Wow! Today is my most favorite day of the year! Twinsfest Signature Saturday! I headed out to the ballpark this morning at 7am. I was hoping to get there to meet my brother and his wife at 7:45am. It was -13 degrees, yes, NEGATIVE 13 DEGREES when I left the house. I was dreading waiting outside for an hour for the gates to open. Luckily people got smart this year and lined up inside the skyway so it was not bad at all! The Twins let people in fifteen minutes early due to the cold which was nice too!
We headed right to the Festa/Keashall/Lee line. My sister-in-law helped a ton this year with extra items. She again collected smiles, photos of each player, along with the autographs for my brother and me. It is fun having her along because she is so excited about this stuff. Her photos are in the slide show below. I got a Brooks Lee debut ticket with “MLB Debut” signed and a Luke Keaschall ticket with “1st MLB HR”. David Festa signed a signature card for me. My brother and sister-in-law got me the following cards signed in this line:
Brooks Lee- 2025 Topps Complete Set variation #317, 2025 Topps Update #US243, and 2025 Allen & Ginter #73
Luke Keaschall- 2025 Topps Update #US16, 2025 Topps Heritage #614
David Festa- 2025 Allen & Ginter #249
I then headed to the Jenkins/Wallner line and my brother and his wife went to the Pablo Lopez line. I got Wallner on a 2025 Topps Heritage #682 and Jenkins on a baseball. The Top 100 MLB Prospects were just announced earlier today and Jenkins came in at #14. The dude RAKES! My sister-in-law got my 2024 Topps #155 signed for me. It shows Pablo giving a Gatorade bath to Carlos Correa. Carlos already signed it and Pablo loved that card! It really endeared Pablo to my sister-in-law. I think that was far and away her most favorite moment of the day! While they were getting Pablo, I was in the Funderburk/Perkins/Roden/Rogers line. I was really excited to see Taylor Rogers back with the Twins since he left the Twins right after COVID and it was tough to get some cards signed by him. I had his 2021 Topps #US215 card already signed by Mitch Garver so it was a no brainer to get that one finished. It looks awesome. I got Funderburk on a ball for my brother and a debut ticket signed by Glen Perkins. Alan Roden signed a pair of 2025 Topps Heritage #544 for me and I gave one to my brother.
My brother and his wife went to the Jackson/Kreidler/Woods Richardson line and I went to the Bradley/Caratini/Ober line. My brother got me a pair of signature cards signed by Jackson and Kreidler. He asked Simeon if he would sign his full name on the baseball and he winked and did it for him. That made him real happy. I got a 2025 Topps #368 signed by Simeon that my sister-in-law got for me. I got Bailey Ober to signed a pair of cards for me; 2024 Topps Heritage #536 and a 2025 Topps Heritage #448. Victor Caratini and Taj Bradley each signed a baseball for me.
We then went to get something to eat and sit a little. Then it was off to the final two lines. My brother and sister-in-law waited in the Royce Lewis line while I went through the Connor Prielipp and Emmanuel Rodriguez line getting a baseball signed by each. I got in the Royce Lewis/Josh Bell line with them and waited. While in line, we heard that Twinsfest was going to end a little early because a protester got shot earlier in the day. We were in the line already and they allowed it to finish so I got Josh Bell on a baseball and Royce Lewis signed my art ball. About a year and a half ago I had The Baseball Artist draw me up a Royce Lewis baseball and finally got it signed today. It looks absolutely amazing. Royce thanked me for bringing it so he could see it!
The three of headed to the exit, to the parking ramp, and wrapped up another fun day of Twinsfest! It was a lot of fun to share the day with them and I really appreciate all the help they gave me in adding items to my collection. I cannot wait until next year when I might have a couple others join me! Stay tuned for that! About 365 days away but who’s counting?
