Category: HOF

Today’s morning started with me meeting my buddy Shane outside Gate 29 at 8am.  After not knowing what was going to happen in the skyway entrance from the previous night, I did not want to take any chances so I went to Gate 29.  We were probably 50th in line or so.  The weather was nicer than it was Friday afternoon which was nice.  They opened the gates and Shane and I headed to Joe Mauer’s line.  We ended up being in the 110 or so range for numbers.  I thought “heck I was around 250 yesterday so today will be a piece of cake!”  Shane got a Sports Illustrated signed and I got Joe’s 2007 Topps card signed.  We then headed to the next station we were hoping to get.  There was no line for the current group so I went through and got Chris Colabello and and asked him to write 1st MLB Home Run on the ticket and he replied “I love to write that!” and did.  I got Nate Hanson on Cami’s baseball and get to Jason Kubel.  I handed him a pair of cards for my friend Greg N (justgreg on SCN).  He signed them both and showed Nate the one and said “Look at this” with a smirk.  Nate looks at it and says “Is that even you?  It does not look like you!”  Jason smirked again and said “I guess so!”  The card was a 2003 Donruss Diamond King card.  It does not look like him at all and the whole interaction between Jason and Nate was pretty funny.  I got back in the line with Shane and we waited for the next group to start. I got Josh Willingham on his 2013 Allen & Ginter card and Sean Gilmartin, Austin Malinowski and Mudcat Grant on Cami’s baseball.  After this Shane and I split up.  Shane headed to get me a couple autographs while I waited in another line.  Shane and I have been going to Twinsfest for a long, long time.  We joke that he is “my mule” helping me get autographs.  He is awesome.  It is just about the only time we get to hang out together every year but we have so much fun doing it.  Shane headed to another station and got me Scott Erickson on my 1991 Sports Illustrated magazine and Kevin Correia on a 2013 Topps update card.  In my line I was able to get Trevor Plouffe on his 2013 Topps card.  Next up was Andrew Albers.  I respect Albers a lot.  It was announced that he signed (or was about to sign) with a baseball team from Korea.  He still honored his commitment to the Twins to show up to Twinsfest.  That was a classy move by Andrew.  He was really friendly and was thanking everyone.  I got to him and put down a ticket from his ML debut game and asked him to signed it with ML Debut and 1st Win and he did.  I asked him if he had a ticket to that game and he said he did not so I gave him one.  He was very thankful for it.  After seeing how much fun he was having there I was glad I gave him it.  Shane went in another line and got me a couple Jose Berrios cards signed.  After that I got in line for Call a Friend.  Call a Friend is a new feature at Twinsfest where a player will call a friend of yours or leave your outgoing voicemail message.  I got to the line about a half hour before it was to start and waited for Brian Dozier to show up.  A friend of mine in Rochester, NY got me a ton of autographed cards for my Twins collection over the past few seasons and while there, his young son got to know Brian Dozier.  I thought it would be awesome for Brian to call and talk to Tyler and was not at all let down!  Dozier was PHENOMENAL.  He talked to Tyler for a minute or so and had a smile the entire time.  I could only imagine Tyler on the other side of the call doing the same.  It made me really happy to facilitate that moment between Tyler and his hero Brian.  After that, Shane and I bummed around the dealer area and walked through the Champions Club area and waited for the final group time of the day.  Shane and I headed to the final group of the day which was one I knew I had to get through.  All day I lugged around a photo/artwork case that held my 1995 Twins poster schedule already signed by Kirby Puckett, Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva as well as my 1978 Twins poster schedule already signed by Dave Goltz.  Both were just waiting for Rod Carew’s autograph to be added.  Shane got my 1978 poster signed (finishing that poster) and I got the 1995 signed and asked Rod to add his #29 to match the others on the poster.  He added it and it looks awesome.  The other person in the group was Tony Oliva.  Shane got me a 1975 SSPC signed and I got Tony O’s rookie card signed beautifully for my friend Robert T (lutherlafy on SCN).

I headed down to say hi to Joel and Tony and Tony gave me a couple Puckett tickets.  One was the game he announced his retirement and the other when the Twins retired his #34. Tony is the man!  He is so, so thoughtful and his gestures are greatly appreciated. Thanks again Tony!

That wrapped up Day 2 of Twinsfest.  Shane and I headed to Huberts by the Metrodome for dinner telling stories and laughing.  We headed home and I looked forward to the final day of Twinsfest 2014 with the kids tomorrow!