Today I received three packages in the mail. Two contained autographed items and one had a game used baseball I won in an MLB/Twins auction.
The first package contained seven baseballs and two Brian Dozier cards. Chris L (ChrisL999 on SCN) killed it for me the last couple weeks. He got me beautifully signed baseballs from:
Jackson Rutledge
Braden Shewmake
Shea Langeliers
Josh Jung
Cole Winn
Mike Soroka
Cody Bellinger
and the cards by Dozier were 2017 Topps 543 and 2018 Topps Now Opening Day
The next item I opened was an envelope which contained the ticket from Tyler Robertson’s ML Debut game. He signed it and included a nice note how awesome it was to see the ticket.
The final item was a game used baseball which was from Cody Stashak’s ML Debut game. It was a Luke Voit single but more importantly for me it was Cody’s third career strikeout baseball. I hope to get it signed in the near future.
Category: Game Used
My Cousin Vinnie
Today I received a box. A medium sized box. It came from Vinnie M (vinniemiller on SCN). Inside this box was a boatload of beautifully signed items from the Mariners team and their visiting teams. Vinnie does a fantastic job of getting items signed for me throughout the year. I have to get another package together to send him for the next half of the season! Here is what he got signed for me:
Bruce Bochy OMLB
3 Andrew Romine tickets when he played all nine positions with one having #All9Romine inscription
Adrian Beltre 3000th hit ticket
Rougned Odor ML Debut ticket
David Dahl ML Debut ticket
Francisco Liriano 1st Win ticket
2 Joe Jimenez ML Debut tickets
Niko Goodrum ML Debut ticket w/”MLB Debut”
Niko Goodrum 1st Hit ticket w/”First Hit”
A game used baseball from Niko Goodrum’s ML Debut game w/”MLB Debut 9/2/17″
Brian Dozier 2017 Topps Heritage #465
Byron Buxton Topps Now #527
Byron Buxton Topps Now #658
Byron Buxton Topps Now #PW-81
2 Chris Heston 2017 Topps Update #US-204
Jake Odorizzi ML Debut ticket w/”MLB Debut”
2 Jose Berrios ML Debut tickets
Jose Berrios 2018 Topps Heritage #290
Kyle Gibson 2018 Topps Heritage #465
Max Kepler 2018 Topps Heritage #73
Mitch Garver ML Debut ticket
Mitch Garver 1st RBI Ticket
Robbie Grossman 2018 Topps #94
Taylor Rogers 2018 Topps Heritage #317
Trevor Hildenberger ML Debut ticket
Trevor Hildenberger 1st Save ticket
That was a whole lot of fun in that box! I love them all but the highlight might just be the Niko Goodrum baseball and the three Buxton cards. Thanks a ton Vinnie!
What a Base!
Today was a Sunday and that meant it was Cami’s turn to go to the Twins game with me. Cami decided not to do the kids autograph line like she usually does and instead wanted to go down to the right field foul territory and see who was signing. She ended up getting Casey Fien and Ryan O’Rourke on a baseball that will be the start of her 2016 Twinsfest baseball.
If that isn’t cool, get this story. I could not make this up if I tried! Back on August 1, Cami was a Grounds Crew Buddy and was assigned to second base. That meant that at the end of the 5th inning, she ran out with a member of the grounds crew to change bases. Her job was to carry the new base to second, pull out the old one, put the new one in place and jump on it. As she was running off she said hi to Eduardo Escobar and he waved back to her. Fast forward to today’s game and, what has become our tradition, we look at all the cool things at the game used kiosk. The person working there today asked if he could help me with anything. I said “I have a long shot” and he said try me. I told him I was looking for the base from August 1st. Not just any base either but SECOND base. He said “I have a base from August 1st” and flipped it over to see it was second base. Wow. Fate. I checked the hologram and found out it was the base that was used at second base from innings 6-9 on August 1st. What are the odds. I went to our seats to think about it (it was $300 because it has the special tags on it for the 50th anniversary of the 1965 team on it). Later on I told Cami was going to go to the restroom and would be back soon. I ran down to the kiosk and bought it. She was so excited when I came back with it. She said it is her birthday present for the next two years! I figured I could not pass up the opportunity that was so amazingly put in front of me. What are the odds?