Twinsfest 2016 started off great. I took the day off and picked Cami up from school at 1:45pm. After I let the receptionist know I was here to pick her up, I went outside to wait. I turned around and she was walking out with a smile from ear to ear and had a skip in her step. She gave me a high five and was so excited to get going. We then headed over to pick up Caden and his buddies from school. I let the receptionist know there that I was ready to pick up Caden, Cayden, and Noah. One by one they showed up in the lobby with smiles on their faces. We all piled into the car and headed to Target Field.
We got to the ballpark around 2:45 and the skyway line was backed up to the doors at the parking ramp. We were in good shape. Once we got in, the boys wanted to go to the memorabilia dealers because a couple of them needed to look for some items to get signed. I had given Caden a $50 bill to buy what he wanted and to get whatever autograph lines he wanted to get in. Cami and I got in Glen Perkins’ line and waited for it to open. Once we got to the table, we got Stuart Turner to sign a couple cards each and Brandon Kintzler to sign an autograph card. Then we got to Byung Ho Park. He signed a baseball for each of us. Once done, Cami said “gomabseubnida” which is thank you in Korean. Byung Ho’s eyes got real big and he smiled and said “OOOoooo!” just like when Cami thanked Kennys Vargas in Spanish last year. It was pretty neat and brought a smile to both faces. We then got back in the same line and waited for the next group. The boys met up with us at which time Caden informs me he lost the $50 bill I gave him. I could tell he felt really bad but I still gave him grief. That kid… Cami took off for the Dozier, and others line and the boys and I stayed in the Mauer line. We went through and each of us got cards signed by Joe and some by Jose Berrios who was with him. I got a baseball signed by Jose. The boys then went down to get in the Buxton line and I walked over to meet up with Cami. She loves Brian Dozier so she was really excited to see him. We then met up with the boys in the Buxton line. They all helped me get all the cards of Byron signed as well as Eduardo Nunez. Cami and I each got Nunez to sign the 08.11.2011 Sports Illustrated magazine signed. I asked him if he signs a lot of those magazines and he said he does and laughed. After that I let the kids run around while I chatted with my friend Tony S who I see at Twinsfest each year as well as my buddy Joel B who I see way more often but is still fun to see him at his table. Joel gave me a piece of the baggie that was in right field at the Metrodome. He was able to obtain a piece and saved me a 1′ square. Thanks Joel!
We all headed home and I dropped off each of the boys and we got home around 11. I emptied my bag, updated my spreadsheet on what I got done, packed up for tomorrow, and went to bed looking forward to Day 2.
Author: Kevin
What a Start!
Today I received a baseball I sent to Pete Richert. He signed his name and included the inscription “Struck Out 1st 6 Batters Faced 4/12/62”. He was brought in to his Major League debut in relief and fanned the first six batters. Pretty impressive start to his career!
Three HOF baseballs!
Today I received a pair of packages in the mail. Both contained signed baseballs with HOF inscriptions.
The first was a response from Pat Gillick. He graciously signed a baseball with HOF 2011 for my collection.
The second package was a purchase from Amazon of a pair of Steiner certified Tom Lasorda baseballs with H.O.F. 97. A coworker of mine, Wayne S, alerted me to the special pricing on them. There was a limit of three per order. I ordered two and was concerned after someone on SCN mentioned that when he ordered discounted Steiner baseballs via Amazon in the past that they were less than perfect items. These two baseballs look awesome and I cannot think how they could be improved upon! Thanks for the heads up Wayne!
A day where you get three HOF signed baseballs with inscriptions in the mail is a great day!
Dougie Baseball
Today I received a pair of the ESPN magazine issue where it featured four Twins players on the cover that Darrell H (thehalk on SCN) got Doug Mientkiewicz to sign. They are both now half done… signed by Doug and Jacque Jones. I still need to add Torii and AJ.