Road Trip Special!

Sam, welcome to TTM Cast, your sports collectibles podcast. And now here's our host, Drew Pelto. Well, hello everybody. We're coming to you once again here with TTM Cast, your sports collectibles podcast. It's a place where we talk ctm, cards, autographs, collecting, whatever comes to our mind. We've got it all covered on here. This is season number eight, episode number 15. We are recording this on August 15th. We've been away for a little while. We're talking all about that here on this nationally ranked sports collectibles podcast. I am Drew Pelto, host of the show, coming to you from the Dallas Fort Worth area. And we are of course joined by co host Aaron Littleton, coming to us from North Texas as well. Aaron, good to have you on here as always. Yu-Gi-Oh I'm excited to be back. It was a great trip. Welcome to IPCast where we, where we talk about all the autographs we got on the road in person. Yu-Gi-Oh those will definitely probably dwarf the TTMs that we have this this week. But, but Yu-Gi-Oh let's go. Let's have a great show. Yu-Gi-Oh this is gonna be, we're completely getting rid of the usual format. You know, if you're, if you came here looking for the Vern wrap minute, I've got bad news for you for this week. We're not gonna have one. We are talking all national, all trip, all episode on here. We've got a, we've got a little bit of a brief stuff here. We're gonna have, you know, a very abbreviated baker's dozen. It's more like a baker's one third of a dozen, basically, and a very short hobby happenings and a quick stamp approval. But other than that, we're talking all trip for this entire thing. I mean, Aaron and I were on the road for three weeks. That's why there hasn't been an episode for a while. Our last one is, you know, giving a preview of this trip and of the national, everything. So now you get to have our recap of everywhere we've been here, all the in person graphing, we did all the, all the games we've seen, the national, all that kind of fun stuff. So stay tuned here for all that and we will have our TTM successes at the very end though, as usual, spoiler alert. It's not going to be many, but there's a few at least for each of us. Anyways, real quick, before we get into all this, what we've been up to the last couple weeks, aside from the trip because obviously that's the big one. I mentioned the sticker album last time that was so close to completing it. And a big thanks to one of our listeners, John Guzman, who emailed me not long after and said, hey, is that list fully up to date? And I said, Yu-Gi-Oh that's the ones I need. And he's like, cool, I've got 10 of the 11 that you need, so I will definitely send them your way. And so he did that. I received them, my wife brought them up to me when they came to Chicago. And so I got those, put in my album. I'm short one. And my friend Aubrey, who has been on the show here before, she asked me, hey, which one do you still need? And I said, Turkey 14. And a couple minutes later I get a picture from her. It is Turkey 14. So I will have that. Hopefully soon I will have my sticker album completely done here and what, only a month after the World cup ended. So very, very happy to be able to get to that. So that's what I've been up to outside the trip. Aaron, how are things? Been. Been looking for you. Well, real life has slapped me in the face because, because we, we got back Sunday. I think I got back at Sunday, Sunday, like 4 o' clock or something like that. And then, Yu-Gi-Oh I'm back at work 8, 8am Monday morning, you know, so just trying to, trying to get it in all the, all the kids and try to get them, you know, flipping and doing what they're supposed to be doing and, you know, keep them from talking to each other because it's been a couple weeks since they've seen each other and they like to talk a lot. So, Yu-Gi-Oh that's basically been it. I did have, I did have a couple of Michael Young inserts that arrived while we were gone. One of them that I actually bought while at the national, and I was sitting there in between, in between perusing tables, I was eating a hot dog at the Donald Steven Stevens Convention center, and I Beckett myself up one of the brand new Donruss Optic Michael Young cards, the jazz parallel, which I'm told is a short print. And I love collecting Michael Young because that parallel for anybody else would have been a bunch of money. For Michael Young, it was a whole $4 delivered. So. So, Yu-Gi-Oh I got it. Got a nice deal with that one. And then I got, I got another Michael Young. That is his jersey number. And I'm failing to. Maybe it's this year's, I don't know. It's one of the Panini products, but it's the pink laser and it's number 10 of 50. And so. So I didn't have. Have the exact verbiage on that one yet, but Yu-Gi-Oh so I'll pick both of those up. And so that is, other than, you know, the three week mammoth road trip that we went on, that's basically been it for me in the hobby. But. But Yu-Gi-Oh happy to be. To be back and kind of get a little bit more normalcy in my life. Yu-Gi-Oh I forgot to mention this too, outside of stock from the national and everything. And Aaron, I showed you this one too. But I should mention on the show, a few years ago, talking to Les Wolf on the show, he was talking about the popularity of Negro League autographs and everything and how they were going through a major renaissance at the time because it was right when the Major League Baseball finally decided, okay, we're going to recognize Negro League stats and everything in. In all the records and everything. And so right around then, I Beckett up a Buck Leonard autographed. One of the. What do you call it? The hall of Fame post. Hall of Fame plaque postcards autographed by Buck Leonard is one from before his stroke. Great signature. And one of the other names that Les had mentioned as being really popular at the time among the Negro League players was Cool Papa Bell. And at the time I looked it up and it's like, Yu-Gi-Oh that was going for a little bit more, but it's still very affordable. And so I figured this time, you know, a couple years later here, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna see what I can find there. And I was able to find the Cool Papa Bell postcard signed by him for. Actually also authenticated by psa. I checked the PSA registry. It matches up and everything, but got the hall of Fame postcard there signed by Cool Papa bell for only $50. I think once you include shipping and tax accounts, like 60 or so, which for a legendary name like that, Yu-Gi-Oh I will gladly take that any day. Especially because, I mean, Satchel Page is the one I'd like to get most, but Satch's stuff is ridiculously expensive, so I haven't gotten around to him yet. But, hey, I've got two of the other greats in Cool Papa Bell and Buck Leonard so far and start adding a few more to that whenever I can. So kind of fun to be able to add that into the collection. So this week's show, as we said, we're going to be talking about a recap of our three Week trip and the national and all that kind of fun stuff. So look forward to that. We're going to get on that pretty quickly in here. We have all of our regular segments. Actually, no, we don't. We're going to have very abbreviated versions of Baker's dozen hobby happenings of stamp approval and our TTM successes. So, Yu-Gi-Oh look forward to all that. We'll get into that right about now. But first, want to remind you, if you want to get a hold of us, just send us an email. Aaron, what is that email address? That would be ttmcastahoo.com so if you got any questions, any comments, anything like that, feel free to send them our way. We'll try to answer them on the show or at least, you know, email you back with them, whatever we can do there. If you want to get a hold of me directly, my website is DFW grapher.com you can email me at DFW graphermail.com and you can find me on most social media at DFW Grapher. Aaron, where can the people hunt you down at. Hunt me down. That sounds very aggressive. They can if, if they choose to do that, then Instagram is definitely the hub for it. You can check out Aaron Sports Art Explosion. I imagine there will be an explosion effect here. Yu-Gi-Oh And so you can check that out. That's most of my Michael Young stuff I need to get on that. Posting my new, my new acquisitions and all that now that, now that we're back from the National. You can also follow the eternal graphing tour with underscores in between each one of those words. That is now fully up to date for the first time ever. By the time we got back. Fully up to date with our, with our trip and stuff. Yu-Gi-Oh I got on it. I got a little behind, but I kind of Beckett up. So Yu-Gi-Oh you can check out all of our stops and the autographs that we got, some of the shenanigans that we did and Yu-Gi-Oh so you want to check that out. I've now been to 105 affiliated ballparks. My, my good personal friend Eric, the peanut guy I saw on Minor League Baseball. I say personal friend. I actually met him in 2023. He's an awesome dude. He has been to 273, I think they said minor league and major league parks. And so, Yu-Gi-Oh he's got me beat definitely. But he just completed his quest and so hopefully here in a few years I will complete mine as well. I don't know that I'll get to 270. That's a whole bunch. I think I need 64 more. But Yu-Gi-Oh you can check that out. If you're going to message me, please do it on the Aaron Sports Card Explosion account because that one, for whatever reason, tends to come through. It gives me notifications for that, but it doesn't for the eternal graphing tour. So even if you want some EGT stuff, please, please message me on Aaron Sports Card Explosion. I should get to that much sooner. There you go. So give us a follow if you haven't already. And with that, let's go ahead and get on into things with Baker's Dozen. It's a very abbreviated Baker's Dozen. It's a quick news summary of things going on around in the hobby. This is just going to be, like I said, a very short one. First off, go and check out sportscollectorsdaily.com I write an article for them every so often. It's been a couple weeks. I'll have one hopefully coming up this week. Early on. I'm gonna try to write this weekend if I can. So Sunday, Monday, somewhere around there, they always have great info on all things related to sports collectibles news. I write my TTM column, but check out everything that's on there because you name it, they cover it on there. Sportsflectorsdaily.com Great site. Check them out. Check out ttmcast.com Our website here for this podcast and you can check out the TTMCAST store. Get yourself a T shirt. Get yourself a hoodie. Get yourself a hat, stickers, a pouch to hold all your graphing supplies in. We got a lot of stuff on there. And if you have any ideas, anything we should have up on there, definitely let us know and we will try to get that put up there as well. TTMcast.com Top banner off on the right side, the TTM cast store. Check it out. Hey, speaking of TTM cast T shirts, you know, we had a giveaway for July and then, you know, things happen. So we're gonna, we've extended into August now, so we're gonna have a July and August giveaway here and we're gonna do two winners for this because I don't have anything for August. We're already midway through the month. You know what? Screw it. We had five entries. I'm gonna pick two winners on here. So here we go. I've got them all loaded into random.org Aaron, give me a number between one and 10. All right, in honor of Babe Ruth, how about number three? Number Three. All right, I'm going to hit the randomize button on this three times. Whoever is listed first and last on this are going to be our winners of some T shirts. I will say there are a couple names on here of people who have contributed stuff to the show recently. They are not being favored among anyone. So if they end up as the winners, that is, that is surely luck of the draw. So here we go, randomizing three times. You've got one, we've got two and we've got three. Our winners are Neil Cousin and Tim Barkman. So congratulations to both of you on winning here this month. We will get the info on you and get those T shirts out to you as well. Thanks for listening of course. And Yu-Gi-Oh there you go. I mean it's one of the prizes for listening. You never know what you might one-of-one on this. Let me mark this down in my notes here. And animals, we'll get those out, get all that info and get them mailed out here as soon as we can. Also, quick reminder, get yourself a TTM cast card signed by both Aaron and myself. I had a few at the national which we gave out to people there to anyone that we met up with at games, anything like that. If you'd like to get a hold of one, send it to Drew Pelto, P.O. box 140421, Irving, TX 75014. We have a whole bunch of them here still. We'll glad to send them out. So make sure you send that in a self addressed stamped envelope. We'll get right back to you there as soon as we receive it. Lastly, still looking for sponsors here for the show. If you'd like to get in on advertising your sports and sports collectibles related business for the next six months, for the next year, anything like that, contact us, shoot us an email. Ruthie Baker handles all of that info right there. So if you want to get in on that, choose email. Aaron, what is that email address? Once again, that is ttmcastahoo.com so there you go. Get all the Ruthie there and throw your business here with us. We'd love to have you on board. Next up, a very quick Hobby Happenings. You heard that right. It's time for Hobby Happenings. Hobby Happenings is normally a time where we can take a look at some upcoming shows and such and we also give a plug to one-of-one Shuffle. They were a supporter and a sponsor of ours here previously this year, but they put out a great service. Belinda was has always done great work there with the Shuffle trades going on there. We're hoping to meet up with her in Gwinnett. Unfortunately not able to do so. She had some work stuff going on there. But want to make sure you get in on this month's shuffle. There's still time to get in for August. I need to mail mine out. And of course there's plenty of time to get in on September's 1. Just make sure you send it after September 1st. Instagram for that is Wanashuffle. She's got a Facebook page. one-of-one shuffle? And you can check online@wanashuffle.com simply send a card in with a self addressed stamped envelope and a signed card. I should say send him a self dress stamped envelope and at the end of the month or at the start of next month you will receive another signed card from another collector. Excuse me. You can send that to P.O. box 68, Cordova, SC 29039. So make sure you get in on that and enjoy these shuffle trades. I always enjoy just sending one out and then seeing what kind of fun stuff I get back. And let her know if there's something specific you collect. She'll try to help you out with whatever you happen to collect. That's it for hobby happenings this week. Let's go to stamp Approval. I bet you're wondering who earned this week's TTM Cast stamp of approval. Stamp approval is just a moment for us to give our thanks, our recognition for anything that's been going on in the previous couple of weeks. Sometimes it's sports and collectibles related. Oftentimes it's not. Mine is not going to be. And mine. I have to give a thumbs up. This is the only time you're ever gonna see me give a thumbs up to insurance. But health and vision insurance, optometrists and antibiotics, it's kind of a weird combination right there, but I'm going with it. So a couple weeks ago, actually a little over a month ago, I started having this major light sensitivity in my left Yu-Gi-Oh Like if I was driving, I Goldin drive even if I was squinting. It was became painful to do that anytime I was around lights or anything like that. It was just painful to be around them. I had to have sunglasses on everywhere. When I did the photo shoot out of Las Vegas with Panini even being on the court in there, shooting around in between, in between players that we were taking pictures of. I had to have sunglasses on to do any shooting and dribbling in there. It was bad. And so finally I had enough I went to an optometrist and looked and said, Yu-Gi-Oh you've got yourself an ulcer on your cornea. And it's like, what? How did that happen? They're like, you tell us. I don't know. Because they said, did you get anything in your Yu-Gi-Oh And like, no, I can't think of anything. They said, you don't wear contacts. I'm like, no, I haven't worn contacts in 10 years now. So it's not anything from those. What we have asked, did you get any, like, weird water in your Yu-Gi-Oh or anything like that? I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm not Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. I don't swim in raw sewage just to prove a point or anything like that. So, no, it wasn't anything there. I don't know how it happened, where it came from, anything like that. So did some tests and everything. And anybody who's got me on Facebook probably saw the picture of it that I posted up. You can actually see a close view of it. There's a little tiny dot. There's a fairly small one, fortunately, but it's right dead center of my vision, which was very inconvenient to say the least. So I got some antibiotic drops and everything like that. Had to take those several times a day for the first, first few days. And then it was like every was. I think it was like every four hours. And then once a day or twice a day or something like that afterward. It fortunately has largely cleared up. The light sensitivity is gone. There's still a little bit of blurring and stuff and haloing around lights. But, Yu-Gi-Oh that really helped things out. I was able to actually get on the. When we were out on the road, visit another optometrist while we were there who gave a quick checkup and said, Yu-Gi-Oh everything looks to be healing fine. Here's a picture if you need to show another one at some point to see where it's at and all that for comparison's sake. But, Yu-Gi-Oh optometrists and antibiotics are my. And I guess, Yu-Gi-Oh vision insurance are my TTM cast stamp approval for this episode. Aaron, what do you got for yours? So I think the. The show before we left, I did baseball road trips. And so I'd like to do baseball road trips again. The Rita because. Because my favorite part of the trip actually is not while we are on it. Because while you're on it, everything is so hectic and chaotic. And you can attest to this. You're trying to get from one place to Another to another, like, where are we going? What's happening? You know, there's so much. And so it's easy to get lost in what you're doing and not really be in the moment. But the best part for me is after you get home, you're just like, Yu-Gi-Oh man. You're going back through your pictures and it's like all the memories that you've created and you're like, Yu-Gi-Oh that, that was awesome. I got to go to this place and that place and all of these things, you know, and so there, there is definitely an afterglow for me. And I thought this, since we done this, since we did the first one in 2018, that, that it's always Zebra cool that like, as you get back to your normal everyday life, you almost appreciate the trip more because it's, you know, you're like, Yu-Gi-Oh that was so awesome. I got to do that. And you know, now I'm back into my, my normal everyday grind. And so it kind of heightens the sense of how cool the trip was. You know, it kind of gives you a, a certain amount of gratitude and, and you know, thankfulness that you were able to, to do something so cool, you know, and it, and it is really cool. And you know, the, the trip while, while you're on it, it's really easy to, to lose sight of the forest for the trees and you know, you're doing one thing to the next and you know, maybe you're upset that you didn't get somebody or whatever, but you know, as, as you go through and you, you know, as time goes on and you look back at it, I think you look back on it more favorably. Even the parts that you didn't really enjoy in the moment. And so Yu-Gi-Oh that's always Zebra cool. I'm going through that as I'm going through and updating my brand new, my, my map and my list and all that kind of stuff, I'm like, man, all these things were really Zebra awesome. And so for me that's, that's one of the best parts. After you've been able to kind of calm down and get back into your regular life and, and realize just how awesome it was and how, how fortunate you were to get to do something like that. Absolutely. I mean, 19 states, 15 games. We saw 25, five teams in that time not do that in the span of an entire year or multiple years, much less in a three week span like we just pulled off there. And I'm sure we'll have some more stats on everything here in a bit. But Yu-Gi-Oh that's. I mean, it's a great, great stamp approval right there. I think it works as a great transition to get into talking about a trip and the national right now. Let's hear on the Road. So, as we said, it's been three weeks that we have been out on the road. Been back home now for a week now, and tomorrow is finally the first day where I have to do absolutely not a damn thing if I don't want to, which is great. And I'm looking forward to that. Just gonna chill all day. I have. Yu-Gi-Oh Snacks at a couch waiting for me and there. Those are going to be severely enjoyed. But before we do that, though, we've got a podcast to record. And so let's talk about a quick recap of this entire trip. So, first day, we left on the Monday the 20th. I believe it was Monday the 20th. Monday the looking at this calendar here. Yu-Gi-Oh Monday the 20th, the day after the World Cup Final. Just trying to, you know, avoid any potential crowds or anything with World cup stuff. And the first place we went was we drove from here to the middle of Alabama just to have a place to stop for the night. Next day on Tuesday, drove into Gwinnett County, Georgia, getting the Yu-Gi-Oh Cubs at the Gwinnett Stripers. So starting it off with Yu-Gi-Oh which is a little different because I know the last couple of years, I think both the previous two trips, we start off with Double A teams each time, but this time ended up at the Yu-Gi-Oh there. But overall, not a bad start to things. I mean, it was a kind of a tough one because we had a lot of guys on injury rehab up from the MLB club there. Coming down to Gwinnett or over to Gwinnett. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh absolutely. And I, you know, the, the thing is, is that nothing. I've done this a few times now, you know, gone on these trips. And nothing will throw your graph into more disarray than random, unexpected rehabbers. And especially when one of those is a, you know, is one of the, you know, most lauded players in the league being Ronald Latunia Jr. You know, and so you got two former NL MVPs there with him and Andrew McCutcheon. And that. That was just crazy. Crazy. You know, I mean, I really did not enjoy when Mike Trout blew up my, he, he rehabbed in 2024 in Salt Lake City and, like, just really blew up my, my whole spot. And, you know, it was just really not enjoyable. This one was better, even though we weren't able to really do The. The Gwinnett sign. But. But Yu-Gi-Oh it was. And so luckily I was a. I was. Was okay. Not really okay inside, but outside, we. We were able to make up for a little bit. And Yu-Gi-Oh so. So we did get some work. But. But, Yu-Gi-Oh man, it's rough whenever one of the best players in the world is just randomly tossed into your minor league outing, you know, and all the people that show up in the fanfare from that, for sure. And it wasn't even just those two guys. I mean, you also have Gold Glover Hassong. Kim was down on rehab as well. Had Rowdy to Lez, who had been signed in the previous couple of weeks there for former All Star Carlos Santana. All five of those guys hitting in like, the first five of those five guys in the first six spots of the order for Gwinnett's team there. And boy, does that screw. Yu-Gi-Oh like you said, does that screw things up massively. So we end up stuck on the Yu-Gi-Oh side, which we did okay, all things considered. But when you go in there and you're hoping for, you know, a few Gwinnett guys and you have no chance of them, then. So you start doing Yu-Gi-Oh inside, you start doing Yu-Gi-Oh outside. It wasn't great inside. We did at least. I mean, Moises by Asteros was our first graph of the trip there at least. So solid name there. And then recently traded, I believe, right after that from the Cubs off El, but got him at least start things out. And then outside did okay by the bus, all things considered. So not great inside, decent outside, but an okay start. I mean, better than our previous couple starts on. I mean, you look at like 2022 when we got, you know, total jack crap inside there in. In Rocket City, but then did great outside over getting the players they were leaving, and then kind of same thing here where, you know, not too good inside, but then another great outside. So I guess 2022 at least left us prepared for something like this to happen. So that was good. Yu-Gi-Oh I think that the. That the visceral reaction, you know, from us being prepared 2022. I think that that's important. Right, because 2022 was especially. Those first few games were just so terrible inside, you know, Especially when I'm talking about Indian Toledo were. Were just so terrible, you know, and you're just like, man, I've got like six autographs, you know, and I did, you know, generally speaking, inside, traditionally inside before the game is the best. The best time to try to get your autographs, or at least it has Been historically. Right. And so that's when you would do most of your work. And so then in 2022, we kind of saw this weird paradigm shift where you can only get a few inside and everybody signs after the game. And so you've got to kind of recognize them. Recognize them in their street clothes, because they don't. You know, baseball players don't just wear jerseys home, you know, and so it becomes a little bit more of a skill Right. When you're trying to recognize them most of the time largely in the dark, you know, because after the game and. And just in street clothes. But. But, Yu-Gi-Oh you know, I mean, you're there, so you try to make it work. And we got Jackson Wiggins. That makes everything a little bit better. You know, it feels like you didn't just get a bunch of. A bunch of scrubs or nothing at all. And so. So, Yu-Gi-Oh you know, we. We battled. That's all you can really do. You know, you're kind of being on it. Being on a trip like this is that you have a plan initially, but it's kind of like being lost at sea, you know, and it's like you're just. You're. You're just on the ride. And so, you know what, Whatever happens, you know, while you're actually on the trip, you just kind of. Kind of roll with the punches, and some things will not break in your favor, you know, and you just kind of got to do the best that you did that you can do with what you have. You got to make lemonade, as it were. And. Yu-Gi-Oh so that's basically what we did in Gwinnett. Yep. So moving on, we went across to the other side of Georgia and caught the Frederick Keys at the Rome Emperors. Gotta say, with Rome, love the inside access there. Of course, you know, down in left field there, you're able to get both teams at least a little bit. I mean, we got a couple of Frederick players beforehand, and then few of the pitchers there for Rome got down a little bit closer to the field there, courtesy of some advice from a couple of collectors out there. I think it may have actually been. Was it John Guzman that told us about it or. No, it was the guy that we ran into at Gwinnett said, hey, go down over there by the dugout, left field corner there, and all that. And Yu-Gi-Oh he was literally. He meant right by the dugout. I thought we were. We went down a little further there, but we got a few of the players out there, and it was actually one-of-one Carey's birthday as well. This is a kind of a recurring thing that happened on this trip. We had three players, all had birthdays on this, who all signed for us pregame, and here's the very first one. But overall, great access in there. A lot of willing signers. I mean, we got most of the players that we needed there. I think there was only like Eric Hartman, I think was the only one that you missed out on really there. But Cam Caminiti was great, of course, mentioned one-of-one Carey there, John Hill, and a lot of those guys got moved up to Yu-Gi-Oh like a week after we went to that game. So solid timing there for once as well. Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh And the thing that I'll mention about Rome, that, Yu-Gi-Oh with the guy, the guy Gwinnett. And we appreciate all the intel that we can always get, especially because, you know, most of these places we've never been, and a lot of them, there's not a book on what you're doing. You know, there's not. There's not a lot of people. Some places you can find, if it's an older park or a lot of people graph, you can find somebo who knows what they're doing. But, you know, a lot of the times we're just flying blind, you know, so we, we do appreciate, you know, any of the intel that we can get before we get there. It helps us be more successful. But the thing he told us, Yu-Gi-Oh left field. And so we, we go down there and it's important to note that there are essentially two different tunnels that the home team comes out of. You know, most of the pitchers cut come out by the, I guess the bullpen and the cages are in deep left field. And so that's where we stood. He was like, oh, well, you there in left field. And so that's where we stood. And we assumed that all the players would come out. Well, the pitchers did and also the Frederick guy. So the, the road team came out of that tunnel, deep left field. But a lot of the Frederick guys will just walk right across and never, never really get to you unless they particularly want to come this way. Right. And. But the Rome actual position players and most of the coaches came out of another tunnel that is actually at the edge of the stand. So if you're standing in deep left field, you're actually too far to get those guys as they're coming out. There's a tunnel that directly connects to the. I guess it would be the third base dugout, which is the Emperor's dugout. And so if you want the position Players and a lot of the guys that you would want on that team, or at least when we were there, are position players. You either have to stand by that tunnel and know that there's another tunnel, which we were unaware of until all of the players were like, where are these players coming from? You know, it's like they didn't walk by us. And, you know, and so. So Yu-Gi-Oh positioning is kind of everything in, in this hobby if you're going to try to get autographs in person. So just, Just know that if you're looking for the position players, there's a tunnel at the. At the edge of the stands, and you need to stand there instead of in deep left field. And so kind of plan accordingly if you're. If you're going to graph in Rome. But. But both ways were. Were pretty, you know, pretty easy, and we. We had fairly good success. You said Eric Hartman was the only one who really didn't sign for us. And so, you know, if you miss one guy, you know, you take that every time. Absolutely. I mean, post game, not good. A lot of them just completely ignored us by that tunnel there. But fortunately, outside was great access. They had just a spot lined up where they had some barricades. You just wait right there. Players would come by. So many of them willing to sign. Got at least a little bit of help from the locals. They're not much, though. We had a guy next to us with the team set, and he was trying to keep it hidden as to who he was getting. It's like, come on, dude. Really? Is there. Is this some kind of a contest where, you know, you get 50 and you one-of-one or something, and if we get nothing, you one-of-one or something. But Yu-Gi-Oh it wasn't really helpful, but could at least see, oh, okay, it's this guy. Cool. Pull myself up and all that, but great access at least outside, which definitely helps things. I mean, again, if you don't know them out of uniform, it's a little tough, but we did all right there, too. Moving on here, let's go ahead and check out Asheville and Bowling Green. Made our way up across Tennessee and into Kentucky. Asheville was the Asheville Travelers. Tourists. Asheville Tourists. Asheville Tourists going against the Bowling Green hot rods. It was a free hat night there as well, so got a. There's a green and gold one. So Green Bay packers colors in Bowling green. I think it was like, sponsored by a local high school or something like that. It was kind of a Tribute night for them or something like that. I think they're memorializing a student that had passed away or something like that with it as well, but gave out a hat for it. And, I mean, I'll gladly take a free hat anytime you want to give me one. Bowling Green had weird access there because we're used to seeing, you know, teams come in through the dugout or through a tunnel in, you know, the corner or something like that. Both teams came through center field, and we were not expecting that, that's for sure. And stand there waiting, waiting. We see a few graphers out there in the center field, and it's like, oh, crap, maybe we should be out there. And we kind of overthought it. We're like, no, no, no, there's too many people over there not going to sign. They'll sign over here. And not too many assigned over by the dugout. We got a couple of guys, but nothing great. And post game, we tried out at center field, and that's where it finally did a little bit better. Got a few of the guys we had missed the first time there, and, Yu-Gi-Oh it went a little bit better once we did that post game outside. No access whatsoever. So you're pretty limited to where you can go and what you can get in Bowling Green. But all things considered, I thought we did all right with that. Yu-Gi-Oh I. You know, this is. That's exactly what I was just talking about, about, you know, you're going to a ballpark. You have no idea what the access is like, you have no idea where the access points are, really. You know, and so we kind of got bit by that bug a little bit in. In Bowling Green, and luckily it worked out okay. Yu-Gi-Oh but, I mean, we nearly missed. I think at the time, he was like the number 72 MLBs on MLB's top 100. Nathan fluelling, their. Their catcher there in Bowling Green. We nearly missed him because catcher goes to the bullpen, and the bullpen is in the outfield. And so, you know, he comes right in center field and then goes to the bullpen. We thought he may come by us, and he never did. Luckily, we got him afterwards. But, Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, this can be rough, you know, flying blind, you know, and it. It's almost impossible to pick up everything that you could have Beckett up, especially if you have no idea where you're standing, standing. And so we stood over there, and then nothing happened. And then, you know, a while into us standing over there, we're like, oh, everybody's coming in center field, and everybody who knows what they're doing is over There, you know, so we're. We're at a massive disadvantage all the time. Anytime we. We go on these. On these trip, especially if we don't have anybody who's ever been there to kind of tell us how it works, you know, so. But I mean, Yu-Gi-Oh we. We ended up getting a few before the game, but then after the game, both teams exit and, you know, we got lucky because both teams had front numbers, and we were able to be like, kind of pick off the guys as they. As they walked by. Yu-Gi-Oh And so we. We hit most of the high notes, you know, most of the guys that we were trying to get in, and those guys were. Were all willing signing or said, and we appreciate that. So hats off to them. But, Yu-Gi-Oh we nearly. It nearly was disastrous in Bowling Green, but luckily, after the. After the game, we were able to, you know, kind of clean up a lot of the. A lot of the extra that we. We didn't get before the game. And so. So, Yu-Gi-Oh it helps to know what you're doing. Yes. Moving across, up a little bit north there over the border at the Ohio river into Dayton. We saw the Cedar Rapids Colonels at the Dayton Dragons, and we went in with conflicting reports because our friend Andrew, who's been on the show here before, had told us, oh, dude, Dayton is terrible. It's. If they see you with a book or a Sharpie, they'll kick you out and market a ticket so you can't get back in. And this, that, and the other. It's like, Yu-Gi-Oh okay, this is going to be an adventure going through this one. But one of our listeners, Jack Smith, also emailed and said, hey, Yu-Gi-Oh here's things to check out in Dayton, you know, and where the best access is and all this. And sounded like it would be okay and everything. And honestly, this was the best one, I thought early on in the trip there, I mean, I was expecting it to be absolutely terrible. And turned out to be great. There was a big crowd on hand, as expected. I mean, they are consistently among the minor league leaders in attendance. I think they actually have sold out every game of their existence or something like that. And if not, it's been pretty darn close on all that. But, Yu-Gi-Oh not a whole lot of graphers, though, fortunately. So we had the area pretty much all to ourselves. The fans are sitting down, like, Yu-Gi-Oh hey, as long as you're out of our way by first pitch, we're cool. And Yu-Gi-Oh obviously we're not gonna be standing around there much long after National Anthem and even post Game was okay. They had a signer in the team shop. We were able to get a few guys out coming out of the team offices there and all that. So, Yu-Gi-Oh Dayton, I mean, I gotta give it a thumbs up. I mean, that was really a really good. Good spot to go to. Yu-Gi-Oh you know, it's like you. You hear as a grapher, especially when people realize that you're. That you're going around and kind of doing this stuff, it's like, oh, have you ever been to this place? Oh, it was terrible. You know, so. So you hear. And that's the interesting thing about this, is that if you're only there for one night, you got one shot. It can be anything. It can be the worst night that's ever been, and you get no autographs and somebody punches you in the face or, you know, whatever. Or it can be like, man, all these guys who never signed came over, and because they didn't recognize you, they signed multiples or whatever. It's like. It can be anything, right? Graphing for one night at a ballpark is. Is Schrodinger's cat. You know, it can be thought of any way you want to think of it until it happens. And so, Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, there's all sorts of horror stories. And, you know, we went to Gwinnett, and I didn't mention this when we were talking about that, but I had heard in 2019, the Gwinnett was just as bad as what we heard, that Dayton was, you know, and so you hear these things. And Louisville was the other one. And I haven't been to Louisville, so I can't. I can't attest to that one yet. But Gwinnett was fine, even with the. Even with the, you know, the. The rehabbers and all that. That threw a wrench in our plans. I mean, nobody bothered us from graphing. We were just down there. And the Yu-Gi-Oh guys didn't sign for us mostly. But. Yu-Gi-Oh and that's the thing with. With Dayton is. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, we. We met a guy who kind of knew some of the guys, knew the players, and that was Zebra awesome. You know, I mean, the Nets suck. And they. You know, it's not fun to graph around the net, but as long as there. There's a hole here and there that you can, you know, slide a page through, and there was. Right next to the date dugout. Until we got down there, nobody bothered us. Nobody, you know, definitely threw us out. And I'm. I'm a little bit of a. Probably a. I don't like, doing wrong stuff, you know, that I. I feel. I feel. You know, I feel bad if. If I do things. And I'm like, okay, well, you know, I'm not really trying to get kicked out of this ballpark or trying to grab, you know, today. And so luckily, that did not come to fruition. Yu-Gi-Oh And so we. Nobody bothered us at all. And so it was great. We ended up getting most of the guys we. We needed, and even when the players families were there, you know, next to you, and we're like, hey, you're. You're in our seat, but no, we'll stay here. No. And they, like, insisted that we stay there and grab, you know, and so that. That was Zebra cool. I think that Bear's mentioning. It's always great to. To meet awesome people and they talk to us and, you know, kind of about our collection and stuff like that. And so, Yu-Gi-Oh that. That was. That was definitely an upside, you know, meeting them. And. Yu-Gi-Oh Then after the game, they had a signer. They had a signer in the. In the team shop, which is, I would say, pretty uncommon. So. So, Yu-Gi-Oh great, great time in Dayton. You mentioned the sellout streak. Yu-Gi-Oh I believe their sellout street is now at, like, 26 consecutive seasons almost. It's like 1700 games. Yu-Gi-Oh And so that's kind of their. Their bag there is that they. They sell out every game and so standing room only. But, Yu-Gi-Oh met. Met some great people there and. And got a bunch of great graphs, and that went at least 6,000% better than I thought it might after. After the intel that we received. So, Yu-Gi-Oh Dayton was awesome. All right, Westward Ho. Let's move on into Indiana. Here we got the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers playing at the South Bend Cubs. Got to meet up with TTM Castle, Gabe Porous, and graph the game with him, hang out with him during it and all that. Great to meet up with him and, you know, swap graphing stories. And biggest thing that I remember for South Bend was access was okay inside. If it hadn't been for some overzealous. I don't know, I don't think they were ushers, but more like team employees who were coming around and as players were signing because they've got their batting cages off from the field, and you have to walk down some steps and across concourse to get to and from that area. And several players did stop and sign along there. A couple of them were about to get right to us, and somebody came over and said, Yu-Gi-Oh he has to go. All this stuff. And it's like, he's willing to stop and sign. He's a big boy. He knows what time it is. He knows when he has to be in places you don't need to go up and, you know, escorting him around or anything like that, which I thought was kind of crappy for them to do. But so what. I mean, the inside kind of bad because of that. I mean, good access, but, you know, overzealous security ushers, whatever they were. But the outside access, fortunately, was among the best we've had. I mean, you had a spot to stand in, all the players would walk right out by you, pretty much, and no access to the visiting team, unfortunately. But getting the home guys there, that definitely helped things out because, I mean, we were able to get. We got. What was it? King Kepley signed inside, but we also saw him again outside. He signed there. The big one was Josiah Hartshorn. He was the one that was mentioning that it was signing inside. And then once he got close, I was like, oh, no, he has to go. It's like, come on. Really? He signed for us outside, though, which made everything significantly better after that. So South Bend, overall, Yu-Gi-Oh not great inside, but very good outside. Yu-Gi-Oh this one was kind of weird, right, because. Because they have, like, this. You know, you get in and all the pitchers are just kind of hanging out. You know, one of them was just walking around without shoes on, on the. On the. On the grass. And that. That was an interesting visual, but. But it's kind of weird because normally you stand down the line, you know, you just stand, like, in the stands, you know, but there's, like, this berm area in part of which that you're not allowed to get in. You know, down there, they've got it roped off that you can't get down there, but you can get to the, like, side of the stands, where, if you can call some pictures over, you can do that, and then the hitters are walking by you or walking by you to go up the stairwell that goes, you know, past that berm and then onto the concourse in Ryfield. And so it was a little bit different, you know, and that's the interesting thing about this is, is that every ballpark's different, and they've got different access points all over the place. And so that one, I feel like, was pretty unusual. And so we tried to graph. We tried to graph, like, in the seating Blue Ice the players were coming out, which I would say is probably more traditional style of graphing than what we did at previous earlier on in the day and we had almost no luck at all right before, right before, you know, the, right before the, the game, which is when you normally graph, you know. And so we did a few guys as they came, as they came up to hit and then we got a couple pitchers I think down in the seating bowl. But other than that, I mean it was all, all post game, you know. And luckily we had some guys out there who were not shy with helping us out and we appreciate that, you know, we always appreciate the help because we need it and Yu-Gi-Oh so, so Yu-Gi-Oh I mean it all worked out. But Yu-Gi-Oh it was definitely an atypical pre game graph, you know, in, in South Bend there. Yu-Gi-Oh definitely want to also give a quick thanks to. Let me find the name here. You mentioned the guys that were outside that are helping us out post game and is this. Do I find them? Yu-Gi-Oh Albert Witt was the guy's name who gave us a couple of photos there of some guys and was the main one helping us to ID everybody. So big thanks to him. He's a member of the ballpark graphers group on Facebook and I post up my stuff from the game there and he messaged me offhand and said, hey, I didn't know you're the admin there, man. Yu-Gi-Oh I'm the one that gave you the photos. So big thanks to him there for helping us as well. Well, heading northward, we went up into Wisconsin and literally just barely into Wisconsin for the Beloit Sky Carp. That stadium is literally about maybe 500ft into Wisconsin from the Illinois border. There's about as close as you can possibly get without being in Illinois. The weather that day was terrible. I mean we're used to, you know, 100 degree heat down here in Texas. Is this only reached about 90, maybe low 90s somewhere like that. But the humidity was up over 70% which, my God, that is even worse. I mean it just, it just weighs you down massively. I mean even sitting there, I'm like, I'm going to suffocate and die here. So Goldin find really anywhere that was cool that was out of the, that was in the shade, anything like that inside. The access was tough, but it was workable. I mean, we had a little space by the home team, dug out there and we're able to get the Beloit guys there post game. Quad Cities really had no interest in signing at their dugout. We got one of the coaches there and then out of the bus. The access was great, but Yu-Gi-Oh no one wanted to sign and even some of the graphics were saying, Yu-Gi-Oh this is one of the weirder getaway days I've ever had out here. So, Yu-Gi-Oh I got a few guys by the bus, but not great. But I can't complain about the access, at least. It was just the. The players just didn't want to do. It was all. Yu-Gi-Oh so beloit was my 100 stadium, you know, fireworks. So, Yu-Gi-Oh we. We did complete that portion of the Tribute, Yu-Gi-Oh it was weird. I was telling my mom. I was like, Yu-Gi-Oh this is, like, you noted. You noted its position inside Wisconsin. And I was like, Yu-Gi-Oh there's, like, two blocks in a Sepia between us and Illinois right now. I mean, that. That's basically. That's basically all that there is. But, Yu-Gi-Oh you know, I mean, inside was not terrible. You know, it's like you. You make your way down to the little walkway that they come by, and most of the guys were. Were signing on Beloit, and so that. That was cool, other than, like, Dylan ahead and maybe a couple other ones. And. Yu-Gi-Oh and so the thing about the weather, though, was that it wasn't just 90 with 70% humidity, which was, you know, considerably hotter than had been anywhere else on our trip, I think, you know, because most. It was also a day game, is that there was no shade. There was, like, almost no shade to be had until, like, the later innings. And part of that ballpark is actually indoors. You, like, enter from basically, the front office, and you have to either take an elevator or a. Or a set of stairs, like a stairwell, to actually get up to feel level. And all of that is indoors. But, like, even if you went indoors, there was no, like, air conditioner. It was almost just as hot. It was almost just as hot, you know, inside as it was outside. So it felt like there was kind of no escape from. You know, you Goldin get out of the heat, and then you Goldin get out of the humidity if you went inside, you know, so. But Yu-Gi-Oh we. We ended up doing really well. You know, I. I think most of the. Most of the bloy guys signed. They've got some really tough guys on Quad City, you know, but we made up with it by. By getting a few of their coaches who were willing to honor. So. So, you know, you one-of-one some, you lose one. It was good. We had some cheese curds, so, Yu-Gi-Oh it was good. You mentioned the Sepia there, and that's the restaurant, not the. Not like the. The underground train there. I just looked on the map there. That Sepia sits literally 70ft. The back wall of it sits literally 70ft inside the border of Wisconsin and Illinois. So we are not kidding at all when we say it's a Sepia and about two blocks there. So, Yu-Gi-Oh you mentioned cheese curds. I think this. So we're at the end of the first week. This is a good time to recap a little bit about any of the food we found the first week. Was there anything that stuck out to you as any particularly good, particularly bad from that opening week at all? If you will give me just a second. I. I was actually just pulling up my. My food. So I have a full official. A. An official food log and autograph log I have on the egt, right. And so I've got. Not. Not only that, and so I call it the EGT record. So I've got basically all of the food that I've ever eaten, right. And so I've ever eaten at a ballpark. And so it's got to be something like. I mean, I have like chicken strips or a burger or something if I'm just hungry. But I'm talking about, like, I call it culinary wonders. Okay. Because it's something that. That's above and beyond and often, you know, in excess of what we would normally eat. And so it's like, I want to be. Yu-Gi-Oh And so that's the criteria of getting on here. Right. And so I believe now I have now eaten. Let me see here, 63 different things at random ballparks I've gone to. Obviously, not everywhere has a specialty food. So in that first week. Right. Let me see. So, Yu-Gi-Oh the cheese curds at ABC Supply Stadium definitely got an A. They were very rustic. You know, if you go to Culver's. I love Culver's. I know you love Culver's. And they are very buttoned up. Right. It's like all the cheese curds are like, you know, perfectly breaded and stuff. This looks like somebody just kind of dunked, you know, dunked some cheese. It's a pan co or something. And whipped it in. Whipped it in the fryer. They were very rustic, but they were fantastic. It came with House Ranch, which I always appreciate. Yu-Gi-Oh So that I gave that one an A. So that. That's the easy one that comes in. And then also we did. We did the South Bend comes at Cubs at Four Winds Field. They had in a lot of minor league teams have a. Eat your opponent dog or something like that. Maybe they call it something different, but it's. It's a. In. It's a. It's a Specialty item that only appears like a week, you know, while they play a certain team. And it's, you know, it's supposed to represent whatever. Whatever is known about the culinary things from the place, the region where their opponent is from that week. And that's a very word salad way of saying it, but maybe that's the best I can do right now to solve the cup. And so one-of-one they were playing, the Cubs were playing the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers the week that we were there. And so they had the bacon rattler popper dog, which had a lot of, like, really, when I say a lot, it was a lot of crispy bacon. And I love crispy bacon. There's nothing worse than, like biting into bacon. It's alt art and chewy. Like you gotta have. You gotta have the crispy bacon. Then there was a sliced jalapenos on it. They had like, I think it was a jalapeno cream cheese or, or mayo that was on it. And it was wonderful. So I gave, I gave the bacon rattler popper dog in a. And also the cheese carrots in a. So, Yu-Gi-Oh that. Those, those are the things that really stick out, stick out for me in the first little bit of the trip. There you go. So moving on to week two, we had an off day in between on a Monday. Drove through Michigan's Upper Peninsula, stopped by a Lambeau Field on our way up there as well. Had a Kudigi sandwich, couple pasties, drove over the bridge and then over to the SS Badger, which we took across Lake Michigan on Tuesday morning. So once we got over back into Wisconsin again, we saw the Wisconsin Zebra Rattlers at home, this time against the Lansing lug nuts. Inside access, not exactly great. And outside was even worse, I thought, because the players exit, you can't see where they're coming out. They actually chase us out of there. Had security come over like, hey, we didn't know we Goldin go back. Cool, we'll wait over here. And security wait us for a while. And when he discovered we were no threat, she's like, all right, Yu-Gi-Oh cool. Just, Yu-Gi-Oh don't go back. And they're like, Yu-Gi-Oh no problem, we'll stay here. But you Goldin really see the players until he got outside of a fence there. And to make it worse, there are no locals there to help us out. It was just us two there. No nobody there who could identify anyone. So we are massively behind the eight ball. So unfortunately, our two worst graphing moments, I would say on the trip came both in the two Wisconsin stadiums. But I mean, we made the best that we could out of it there, I guess. I mean, we at least did get a couple of their bigger names there, both inside and then outside as well. So could be better, could be worse, I guess is what, what I'm saying there with being in Appleton. Yu-Gi-Oh Appleton was weird as far as access is concerned. You know, it's like basically inside. Well, they let you in 90 minutes early, which is nice. And there were a few teams that we saw that did that, which I feel like is uncommon. Um, you know, and so you're in there for probably the, the away team's batting practice. And so, you know, we got a couple guys, we got Rodney Green Jr. And, and a few others at the edge of Lansing or at the end of the Lansing's batting practice. Then we made our way over to Wisconsin side. And so you basically got one of two choices. If you're trying to graph the, the, the timber rattlers in appetite. You either gotta stand on the home plate side of the dugout and there is a little, a little hole in the netting, like an actual hole where you can, you can re dug out and get guys. And so, but the problem with that is, is that they're bringing kids and people past you all the time to get on the field. And so you got to get out of the way, you got to get back. That's a little annoying. The other thing is you can go down to the outfield side where you've got to deal with the nets more. You got to slide it under or whatever. And the thing about there is they've got like a big black wall at the edge of the dugout where you can't hardly see anybody until they, they're right on top of you. And so access there. And I would imagine that's probably on purpose, but, but you know, so, so neither one was tremendous. And then outside, as you said, was even worse because basically you could either stand at the, at the dugout, but we were, or you could either stand at the bus, which was on the other side. We decided we wanted to do Wisconsin because they had a few guys we were trying to get and we thought our chances were probably better, you know, and you've got to make all, all these Topps of decisions while you're on the road. It's like I'm never going to see these guys again. Who am I trying to get, you know, in this one shot that I have? And so Yu-Gi-Oh basically you're standing flush with, oh, the wall. They come Out. And so you can't see anybody until the gate opens, you know, and so you have no idea anybody's even coming. At least, you know, Frisco, you can stand, and you can kind of look into the window and see where people are coming out, you know, or who's coming out. You have a little bit more with Wisconsin. It's like you just, you know, you know, when the gate opens, and by that point, you're looking at, like, somebody from, like, the side, but the back of their side, you know, and so you can't really see faces because they're walking away from you. And. And so unless you can just instantly recognize somebody you didn't know was coming, you know, it's. It's really kind of a tough row. And then a lot of these guys, you know, look. Look similar enough that you're not. You're not sure enough. And I try. I try to give them the respect of just not yelling out 13 names. 13 random names. And I think it might be that's a really bush, you know, bush league. I'd rather not get a. Not get an autograph, I guess I could have had than make a fool of myself by screaming a bunch of names at people. The thing that I will say about Wisconsin, though, is that their food is impeccable. And not only. Not only that, occasionally you'll run across a minor league stadium that, like, really takes their food really seriously. And Wisconsin is definitely that they. At each and every. Each and every concession stand, they've got, like, at least one or two specialty items to that kit, to that concession stand. It was like fangs, venom burger, and there was some other stuff. I ended up getting the full count sliders. And then after that, for dessert. I almost never get dessert, but they had ice. The ice cream. Fang Witch. And so their timber rattlers, their. Their mascot. One of their mascots name is Fang, and he's the timber rattler. And so they have an ice cream sandwich that they have two jumbo cookies, right. And they're frozen. And then they will give you two scoops of whatever. Two huge scoops of whatever ice cream you need. It was humongous, like, as big as I can hold. And so you got to, like, smash it down. But the. The flavors were. Were awesome. So. So, Yu-Gi-Oh I also gave the ice cream cream Bangwich in a. I believe. Yu-Gi-Oh On my list of. On my list of good foods. Yu-Gi-Oh So food is good. If you're gonna try to graph, beware. That may not be the Finest that you've had. And I, I would definitely say that Wisconsin, I think now being back from the trip, was definitely the least fun graph that we had, but it was still okay. They had candied bacon in a mini helmet. I mean, that's, that just wins right there. It's like, all right, that made it worth it right there. It's like getting that. Okay, cool. I'm, I'm, I'm okay with this place now. So moving back southward now, hitting the major leagues. We went to the national, which we'll talk about the end of this week two here, but saw the Yankees at the Cubs. We did not graph this game because it's the Yankees and the Cubs, so didn't even try on that. But I mean, as Wrigley Field, legendary venue, you get bleacher seats. I mean, you don't know who you're going to be sitting next to. You don't even know where you're going to be sitting until you get there, basically. But Yu-Gi-Oh I had a good group around us, fortunately, which was great, but good game, good crowd there and good food there as well. Had the chicken and churros there, which, I mean, I, I live in Texas. We live in, we both live in Texas. We know churros. And these were damn good churros that they had there. So had those with chicken fingers, some dipping sauce and stuff that was. Yu-Gi-Oh I would absolutely get that again if I, if and when I ever go back to Wrigley Field. So they need to keep that around for a few years very least. Yu-Gi-Oh chicken and churros was, was fantastic. And you know, my only thing, and it normally is my thing, is that the chicken needed a little bit of salt. But the churros were awesome. The strawberries added a little bit of brightness. Now I sound like I'm on the Food Network, but. But Yu-Gi-Oh but Yu-Gi-Oh the strawberries added a little bit of brightness to it that I thought was needed. But to me, the star of that whole dish was not the churros, even though the churros were great. It was the ancho chili syrup that they had. And it was like, it. I mean, it was beautiful and sweet, but there was also this little bit of bite to it that it really, that it really had. And, and man, I, I really enjoyed that. But Yu-Gi-Oh Wrigley, I mean, we were, we were not grappers that day. We were just baseball fans, you know, and, and Wrigley is such an experience because it's such a fish out of water than, you know, to most modern day ballparks. Because you go there and you know, you're in the middle of a neighborhood. You know, most ballparks are in the suburbs or, you know, Downtown or something. Like you're just in the middle of a digital neighborhood there and you can tell that, you know, when it was constructed, it was just such a different time, you know, and they hadn't really thought about where to put. Ballparks are like, oh, well, you know, John lives over here. We'll just put the ballpark right next to his house, you know. And so, so Yu-Gi-Oh I mean that, that part was cool. Everything about it, you know, was, is just so wonderfully antiquated. Baseball right there. You know, the Ivy is so iconic. The. They've got a Zebra high grandstand that is, you know, it's like you can just almost feel the ghost walking past you as you're walking there. It's like the grandstand is so high that you can get from it from two parts. You know, you either go, you know, there's a little walkway and you can walk up or you can go up the, the roundabout thing and get to it from the top. Well, once you're at the top, you're so far away from the action that they've got like a scoreboard every once in a while and They've got some TVs up there so that you can, you know, actually see what's going on, but you can still see the game, but it's, you know, you're up there. Then they've got the, the manual scoreboard. I love manual scoreboards. That's such an old timey like baseball thing. You don't see them very much, but they've got that one in, in center field. And I mean, Yu-Gi-Oh Wrigley was just, was just tremendous. Like I said, it's like you can just almost feel the people who have been coming there for 100 years plus, you know, all around you as you're walking. And it's like you can just imagine, you know, you can just imagine all the old time baseball players and all that. I mean, it's just such a cool experience in that you, you can't find that very, very many places, you know. And so because of that, I mean, absolutely, I loved my time there. I just enjoyed it to the Velocity Tickets there were the most expensive ones that I've ever paid for a baseball game. But they absolutely were worth it. If you have a chance, go spend the, spend the 200 bucks and sit in the bleachers. It is worth it. Absolutely. So the Thing that I'll say too, that I think bears mentioning is that, Yu-Gi-Oh if you're the, the. If you're going to sit in the bleachers, just know that you have to have your ticket on you all the time time. Like if you're trying to leave and come back to the bleachers. And I asked the guy and so I had to wait on Drew. He had our tickets. And so I went to go walk around and take some pictures and luckily Drew came and rescued me or I'd still be standing out there, I'm sure. But. But Yu-Gi-Oh so you have to have your ticket. I was like, why is that? Because it's weird. Because the bleachers are kind of like the cheap seats, right? And so normally they guard the high dollar seats, you know, and there's people making sure that you're not getting in some suite or something like that. But it was just kind of interesting to me that, that they made such a big deal about the bleachers. And, and so I asked the guy and he goes, the guy who was, you know, wouldn't let me in, who his job was to patrol that. And he said, well, the thing is, is like the bleachers are all general admission and there's no assigned seating. And so they don't want, you know, if you have to go to the bathroom, somebody coming in here who doesn't have a bleacher seat still in your seed and all that kind of stuff. And so that was the reason why. And I guess I can kind of get that logic. But it was just, it was just kind of weird because I'm like, we've got the cheapest seats here, you know, and, and they're guarding them like, you know, from both sides. You know, you can't get back in without. Without making them making sure you belong there. Which was interesting. And Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, just the culture of the bleachers too. You know, we saw a humongous. Several humongous beer snakes and you know, I mean, it's a pretty routed group. Both sides were passionate. I thought we might see a fight. Luckily that didn't happen. But Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, just, just awesome. A1 experience at Rigley. Apparently the bleachers used to be completely disconnected from the rest of the stadium too. Like you could not go from one to the other until fairly recently. So kind of interesting there. They would kind of have almost something somewhat similar to that. They're just, I mean, less gatekeeping there, but still. Yu-Gi-Oh let's move on here now. So we skipped Sunday of the national and went down to Yu-Gi-Oh right along the Yu-Gi-Oh Illinois border. Saw the Quad Cities River Bandits. Played home against the Dayton Dragons. Second time we saw Dayton during the trip. And this is a ballpark that we've talked about going to for quite a while there and finally got around to it. And it was absolutely as expected. This is one of the best ballparks in all of mlb. You've got the amusement park out there in left field. You've got great views out in right field onto the Mississippi River. They had some on field signers pre game. Inside graphing wasn't exactly the greatest, but outside was excellent. This time over by the visiting team bus, we went for a Dayton there once again and did really well, aside from the overzealous security that was out there. Yu-Gi-Oh as far as just being an iconic, you know, having some iconic views of minor league baseball. I mean, there are a few places that are better than Quad Cities, better than Davenport. I mean in left field you've got the, the, you know, an essential essentially amusement park. You've got, they've got actual rides and the huge Ferris wheel. In the right you've got the Centennial Bridge. And then all behind you you've got the, the Mississippi River. There's. And I mean it's just everywhere you look, it's just beautiful. You know, and obviously being on the banks of, of that river, you know, it has flooded several times and so that's the drawback of it. But I mean, Yu-Gi-Oh just, just gorgeous. I mean, especially for, for a ball. I mean, somebody really put some thought into how cool that that ballpark would look. And I appreciate it. I mean, it's definitely an experience just going to that park, you know, by itself. The thing that I will say. Yu-Gi-Oh so they have the on field signers pre game. We definitely did the quality quantity. Right. And so most of the, we got, we got at least a few of the guys you would hope to get when we were in Beloit for Quad Cities. Right. And so we got Tanner Jones and we got, I'm trying to even think now. Yu-Gi-Oh but we got a few of them. And so the guy that we really wanted to get when we got to Davenport was Blake Mitchell. And you know, fellow Texan Blake Mitchell. I think he's, I think he's number five on the Royals top 30 one-of-one But Yu-Gi-Oh so we really wanted to get him. Well, he comes down there like he doesn't sign when he, when he catches. Well, he was catching that day. And we're like, well, crap, what are we gonna, what are we gonna do now? And. But he comes right over, he signs one per for everybody. And so we definitely did quality over quantity. We, we definitely did quality over quantity in Davenport. Pregame, post game, you just stand out there and the Dragons have got to walk right by you. Then almost all of them willing signers. Yu-Gi-Oh you mentioned the security. I'll let you talk about that. But Yu-Gi-Oh outside was fantastic. As long as you could recognize them, you know, in, in street clothes. They're going to one of two buses and you can kind of get them, you know, get them. And, and you know, most of them were great signers. And Yu-Gi-Oh so we, we had a good time. At the end of the game, you mentioned Blake Mitchell. We mentioned one-of-one Carey's birthday earlier is Blake Mitchell's birthday that day too. So that may have been part of why he signed pregame. Like, all right, Yu-Gi-Oh why not, you know, go for it on this. But Yu-Gi-Oh the securities. So as we're waiting out there, bus kind of walking around back and forth and everything, they're telling us we have to wait over by the planters. And it's like there is a very large sidewalk out there. We're talking at least 50ft from the building to these planters. Now, I don't think I take up more than about maybe 40 of those feet and I think significantly less than that. So there's plenty of room for them to get around us and all that. Any, any room. I'm plenty of room for any fans that are walking out of the stadium to get around and through there. We're not like, you know, pressing them up against the building and saying, sign for me and I'll let you pass or anything like that. It's like. And they're coming out there saying, no, you have to stay back here. You have to stay here. Single file, line up. I mean, some of the graphers are out there even like, you know, Nazi style goose stepping in response to this. And it's like, Yu-Gi-Oh All right. Yu-Gi-Oh but Yu-Gi-Oh so unfortunately, I mean, you could at least walk around. They didn't make you wait in like a single spot or something like that. And players had, you know, 100ft to avoid you or anything like that. So you could at least move around a little bit there. But I thought that was completely just unnecessary by the security there. It's like, you've got several hundred feet here. If they want to avoid us, they can avoid us. And ultimately, I mean, we're not really bothering anyone that much. And like I said before, About Quad or about South Bend. If they want to say, no, I'm not going to sign, their big boys, they can do that. They just, you know, let them do their thing. If they want to sign, they will. If they don't, then they'll go watch the prices, right? So, Yu-Gi-Oh that's. Yu-Gi-Oh that's my only complaint, really there about Quad Cities was that overall, pretty solid experience there, I thought. Yu-Gi-Oh no, I thought. I thought for the most part, it was definitely a. A positive, you know, stop on our trip. The other thing about the. About the. About the autograph guards out there is that the. The rules seem to change, you know, just as things are just in the general course. And, you know, it's like, so it's getaway day, and so guys are going in, they're coming out, they're bringing out. You know, my favorite one is they've got the. The batter. They've got the, like, batter cut out that they have in the bullpen that they bring it out, you know, and they've got all this stuff. And so they're walking in three or four times, right? And so nobody graphing was being aggressive or anything like that, you know? And most of the time, you. You say their name, you allow them to acknowledge you, and they're like, would you mind signing? You know, that's generally how it works, you know. And so they're walking back and forth, and some of them are like, hey, Yu-Gi-Oh I gotta go grab this one thing. I'll be right back. And nobody's like, no, you've got a sign for me right now. But it's like, Yu-Gi-Oh originally, it's like, we're walking around. It's like, no, you can't. You got to stand over here by the planters. We're like, okay. They're like, you normally come out here if somebody, you know, if you. If somebody wants to sign for you. And so then I'm trying to remember who it was. Was it Stephen Quigley? No, it was. Oh, my goodness, I'm losing his name right now. Pitcher. I can see his face. Hog. one-of-one I can see his face in my mind right now. But he. He comes over and we're like, hey, will you sign? I think his first name is Trent. And we go, hey, will you sign? And he goes, Yu-Gi-Oh I'll sign. And so we walk over. He, like, stays there. We walk over to him, and then they start getting on to us about being in the. About being in the way while he's signing for us, and he just kind of laughs he goes, man, that's ridiculous. You know, and. And it is definitely ridiculous because we are, you know, we're trying to. We're. We're trying to get an autograph. We followed the rules that you set forward. And then all of a sudden, now the rules are changing, and it's like, what is that about? You know, you said, we go out there when we were getting an autograph, we got an autograph. You still yelled it. So. So, I mean, what are we doing? And even the players are like, man, this is crazy. All right, so that's week two. And in the middle of all this, of course, was the national. The main thing we're out there for, it's what, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. That's five days out there. We're there for four of them. And I'm gonna have a lot more to say about this in a few weeks. I'm planning on doing the State of the Hobby address in a couple weeks here. And Yu-Gi-Oh I just will say about the national this year, I have been to a lot of. I went to a single day of 1997. I went to the entire thing in 2001-2004-2014-2018, 2022. This is my seventh national I've been to at least a single day of, and the sixth one I've been to the entire week of, or at least most of it. And this was honestly the least fun that I had at one. I thought it was overcrowded. They sold over 150,000 tickets across the entire week for this. The aisles were too small, especially in the upstairs. I mean, you could not get through if you weren't there in the VIP preview hour. If you were there after 10am forget it. You're not getting anywhere. I went up there after, I think it was on Saturday morning. I went and hit that early on, had a great time at one of the tables, went down, do the autographs there, went back up about noon or so, and it was to the point where I Goldin get through. I got through half an aisle and turned around, said, no, I'm gonna try to figure my way out here. It took me five minutes to get out of it again. There's a severe lack of self awareness among people. At one point, when my wife came to the show on Friday, there we were walking through an aisle, and literally right where two aisles met, there's a group of kids just sitting in the middle of it, going through their cases. Another thing that I hate is just the. The cases that everyone is carrying around with them. Especially anybody who feels they need to carry a wheeled suitcase around with them. Condense your stuff down or buy a damn booth. Don't haul it through there with you and block everybody else's path. Stuff the tables. I thought this year was massively overpriced. There's not a lot of the stuff that I would look for in previous years. A lot of times, you know, you could sit me down like a quarter vintage box. I'm gonna be sitting there for a while pulling guys at ttm, which I did once. It was upstairs. It was Saturday morning by the time I tried to get back to a second time. There was no passing through Whatnot can go right to hell and stay there. I accidentally walked into their area once. It was when I was there with my wife and she was like, I nearly fainted from the crowdedness, the overwhelming, everything going on in there. I absolutely despise Whatnot existence and this show did not help me with that at all. They had a big area in there. It was loud, it was crowded, it was flashing lights all over the place. Live breaks going on up on these big ass video boards. Kids playing video games on the boards, for God's sake. It's like, no, put this somewhere else where I don't have to deal with it. Unfortunately, that's one of the things I saw on Facebook this year when the national was asking for, you know, advice on stuff is that group like things together, have vintage off in one area, have new stuff off in one area, stuff. What, not in the upstairs area, Something like that. And I completely agree with that. Positives though. I got to meet up with Alan from Wax Stat. He was one of actually the last guests that was on TTM cast with Jeff hosting it. He said things have been going great for Wack stat ever since then and he can't thank us enough for everything that we did for them. And we're hoping to have him back on the show here probably some point in September. Great to catch up with him very briefly. We'll catch up with him a little bit more. And the TTM cast meetup that we had at Giordano's that went very well, got several listeners out there. Of course, all of our contributors were there as well. Great to meet up with them. Great to, you know, sit down and chat, share stories, have some great pizza. So overall, the National, I did not particularly like it. I'm very concerned about it. But it was still had its moments of being an enjoyable experience. Aaron, any thoughts on your side of things? There from, from national. Yu-Gi-Oh You know, I mean, it was definitely different. It was definitely different than the last two that we had been to in 18 and 22. I thought 22. Even. Even though the actual getting to the convention center in Atlantic City was kind of weird, I felt like that was probably the best experience that I had at one. Yu-Gi-Oh there. There's definitely this weird social media influence now that is all over the hobby where everybody's got to have this instant dopamine hit of ripping the. You know, they only want cards to hit the one that nobody can hit and they'll, you know, and then they'll just chuck the rest in a box. I mean, there's no love. There's no love or passion in this. In this industry or in this hobby anymore. And that's. That's the worst part about it, is because I collect stuff that I love. I talked about my four dollar Michael Young insert, you know, because Michael Young's my dude. It's like I got so much more, you know, I got so much more enjoyment out of that than most of these people will get. I mean, it's. It's a Flippers game now, and it's people, you know, it's like you've got however many dealers, you've got, you know, hundreds of tables of dealers, and then you've got thousands of mobile dealers with the rolling tables, you know, that they bring with them, you know, and I mean, you mentioned that you touched on that a minute. But. But Yu-Gi-Oh so it, it's. It's just such this weird experience where. Where there's only like, what would you say, like 25 to 50 guys, like in every sport, like total that anybody cares about. It's like, it's like Ohtani. It's like judge, you know, I mean, obviously in the NBA, it's like Steph Curry, Michael Jordan, you know, but there's only so and so. There's this 0.001% of players that anybody actually cares about. And, you know, it made me laugh because I was standing at one of those dollar boxes and, you know, two dollar boxes, whatever it was. My favorite thing in the world is like two dollar random game use lot or, you know, game use box. And I'll sit there and I'll come through that forever. But the guy, one of the guys goes, man, I don't. I don't know what is. I don't know how there's anything good, how there's any more good stuff in there. That box has been thumbed through for three Days. And the guy goes, what? I don't want the good stuff. Then I was like, that's me. It's like, I don't want the good stuff either. Like, I want things that I like, things that connect with me. And I mean, this hobby in large part is just lost its way in, you know, chasing the dollar. And that's, that's a rough thing to see. But I mean, it was heavily on display, heavily on display, I would say, in Chicago. And you know, I, I would like to see the hobby be more people talking about what they enjoy to collect and why they enjoy to collect it, not just because it's valuable. And then they, they spend the money and get it graded, it becomes even more valuable. I mean, the, the most absurd thing I saw, and we talked about this in, in real time when, you know, when we were there, but it's like, you know, you've got a 10 year old coming up there being like. And they will sit, tell you with a straight face that, oh, this card, I've got $15,000 on time for the first thing. It's like, how many, you know, it's like, Where'd you get $15,000 from? Did you sell that much lemonade? Did you, you know, you know, I mean, where did you get this money from? Are you like, do you have a trust fund somewhere? Like, I mean, it's just become this, this, this monolith of, of money, you know, and I just don't think that it's sustainable because all the, all the real collectors and people who do this, but for the love, which is the reason why you should do this sort of thing are priced out by the people who are just trying to make a quick buck or a thousand, you know, and that's, that's the worst part about it. But I mean, Yu-Gi-Oh and you talked about Whatnot. It's like, I don't mind Whatnot, whatever. But I mean, you can just tell that the temperature has changed in the hobby altogether. And you know, a lot of that is Covid and a lot of that is social media and everybody's trying to go viral for hitting the, for hitting the one of one, you know, gold plated, parallel diamond, you know, whatever. It's like, it's crazy. I mean, you know, I get, just get. I pulled or I, I finally found a table that had a Michael Young. What is it? Tops. Topps Chrome, platinum that just came out, that had a Refractor. It's like, it's not number. There's nothing. I was like, man, this is awesome. I'm happy I was able to pick this up. And it's like, I just feel like we need more people like that in this. In this hobby that, you know, like, there used to be. Yu-Gi-Oh Like I said, I'm gonna have a lot more to say on that in the State of the Hobby address coming up at some point in September. Let's move on now and look at week number three, the final week of the trip. And, you know, we mentioned how bad Wisconsin had been up to this point. Oddly enough, it was the brewers that kind of turned things back to being decent again for the state there. Got to stay with TTM Castle. Wade Butte, while we were out there, went to the Pirates and Brewers game with him and his brother there, and we tried to go and do the brewers or the Pirates hotel beforehand. Found where it was. Fortunately, Wade said, Yu-Gi-Oh they typically stay at this one. We went there, and, yes, the bus was there. ID a few players that were coming out, but nobody wanted to sign. And we found out that later. Apparently there was a. An incident involving the Pirates and the Philadelphia hotel. And we asked the player, the. Trying to remember who. Which there was Jake Mangum. Right. Was the player there? And Mangum said, Yu-Gi-Oh outside the ballpark. But we. We can't do it. The hotel, after the Philadelphia thing, we're like, philadelphia thing? What happened? I don't think you heard us. Ask us ask there, but ask about the ballpark. He said he would sign there, and he did, fortunately. And he said that apparently some Philadelphia graphers followed a player up to his room. I don't know who it was, but it's the Pirates. You can probably narrow it down to one of two then, in that case. But. So, Yu-Gi-Oh no hotel luck, but went to the ballpark, and the ushers there had their rules. But the good thing is they weren't overly restrictive at all. You could still call out to the players. The players said, Yu-Gi-Oh come on down. You go down, and they would sign for you. And that's what Jake Mangum did. So it was at least a good start with all that. Yu-Gi-Oh you know, I think that, you know, with the ushers and stuff, it's like. I mean, what we're looking for is like, I mean, just give us a chance, man. You know, just is like the. The. The ushers that are. That are so crazy are the ones that are like, no, you can't do this, and you can't do that, and you can't, you know, and I'm going to yell at you even if you did all the previous things that I said. It's like, you know, I mean, just give us a chance to get an autograph at the player. What Ultimately this interaction should be between the player and the grapher. And if the player wants to sign, then what's the problem? You know? And so Yu-Gi-Oh in Milwaukee, I thought it was great. You know, we called, we called Jake Mangum over, he came over, they let us go down there. No problems, you know. Yu-Gi-Oh And then, then obviously, you know, we, we ended up getting a big name which made everything, which made everything great. But. But Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, my experience, other than rolling both sides of my ankle, you know, in, in Milwaukee, in the parking lot, which has not, still not healed today, I was out here like an idiot. You know, I walked, I walked like seven miles on it that day. I was like, I didn't come a thousand miles to let this, you know, to let this ruin my trip. And so we still hit all the stuff, stuff and did everything we were supposed to do. And you know, I'm in, I'm in here today spotting some running, tumbling. I'm like, it's a little ginger. So, so maybe, maybe one of these days it'll heal. But Yu-Gi-Oh Yu-Gi-Oh So I mean, I feel like overall positive, I want to see Bernie the. Bernie the Brewer slide down the slide. Alas, we did not get it. But other than that, Milwaukee was, was pretty good food there, was great. Yu-Gi-Oh definitely get some stadium style brats there whenever. If you ever make a trip out there. And you mentioned that we got a big name, Connor Griffin actually signed pregame and we thought it was gonna be kids only, but then, no, he got Aaron's cards and I kept on waiting, holding my card out there. He got mine as well. So Yu-Gi-Oh we were both able to knock that one out, which is a very pleasant surprise. And Yu-Gi-Oh it helps, helps to change the, change the view on Wisconsin there. But honestly, all things considered with that ballpark and everything and just everything was around the city. Milwaukee is a place I could absolutely see myself living someday. I mean, that was a nice city, I thought. No, I agree. I thought that, you know, the architecture, especially Downtown on the Riverwalk where the Bronze Falls was supposed to be. I mean, I thought was, was tremendous. You know, it's, it's, it's very distinct and Yu-Gi-Oh I mean Milwaukee, it's not, not too big, you know, not too big of a place and you know, there's plenty of stuff to do there. So. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean I, I greatly, you know, we, we ate at the at the Downtown market and I thought that was, that was a pretty co. And all that. So Yu-Gi-Oh I mean great, great time in Milwaukee. Yu-Gi-Oh We moved on from there across, drove across all of Wisconsin there and ended up in St. Paul, Minnesota for the St. Paul Saints. Had the Louisville Bats playing at them another place they had a big crowd and my God parking there is stupidly expensive Downtown parking in most of those places. $30 park close to the stadium which is like MLB prices in a Yu-Gi-Oh city which was ridiculous. Fortunately a couple blocks away we found a garage for I think it was 10 bucks or something like that. So good. That was a lot better. Big crowd there on hand but few graphers which helped things out and so had great luck. Over by St. Paul's Dugout. Another one where it's kind of a quirky entry onto the field there, if you want to mention that one Aaron. Yu-Gi-Oh And so you know, it's like you never again. You're at a distinct disadvantage if you don't know exactly where the players are looking to get are coming out. Right. Because then you're having to chase it and you're like oh no, they're over there and you have to run across the ballpar. And so Yu-Gi-Oh we were originally standing. There are two tunnels we were told and we just saw one tunnel, you know. And so there's one tunnel kind of on the home plate side of, of the first base dugout. That is the Saints dugout, that first base dugout. And so we were like oh well both, you know, we saw the bats, players, the visiting team go in that tunnel. We were like oh well that must be where everybody comes in, right and comes out. And so we'll just wait right there. Well, luckily there was a, there was a worker who, who kind of set us straight, you know and, and let us know if that sound aggressive. He was Zebra nice but he was like, oh, y' all hoping to get the bats? And we're like oh well we were just hoping to get whoever but we were hoping to to get the Saints too. He's like oh well, the Saints come in. There's a what I would say a less most obvious tunnel, right. Because the humongous, the one on the home plate side where the bats come in that is to the visiting clubhouse. And so that is very self evident when you're looking at the field. Right. There's another tunnel that is smaller at the out like the outfield side of the first base dugout. And that's where, where the Saints come in. And so It's a. The Saints Come Marching in that I just. Just. I just caught myself. Yu-Gi-Oh And so you kind of gotta be. You know. Know that. That. That is where they come in. And so luckily we thank that guy and we moved over and we were able to get. I mean, a ton of dudes, you know, I mean, mostly all the guys that you would want to get. We got Kaylin Culpepper before he got called up, and we got Walker Jenkins. That was awesome. You know, he. He was. He was actually really nice. Talked to us for a little bit. He was originally gonna sign for kids only. There was only like three or four kids. And he's like, I got a minute. And so. So he signed for me and Drew and talked to us for a second. That was Zebra cool. Yu-Gi-Oh And so it's a little bit of an interesting setup, not one that I'd seen before. Not in that exact way one-of-one And the other thing was kind of weird because the players would come in and they would. They would drop their stuff off at the. At the bat rack, and then they would. A lot of them would actually go out to the field and warm up and then come back inside. Normally they come right when they come out is when you get them. But there were several of them. There was like, oh, Yu-Gi-Oh let me go do this, and I'll come back. And so on their way back into the dugout, we're still in the stands next to this tunnel. They would come back into the tunnel and sign for us. I'd never seen that before. And so I thought it was interesting and worth mentioning, like, we got Matt Walner and he was DHing that night. And we're like, matt, will you sign? He's like, Yu-Gi-Oh And he's like, Yu-Gi-Oh I'll come back. Well, then he goes. And then we see him go on the field, we're like, oh, well, he lied to us, you know, because normally if they're like. If they're like, oh, well, I'll come back inside. Normally it's almost immediate, you know, if they're gonna do that. Well. Well, he goes out and he. He must have ran, like two times because he's the dh. And then he comes right back and starts signing for us. We were like, that was kind of weird, but we'll. We'll take it. Yu-Gi-Oh And so. So I. I thought the. The graphing, it. It definitely helps when you. You get the big guys. You know, it kind of colors you in a positive manner when you think about that. But, Yu-Gi-Oh St. Paul, pretty good Post game access, not great outside. They had the bus pull up, but no, the lighting there wasn't exactly great. So it's kind of tough to identify players out there. We got a few at least there. Food good. Once again, they had several brat options there as well. So I kind of wish I had done like a brat tracker there, just kind of how many brats I had in various parks and all that, because, I mean, it's got to be probably around 8 or 9 at this point by the time we got through everything. But Yu-Gi-Oh overall, St. Paul, another one I would definitely go to again there. And Yu-Gi-Oh pretty good overall. Moving on into down the Midwest corridor there of these states that all kind of stack right on top of each other. Going from North Dakota down to Texas, we've ended up in South Dakota. Saw the Fargo Moorhead Redhawks play at the Sioux Falls. The Sioux Falls Canaries for that one, right? Sioux Falls Canaries and Sioux City Explorers. So there we go. Gotta make sure you keep those two straight. So, Yu-Gi-Oh out there. Met up with Mike Kane, one of our listeners here from the show as well. Hooked us with free tickets even. So big thanks to him for doing that for us. And I mean, this is a typical American association game. It's easy inside on both. You know, we went for the Sioux Falls guys early on, then hit the Fargo guys right before our first pitch. Got everything we needed out of Fargo there, which was good. And even post game inside was good. We didn't try outside at all. But after the game, a lot of the Sioux Falls players came out and were right along the stands there, signed for everybody that wanted them. So we didn't even need to try to get anything outside. So, Yu-Gi-Oh just really good there. And I mean, the cheese curds there, I think were the best I had out of any of them on the trip there because, I mean, they were good and you get a lot of them there too. So, Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, American association baseball, don't skip on it. I mean, there's some. There's some good stuff to be seen there. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, former. Former Phillies catcher Chris coast was the manager for Fargo Moorhead. And so, you know, we, we. We got him almost instantly upon entering the stadium, you know, and he signed all of our stuff and, and Yu-Gi-Oh and they obviously we brought Jabari Henry, who is, I think now still still the American association leader in career home runs. I believe Cerro still hasn't passed him, but. But Yu-Gi-Oh we got him. He was Zebra nice. Signed all of our stuff. And Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, it was it was a fun little graph. And I mean, that's all I'm asking for. You know, when you go to a place, it's like, I don't even need to have a bunch of, you know, I don't need to get 50 cars to have a good time, you know, but it's. I mean, definitely, that helps. But. But, you know, again, I get a few of the guys in their personable and, you know, they talk to you for a little bit and then, you know, you see a good game. That's really. That's really it. And so, Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, don't overthink it. It was. It was a pretty fun time there there in Sioux Falls. So, as you mentioned, the Sioux City Explorers as well, we saw them the next night down in Sioux City, Yu-Gi-Oh Made a quick jot over into Nebraska as well for lunches, so we could both say, okay, we can check that off our state's visited list. We saw the Lake Country Dockhounds play at Sioux City there. And I mean, again, typical American Association. All the players and coaches are very accessible. It was great inside. Went for Lake country pre game for the most part, and then Sioux City post game both inside and outside, but did reasonably well there with everybody, including, I mean, Lake Country. Milwaukee, Chicago and Cleburne seem to be the Big four team, and Kansas City seem to be the Big five teams, the American association that always have at least one former MLB player or prospect with them, and no exception here. Paul Wagner's our pitching coach, who of course spent probably good five, six years or so with the Pirates and maybe the Reds as well, if I remember correctly. But, Yu-Gi-Oh he signed for us pre game there. Mario Feliciano, former catcher for the brewers, is with them as well. He signed for us. So, Yu-Gi-Oh no, no complaints there about Sioux City either. I mean, unfortunately, I didn't have a team card set for this year yet, so I bought the two previous years. There really weren't a whole lot of guys in there that I could have gotten, so got a few done at least there. So. But Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, if you, if you have a day to fill in there and you need some close by, I mean, that was only an hour away and right on our route home. So, Yu-Gi-Oh might as well hit it. And we did. I know. I mean, again, Zebra service, you know, fun little graph, you get some card sign, you feel good about yourself. You know, that's, that's, you know, it's definitely, definitely good. I'm surprised that you didn't want to talk about Dylan Larue I'm surprised you didn't want to talk about that in the. In the. Well, in the Paul Wagner about. About the wind thing. You know, definitely. We. We have, Yu-Gi-Oh We have come to a hypothesis, me and Drew, and I'll let him tell you about that here in just a second. The other cool thing about Sioux City, but before I let him get into that, was that the United States Olympic Handball team was actually in attendance. It set right in front of us. And the Canadian team was there too. They sat down a little bit ways. They were in town doing some sort of tournament that leads to the Olympics, you know, and so that was kind of cool just seeing them. They were honored on the. On the field during the game. But, Yu-Gi-Oh kind of. Kind of a cool thing. You could go to Sioux City a hundred more times and you wouldn't be able to see that. So, you know, cool. So, Yu-Gi-Oh my. My theory is, and I've mentioned this on the podcast before, because it's proven itself true a number of times. If you sign for us pregame, you're gonna do well. I mean, it happened a lot out at the Rangers tunnel. It happened a lot pregame at various Rangers games I've gone to. It happened at spring training all the time. I mean, Bobby Witt signed for me pregame at a game in spring training. E homer's in it. He had, I think Ashoka signed for me before a game there. He hits two homers in that one. In this one in St. Paul, you know, we mentioned we got Culpepper and Jenkins and Walner. Those are the first three hitters in the order. And then to start off the game, they went walk or they went single, walk, home run. They end up winning that game. So I mentioned that to Paul Wagner because I don't remember what he said. It said something about, oh, Yu-Gi-Oh needing a one-of-one or something like that. I said, well, you're signing for us pregame. And that has been a history here that players who signed for his pregame tend to do well. He's like, well, hopefully that holds up. And, well, they had an 111 lead at the end of the second inning and they managed to hold on to one-of-one 15 to 11. Got a little dicey there in a couple spots there, but Yu-Gi-Oh it held true. And one of the ones There was Dylan LaRue that you mentioned, who is a son of Jason LaRue, former Reds catcher, which I did not know at the time there, but he just signed his first pro contract here playing for Lake country, and he signed One of my SIG spot cards for me pre game, and it's like, all right, cool. Yu-Gi-Oh I got him. I didn't know at the time it was Jason's son. And then our friend Chris mentioned it, but so what does he do in the game? He hits his first career pro home run. Not just first career pro home run, a grand slam for his first career pro home run. And so I was able to get him to sign the ticket stub afterward there as well, and he inscribed with it first pro home run as well there. So hopefully he gets a chance to go above the American association there, gets into, you know, the affiliate levels and maybe gets up to the majors. Because there's been a few guys who have been able to do that at some point in their career. So hopefully he's another one. I'll have that pro debut or pro pro, first home run ticket there to go along with that. So last couple, we went down to Kansas City for two games. We saw the Cubs play at the Royals. Met up with my friend Joel, Joel Francis. While we were there and watched the game with him, we did try to graph it. We had no luck with it. We just went for the Cubs side and only two players came over to sign. They weren't anywhere near us at all. Seemingly mostly going for kids only. So no luck there. Typical for mlb, unfortunately. But I gotta say, the brisketachos there, these brisket covered nachos with cheesy street corn on top and sauce and coleslaw and all that, possibly the best thing that I ate at a ballpark on this trip. I mean, there's some really good food in some of these places that I think might have been number one. So it also could just be, you know, recency bias right there because it's one of the last few places we stopped. But very good food there. We didn't try post game at all. The post game area for graphing outside is very badly Finest off. So it's like, nah, we're not gonna try that. But I like Kansas City, though. I mean, it's always been a favorite city of mine. I've got family that originally came from there. We got to go hunt down some of the houses that they used to live in and everything and get pictures of those. And it was kind of cool to do that too. But on the baseball side of things, Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, Kaufman Stadium is an excellent venue there. I know they're trying to move elsewhere. I hope they reconsider it. I mean, it's kind of an inconvenient location there and all that and out in the middle of nowhere. But Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, I liked it. Yu-Gi-Oh And, you know, I had been to Coffin one time before in like 2007, you know, so, I mean, but it still looked exactly the same, you know, except for, I mean, they built up the outfield. You know, you used to get a little bit more of a. A view of the fountains. You know, they built some of that up there that wasn't there then. But. But you know, for the most part, the, the most of the aesthetics are the same and so it didn't count as a new stadium for me. But Yu-Gi-Oh you mentioned the brisket tachos, man, I didn't know how. How great they were going to be. You know, some of that stuff was like, okay, maybe it's all right, but they were great. And the star of the show was the coleslaw. That had no business being as good as it was, was. This might have been the greatest colaw that I have ever had in my entire life. If we're power ranking coleslaw, the brisket dog at coleslaw is number one. Yu-Gi-Oh it was phenomenal. I wish they would. I mean, if they would just given me some nachos with coleslaw on it, I would have been 100 cool with that. But Yu-Gi-Oh so actually I ranked that one. I ranked that one in a. There were actually four A's that I gave out this this year, which I believe is a record for one trip. So I did four A's and four A minuses. So there was definitely some great food that we had on a trip. And. And the brisket tachos are right up there, I will say. I mean, Yu-Gi-Oh Kansas City can do coleslaw pretty damn well because, I mean, not only there, but when we went to Arthur Bryant the next day, the coleslaw they had there was. I mean, that reminded me of my grandmother's coleslaw right there. And she knew coleslaw really well. And, well, it turns out that her mom grew up literally about a quarter mile down the road from ours. And Brian's there. So I'm like, aha. I wonder if maybe that's where she got the coleslaw skills from. Is trying to recreate Arthur Bryant's there. But Yu-Gi-Oh ate it. Arthur. Brian, the next day, went to the old site of Municipal Stadium in Kansas City and then went to go and see the Kansas City Monarchs play. Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh Also, of course, the Negro League Museum went to go and see that. Did the whole tour there. And if you're in Kansas City, go to the museum. If you're not in Kansas City, go to Kansas City and go to the museum. I loved it. It was great. The. The statues there at the very end were really cool. They had a signed baseball collection that was donated by Getty Lee of Rush that's on display there. So much great stuff. We got to talk to Bob Kendrick briefly. The president of the museum signed a card for us, each and everything. And then from there went to the city Monarch team where we saw them play against Fargo. Moorhead once again, didn't need to get Fargo because we'd gotten them all the day before or the two days before. So we only had to graph Kansas City side. I had to deal with a shrieking harpy of an usher who wouldn't let us stand around for very long down there because, well, they're gonna be signing half a game. Every single one was like, they're gonna be out of uniform. We're not gonna know who they are. And can you guarantee that all of them are going to be over there signing? Because I don't think you can. So we got as many as we could pre game before we were told to get the hell out of there. And then even post game, we were trying to wait over by the locker room. We had the cops on there, by the way. The. The umpires get a police escort off the field there. It's like overkill slightly. So. But the cops are over there, like, oh, Yu-Gi-Oh you know, they're gonna be doing a post game signing. And I'm like, Yu-Gi-Oh we were told they're not in uniform. And also trying to figure out, you know, who's who and make sure we can identify them. Like, oh, no, they're. They're all in uniform for it now. Two players out of like 25 were in uniform for it. So there's still two guys that I got there post game that I don't know who they are because they don't match up with anybody on the roster. Sure. But they did have a post game signing. They set up tables over on the concourse over near home plate. It was chaotic. I mean, you were able to get everybody. You just had to remember, okay, I've already seen this table. Okay. I've already been to this one. Okay. I haven't been to this one yet, but I think it could be handled a lot better than it actually was. But overall, I can't complain. I mean, it's. It's an. It's a signing that's no Nobody does that quite like Kansas City did there. There's room for improvement, but it happened at least and we got everybody we needed. So I. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, overall, that was good. And Yu-Gi-Oh Kansas City overall, both games there. Got to give it a. Got to give it a thumbs up for sure. Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, there's no. There's no city like. Like Kansas City for Coleslaw. I'll put a bow on Coleslaw. They are number one for Coleslaw because Arthur Bryant was also fantastic. You were correct. And. But, Yu-Gi-Oh I mean, I guess if that's the worst trouble we had with ushers because we've had way worse trouble with ushers, you know, in the past. But, you know, if that's it, I guess we had a pretty good trip in it and, you know, we did. I think that this one was. Was definitely Zebra positive. Yu-Gi-Oh And so, Yu-Gi-Oh it was. We were kind of annoyed by the, oh, well, they one-of-one sign coming off the. Off the field and then, you know, all that and oh, Yu-Gi-Oh they'll be in uniform and then they're not in uniform, and then half the dudes on the. That are at the signing aren't not on the roster. And it's like, you know, how do we know? You know, and so I'm having to look at some of the cards. I have some of the random team set, you know, cards of the guys, and be like, I don't know what this guy looks like. Is this, you know, this one pose I have maybe turns his head, I can see of them or whatever, you know, so that was less than ideal. But hey, I guess they did it. So, you know, point points for that. But yes, room for improvement, I think is. Is the. The operative term there. So there you go. That over the span of about an hour is a recap of three weeks of graphing into 60 minutes of talking. So there you go. Hopefully that helps out anybody who's considering going to any of those ballparks at any point in the future. And just those who wanted to keep track of our trip and everything and see how we did with all that. Let's move on now to finish this out. It's our TTM returns. Was our mailbox full this week? Let's take a look at this week's TTM returns. All right, so as we said, it's mostly IP cast here, this show, but we got a little bit of TTM still to talk about here as well. While we were away, each of us got a few items in the mail, at least. I got a few. Aaron got one real quick on mine. I got former pitcher Jeff Calhoun, used to be with the Astros and the Phillies, maybe a couple other teams in there, but he signed everything I sent to him. It took about maybe four month turnaround, something like that. I don't have the exact numbers here in front of me. I didn't bother to write them down either. Also got hockey player Robert Long. Robert played for the Kings, the Penguins, the Red Wings, the Capitals, the Blackhawks, probably a couple others in there. But he at least signed everything I sent to him. About six month turnaround on that one. Actually, I think it was longer than six months, about an eight month turnaround. I think I sent that one late part of last year. And lastly in about a four to six month turnaround was Scott Bryant, former outfielder of the Cincinnati Reds, signed three cars for me. Unfortunately, Sharpie was kind of crapping out as he did it, so a little streaky and everything, but it came back to me. That's all that matters there. Got those done from him. So there's my three that came in while we were away and in the first week back. Aaron, what do you got? All right, so I had a very weird return when I got back and so I got former Texas A and M Aggie and Green Bay Packer Terrence Murphy. And I think I sent this one right about, right about Thanksgiving last year. And so I said I was going to send all these off and man, I just got swept up in the trip and I was so exhausted, you know, until I haven't. Until I still got these ones to send out that are going out hopefully within the week and hopefully I will not be a liar this time. But Yu-Gi-Oh so I got. The one that I got back was Terence Murphy and he, I sent him three cards. None of those cards returned to me. And it said he sent me one extra card personalized to me and signed the envelope twice. So, so like on the back of it, like where you open it, like under that opening, he signed it twice, but only sent one card. That was not a card that I sent. So I don't know what that was about. But like you said, it only matters that it, that it, that it kept to you. And so I got a Terrence Murphy autograph. And so Yu-Gi-Oh that's it. You made yourself a nice cut display piece there out of that envelope there. So there you go. It was like two right in a row. It's like here and then right under it. So, okay, so you made two cut pieces then big framed Terrence Murphy print there on the wall with that in it. So Yu-Gi-Oh I've got a few I've got to mail out too. I'm getting some help on a baseball hall of Famer that I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed, hopefully will end up decent there. And then got two others I want to send out to Jock Peterson. I've been talking about doing that one for a while and haven't gotten around to it yet, but he's been signing through the Rangers and Albert Lewis, former Kansas City Chiefs cornerback, has been signing a bit and I need him for a set project. So I probably better hit those up here while I have a moment and get those mailed out as quick as I can. So I'm gonna do those. And you know I mentioned that I went through some quarter and dime box at the national for some vintage football, baseball, basketball and hockey. TTMers and Wade of course in Milwaukee hooked us up with some stuff there as well. So I'm gonna try to mail out some to some of those guys and see what all comes back out of that. So Yu-Gi-Oh I guess we're both gonna be busy with the pen to paper here in the next couple of weeks and hopefully have some more returns here to talk about in this segment in the future. Thinking about wraps it up for us here. So Yu-Gi-Oh we came out. Good God. That's an hour and 40 minutes plus of this. Just trying to recap the whole national trip and everything. And even with cutting everything else down, this is, this has gone on quite, quite a while. So big thanks Aaron sitting in the co host seat there for Ruthie Baker, of course for handling all of our production and business side of things to send us from our mouths out to your ears. Next show is gonna be coming up on September 5th. I think we're have some collector's corner in there. Not sure just yet what we're gonna go with. I know I've got a guy I've been talking about that I need to talk to for a couple months now. Hopefully we'll get him in Al from Wax stat. I know might be coming back on the show here again coming soon. I want to do that state of the hobby address thing that I've mentioned before there. So I've got a lot on the plate ahead here for September on into October. We'll figure out exactly how to handle all that and what orders do all of that in. So Aaron, any other final thoughts here before we call into this one? No, it's good, good to be home. But Yu-Gi-Oh if you get a chance to go on a baseball trip, definitely do it. Even if it's only a couple days, it's definitely worth doing. And you'll make great memories and hopefully not get yelled at by not sure. Absolutely. That's. That's about what it all comes down to. Right there is are those things. Wishing you many happy returns. We'll see you next time here on ttmcast. Everyone be good. Sam.