Best TTM Return Of All Time! and Some Baseball Stuff.

Talk about a fan for life!

TTM Return That Won't Ever Be Topped!

I have bored all of you with my Pro-Fishing garbage a lot on this blog. Hopefully, at least one person who doesn't follow Bassmasters or FLW thinks its cool and at least one other likes professional fishing too. Anyway, my favorite angler Jacob Wheeler came through TTM for me by signing my pic from last summer and scribbling some ink on a lure he used in that tournament. Talk about game used! I have auto'd game used bats, balls, etc. but this lure is so awesome. I am going to get these to a custom framer to make an awesome display to put up right next to The Express.

Please excuse my white trash paneled basement. Its just a rental until my wife completes residency.

Baseball Stuff as Promised

My brother and I took a trip to the LCS to grab some prospect cards for Tigerfest and he bought 2 packs of Heritage Minors for $4 a piece. I don't know how many boxes this shop goes through but its most likely the same box I pulled the Eloy Jimenez auto from. He handed me one of the packs and boom. I pulled another auto and a numbered card from the same pack...

82/99

49/60 I think he spelled Triston wrong. LOL

I've seen pics of players signing cards for sets like this. I can see why their sigs become garbage. Imagine having boxes and hundreds of thousands of cards to sign for hours. Even drawing a smiley face instead of your signature would take forever.

The landscape auto card is not a popular layout but looks really cool and gives the player more room to sign. I wish there were more insert sets like this.

Odds and Ends

For the first time I will be at Tigerfest with Early Entry tickets! I traded a box of Tiger cards, may I didn't want to part with from the PC, to a well known season ticket holder. This guy wears a Tigger Adult Onesie to games through the year. I've seen him on many occasions, hes super cool and a Tiger Super-Fan. I am so excited to get in early and have a chance at at least one decent auto.

I have a rare JaCoby Jones lost in the USPS sea right now. Its been drifting through the Detroit system since January 14. Somehow it shows it made it to Pontiac on the 22nd which means its 1. further away than Detroit is to me and 2. IT PASSED BY MY HOUSE! The USPS around here is very flawed and almost makes me scared to buy anything through the mail. Plus, I'm a TTM auto guy. How many of those were returned but didn't make it to me? Pray for this package for me that it washes up in my mailbox someday.

I've been doing some old-school sorting with my trade cards. I've sent out a bunch of Merry Off-Season packages to some of you and still have a big stack to go. Not grade A stuff but something unexpected to open is always fun. Enjoy.

Give a Man an Auto...TTM Return in 4 days!Aly

 The Thing With Pro Fishing Is...

Aly Akers (right), Host of Major League Fishing returned my TTM request in 4 days!

As I've posted about before I love Professional Fishing and collecting autos and stuff from those guys! Two differences stick out in my mind between Pro Fishing and Pro Baseball; size of fan base and circulation of money. Both of which are much smaller for Fishing than Baseball, but I would have to argue that Fishing might be the national pastime; historically. If you didn't know, these guys can, and do become millionaires through the sport. If you visit the Bassmaster website you can see each angler's career earnings in just tournaments alone. Some of the numbers are staggering.

I had a very interesting interaction with an up-and-comer fisherman last week that I had some thoughts on I'd like to share. If you recall I attended the Bassmaster weigh in when it was here at Lake St. Clair and got autographs and took pictures. I printed some of my favorite pictures and have been trying to contact the guys in them to see if they will do TTM autographs for me.
The first guy I contacted was Jacob Wheeler. My favorite fisherman hands down. I sent him an email via his website and received a response the next day saying he would love to sign my picture. He is awesome. The dude literally just tied the knot and might not even be back from his honeymoon yet. I have always been blown away with how interactive he is with fans in the community.

With that success under my belt, I sent to 3 other fishermen. Two are pretty successful, award winning guys and the third is like I mentioned earlier an "up-and-comer" in the sport but quickly becoming more popular. I haven't heard back from the 2 more successful guys yet.
I messaged the rookie via social media because his website is broken. I asked him if he had a fan mail accepting address that I could send him a photo and a SASE to for a signature. He is the one guy I expected to say "Heck yes" because of him just coming off his rookie year. He messaged back 2 days later and said he had no address and could not sign. Here are my self-righteous, deserving, disgusting uber-millenial disappointed thoughts on this:

First, this speaks volumes to how great Jacob Wheeler is with his fans. Wheeler has career winnings of $1.37 million and this other guy has made $159,454. To put into Detroit Tiger terms it would be Michael Fulmer compared to Buck Farmer where Fulmer signed for you and was instantly your best friend and Farmer denied you. I know these guys have free will and don't have to do anything I want them to but my next thought explores a little more of that.
Pro Fishermen rely on sponsors. They are walking, talking billboard ambassadors. Their jerseys look like Nascar vehicles with logos plastered everywhere. Their boats are no different. Now, do I drive a certain brand car because some Nascar dude does? No, but I am not a racing fan. Do I now throw Gene Larew plastic baits while fishing in a pond pretending to be Jacob Wheeler on Major League Fishing? Yes. I would think a guy who is sponsored and depends on those sponsors would go a little farther for the fans.
Lastly, this is where racking my brain over this gets into the (for the lack of a better term) shitty side of society. The gentleman that denied me is not Caucasian. He competes in a very white dominated sport that has the majority of its fans in the southern states. I hate to think this way but maybe he was afraid of his address getting out. I don't know. I expected a reply like "Yeah send it to my sponsor with my name on it." I didn't need the guy's home address. The funny thing is I sent an email to Aly Akers the host of Major League Fishing who is a former Miss Oklahoma, I believe. She replied instantly "Yes, send it here." The current state of the country would lead you to believe Miss Akers would have more to fear giving out an address than the other man, but who knows. This world is crazy. I could be wrong about all of it and the guy is homeless and lives off his boat.

I am still a fan of his and hope he stays successful and maybe if the Bassmasters come back to Lake St. Clair I can get him to sign the picture for me. In the meantime; Aly Akers signed for me adding to my huge stack of fishing autos I need to create a display for.

She tossed in some stickers for my canoe too!

AUTOGRAPHS GALORE! Bassmaster Elite Series @ Lake St. Clair

For the few people who read my blog: Even though there was a Tiger brawl, I will warn you this post has little to nothing to do with baseball except that it includes Allen and Ginter cards. BUT, if you give me a chance to enlighten some of you a bit on professional fishing you just may find some similarities with baseball.
I was able to attend my first Bassmaster Elite weigh in this weekend. For those who don't know, Bassmasters = MLB in the fishing world. The Elite series of anglers are major leaguers in their field. I have watched these guys on TV for a long time and many of the anglers have taken a spot in my favorite people file in my head right next to Nolan Ryan and Cecil Fielder. I posted a while back about getting Kevn VanDam's auto at a boat show on an Allen and Ginter card but I have taken that to a whole new level.
Here is how my days played out. For you baseball people; imagine going to a playoff baseball game of your favorite team and having every player walk by you before leaving the field. You yell to your favorite players "Mr. Verlander, do you have time for a quick signature?" and JV smiles and says "for sure" then comes over and signs your card while asking how your day was and making sincere small talk. These fishing guys may not be world-wide celebrities to most people but there are a lot of us that are fishing freaks that nerd out at these events. If you haven't heard of or watched Major League Fishing on CBS, check it out! It is intense. I was able to get an autograph from any angler I wanted by simply asking politely. NOT A SINGLE ONE ignored me or said no. They ALL came over and talked and joked with me while signing even if they had a bad day on the water. Fred Roumbanus fell on his boat in the high waves and came over with broken ribs to sign an auto and talk. I don't know if these guys are trained to be so cool or if the community of pro fishermen is just lead by example but these dudes were the coolest guys I have ever met. I was blown away at their sincerity and friendliness!

Randy Howell is one of the most humble fishing superstars you can ever meet!

Jacob Wheeler was our main reason for going. He is me and Nolan's favorite fisherman! He was amazing. We got blocked from meeting him on the first day be stupid podcasters. The next day he jumped the fence to give me an Nolan all the time in the world with him. He is amazing to the fans!

Nolan did pretty well for being couped up for two straight days while I had my fun.

I posted a while ago that I was collecting the Allen and Ginter fishing card insert set. I am one card away (#13 sailfish) from having the set complete. I saw some dude on facebook had already beat me to the collection as I am sure many have but he framed the set the way I had imagined it. It looked good but now I don't want to do the same, I want something unique. So when I decided to hit the Bassmaster weigh in I picked up 15 Largemouth and 15 Smallmouth bass cards extra to take them to the event in hopes of getting them signed. Who knew I would run out of cards on the first day?!

In no particular order:

Aaron Martens

Brent Chapman

Chris Lane

Edwin Evers

Fletcher Shryock

Fred Roumbanis fell and broke ribs the first day and then found out his father passed away before the second day launch. The poor guy is a frickin' warrior to fish through all that.

Gerald Swindle

Ish Monroe

Jonathon VanDam

Justin Lucas

Mark Zona TV show host

Marty Robinson

Mike Iaconelli

Ott Defoe

Randy Howell

Shaw Grigsby

Skeet Reese

Andy Montgomery talked to me about the Braves after seeing my Detroit hat. I told him the Tigers were no threat.

Bobby Lane

Britt Myers

Casey Ashley

Chad Pipkens. I saved the Walleye card for a Michigan angler.

Gary Klein thanked me for asking for his autograph.

Greg Hackney

Jacob Powroznik

Jacob Wheeler

Jason Christie

Jeff Kriet

Stetson Blaylock

Takahiro Omori

Terry Scroggins

Tim Horton

Tommy Biffle

Brandon Palaniuk

Chad Morgenthaler

My first venture into the blogosphere was with an outdoor blog. When I was younger my "passions" would change with the season. I had actual "free time" back then. Spring would get me fired up for baseball season, playing softball, watching the Tigers and collecting cards. As summer really heated up and the Tigers lost any chance of anything my attention would swing towards fishing. As that first cool fall breeze came in I would switch over to hunting. When the snow started falling ice fishing would take over and so on. Nowadays I think I have a better grasp on how to divide my attention and keep all my hobbies relevant, though there is never enough time for any of them.
Anyway, my first blog was outdoor themed and took place during a lot of my absence from cards. When my wife and I moved to Maine it became a way for me to tell stories and keep my friends and family up to date on how things were going and what I was up to. Not to mention I began working at Kittery Trading Post which fueled my outdoor passion and gave me opportunities I had never dreamed of. Some of those opportunities happened to be meeting outdoor celebrities I had looked up to or at least followed the careers of. Tom Miranda, Lee and Tiffany Lakosky, Aaron Lewis and so on. Once Nolan was born the whole blog seemed pointless along with most of my hobbies. As he has become a real human person and finds his own interests, I am getting back into my own hobbies. We find ways of sharing them which is the best feeling in the world for a parent.

Mark Daniels Jr.

I'm hoping we didn't jinx Wheeler. He didn't make the final cut.

Aaron Martens

Takahiro Omori

Mark Daniels Jr. the biggest smile in the group.

Edwin Evers

Ike and Ott Defoe

JVD with some home state bass.

Another Michigan dude Chad Pipkens waiting to weigh in.

Jason Christie ended up winning the tournament with 88 lb 8 oz.

Fred BOOM BOOM Roumbanis. My prayers are with him and his family.

Skeet Reese.

Bobby Lane

Jordan Lee

Brandon Palaniuk

Jordan Lee

Our man Wheeler again with Dave Mercer