: Three Sports in the Mailbox and Dodgers’ Prospects
TTM This Week: Even More HOFers in the Mail and Graphing Road Trip Advice
TTM This Week: Auction Talk; World Cup and Latest Autograph Returns
TTM This Week: Hobby Talk and Autograph Returns
TTM This Week: Selling Your Collection, Beckett CEO Visits
TTM This Week: Art of Negotiation, This Week’s Autograph Returns
TTM This Week: Card Shop Serves Community; Act of Valor Visit; Latest Autograph Returns
TTM This Week: More From Les; Weekly Returns; Spring Ink
