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March 31 , 2008



I returned from my first Spring Training trip last weekend and I'm finally posting a few scans of what I got. So much happened and too much time has passed for me to remember everything so I'll keep it to the images. It would take me all day to tell you what I did and what autographs I got. Nonetheless, it was a blast to visit Florida for the first time.

My best autos were probably Hanley Ramirez, Roy Oswalt, Hunter Pence, Miguel Tejada, and Ivan Rodriguez. Those aren't necessarily my favorites as I managed to get Devon White, Jose Rijo and Orel Hershiser - all studs when I was a kid. I ended up with about 275 autographs.

I think it was a good first trip and I defintetly look forward to making this an annual vacation. Next year I'd like to hit up some facilities we didn't go to this year. Too bad Winter Haven won't be on the agenda as the Indians and Dodgers are moving to Arizona.

Two thumbs up for the Nationals facility, one thumb down for the Tigers facility.

I managed to get 60 set cards done and I've added some cards to my tradelists.










March 1 , 2008

Finally an update showing you just a few things that I got during the annual NFL Scouting Combine held in Indianapolis, and fortunately for me I live within a block of all the festivities! Well, it's not really festive considering it's "not open to the public" but we managed to find various loopholes in that.

This was my second year attending the combine and my pull was much greater as I ended up with 360 autographed cards of NFL coaches, agents, nflpa reps, media members, various current players and about 20 signed photos of future NFL stars and/or drop outs. There are two distinct things happening when it comes to graphs at the combine: the abundance of former players and the hoopla around the future draft picks. I went for both but I spent a good percentage of my time focusing on the coaches as I'm a huge fan of guys who played when I was a kid but fortunately the way everything is set up, the coaches and players can be found at the same place(s) so I was able to get autos from both. Below is just a sampling, but a good mix of the really obscure to some of the better guys I got.












The combine is really great for autographs if you know what/who you're looking for and considering there are so many people involved. Almost every coach and agent is in town for the combine including some current players that come unannoucned, such as Jamal Lewis, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Antonio Gates and Zach Thomas. I was able to get all of those guys with the exception of Thomas as none of us were aware he was in town until after he left. D'Angelo Hall is usually in town for the combine and he signed a ton, and from what I hear that was out of the norm. Bill Belichick, Bill Parcells and Mike Shanahan did not show.

Some coaching autograph highlights were new hall of famer Emmitt Thomas who was very gracious in signing for the autograph nerds; Rod Woodson, who was in town for the NFL Network, signed plenty but was swarmed; hall of famers Paul Warfield, Willie Brown, and Charlie Joiner - who is always a great signer - also signed. I was able to get those guys but Gene Upshaw refused to sign for anyone who asked. He left town by day two. Ozzie Newsome signed very few and I missed out when he did sign in quantity towards the end of the combine. I managed to get 3 other hall of famers that I've gotten before: Mike Munchak, James Lofton and Mike Singletary. Deion Sanders signed for a few people but I was at work when this happened.

The biggest highlights for me were some of the responses/conversations from former players. Jeff Davidson jumped back in amazement that I asked for his autograph. Mike Devlin talked with me for 5 minutes about the history of his cards. Bill Bradley sat down while he signed and had fun with a colleague of his discussing the collection of cards my buddy and I had of him. He also mentioned something about drug testing during his playing days. Ray Rhodes and Frank Bush asked us why the heck we wanted their autograph and mentioned something about an old-timers convention and had a good laugh while they signed. NFLPA regional director and former Vikings running back Scottie Graham was drunk when he signed for me. Dave McCloughan's look on his face and laughing at us that two guys from the autograph gallery want his autograph and telling us we should ask for an autograph from someone better. I have scans of all of those guys above with the exception of Bradley. Current player Lawyer Milloy pulled what I call a Rickey Henderson move: "Lawyer, can I have your autograph?.......Reply from Lawyer: "He don't sign autographs."

Another cool thing for me was knowing that I was more than likely the only one to ask some of these guys for their autograph. And in most cases that works in my favor as they usually sign everything I show them. These are guys like Tom Clements (former Notre Dame QB), Mike Devlin, Willie Davis (former Chiefs WR), Jeff Davidson, Jerry Fontenot, Richard Williamson, Jessie Armstead, Tim Lewis, Jimmie Johnson and the list goes on. A backlash to this though is you can tell some of these guys aren't used to signing for guys with binders as I seemed to have a lot more smeared cards than usual.

Also during the combine there was a sports agent conference going on and former LA Dodger Reggie Williams was speaking. I was able to get 5 cards signed by him.

Here's a list of former players/coaches and current players that I got this year on cards, in alphabetical order: Jessie Armstead, Eric Ball, Edgar Bennett, Ronnie Bradford, Bill Bradley, Bucky Brooks, Willie Brown, Joe Bugel, Frank Bush, Luke Butkus, Gill Byrd, Pat Carter, Perry Carter, Maurice Carthon, Chuck Cecil, Tom Clements, Bryan Cox, Jeff Davidson, Willie Davis (WR), Lake Dawson, Mike Devlin, Jamie Dukes, Herm Edwards, Henry Ellard, Ray Farmer, Jerry Fontenot, Leslie Frasier, Champ Gailey, Jason Garrett, Judd Garrett, Sam Gash, Antonio Gates, Leo Goeas, Scottie Graham, Jerry Gray, Russ Grimm, Carl Hairston, D'Angelo Hall, Ray Hamilton, Jim Haslett, Andy Heck, Jerome Henderson, Alonzon Highsmith, Johnny Holland, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Steve Jackson (DB), Shawn Jefferson, Derrick Jensen, Jimmie Johnson, Tim Krumrie, Jamal Lewis, Tim Lewis, James Lofton, Russell Maryland, Dave McCloughan, Lenny McGill, Johnny Meads, Keith Millard, Matt Millen, Stump Mitchell, Winston Moss, Mike Mularky, Mike Munchak, Tony Nathan, Vince Newsome, Ray Rhodes, Ron Rivera, Marcus Robertson, Alfredo Roberts, Jeff Rutledge, James Saxon, Donnie Shell, Mike Singletary, Otis Smith, Cedric Smith, Sherman Smith, Tim Spencer, Scott Studwell, Emmitt Thomas, Mike Tice, Alex Van Pelt, Paul Warfield, Don Warren, Lionel Washington, Richad Williamson, Wade Wilson, Terry Wooden, Rod Woodson, Lonnie Young and Jim Zorn. Let me know if you need any of these guys and we can work out a trade.

On photos I got: Norv Turner, Jeff Fisher, Dan Snyder (Redskins owner), and Jon Gruden. I got Coughlin and Wade Phillips on a Sporting News that was already signed by Norv Turner. All I need now is Dungy to finish the cover.

For my next post I'll show you some photos of custom plaques I made for various all-americans and college football hall of famers. I was able to get a few guys to sign these boards for me during the combine.

Regarding the players, it's a toss up. You don't know who is going to be a good signer because they don't have a signing track-record yet. But just like the pro-level though, you'll be quickly dissapointed if you're only going for the big names. From my personal experience and from talking to other people, this year's signing studs were: Colt Brennan, Jamie Silva, Joe Flacco, Tom Zbikowski, Matt Ryan (for the most part), Dennis Dixon (personalized everything), Sedrick Ellis, Craig Steltz, Shawn Crable and just about any guy who the average fan hasn't heard of yet. I'm probably missing a few guys but you shouldn't be surprised that guys like McFadden and Dorsey didn't sign many or any at all. But you would be surprised that certian guys might have only signed a handful or none at all: Woodson, Cromartie, Rice, Felix, Slaton, Campbell, Jackson (USC), Balmer (no one got him). There are reports that other big guys signed a few, but very few people got them. Fill the list in yourself to get the idea. I brought photos for about 40 players and had a custom All-American plaque made for certian guys and managed to get: Dixon, Choice, Connor, Steltz, Keller, Brennan, Ellis, Erin Henderson, Crable, Purify, Ryan, Allen Patrick, Blythe, Goff, Justin King and Silva. I also got Tommy Blake on a recent Sporting News.

In summary, I had fun but I was definetely burnt out after all of it. I was able to get a lot of guys I didn't get last year and I had a blast hanging out with some of my friends talking about sports and graphs. Next year will be a lot different considering they are tearing down the RCA Dome before next year's combine, so it's up in the air on how autographs will be. What we do know is access to players and coaches will change considerably.

Now I'm gearing up for my first ever spring training trip which will take place from March 15th to March 22. Our "home base" will be the Astros camp and we plan on making trips to the Braves, Tigers and Nationals camps too. Until then, I'll probably have another post showing you some of the basketball graphs I've obtained in February and March. Check the archive below for older posts.
Thanks for reading.