Twinsfest is my most favorite weekend of the year. I have missed one day of Twinsfest since 1994. I start saving up money and getting items prepped and purchased a month or so before the event. Now that the kids are older, they can enjoy it with me which makes it even more fun.
This year I picked up Cami from school at 1pm. I walked in and signed her out and looked down the hall at her and saw her coming. She was smiling from ear to ear and was wearing a Twins jersey. Yes. She was pumped. She told me that the math hour that had just ended was the longest hour of her life. I then drove to the high school to pick up Caden and his friend Cayden. We got to Target Field around 2pm and had a great spot in line. We started waiting the two hours before the doors opened and the kids decided they wanted to walk around the ballpark. They came back and said there was only about 15 people in the other line and I thought since that was closer to where I was going I would move to that line. It turns out it was not the best decision. We got in and got on the elevator but it did not go down to the service level where Brian Dozier was signing so we had to go up two levels and then find another elevator to go down four levels. We got there and got in line for Dozier. Cayden and Caden and I got a pair of cards each signed by Dozier for my collection and Cami got a photo signed from the Home Run Derby at Target Field. Dozier is her favorite player and since she was at the Home Run Derby, she wanted that photo signed. Afterwards, I went and waited in the Torii Hunter line while Cami went through the Dozier line again and got a card signed. Cami then met up with me in the Torii Hunter line. We each went through and Cami got a pair of cards signed and I got a ticket from his final game. Since we were in a good spot for Hunter, we were able to turn that into a good spot for Paul Molitor. While I was waiting in line for Molitor, Cami was taking care of the old man with another line. She got Hector Santiago, Danny Santana, and a couple others. After Hunter, I walked over to visit my friend Tony S who collects Carlton Fisk tickets. His son Spencer was up this time for his first Twinsfest experience. Spencer came and got in line with Cami and I for Molitor and Jack Morris. I got a Paul Molitor scorecard from college signed for Kyle S. I was really unsure what writing utensil to have Molitor sign it in and asked him and he thought pen would be best. It looks phenomenal. After signing it he handed it back to me and said “You don’t see those everyday!”. Cami got a card for me. I needed one more card signed by Molitor so Cami ran back through the line and got it signed. It was an Upper Deck card that was already signed by Pat Listach that had Paul and Robin Yount on it. When she got to Molitor, she asked him if managing was hard. She told me Paul said “It is really fun but can be challenging at times.” I thought that was a cool question to ask and she did it all on her own. After this we went to another station and got Jason Castro on a couple cards as well as Typer Duffey, Brandon Kintzler, Pat Light and Engelb Vielma. After this we got back in the same station’s line and got JT Chargois on a couple tickets and Eduardo Escobar, Greg Olson, Ervin Santana, and Michael Tonkin on cards. We then hurried off to the station with Miguel Sano. We were two of the last three people to get through their line. We got Randy Rosario, Miguel Sano, and Kennys Vargas on cards. This whole time Caden and Cayden were running around getting their own autographs.
I ended the day with the following:
Brian Dozier: 2016 Topps Heritage, 2016 Allen & Ginter, 2016 Gypsy Queen, 2016 Topps, 7/7/2016 Topps Now, 9/5/2016 Topps Now, 9/22/2016 Topps Now
Eduardo Escobar: 2016 Topps
Miguel Sano: 2016 Allen & Ginter, 2016 Topps US171
Kennys Vargas: 2016 Topps
Ervin Santana: 2016 Allen & Ginter, 2016 Gypsy Queen
Tyler Duffy: 2016 Topps, 2016 Gypsy Queen
Paul Molitor: 1976 Golden Gopher Scorecard (Kyle S), 1992 Upper Deck Brew Crew (Greg N), 2016 Topps Heritage
Torii Hunter: 2015 Topps, 2015 Topps Heritage, ticket with “Final Game” inscribed
Hector Santiago: ML Debut ticket with “ML Debut”- He commented to Cami that he had to be really careful because he did not want to mess it up and that he was waiting to see how many of those tickets he would sign. Hector is a collector himself so it was cool to hear he appreciated it.
Brandon Kintzler: 1st Save ticket with “1st Save”
JT Chargios: Ticket with “ML Debut”, Ticket with “1st Win”
Danny Santana: 2016 Topps Heritage
Jason Castro: 2 2013 Topps Heritage
Greg Olson: 1992 Topps, 1992 Upper Deck
Jack Morris: 2002 Donruss Team Heroes, 1992 Donruss World Series, 1992 Topps
Pat Light: 2013 Topps Pro Debut, 2013 Bowman Chrome
Stephen Gonsalves: 2016 Topps Debut
Michael Tonkin: Signature Card
Engleb Vielma: Signature Card
We headed home to get a good nights sleep as we were going to back at Target Field the next morning.
Author: Kevin
Not ABad Mail Day!
See what I did there? Abad? Today I received three packages of items that I had sent out. Two were baseball related and one was a comic artist.
The first package I opened was an envelope that I had sent, along with a pair of artist sketch cards, to Ron Ferdinand. Ron is an artist who drew the Dennis The Menance comic strip. He sent two really really cool sketch cards that he drew Dennis on one and Mr Wilson on the other. He sprayed them with something to prevent them from smearing too. They look really cool and are neat items in my collection.
The next package I received was from Steve S (cosmo on SCN). He went to the Boston Red Sox Soxfest event and got me a debut ticket signed from Andrew Benintendi, a first home run ticket signed by Blake Swihart with “1st HR” inscription. He also got me a pair of Fernando Abad Topps Heritage cards signed. The Soxfest is one of the hardest events to get autographs at (second to probably Cubsfest) but Steve batted a perfect 1.000 for me! Thanks Steve!
My third package was from Joe M (probowler on SCN) who went to a Twins Caravan stop and got me Taylor Rogers tickets signed. Joe offered to do them at a fair price and I wanted to hedge my position that I may not get him at Twinsfest so I sent him the tickets. Joe came through big time. He got a pair of each ML Debut and 1st Win tickets signed for me. They look awesome. He even made sure to get inscriptions as well as a couple tickets that had dark backgrounds signed in gold paint pen. Thanks Joe!
He Played Both Games of the Longest Doubleheader By Time
My daily Twins calendar on January 13th talked about how on 05.31.1964 there was a doubleheader between the Giants and Mets that lasted the longest of any doubleheader (by time: 9 hours, 56 minutes). I checked the boxscores to see who played a full game in each of the two games and found that Ed Kranepool of the Mets played both. I sent Ed a baseball and received it back today. He signed it with
Played Every Inning of Doubleheader 5-3-64″ and wrote about how he played 50 innings in 24 hours and wished the game went a little longer so it would have ended the next month! Pretty neat comment about Ed’s 24 hour period!
Altuveeeeeey
Today I received an SI I bought from Eric K (ekendall on SCN) that was signed by Jose Altuve. It is the March 28, 2016 issue and looks great.