Photographer Stacy Jo Grant on baseball cards

Stacy Jo Grant is a Florida-based sports photographer whose work has appeared in numerous publications as well as Topps, Bowman, Tri-Star and Panini trading cards. She kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

 - Do you have any stories about cards that you took the picture for?
 My favorite card is the first one that was published. It was for a player named Chad James. It was my first assignment to photograph a player for a card. Chad had just signed with the Marlins in 2009 and I was asked to go up to the Roger Dean Stadium back lots to get a photo of him. At that point, he was so new that he was just learning how to score a game so he was not playing yet for the rookie league. When I saw Chad again, I reminded him of that day when I took his photo and that the card was my first one and he said it was his first one also. Since then, we have seen each other at Spring Training and also refer back to how he started my  career and his first day in the minors. This season he left the Marlins and is now in the independent leagues.
Earlier this year I was in a card store looking for Cardinals players, minor and major league for a friend and when I was searching I came across a card that I knew was so familiar to me, it was Javier Baez, 1st Bowman card 2011, it was a card that I photographed the player for. It was so incredible to see a card in a store that I knew I was the photographer. Of course I purchased the card!
 
- Do you have a favorite card, either one taken by you or someone else?
 I do have one favorite card not taken by me because it was autographed by 2 different managers. The story is this: It is a Topps Major League Managers 1993 with Tony LaRussa and Jim Leyland. I sent the card to Tony LaRussa on December 25, 2011 to St. Louis. On March 23, 2013, it came back signed from Oakland (454 days later). On March 25, 2013, I went to Spring Training in Jupiter, FL to see the Tigers and to get Jim Leyland to sign it. Time ran out and after the National Anthem, I saw Jim Leyland going into the dugout and yelled out to sign "Tony LaRussa..." Leyland motioned to me to throw him the clipboard with the card and pen. A minute later, he threw it up signed. 
This by far is my favorite story about getting an autograph.
 
- Do you collect baseball cards?
 Yes, I have collected baseball cards ever since I was in grade school. I used to flip and trade them. Those cards are from the mid 1970's. Today I collect mostly minor league cards and sometimes I'll buy a current pack of MLB cards for my collection.

Thanks!