It started in 1987. I was 17 years old and happened to get a baseball signed by Joe Niekro above the Twins dugout before a game. I added Al Newman later that season. After the Twins won the 1987 I decided this baseball was to be a team baseball and I would try to get as many people on the ball from the post season roster as possible. Today, 23 years later, I can say it is finished.
Dan Schatzader was in town signing autographs at a local sports show. I was saving my frequent flier miles up to fly to where ever he would be signing so I could fly there, get the ball done and come home. Little did I know that he would come to the Twin Cities. I took the kids up to where the show was. My buddy Russ was there with his son so we spent a little bit of time with them. After they left, we headed to the autograph area and they were already on the numbers way above our ticket numbers so we got in line. When we got there, I told him that he was the last player I needed on the ball and he looked it over and thought it was really cool. He signed it in the last small area left on the ball. I was shaking I was so excited. He then signed a 1987 Game 6 World Series ticket with his name and “Winning Pitcher”. As we started to walk away, he said “Good luck with your collection.” Oh yeah Dan. You put the icing on the cake today.
Author: Kevin
A Princess, A Closer, A Japanese Import and Me!
I know this blog is about in person autograph events, and I will get to those in a moment, but for this year’s vacation to Florida, I was able to get reservations at Cinderella’s Castle for lunch. Even though we did not get any of the Princesses autographs, you certainly could have. They were all awesome. They came around and spent about a minute or two at each table posing for pictures and talking to everyone. Cami absolutely loved it. She was on top of the world. If you have a daughter that is in the “Princess” age range, you gotta get to the Castle. The memories are incredible.
On our way to Venice, FL, we stopped at some spring training and team homes looking for schedules or just to take pictures. The places we went to were: Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays Spring Training Home, Detroit Tigers and Tropicana Field. I have to say that the Yankees is the nicest we went to but it is not close to Hammond Stadium!
My first Twins game was a game where I met Heidi & Bob and we watched the game together. Amy and the kids stayed back with Melanie and Will and went to the beach and did a few other things. When I got to Lee County Sports Complex, I noticed there was a “B” game going on at one of the other fields. I decided to go check it out. It was the Rays versus Twins with Liriano and Jeff Neimann on the hill. I was standing at the backstop like I was at a little league game. I was so close to the action. It was really cool and I got some great photos. I was enjoying that but it was not the place to get an autograph. I went inside the main stadium and walked around looking for an opportunity to score a ‘graph. I did not have any luck there but had great seats behind the plate in row 7. It was neat seeing Joe Nathan pitch after being sidelined with Tommy John surgery all last year. He looked really good. Since I was on my own, I decided to stick around after the game was over. I decided to check out where the players leave the parking lot to see if anyone was over there. Sure enough, there were about 10 people there so I stood there with them. The only one who stopped to sign while I was there was Joe Nathan. He rolled down the window of his black Escalade and signed one per person for each person wanting an autograph. Really nice gesture. I got a 2010 Topps Heritage card signed by him. I walked back to the main ballpark but nobody was hitting in the batting cages so I headed back to Melanie, Jason and Will’s house in Venice who were kind enough to let us all stay with them.
The second Twins game was us four and Melanie, Jason and Will. We were behind the plate in row 14 for this game. While I brought along some stuff for autographs, I did not get one as I did not want to make them wait around with me. After the game we headed back to their place and chilled.
The final Twins game I went to was with Amy and the kids. We got there just before the game started so there was not a chance for autographs. We were in the same location as the day before. The Twins played the Cardinals and did not fare well. I hit a home run though! Amy and Cami went for a walk around the stadium and Cami came back and told me she saw Joe Mauer and would take me there to show me. I got up and she took me by the hand and we walked over where she said. It was actually part of the stairs that overlooked the Twins bullpen. She saw a catcher in full gear and thought it was Mauer. It was Fernandez, not Mauer. Heck of a try by my “Baseball Girl” though! We walked back and Amy asked me if I noticed who the players were on Field Five stretching and running. I did not but did see a small group of Japanese reporters gathered around in what appeared to be waiting for Nishioka to come out. We decided we would head over to check it out. By this time the game was half over, the Good Guys were getting beat by the Cardinals and all the starters were out of the game so we decided to leave the ballpark and head over there. While I was walking over, I noticed Ryo. Ryo is Nishioka’s translator. I know if Ryo was there waiting, Nishi was not far behind. I then noticed that there was a person talking to the Japanese media now. Putting both those together, I knew I was not leaving the area until Nishi walked by. After waiting about 15 minutes, the media time was over and sure enough, my hunch paid off. Nishioka walked over to Ryo who opened the gate for him and he walked right to me. I asked him if he would sign my baseball and he took it and signed it right on the sweetspot for me. Cami was with me with her baseball and he signed her ball too! Cami and I each got a Nishioka autographed baseball! Caden was tired and hot from the sun and did not feel like participating so he missed out. After that we took a few pictures and left the ballpark and headed to Orlando. We ended the trip by going to Animal Kingdom the next day before catching our late flight out of Orlando.
Here is a map on where I got each autograph:
A = Joe Nathan
B = Tsuyoshi Nishioka
A = Joe Nathan
B = Tsuyoshi Nishioka
This was an awesome vacation. The autograph quantity was weak but the quality was great.
Do You Believe in Miracles?
Today the Twin Cities Sports Collectors Club had a 1980 US Hockey team member signing autographs. I normally do not collect anything other than MLB but since I started a couple Sports Illustrated magazines a while ago with a couple players, I thought I would give it a shot. Someone on SCN posted a question about Phil Verchota so I posted he was going to be signing autographs and I would be willing to help him out so he sent me his custom postcard.
I got to Valley West Mall a half hour or so before Phil was to sign. I recently met a guy on Pat Neshek’s website who needed some 2010 Topps update cards who was also going to the card show so I planned on meeting Mike there. He was already there when I got there so we talked for a bit and then got in line for Phil’s autograph.. Phil signed the postcard and my two Sports Illustrated magazines. After than Mike and I chatted a bit and we parted ways. I noticed Fred B was there so I went and talked to him for a half hour or so and headed home.
I now have four autographs on each of the Sports Illustrated magazines from the 1980 US Hockey Gold team!
Twinsfest Day 3– Kid’s Day
The Sunday of Twinsfest has become the day I take one or both of the kids. Today both of them went with me.
They decided who we stand in line for and what we do. So, they decided they wanted Danny Valencia and Delmon Young so we got dropped off from the parking lot shuttle at the Schwan’s Center and got in line. We were stuck outside in the cold and they were not allowing anyone in until people left but we were about 10 people from the door and we thought we were in great shape. That was until the line did not move. After about 5 minutes standing outside the kids decided they wanted to go inside so we headed to the Sports Center building and got in line at station one. The kids each brought a baseball along and put almost everyone on it. So, each kid got Smalley, Steinbach and Slama on their ball and Cami got Jeff Manship on a baseball card and Caden on his baseball. We then got back in line for station one. Each kid got the following on each of their baseballs: Eric Hacker, Ben Revere and Drew Butera while I got Revere on a ticket with “First MLB Hit” and Hacker and Butera on cards.
The kids were hungry by this time so we grabbed a couple hot dogs and a pretzel and sat down to eat. While we were eating, two people who were in line for Valencia and Young next to us came up to us and asked if we did end up waiting in line or left. I told them we left because the kids were too cold. They said had we waited in line, we would have gotten in and got their autographs. They then proceeded to pull out a baseball signed on the sweetspot by Young and another by Valencia and gave each of the kids a ball. That was an amazing gesture and I hope they got a feeling of appreciation and goodwill as the kids did. Awesome people!
Then it was to wait in line for the minor league guys. Each got the following on their baseball: Aaron Hicks, David Bromberg, Rene Tosoni and Chris Parmelee. I got two Hick’s eTopps cards signed, two Bromberg cards, two Parmelee cards and Tosoni on the 2010 All Star Futures Game when he was the MVP. Caden got a Parmelee card signed too. Then it was back to get in line for Kubel which was to be the highlight of the day. Before heading back to the Schwan’s Center, I stopped at the dealer table I went to the past couple days to give one more shot at his cards. I ended up picking up a 1966 Zoilo Versalles, 1968 Rod Carew and 1970 Carew card signed for my collection as well as Torii Hunter, Matt Moses and Bobby Kielty Topps Total cards to trade. We got to the Schwan’s Center and Michael Cuddyer and Matt Tolbert had a few minutes left and no line so both kids got each on each baseball. We then got right back in line for the next group which was Jason Kubel, Jason Repko, Nick Blackburn and Jim Hoey. We go to the table and each kid got each on their baseball and I got Blackburn on a card and Repko and Hoey each on a Target Field Upper Deck card for the kids. When I got to Jason Kubel, Cami had made a little note that said “You are a grat playr. I like you.” She gave it to Jason and he said that was really neat and thanked her and put the note in his pocket. That was really cool. I told him that every time he gets to bat she yells “There’s my boyfriend!” He smiled from ear to ear and Repko said that was real nice of her. Jason signed by Target Field Firsts ball since he was the first player to hit a home run at the new field.
We got on the shuttle back to the car and headed home. This was one of the best Twinsfest weekends I have ever had. It started really bad Friday waiting and getting shut out for Thome and Mauer but because I decided to go to the other building when I did, I was able to score the greatest coup in my card collecting history!
I am already looking forward to Twinsfest 2012!