Author: Kevin

After the failure of Twinsfest 2009 – Day 1, Shane and I decided to get down to the Dome right when the gates opened because we did not want to freeze again.  I got there at 9:10 am… 10 minutes after the gates opened.  I went right to the Morneau line in hopes of finally finishing my M & M photo.  Morneau was to start at 11am.  When I got there, I was right at the last spot in the line “zig zag”.  Typically, with one person signing and signing for 1.5 hours, I thought we were going to be successful.  At least there was nobody in the first lanes that appeared to be vendor family members so the people who froze waiting were in a better position.  Shane showed up and decided to go down the the free guys for us.  He wanted a ball signed by Anthony Slama and with Anthony was Brian Duensing.  He got a ball from Anthony and three cards for me from Duensing.  While there, he asked Slama to write “Twins 2008 Minor League Pitcher of the Year”.  He did not so I told him to try again and if he did not do it, I would take the ball.  Shane went back through the line and this time got two cards signed by Duensing and Slama signed a side panel.  I plan on giving the ball to one of the kids to start to get it autographed.
At 11am, Justin Morneau started signing and the line barely moved.  Long story short, 12:30 rolled around and Shane and I were about 30th in line when Morneau stopped signing.  Two days of trying and about 9.5 hours of waiting, Shane and I were 0 for 2 with Morneau.  We started thinking that Twinsfest 2009 – Day 2 was going to be as disasterous as Twinsfest 2009 – Day 1.
Shane and I then hit the floor.  With help from Shane, I was able to get the following:
1 John Castino card
1 Philip Humber OMLB
2 Roy Smalley cards
4 Dave Goltz cards
2 Matt Macri cards
1 Matt Macri debut ticket with “ML Debut”
1 Jason Pridie card
3 Tom Johnson cards
1 Scott Leius card
1 Jose Morales card (bubbled)
In between getting the above items, Shane and I went through Tony Oliva’s line three times.  I ended up spending $90 just on Tony O and got two cards (one for Vince Heiker), two wire photos, a mini bat and a real nice autograph on a real nice bat that Robert Taylor sent me to get signed for him.  Vince and Robert have taken good care of me in the past and this is my small way of saying thanks.
I did purchase a real nice Don Drysdale blue ink, sweet spot, ONL ball for my collection and picked up some Twins skeds.
Today went better than yesterday but it still is disappointing to spend a lot of time for Justin Morneau to get shut out twice.
A special shout out to Shane for all the help he gave me with getting all the items signed.

Today’s Twinsfest started with promise but it quickly turns South.  I got to the Dome around 2:20pm with the gates opening at 5:30.  I waited outside over 3 hours in the below zero windchill.  Russ, Shane and I were around 50th in line outside.  When the gates opened, Russ, Shane and I went directly to the line where Mauer and Morneau were signing.  When we got there, we were suddenly W A Y behind a lot of people.  Looking around, the people in line in the first couple “lanes” (of the zig zag) did not have coats or were recognizable from our long wait outside.  Come to find out, they were family members of the vendors on the floor who were inside the Dome before we were able to get in line.  I heard from another person in line at a later point saying there was a vendor bragging about sending his family up there.  I took the first “shift” and ducked down to the Ron Coomer line to get Coomer on a card for a fellow SCN’er.  I was able to get two Coomer cards and a Denard Span debut ticket with “MLB Debut ’08” on it.  I then went back in the M & M line and waited.  Needless to say, after waiting 3 hours outside and another 1.5 hours inside waiting for M & M to start to sign and then through .5 of their 1.25 hours of signing, Shane & I left the line leaving Russ.  Russ ended up missing out by about 30 people.  If that was not frustrating enough, after leaving that line, Shane and I checked out the Hrbek/Oliva line.  It was the only time Hrbek was signing and that line was too long and a lot of people missed out of them too.
We then got in line for Jason Kubel, Joe Nathan and Delmon Young to get my Young batting glove signed.  Turned out that DY was sick and was not there so we decided to move on to another line.
We decided to head to check out the Molitor line and that was too long and decided, in an effort for Shane to not get completely shut out, headed to the free guys.  We went through the free guy line and I got Trevor Plouffe, Anthony Swarzak and Danny Valencia on OMLBs as well as, with Shane’s help, got two Swarzak cards and three Eli Tintor cards signed.
Shane, Russ and I all headed home greatly disappointed but with hope Twinsfest 2009 – Day 2 would be better.

I was reading the signingshotline.com listings and saw Kent Hrbek was signing at a grand opening for Fleet Farm in Blaine, MN so I decided to head up there.  I just decided to work on the Twins Topps team sets from 1980 to 1986 and he is in there a bunch of times as well as team leaders so I had 8 cards plus a couple for a couple friends plus a ball for another friend.  I thought if I could get through the line 4 or 5 times, I would get them all.

I drove the 50 minutes to get there and to my surprise, nobody was in line.  This was about 20 minutes after it started so I thought maybe it was poorly advertised.  I saw a note where it is limited to two autographs per person.  I was bummed.  I was alone and thought I would only get two.  Well, I walked up with a notepad sheet with four cards on it.  He looked at them and said I will sign these four for you.  He did and I left.  I drove the
50 minutes home wondering what if I had someone with me, etc.

So, almost two hours for four autographs.  I did need them for my sets but I really had hoped to help the others too.  Maybe at Twinsfest.

Today Amy had something going on in the morning so Caden and Cami and I headed to the Mall of America because Joey Browner was signing there.  I do not collect anything other than baseball but my friend Mark in San Diego needed Browner on a couple football cards so I told him if he sent them to me, I would get them signed.  He did and I did.  Appearing with Browner was Bob Lurtsema.  Bob took his giant NFC champion ring off and let Cami try it on.  She thought that was pretty cool.  He then signed a picture “Cami, You’re a doll”.  That was pretty cool and she thanked him without any prompting.