My lowest day as an autograph seeker. Day 2 Arizona Fall League

This day was just odd from the get go, I drove to Peoria when the game was actually playing at Phoenix, the hard copy schedule that I printed out had been changed and something prompted me to double check myself before finishing my route to the stadium. I was at Starbucks doing some work and just decided to double check and it turned out the schedule in fact was changed and I had to drive across town. When I got there I thought I did very well with pre-game graphing. I was pretty well set as far as cards go, I had a lot for both of these teams. Normal protocal for me at Fall League games is get my autographs pre-game and then go through my book and take out signed cards, put them in my box, and put unsigned cards back in my book. I do this for multiple reasons, sometimes players will again sign after the game and I am able to get a few more, also I just like to get my cards out of my book and make sure they are safe and don't get damaged or smudged. Well the game ended and there was a mad hurry to try to get the teams going to the bus or to their clubhouse and in my haste I left my box of autographed cards at my seat. I did my best to count out what was missing and here is what I could come up with

Billy Hamilton 1/8
Hak Juh Lee 3/8
Grant Green 4/4
Logan Darnell 8/8
James Paxton 4/4
Kyle Gibson 4/8, 4/4
Robbie Erlin 8/8
Kevin Quackenbush 3/8
Diddi Gorgerious 3/8, 2/2
Nate Fierman 4/4
Nick Franklin 4/4
Donald Lutz 8/8
Zack Collier 3/3
Brett Hunter 8/8
Khris Davis 5/8
Nate Roberts 8/8
Tommy Joseph 4/8
Kyle Heckathorn 2/2
Hunter Morris 4/4
Cody Asche 2/8
Logan Bawcom 4/8

A grand total of 104 autographed cards. This really kills me, these trips to Arizona are so short, but you have to cram in so much graphing into such a short time, and I sure give it my everything and I had some awesome results that went by the wayside. Not only is it frustrating that I lost all these autographs, its frustrating that I lost the cards. A lot of times I make multiple trips to the Arizona Fall League, so if I could just have these cards back UNSIGNED I might be able to get them resigned and everything wouldn't sting as much, but some of these cards were rare or hard to find, and I spent a good chunk of money on these cards unsigned. I mean I spend a good chunk of money on gas, lodging, food, tickets, etc and even though I am not in this for any sort of compensation, when you put time and resources into something you want it to yield results. This is just my low point as an autograph collector and I've been pretty down on myself ever since. I went back to the stadium and the clubhouse people let me back in and the cards were not where I left them. They took down my information just in case anything turned up. I doubt that it will, I am sure someone picked up this box of cards. I posted this information on a few autograph websites and I asked around and let every grapher I could know about it and for the most part I was pretty disappointed with peoples reactions. The majority of people said something like this, "You'll never see those again, people out here are ruthless." On one occasion when I was going around telling everyone what happened and trying to get the word out, one guy snapped at me and said he didn't have my cards, something in his demeanor makes me now think he did in fact have my cards, but I would never accuse anyone of anything. I was just trying to get the word out there, like a lost dog poster on a telephone pole. In some instances the autograph community can be a wonderful place where people help each other out, lend resources and information, and just have fun with one another. After all this is a hobby that entails a lot of waiting around and doing nothing, and frankly, if you are in it for yourself or money, and don't have any interest in talking with anyone or making any friends, you probably aren't having fun. I have met some incredible people doing this, but as my search today would show, I have also met some schumbags that are trying to make a living selling an 18 year olds scribble of his name he just learned, which probably isn't even his real name.

Anyway, my rant is over, I didn't expect any of you to read any of that, I just needed an outlet to display my frustration with myself.

Phoenix-45
Darnell Coles 8/8
Max Stassi-5/8
Nick Bucci 8/8 (one was lost)
Lenny Linksy 2/2
Cory Rasmus 4/4
John Hellweg 4/4
Kevin Kiermaier 3/3
Edward Salcedo 2/8
Nick Ahmed 8/8
Christian Yelich 1/8

Peoria-39
Stefen Romero 3/3
Rymer Liriano 7/7
Diddi Gregorious 2/5
Vinny Catricala 8/8
Caleb Thielbar 4/4 (will sign Kyle Heckathorn Pro Debut card that has his picture on it)
Chris Herrmann 3/3
Robbie Erlin 3/3
Kyle Gibson 6/6
James Paxton 1/1 8x10
Mike Zunnino 2/2 8x10

Salt River-39
Anthony Rendon 1/4
Lars Davis 7/7
Kevin Munson 1/2
Andre Rienzo 3/3 (Starting pitcher)
Sam Dyson 7/7
Jason Martinson 6/8
Tyler Chatwood 2/6, 2/2
Matt Davidson 4/8
Matthew Skole 5/8
Jake Marisnick 1/8

Scottsdale-49
Tyler Waldron 1/1
Victor Black 8/8
Travis Witherspoon 5/5
Dellin Betances 3/8
Tyler Holt 2/8 (Game was starting)
Trey Haley 2/5, 1/2
Randal Grichuck 3/3
Mark Montgomery 8/8
Ryan Chafee 8/8
David Adams 1/5
Adalberto Santos 4/4

There were some players from Giants instructs so I was able to get a few players in the stands. Tommy Joseph is no longer with the Giants, but was traded from the Giants to the Phillies in the trade for Hunter Pence and he was sitting with some old teammates.

Chucki Jones 1/1

Andrew Susac 1/1

Shawn Payne 1/1

Tommy Joseph 3/3

Total-178

Total including the cards that are now in someone else's possession-282