Wednesday brought me two pieces of mail, a TTM success from professional poker Erik Seidel and a email semi-failure from Mineral, VA mayor. I sent Seidel two custom cards and two Ace playing cards and he kept one of the customs and returned the other three items signed. Seidel was the runner-up at the 1988 WSOP Main Event to poker legend Johnny Chan. Seidel was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2010. I do not recall if I asked for the inscriptions. It was sent out in late December.
Erik Seidel
9733 Queen Charlotte Dr
Las Vegas, NV
89145-8676
I emailed Mayor Pamela Harlowe on 5/10/2017 requesting an autographed business card. Today I recieved an unsigned business card. She did however sign her last name on the return address label so I will probably make a cut. Harlowe first sought elected office in 2002 for Mineral, VA City Council and finished third and lost. She finished fourth in 2006 and was elected. She was elected Mayor in 2010. She was re-elected unopposed in 2014 and 2018. The population of Mineral was 424 in 2000. She also ran for Louisa County Treasurer in 2011 and finished fourth of six candidates.
Me and my friend from Nova Scotia, Ashton, frequently trade cards and do 50/50s. This is some stuff from a Toronto Maple Leafs traning camp a few years back, the Halifax Mooseheads last season, and some other stuff he just wanted to get rid of. I need help identifying some of the autographs. The Bourque was from a free public signing.
Morgan Reilly, Ray Bourque, Marty Turco, Nico Hischier, James van Reimsdyk
Dave Hutchison, Liam Murphy (black ink)
Need help identifying the rest. Most are from Maple Leafs training camp 2 or 3 years back
Otto Somppi (bottom)
Need help identifying the other picture
Arnaud Durandeau, Conor Garland, Kris Draper
Xavier Parent misidentified as Justin Barron (x2), Patrick Kyte, Raphael Lavoie, Ben Higgins, Alexis Gravel (x2), Filip Zadina, Walter Flower, Barrett Dachyshyn, Cooper Jones, Jared McIsaac (x2), Pierre-Olivier Joseph (x2), Joel Bishop, Connor Moynihan, Kyle Petten, Arnaud Durandeau (x2), Otto Somppi (x2), Jocktan Chainey
So, I went to high school with a girl named Sarah D'arcy who was a friend of a friend who did a lot of work in the drama department. I ended up having one class with her my junior year. Anyways, she went on to be in commercials and had an uncredited role in one of the Comedy Central Roasts, which I always enjoy. I have wanted her autograph for a year or so, and thought I would try out the email route. I had a hard time figuring who her representatives were, but I eventually contacted her manager at Au Corant and she sent me a signed 8 by 10 (or close) sized photo. Sarah is now using the name Sinéad D'arcy.
I first met Jacob Caffrey at the 2018 Norfolk Admirals training camp and when I got him to sign his card he said it was "fucking sweet". Additionally, he is from the same town I was born so I definitely felt like I needed more cards in my collection. He played NCAA D1 his freshman and sophomore years and transfered to a D3 school for his last 2 years of college hockey. He played in 2 SPHL games at the conclusion of his senior season. I decided to message him on Instagram a few months after I had met him and I told him I could make him cards and I sent him 10 cards, 5 to keep, 5 to sign, which came back in less than a month. A few months later (early December), his mother messaged me to purchase 3 sets of the cards I had sent him. I said I would charge 50 cents a card (my standard rate; for 15 cards) and then charge 3.50 or 4.00 for shipping. I would also throw in 3 copies of a bonus "Hometown Heroes" card, and 2 additional for Jacob to return and sign. I included a SASE. Those 2 cards came back signed today, on both the front and the back. My only complaint is he signed over the picture of the hospital I was born in the picture of city. Not going to post this address because of the nature of this TTM. Caffrey currently plays in the SPHL for the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs.
Yay! I finally have another post to make. Today I received back professional poker player Justin Bonomo. Bonomo was one of the most successful players of 2018, including a bracelet at the $1,000,000 buy-in WSOP One Drop. I found this address by searching via Wikipedia and the WSOP website to find his hometown, and then searched for his address using WhitePages Pro (my mom had a trial) and found out the following address on 7/20/2018.
Justin Bonomo
14202 Hartwood Ct
Centreville, VA 20121
It came back return to sender on 8/1/2018. I then found another address for him on the same site (below) and resent on 8/6/2018. I got a message a few days later on facebook from a woman saying she was his mom and that he now lived in Canada, but that she would be happy to get him to sign it next time he was in town. She messaged me again a few days ago asking if my address was the same. It came back today, 1/24/2019, within a large white padded envelope, which she paid $3.50 to ship, instead of using my SASE. I'm not 100% this is the address I sent to, but it came back from here. They also added a unsigned bumper sticker.
I had to wait until 11:15 before the players started coming in through the bus entrance. In the first group was Christophe Lalancette and Garrett Ladd. A second group was Cam Maclise, Cody Fowlie, Justin Woods, and Tanner Jaillet, who, when I asked him his name, responded "Carey Price". He also, when asked about Bernin, said that he had good English. Maclise commented with "Ooh do we have cards today?". After that about 30 minutes passed and I see the head coach coming in with the rest of the team at the other entrance. Coach Jason Christie bragged about signing the card to the equipment managers. Assistant coach Max Markowitz then came over and signed his card. He commented that I only recognized him from the people saying his name. Mikhail Berdin was one of the first players I recognized. I called him over and he signed my six cards with no issue. He then seemed a little unhappy about inscribing the date and "1st USHL goal" inscription on my picture. He also signed 2 more pucks but I find it unlikely that he would have, had I not given him a copy of the picture. It quickly became apparent that no one on the team was skating. It was around this time that Garet Hunt came over and signed. He asked to see what cards I had for Kris Newbury to sign, and the assistant coaches commented on how Hunt only had 2 cards. Head equipment manager and former EBUG Nolan Bowker commented on how he had a card last year. I then noticed a player I had previously unidentified. He was short, bulky, and older. I figured it was probably Kris Newbury, but knew for sure when I saw the black tattoo reading Newbury going down his leg. I told him I had a lot of cards and he said he didn't mind and even flipped to the second page on his own. At this point the Wacey Rabbit cards were underneath and everyone started laughing at his cards. He quickly came over and signed them as well as a puck. At this point, the assistant equipment manager came over and looked through my book. It was at this point that I ID'd Jack Glover and had him sign his card. A few guys took pictures of my Blake Kessel card, who didn't make the trip. Garret Cocketill, who didn't seem thrilled about signing two, Jake Randolph, Kayle Doetzel, Cameron Chrichtlow, who commented on his Australia card, and Tyson Fawcett all signed all they were leaving. Everett Clark was the last player I got. I didn't ID him initially because he looked so young and small. I was told Denis Tsaruk didn't make the trip by a player. I was later told that Kessel, Chris Rygus, Eli Lichtenwald, and Kyle Shapiro didn't make the trip. Dajon Mingo, Maxime Fortier, Ken Appleby and Jacob Cederholm had left the team.
I haven't posted in a few years, thought I would give it another go.
I first went in to the arena like I always do, at around 9:15. Morning skates start at 10 officially but guys start getting on around 9:30. Well, the lady made me wait. I walked around the game day player exit looking for another entrance and found Peter Sidorkiewicz was smoking a cigarette. He said he would said but to give him a few minutes. I came over when he was done and he took my book back over the table behind the entrance and he signed 15 cards. He asked to take one of the cards for Ty Reichenbach's nephew, which of course I accomodated. The cards are part of a 50/50.
Peter Sidorkiewicz (Admirals assistant coach)
The next guy I got was Jeremy Brodeur. Large groups of players came in through the main entrance of the arena. I recognized Brodeur, the only guy I really needed
Jeremy Brodeur (Goaltender)
The only other Admiral I had cards for (besides announcer Alex Reed) was Brandon Rumble. He is a rookie who played junior hockey for the local Hampton Roads Whalers while his dad coached for the Admirals. I had talked to him before about sending his dad a TTM request.
One of the professors at Old Dominion University, George William 'Bill' Whitehurst is a former congressman (R-VA-2) who served from 1969 to 1987. I had met him on one previous occasion where I had asked him to sign a photo and he called me into his office and signed it sitting down and told me stories about running for office, World War II, and teaching at ODU. I picked up a pamphlet of Gerald Ford's 1975 Virginia party address that featured Whitehurst and figured I would see him again to get it signed. I had talked to many members of my facebook group who were interested in his autograph so a lot of these were for others. He told me to come back any time! I had also mentioned to him about my run for office and he chuckled when I mentioned the Libertarian Party
So, as most Wednesdays, I went to the Scope via Uber. I noticed something in his biography mentioning about how to read his IMDB profile. Naturally I thought it could be an autograph opportunity. It turns out he had some bit parts in lots of stuff so I grabbed him on one of my blank wallet cards. He told me used to collect baseball autographs and be added to the groups.
Ethan Marten
What started out with a good day took a bad turn very quickly. I forgot my Admirals cards which means Jeremy Brodeur was the only Admiral I had stuff for. I caught him coming onto the ice with two puck cards and told him I would have more later. What was bad got worse when I talked to Trent Ferguson, President of the Admirals, and he said they may not even be coming that bad. (I later talked to Nolan Bowker and he confirmed they never came on Wednesday)
