Spring Training Return: Matt Antonelli

• Matt Antonelli 2/2- The Peabody, MA native and frequent blogger signed his rookie cards from the 09 Topps and Heritage sets from Syracuse, where he's currently playing for the AAA affiliate of the Nationals. Sent 2/16 (105 days)
  

Matt has a great blog at http://www.matthewantonelli.com/ that he keeps up with regularly. It's a neat look inside the travel and schedule arrangements that minor leaguers have to endure. Good luck to Matt on his climb back to the majors!

White Sox @ Red Sox, 5/30

After about a month of nothing but rain, it was nice to have a clear weekend for graphing. I got all of these outside of Fenway today:

• Brent Lillibridge- 07 Justifiable (thanks for the card Alex)
  
• Gavin Floyd- 09 Topps
  
• Matt Thornton- 10 Topps, 10 Topps All-Star (forgot to prep so it bubbled), 09 Upper Deck
  
• A.J. Pierzynski- o9 Topps
  
• Ramon Castro- 09 Topps
  
• Gordon Beckham- 09 Topps 206
  

Pack Pull Auto: David DeJesus

I haven't bought too many packs of Gypsy Queen, but I definitely get my money's worth when I do buy them. I've probably bought 8-10 hobby packs and pulled 2 jersey cards already, and today I pulled my first auto. The signature isn't that great, but the on-card auto looks very nice with the Gypsy Queen design.

TTM Return: Xavier Nady

• Xavier Nady 1/1- The well-traveled first baseman of the Diamondbacks signed his 09 Topps card from Arizona in three weeks. Sent 5/6 (21 days)
  

Trade List

At the request of a few other bloggers, I've made a list of cards I'd be willing to trade. The list will be accessible from the right hand side of my blog under my 09 Topps checklist. The list is pretty short right now and I'm not sure if that will change anytime soon, but I'm willing to trade for 09 Topps cards that I don't already have.

My Trade List

Cubs @ Red Sox, 5/21

I went for autographs outside and inside the stadium on Saturday, then outside the stadium for a few hours on Sunday. I didn't get anything inside the stadium Saturday, but here's how I did outside:

• Sean Marshall- 09 Topps U&H
• Wellington Castillo- custom Cubs card
• Jeff Baker- 09 Topps
• Doug Davis- 09 Topps
• Blake Dewitt- 09 Topps, 09 Topps Heritage

The extra Dewitt card was the only one I got signed on Sunday since I could only be there for a couple of hours. Hopefully it won't be another 93 years until I get a chance to get more Cubs autographs.

Tigers @ Red Sox, 5/18: Verlander, Cabrera & More!

Rain isn't always a bad thing! When I got to the park, the tarp was on the field, but the pitchers went out to warm up in the outfield. Porcello signed down the entire line, then Penny saw a friend and got him to start signing while he was talking to his friend. Benoit was signing by the dugout for a while with a big smile on his face the whole time, talking to fans in the stands. It was tough to keep the cards dry, so there were a few smudges on the Porcello and Benoit cards. Jackson signed along the 3rd base line for everybody, then the rain picked up so I decided to go down the tunnel to dry out a little bit.

When I got to the bottom of the tunnel, I noticed a big crowd near the visitors' entrance and saw Verlander talking to Dan Kelly and a few other people. A Tigers fan with his young son asked if they could borrow my sharpie to try to get his kid's hat signed, so I obliged and the kid's dad took my card for me and waited for Verlander to finish talking, then got him to start signing. And signing. I think he signed for at least 20-30 people. The rain subsided about a half hour before game time, and most of the team took the field for stretching.

Cabrera came out and motioned to someone in the crowd that he'd come over in a minute to sign. He stayed true to his word and started to sign for a few minutes, then as I was handing him my card, the PA announcer asked for everyone to rise for a moment of silence for Harmon Killebrew. Cabrera rushed it and basically just signed his initials, then handed it back to me and rushed back to the field to stand alongside his teammates. V-Mart came over after the anthem and signed for everyone down there, capping off a rainy but productive night at Fenway.