Project: Tampa (Devil)Rays Autograph Collection
I stole this idea from the Great Orioles Project. That is the quest of Ryan, a Baltimore fan, he is trying to collect an autograph of every single player to ever put on an O's jersey. He is more than half way there. I figured that since the Rays have only been around since 1998 that it would be a much easier task. It is a long road. The goal is to get one on-card auto of every Devil Ray and Rays player ever. In person, TTM, certified, whatever. As long as the player is in a Rays or Rays organizational uniform. I have just a few so far, but I don't even have a card of every Rays player yet. Anyone who has addresses for TTM autos of former Rays, please help a brother out. Thanks to Jeff from the Closet Full of Cardboard Blog who helped me out a ton and sent me 13 different autographed cards. With that addition I am up to 48 different cards in the collection. I have a LONG way to go.
What I have so far is as follows: (*=Certified, WT=not in Rays uni) Quinton McCracken WT, Hideo Nomo WT, James Shields*, Wade Townsend*, Heath Rollins*, Gabe Kapler, Shawn O'Malley,Carlos Pena WT*, Juan Salas*, Chad Orvella*, Ozzie Timmons, Brandon Backe*, Joey Gathright*, Elijah Dukes*, Ty Wigginton WT, Jason Bartlett*WT, Erik Hinske WT, Aubrey Huff, Dan Wheeler, Akinori Iwamura*, Grant Balfour, Carl Crawford*, Nick Green, Scott Kazmir*, Elliot Johnson, Reid Brignac, John Jaso*, Matt Joyce, Edwin Jackson, Ben Zobrist*, Jonny Gomes*, Nick Bierbrodt, Jason Tyner, Danys Baez WT, Shawn Riggans, Bobby Smith, Jared Sandberg, Dewon Brazleton, Miguel Cairo, Dustin Carr, Randy Winn, Joel Guzman*, Robert Fick WT, Larry Rothchild, Shawn Camp, Chris Seddon, Andy Sonnanstine, Damion Rolls, Chris Gomez, Toby Hall, Tanyon Sturtze, Brent Abernathy, Esteban Yan, Kevin Stocker and Ben Grieve...
My current Top 20 Most Wanted list of autographs is (Must be in (Devil) Rays uni): Jason Bartlett, Doc Gooden, Matt Diaz, Don Zimmer, Roberto Hernandez, Hideo Nomo, Josh Hamilton, Joe Maddon, Julio Franco, Danys Baez, Rolando Arrojo, Joe Kennedy, Jason Hammel, Carlos Pena, Matt Garza, Jose Guillen, Jason Isringhausen, Bobby Seay, Geremi Gonzalez and Fred McGriff. Those are the ones that I want the most right now, but I need them all! Go Rays!
Current Number of Autographed Cards=55
UPDATED 10-14-2009