Today was the final day of Twinsfest this year and I was real happy how I did Day 1 and Day 2 that I decided to cool down a little today. I went for quality over quantity and did not leave disappointed!
I was greeted this morning to Caden telling me he did not want to go today. I told him I was going anyway and headed out alone. I got to the Dome at 8:27am. Why do I know it specifically? Well, I put a $10 bill into the parking machine and it must have been out of paper because I did not get a receipt. I wrote it on a napkin when I paid and put that on my dash and walked to get a wristband. I was greeted at the wristband area with the news that they were only giving out one color for Justin Morneau and everyone was a winner! So, I got Morneau’s wristband and went to a volunteer who always recognizes me from events like this and asked him to pick me a winner for Mauer. He said he honestly has no idea which color was the winner but for me to pick one. I told him to reach into the bag and grab a lucky one. I then went to get in line.
While in line I ended up standing next to a dealer who sets up regularly at the Twin Cities Sports Collectors Club so I was able to chat with him. I then noticed a couple guys from Wisconsin who was standing next to Russ and I yesterday walking up so I invited them to join me. I could not believe they were both wearing just t-shirts because they did not want to carry their coats in their bag. They were going to get Morneau too and the one guy asked if I had anything for him and he would get it for me. That was pretty nice. We entered the gate and walked to get in the Morneau line. It was a lot of fun talking to the guys from Wisconsin (I never got their names). They were funny and offered great tips for the All Star Fanfest coming in a year and a half. the one WI guy got me the 2010 Allen & Ginter card signed and I got the 2012 Topps Heritage “Twin Terrors” card which has Justin and Joe Mauer on it. This card would make another appearance later in the day! The guys from Wisconsin wished me luck as I did them and we parted. I got back in line because I figured if they only had one color for Morneau wristbands, they might run out and I could get in line to get a couple more autographs of him. As luck would have it, my hunch paid off. I bought two more autographs for Justin and got the 2005 Topps and 2007 Topps cards signed. I then traipsed down to the field to see what was going on there.
On my way to my destination, I saw Mudcat Grant at the table without a line so I walked up to him and told him how Cami talked about how Mudcat got his nickname and how it really left an impression on here and I thanked him for the great memory. He was as kind and gracious as he was last night. I got in line for Josh Willingham and Brian Duensing. When I got to Josh, I told him that “yesterday my 8 year old daughter was asked by Tim Laudner who her favorite Twins player was and without hesitation she said ‘Josh Willingham!'” Josh smiled and laughed and commented “Ha! Ha! Ha! I’ll keep it this year!” That was really cool. He signed my 2012 Topps Heritage card and I moved to Duensing. Brian signed a 2012 Topps card and I went to Station 1.
At Station 1 I got Scott Diamond to sign a baseball. He was really cool and thanked me for coming out. Trevor Plouffe then commented that I got “Drew to sign the cards!” (see Twinsfest Day 2 post) and signed both the 2011 Topps for me and the 2011 Topps Diamond card for Jon S. Then I got to the guy that if there was anyone more happy to be at Twinsfest I did not meet him. Cole DeVries is a local kid who was having a blast. He seemed to be enjoying himself and engaging everyone when they approached him. He signed a couple of the 2008 TriStar cards for me. Al Newman was the last person at the table and signed a couple cards for me. At this point I decided to get the final non-rookie card for Rod Carew signed (see yesterday’s post) and headed to get in his line.
When I got to Station 5, Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire were still working their shift so I get in line for Carew and waited. While in line for Carew, I got an email from Tony Swann letting me know where he was located and to stop by. Rod showed up and I was able to get the 1979 Topps Batting Leader card signed and was pretty excited about that. While in line, I heard my color wristband for Joe Mauer was called so I headed over to Joe’s line.
When I got to Joe, I handed him the card that Justin signed earlier in the day and he finished it. That card looks sweet! He also signed a 2007 Topps card for me. Mauer is a class act. After I was done with Joe, I headed down to see Tony Swann.
I met Tony in person at Twinsfest last year. He is a great guy who has sent me more than a few tickets for my ticket collection. I always keep an eye out for a White Sox ticket or any other ticket he needs for his Carlton Fisk collection. If you are a fan of Fisk, or baseball in general, check out his website here. Tony is awesome and had a couple tickets for my Twins collection. Thanks Tony!
I then decided to check out some 1961 Peters Meats wiener packages with cards on them that I have always wanted for my collection. Earlier in the weekend I noticed a dealer had some that were complete and in phenomenal condition. I ended up purchasing eight of them and starting my collection of them. I have eyeballed these cards going back to when I was in high school but never thought I could afford them. The dealer worked with me and was more than fair and that, along with my Christmas gift money from my parents and my in-laws went towards them. Once I was done with that, I realized I blew through all my money and decided to go wait in line for Miguel Sano’s autograph in the free line. While walking there I ran into Todd B. I met Todd years ago while standing in line for bobblehead games at the Dome. Todd is a great guy and it was cool to see him and catch up. We walked to a couple places to pick up schedules and then got in line for Sano’s autograph. Sano’s line was by far the longest consistently all weekend long. This was his first appearance in the Twin Cities and fans wanted to add him to their collections. I waited in line about an hour before he started signing but that time flew by talking to Todd. We got up to Sano and he signed a baseball for each of us and Todd got Chris Herrman to sign a pair of cards for me while I got a ticket from his debut game with “ML Debut” and a ticket for his first hit with “1st ML Hit”. We then walked over and Todd introduced me to a guy he knows and we each headed to our cars. The weather got real ugly while we were inside the Dome and the roads were slick with ice. I headed home and did not get above 30mph the entire time passing one accident and six cars in the ditch.
With the Twins doing so poorly the last couple seasons, there were not nearly as many people showing up to this Twinsfest. While the record is not much fun, Twinsfest was a blast because of the lesser number of fans attending. I did really well helping a few guys who I owed as well as getting help from Russ, Todd and “the guy from Wisconsin”. Oh, how could I forget the help from the little baseball girl of mine!
