Author: Kevin

Today kicked off my most favorite weekend of the year… Twinsfest!  The morning started at an orthopedic surgery center as Amy had surgery on her broken ankle.  She knew Cami and I were going to be heading to Twinsfest around 1:30 and made sure her mom and dad were with us to take her home in case she was not done in time.  As luck would have it, the surgeon came out five minutes after we left.  She got home ok and celebrated Caden’s 16th birthday that night.
Cami and I arrived at Target Field around 2pm and got in line to wait two hours until the gates opened.  When they opened we headed to the Joe Mauer/Royce Lewis line.  From there we headed to the Torii Hunter Twins Wives line and got his autograph.  After we were done with Torii, we headed to the Kepler/Garver/Grossman/Hildenberger/Rogers line.  One of the items I got Kepler to sign was his Players Weekend Topps Now card.  The nickname he had on his jersey that weekend was Rozyki.  I asked him if he would sign the card with that and he said “I have never signed anything like that but will give it a shot for you.”  From there we went back to the Twins Wives and got Eduardo Escobar.  Eduardo is awesome.  He took a nice photo with Cami because the line was so short.  After that we went back in line in the Twins Wives line for Ervin Santana.  After that we went to a private Meet & Greet that I was chosen for as being a season ticket holder.  Ervin Santana was the first player there and walked around and shook everyone’s hand and said hello.  Ervin was asked a few questions about ice fishing.  Had he ever been ice fishing or ever been on a frozen lake.  In both cases he laughed and said “No way.”  He said he does not like the cold weather at all.  Seeing him in the environment of not locked in a focused during a game was pretty neat.  He was really funny and personable.  Cami asked him if he was not a pitcher, what position would be play.  He replied with “Center field.  I am faster than Byron (Buxton)!  You get to see him run because he has a lot of room to run.  If I was out there you would see me run faster than him!”  It was pretty funny and he seemed pretty serious about it.  Ervin left and then Eddie Rosario came in to do a similar Meet & Greet.  After seeing that we did not have an opportunity for an autograph with Ervin, I got to Eddie while they were still taking photos with Ervin.  Eddie signed a couple cards for me.  One of them was his Players Weekend Topps Now card.  His nickname on the card was Banidou.  I asked him how he got the nickname and he said it was a nickname between him and his brothers.  Every Saturday of Twinsfest for the last number of years I would spend the day with my buddy Shane.  Shane had some very serious health issues and was unable to make it this year.  Cami felt so bad for Shane that she skipped getting Eddie to sign her photo and decided to get a baseball signed by Rosario for him.  She wanted him to write “To Shane.  Get well soon!” but he did not understand the name Shane so Cami wrote it on a sheet of paper and skipped the get well soon part.  Cami is pretty cool to think of someone like that.  During the Q & A part with Rosario, Eddie mentioned he is really looking forward to playing in Puerto Rico this summer as that is his homeland.  Cami’s question to Eddie was what is his favorite ballpark to play in and he replied “Here!  I LOVE playing here!”  Oh, one thing both players said that was interesting was when they were asked what their favorite city to play in was.  They both replied Chicago.  We again lined up and I got a photo of Eddie and Cami.  We headed out and went to the final line of the evening which was Rosario/Polanco/Duke/Romero.  On the way out I stopped by and chatted with my buddy Tony and his son Spencer.  We headed home tired but excited for the next couple days.  The final list of items for me are (including items Cami got for me but not including things she got for herself):
Joe Mauer:  2017 Topps 404, 2017 Topps Now Road to Opening Day
Royce Lewis:  2017 Bowman BD-1, OMLB
Torii Hunter:  September 30, 2002 ESPN Magazine, 2015 Topps 590, 2016 Gypsy Queen 347
Max Kepler:  2017 Topps 405, 06/12/2017 Topps Now, 2017 Wild Card Topps Now, 2017 Players Weekend Topps Now
Mitch Garver:  8/19/2017 debut ticket w/”MLB Debut” inscription
Trevor Hildenberger:  2017 Wild Card Topps Now
Taylor Rogers:  04/14/2016 debut ticket w/”MLB Debut” inscription
Eduardo Escobar:  2017 Wild Card Topps Now
Ervin Santana:  2017 Topps 678, 04/15/2017 Topps Now
Eddie Rosario:  2017 Wild Card Topps Now, 2017 Players Weekend Topps Now
Jorge Polanco:  2017 Topps 684, 2017 Wild Card Topps Now, 2017 Topps Now Road to Opening Day, 08/29/2017 ticket (when he hit a HR from both sides of the plate)
Zach Duke: 2015 Topps 293, 2015 Topps US178
Fernando Romero:  2017 Bowman BP134, 2017 Topps Heritage Minor 107, 2017 Topps Minors 149, OMLB