When Justin Morneau played for the Twins, he had a coat drive to acquire coats for the people of the Twin Cities who could not afford one. If you donated x coats you would get a ticket for an autograph. Even when he was traded to other teams, he kept his family in MN and continued the coat drive. Now that he is retired he STILL has the coat drive each year. What an amazing, giving person! This year Louie Varland, fresh off of a World Series appearance, joined Justin at the signing event. I was able to acquire a pair of tickets to the signing so Amy and I headed to Fan HQ for the autographs. Justin and Louie were awesome. Very friendly and it made it a wonderful event. I was able to get a 2023 Allen & Ginter #327 and a Topps Now 04.13.2025 #68 signed by Justin and Amy bought a couple 8×10 photos of Louie, one with a Twins uniform and one from the World Series with the Blue Jays, and we got those signed. Afterwards we enjoyed lunch at Big Bowl right next to where the signing was. What a fun day!
Author: Kevin
A Sticky Event!
My son and I were watching the MLB Presents Special on George Brett recently and I realized Denny Matthews, the Royals announcer, was present at the Pine Tar Game so I thought I would send him a request for a story ball. I got it back to day and he said his play-by-play guy was doing the broadcast at that moment so he just sat back and took it all in! It would have been really cool to get a story ball from the play-by-play guy but he had long passed away.
Bizarro Baseball!
The May 26, 2008 Sports Illustrated magazine features a cartoonish, comic book like cover that was painted by Mark Bagley. It features Carl Crawford throwing Derek Jeter in the air while a bewildered Superman looks on. I noticed Chris R (rifon on SCN) had a RARE signing with Mark but there was also a rare signing with Carl Crawford happening about a week apart. If you follow this silly blog, you will notice I have gone through Chris a number of times for autographs so I asked if it would be possible to have him get Mark to sign it and get it to the show for Carl in time. He said he would try. Today the magazine showed up signed beautifully by both. Both signatures have holograms on the inside of the cover too!
Rolls Royce
Today’s mail brought a couple really cool items for the collection. First, Royce Lewis signed four Topps Now cards that I sent to the ballpark back in August. Those cards are:
2023 Topps Now 05.29.2023 #359
2023 Topps Now 10.03.2023 #959
2023 Topps Now 10.11.2023 #995
2024 Topps Now 06.21.2024 #326
I also received a pair of the oversized Major League (the movie) cards that I picked up at the 2014 All Star Fanfest signed by Chelsie Ross. Chelsie played Eddie Harris and included each inscription I requested. On his card, #MLC-EH, he signed it with Eddie Harris and “You tryin’ to say Jesus Christ can’t hit a curveball?”. On the Jobu card, #MLC-JB, he signed it with Eddie Harris as well and included “Yo bartender. Jobu needs a refill.” and “Up your butt Jobu!” Those are three of the top quotes from the Major League movie!