RBI (200) More Ronda Rousey...

I was able to pick up this Ronda Rousey autographed poster and add it to my collection. There's no doubt now that I'll be adding more Ronda pieces whenever I can. I was able to get this autographed poster through participating in a contest supported by the Team Rousey that raises awareness and earns rice for the World Food Program. It's a great cause and part of how Ronda prepares for her upcoming fights, putting a spotlight on those who hunger while she makes weight to fight and maintain her reign as UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion. This specific poster was what I earned from the contest when Ronda prepared to fight Miesha Tate.

I'm not sure if I'll get this one PSA'ed like my 11x14 Ronda but I'm thinking it deserves a frame still.

RBI (190) Alysha Nett

My previous post highlighted Tianna G being hot in a bikini and this one isn't that different though it is a more widely known model Alysha Nett. Alysha Nett was featured on New York Ink's series premiere episode getting her tree tattoo done by Tim Hendricks on her thigh. She's modeled for CBNC, Supreme, The Hundreds, MOOSE Limited and basically any brand that is legitimate in that world. Her tumblr is one of the top model tumblrs and she's been voted best web model by multiple different sites.

I picked up this Alysha Nett autographed 11x14 poster.

She was nice enough to toss in this second poster for my collection, and I'm happy to have added it. At some point if I find out we're going to be at the same event in LA I may bring it along to have her sign it.

She's definitely one of the top streetwear models and I'm glad to have put her in my collection to have the top three models Alysha Nett, Tianna G and Shay Maria together in the collection. With baseball's off season only a few World Series games away I'm going to probably keep expanding my print collection while I keep busy. I'm not sure if anyone will really complain about seeing Alysha Nett looking hot.

UFC 157 and Fanfest

As you've seen from a few previous posts I went to fight week for UFC 157 in Anaheim. I went to the UFC's fanfest the day of the fight at the Honda Center. It was interesting to me as everyone in line with me was a UFC fan or collector. Obviously I'm a big baseball fan and collect baseball autograph's so it was interesting meeting people who primarily collect fighters.

The first autograph of the day that I was able to get is definitely one of the best and one of my favorites. I got a photo signed by UFC legend Matt Hughes. Matt was really nice and signed with my Gold Sharpie, and when I said "Mr. Hughes would you sign UFC Hall of Famer" he smiled and said, "Call me Matt, no problem" then he inscribed "9x Champ & HOF" when I got this Matt Hughes autographed 8x10 photograph.

After getting Hughes I went to the closest line a few feet away that was of about 6 people while everyone was waiting for Hughes and got a signed stock photo of Sara McMann given out by UFC. Sara was really nice and pleasant so I'm glad I added the photo to my collection instead of skipping it like a lot of people.

Signing with Sara was Travis Browne who also autographed this photograph.

The next autograph I got was one of a fighter I was really excited to meet. Fighter Erik Perez came out to his fight at UFC 155 wearing a luchador mask to celebrate his heritage and being the first 100% Mexican fighter in the UFC. He won a decisive victory in his fight and you can see him celebrating after the win. He also signed a poster for my mom who became a fan after watching his fight. I'm glad to have this Erik Perez autographed photograph and he offered to sign another poster for me too but I declined because the photo was more than enough.

Signing with Erik Perez was fighter Alexis Davis who recently joined the UFC promotion as part of the growing women's division. Alexis Davis was happy to autograph this photograph for me and it turned out nicely.

After getting Perez and Davis I got in line to score one of my favorite fighters and one of the most exciting to watch Anthony "Showtime" Pettis who was really nice and inscribed "Showtime" under his name. I've already got this Anthony Pettis autographed photo in the rotation of photo's I frame in my room.

With Showtime was fighter Mark Munoz who I didn't have anything for, so Mark Munoz autographed the stock photo UFC provided.

After getting Showtime and Munoz I got in a very long line and waited a few hours to score one of the most recognizable names beyond fight fans, Chuck "Iceman" Liddell. Liddell was nice and quickly signed my photo for me as well as inscribing "Iceman" I was happy to get this Chuck Liddell autographed photo since he's much more than just a fighter.

Alongside Liddell was recent UFC signee and The Ultimate Fighter Season 18 coach Cat Zingano. There was a really long line for Liddell who had more than 200 people in line with most of them asking him to sign multiples for them which he did for most people that asked. Not too many of them looked interested in getting Zingano's autograph even though there were the stock photos provided and many declined. I was actually looking forward to it and when she asked if I wanted an autograph said yes. She reached for a stock photo I told her I actually had something for her and she was shocked. When I pulled out my photo she was pretty excited about the shot I printed out and smiled asking my name signing it to me "<3 Cat The Alpha Zingano"

That wrapped up my graphing seeing as I got shot down by Miesha Tate as she walked into the event saying she would sign at a table, but I wanted to get inside and watch all of the fights on the undercard so I passed on getting in her line.

The fight itself was awesome and I'm really happy to have gone in person to watch.

After the fight let out I decided to try my luck graphing any fighters that would come out. I went to my car and on my way back to the most likely exit ran into fighter Lavar Johnson who was making his way to car after his loss that night. He quickly signed this mini fight card handout of Ronda Rousey, Liz Carmouche, Dan Henderson, and Lyoto Machida for me and left.

I had 1st UFC Head Referee Big John McCarthy autograph it also, Big John was the ref who brought the bantam weight title fight of Rousey putting Carmouche in armbar to a stop.

Referee legend Herb Dean also came out so I quickly was happy to add him to the mini poster.

That wrapped up my experience of going to UFC 157 and it really was a great one. I had an awesome time during fight week, graphing, and at the fight itself seeing Ronda Rousey do work.

RBI (122) Arianny Celeste and Brittney Palmer Poster

If you saw my earlier post I went to the UFC open workouts for UFC 157. I enjoyed the entire fight week making it out to the open workouts, went to the weigh ins to graph but ended up taking some photos with a few celebrities, the fan fest (I'll get to that eventually), the fight itself and one of the most interesting events of the whole week. Meeting UFC ring girls and cover models Arianny Celeste and Brittney Palmer was definitely an interesting event.

They had an autograph signing after the weigh-ins across from the Honda center for a few hours and I was able to get a bit of graphing in. I was lucky enough to meet up with Benson, James and a few other usual graphers at the event and we caught up while waiting to meet the girls. Everyone was way more prepared for the event than me coming with multiple 8x10's and magazines. I showed up assuming I could buy something for the ladies to sign from their line of products for about the same cost as getting an FHM magazine with quick delivery off ebay. I was correct and bought this poster to get signed.

I'm pretty pleased with my purchase and how it turned out being signed. Despite being ring girls, I feel like they're pretty important personalities within the UFC and really help draw to the sport. Let's face it Arianny Celeste and Brittney Palmer are hot, and really active on instagram and twitter so they're definitely popular with the fans. I'm pleased to have scored their autograph, meet them, take a photo and bring them into my collection. Just saying, who is going to complain about having a poster of Brittney Palmer and Arianny Celeste in a bikini in their collection?

If you're interested in more gorgeous girls in posters and their autograph you check out my growing collection of Shay Maria posters here, here and here.

Arianny Celeste's twitter is Arianny Celeste (AriannyCeleste) on Twitter

Brittney Palmer's twitter is Brittney Palmer (BrittneyPalmer) on Twitter

A side note. If you haven't noticed this off season I've been branching out from graphing just baseball. The TTM's have slowed down mainly because I'm slightly discouraged by my terrible return numbers, costs, and being overwhelmed by the project and work. The in person events have needed to be some sort of big event like the Cory Hahn fundraiser and Padres fan fest. I'm looking forward to getting back to graphing baseball, but I've been enjoying my break from it.

RBI (101) Er-nasty...

This home stand I decided to continue with my latest project since this is the Angels' longest home stand for the rest of the season. Having already made a custom poster for slugger Mark Trumbo, I designed a poster for Angels pitcher and closer Ernesto 'Er-nasty' Frieri.

Ernie was a less heralded but very significant acquisition made by Angel GM Jerry Dipoto during the 2012 season to help stabilize the bullpen, stealing him from the San Diego Padres for Alexi Amarista. Frieri is a native of Colombia and I reflected his heritage when designing Ernie's poster in the color scheme using the same colors used in the Colombian flag.

Ernie's a big favorite around the stadium because of his fan friendly attitude, generosity during BP, willingness to sign, and breakout numbers. When Frieri was was acquired he set historic numbers by not allowing a hit or run in 13 innings in his first 13 appearances. He has thrived in the big pressure situations and even made the ballot for the Final Vote for the All-Star game but didn't stand a chance against Ranger's star Yu Darvish. Ernie's one of my favorite new players for the team and is the kind of personable guy that makes me know I'll root for him the rest of his career.

I think one of the best things about hunting autographs is the story behind every signature. Some are less personal but some are just great. This is definitely one of my all time favorite stories.

While working on the poster I took to twitter and tweeted the work in progress to him (Ernesto Frieri twitter is) @ernasty49 and was excited to see him reply that he liked it so I told him when it was finished I'd bring it to the stadium. Ernie and Peter Bourjos had a free signing together but I wasn't able to make it down since the poster wasn't ready for pick up from the printer. I took the completed poster down to the stadium and showed it to Ernie when he was out for BP.

When Ernie spotted the poster he jogged over to say hi and thanked me for making the poster. He did a quick fist bump before saying he couldn't sign during BP but after he would sign one for me. When BP ended he called out to me to head to the dugout. I started to walk toward the dugout but knew I was going to hit problems since I didn't have a ticket to get behind the dug out. Now being a usual at the stadium has some downsides occasionally since a usher immediately walked to me with his hand up and kept telling me to go back to another section very rudely. I tried pointing at Ernie and saying he told me to go there, but the usher wouldn't listen. Now the part that gets me is they never asked for my ticket. I actually have very good seats but because I'm there so often they assume I have bad seats and wander the stadium instead of having a very nice season ticket.

The usher repeated again to leave his section when Ernie walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder and told him to get out of the way. Needless to say the usher was very surprised and not happy but moved so I could talk to Ernie. I gave Ernie a copy of the poster for him to keep and he said thank you again before signing the poster with his full signature and inscribing "Ernasty!" under his name and number. I told Ernie thank you for giving me such a great signature and am very happy with how my Ernesto Frieri autographed poster turned out.

RBI (100) Mark Trumbo...

Most of you who are regular readers probably have a pretty good inkling that I have a short attention span. I'm one of those guys with a million different projects going at the same time to keep myself occupied. Well I've decide to try out a new project within this hobby. I tried to design custom cards, but kept feeling like I was ripping off Topps or my fellow collectors. What could I use my already existing skills to do that would be fun, challenging, baseball related, and contribute to my hobby?

Welcome to my poster project. I'm not sure how far I'll take this, but while I'm on this kick why not dive right in. He's the half of 'TnT' who hit's Trum-bombs/Trumbo Jacks, Angels slugger Mark Trumbo is one of the first results of my new project.

Trumbo was taken by the Angels in the 18th round of the 2004 draft and debuted as a pinch hitter for Mike Napoli in 2010. With Napoli traded away and Kendrys Morales not healthy from his freak injury after a walk off grand slam a strong spring propelled Trumbo to the 2011 starting 1st baseman position and his rookie season was incredibly strong with Jeremy Hellickson stealing his Rookie of the Year award in the season's final stretch.

2012 saw the addition of Albert Pujols to the Angels but this didn't slow Trumbo down as he finds at-bats playing 3rd, DH, and both corner outfield spots. He was a 2012 All-Star and selected to compete in the Home Run Derby. He's going to be a big part of the Angels' future and I'm sure he'll keep knocking Trumbo Jacks out of the Big A.

Despite being a budding young star who is very popular due to his breakout 2011 and All Star 2012, Trumbo is actually one of the best signers on the Angels, trying to do at least a few autographs almost every home game. Because he signs so much and I got him a few times last year, I've tried to avoid getting Mark to sign for me too much so he wouldn't burn out on giving me his autograph. I got this Mark Trumbo autographed custom 11x17 poster before a game at Angel Stadium.