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I knew driving up to Brooklyn Park that today was going to be a busy day.  I had pretty much hit all the dealers yesterday so today was all about autographs.  I arrived at the place about an hour before the first person was to start signing.

My day started with Johnny Bench.  He signed the Sports Illustrated magazine that I already had signed by Will McEnaney.  He was pretty friendly and even inscribed it with “75 World Champs” as it is the issue celebrating the Reds winning the World Series.

I then went to the VIP signers area as two of the 1980 US Hockey Gold winners were signing.  I really do not collect hockey but since they were signing for free and I had the two Sports Illustrated magazines celebrating the team, I thought I would get them signed.  I first went through the Dave Christian line and got him to sign each of the SI’s.  I then went through the Neal Broten line and did the same.  I then went out and bought two pucks and two photos and went through each line again and got one of each signed by each person.  They were both really friendly.

It was now time to head through the Rod Carew line.  Rod was signing anything which meant that he would sign bats, jerseys and unlicensed photos which is all things he does not sign at the Twins’ events.  There were a ton of bats and jerseys there!  I went through the line and got the last three Sports Illustrated magazines I needed of him signed.  One issue was already signed by George Foster so I now do not have to worry about carrying that one around!  I also wanted a baseball signed by him with HOF 91 which he did.  He is a very quite person but was friendly enough to me today.

I then had a little time to kill so I found a dealer selling cards pretty reasonable.  I found a couple 1967 Topps high numbers I needed as well as some Twins cards I needed to have in case I ever get a chance to get them signed.  He also had nice Monte Irvin “HOF 73” signed balls for sale and I bought one of those.  I already had him but I know his health is not the best and I wanted to add another one.

By now Pete Rose started signing.  I had three Sports Illustrated magazines for him.  When I got up there, he asked me if I collected magazines and I said I did and he said “I am on 19 of them!”  I told him I had a couple of them already signed and am working my way through them all.  He was really nice.

Finally, the last signer I had tickets for came out to sign.  Dave Winfield was signing and chatting up a storm.  I got in his line and got him to sign two of the Twins cards I needed for my signed Twins cards.  I told him my next door neighbor was in the same Cub Scouts pack as he was and there was even a picture in one of his books with them.  I told him my neighbor’s name and he said it did not ring a bell but to ask him if he went to (can’t remember name)’s house for the meetings.

I drove home real happy with how the weekend went.  It was a fun time and I added some autographs to my collection.  I look forward to the next show in the Twin Cities!

This was the second day of the MN Sports News Show at the Earle Brown Heritage Center.  I went last night but since I do not really collect hockey, I just checked things out and picked up my VIP package to see whose autograph ticket was included.  This was a great show and a lot of fun to be at.  It was definitely the way to go with the VIP pass.

I was really impressed with EVERYTHING about this show.  The prices were fair, the free signers were great and they all asked what color marker/pen and location taking great care in getting it signed the way you wanted.

The first autograph guest I got was Larry Hisle.  He was free for VIP purchasers and we were able to get two per time through the line.  I went through three times getting 6 cards signed.  I needed three for my Twins sets and the other three will be traders.  Larry was a great signer.  He smiled, talked to people and thanked us.  The last time I went through I thanked him and he said “Thank YOU young man!”  Me, a young man.  Wow!  How nice!

After that I went to the Jack Morris line.  While I needed two cards signed for my sets, I decided to put most of my money on people who normally do not do signings in MN but since I wanted to support the show in hopes they do another one in the Twin Cities, I bought one ticket and got him to sign my Blue Jays Sports Illustrated magazine.  I asked him if he thought the Twins had a shot at winning the World Series this season and he said the hitters and defense were there it was all up to how the starting pitchers do.  He did not seem as surly as he normally does which was nice.

Then it was off to Carl Eller.  I do not collect football but the ticket I got in my VIP package was for him so I thought what the heck.  I found someone selling Goal Line Art cards and bought one for him.  He was VERY friendly and polite.  It was my first interaction with him and I did not know what to expect.  I told him that I used to work with his cousin Sharon M and asked him to say hi to her for me the next time he saw here.  He asked for my last name and I told him that she would remember me by my first name.

Before leaving, I was able to go through the Corey Koskie line as he was the later free VIP signer.  For him, I went through the line once for a fellow collector from Washington state who needed him on a couple cards.  I went through the line two more times and got four other cards signed that I will use for traders.

Between all this, I found a real nice person from New Jersey selling autographed cards.  I bought some deceased and harder to find signed Twins cards for the collection with the highlights being a 1965 Killebrew and a 1961 Earl Battey All Star.

It was a real fun day but I know tomorrow will be busy!

Today started with Caden telling me he decided not to go to Twinsfest with Cami and I so Cami and I headed out just the two of us.  We walked into the Metrodome around 10:45am and I asked Cami is she wanted to get her first autograph or play on the kids stuff.  She said she wanted to get an autograph (that is my girl!) and we headed to the Slowey/Casilla/Liriano line.  While waiting, my buddy Mike walked by with his wife and son.  It was nice to say hi to them.  We got to the line and Cami got her mini bat signed by Casilla, a card by Liriano and a card that she will *hopefully* trade to daddy for his set of Slowey.  I got Casilla on Caden’s ball, Liriano on a card and Slowey on a card.  After that, Cami decided she wanted to jump on the inflatable kids things so we headed to centerfield and she got to run around for a while there.  While there we ran into my buddy Shane and his wife and daughter.  We hung out while Cami played around and then TC came to the area for photos.  We got a picture of Cami with TC (as well as another with Shane’s daughter and Cami and TC).  After the photo, I showed TC the picture Caden drew of him.  He liked it and signed it “To Caden:  Nice picture!  Go Twins!” as well as a little photo card for all three kids.  After that Cami wanted cotten candy and a tattoo.  Of course dad gave in to that request.  She chose a baseball with flames shooting out behind it for the tattoo.  Then she wanted a balloon sculpture thing.  She chose a red butterfly.  I offered the guy a $5 tip and he told me to feel free to take change for it out of the tip jar.  I told him absolutely not and gave him the $5.  He thanked me and told me he would make an extra for Cami so he made a really cute ladybug bracelet.  She loved it.  We then headed to say hi to Rob in the ticket area and then to Michael Cuddyer/Brendan Harris’ line.  We waited in that line for a while and while waiting, Cami’s balloon butterfly lost a wing.  In no time the other wing popped so she was down to just the ladybug.  That survived the ride home at least!  We got to Harris/Cuddyer and I got Caden’s ball signed by Harris and Cami got her mini bat.  Cuddyer signed a card for Cami that will be sent to a friend who needed it for a set and he signed my cycle ticket with his name and “Cycle”.  All in all it was an awesome day to spend with Cami at the ballpark.  She totally had a blast and fell asleep on the way home.  It was a great Twinsfest weekend filled with great friends and a lot of autographs.

Today was going to be the day that was either going to make the weekend a total and complete success or make it so-so.  I was fortunate to have two of my buddies coming to the weekend with me and they offered to help me out if they did not need anyone at a station.  The two guys did much more than that for me.  They were awesome!  A HUGE thanks to Shane and Russ for all they did with and for me today.
The three of us met at the Metrodome around 9:45am.  We decided to go and before waiting in the Cuddyer/Baker line that was going to start at 11am, we headed down to the field level.  I got my 1965 Pitching Leaders card signed by Mudcat Grant who was still at Fergie Jenkins’ booth.  After than I went through the future stars line and got Joe Benson, Anthony Slama and Chris Parmelee each on a baseball.  Parmelee signed with 2006 First Round Pick too.  I got back up to the Cuddyer/Baker line and waited.  When it was time to go in, I got Cuddy on my 02 future stars card that was already signed by Michael Restovich and an extra Scott Baker card signed.  Russ and Shane each got me another Cuddyer card signed and Russ got me another Baker card.  It was then back to the same line and wait a couple hours for the Gardenhire/Pavano line.  While waiting, I headed down and got Tim Laudner on two cards.  He finished the card already signed by Hrbek and Faedo so that one is done!  I picked up a Jeff Manship card and got him to sign that at the same table.  I then went back up to wait for Gardy and Pavano.  Russ when down to get a JJ Hardy ball signed and while there, got me a Liriano card and a Perkins card signed as they were at the same table as Hardy and he did not have anything for them.  I was able to get Gardenhire on my “Metrodome Lasts” baseball and Shane and Russ each got me a team card signed by him.  I got Pavano on a baseball (as did Russ and Shane) and while I was waiting, a gentleman asked me something about how it worked.  It ended up that he did not have anything for Pavano so I offered him half the cost of the table for him to get me a card.  He was pleased to do that and as we were talking, he showed me a plaque he had with Gardy on it.  He asked me what kind of pen I thought he should use.  I gave him a brand new silver paint pen because it was really the only pen to get it signed with after looking at it.  He proudly showed me the photo after Gardy signed it with the pen and it looked awesome.  He was really happy with how it turned out and I was glad to lend him a hand.  We decided to then get 2009 first round pick Kyle Gibson in the futures line.  It was really long so Russ waited in line for us while Shane and I headed through the Leius/Swarzak/Ullger line.  Once we got there, it turned out that Swarzak was not there but Corey Koskie took his place.  That was cool because I needed Koskie on some cards for my Twins project.  Shane and I each took two cards of Leius and Koskie and each signed all of them.  We then headed back to Russ and went through that line.  I got Ben Revere with 2007 first round draft pick, Kyle Gibson with 2009 first round draft pick and Russ and Shane each got me a Steve Tolleson card signed.  Russ headed back into the futures line and I scooted to the Stigman/Castino/Goltz line.  I got Dave Goltz on my last card I needed of him.  He signed his 1977 Victory Leaders card.  He commented that he had not seen that one in a while.  I then got Dick Stigman to sign the 1963 Strikeout Leaders card that I already had signed by Camilo Pascual.  Finally I got John Castino on his rookie card.  He offered to put 79 AL ROY on it and did.  That was a nice touch.  I then headed back and met Russ and Shane in the futures line.  Shane headed to get Pat Neshek for himself on a photo and got John Rauch for me on the “Game 163 Celebration” photo.  He commented to Shane on what a cool photo that was.  In the futures line, I got Aaron Hicks to sign a ball with 2008 First Round Draft Pick.  We all then headed to Hubert’s for food, drink and conversation.  It was a long day and I certainly could not have had the success I had if it wasn’t for the two great friends who “muled” (as Shane calls it) for me.  Thanks again guys!