There is a huge card show in St Paul this weekend. Today Kent Hrbek and Kody Clemens (among others) were signing autographs so I decided to go and get the items signed I had laying around for them. I showed up shortly before Kent was signing so I got in that line and waited. When I got to him, I gave him a couple Athlon’s Baseball magazines (1988 and 1992) that featured him on the cover. He signed those and then I had him sign a full ticket from his final MLB game. I asked him to inscribe “Final MLB Game” on it and he did and even added an ! to the end of it! I told him I had a debut ticket signed and now I have bookends of his career. I told him I gave him a debut ticket back at Twinsfest when it was at the Metrodome and he said he remembered that. I wished him good health and he looked at me and said “Thank you very much!” That made me happy since he had a stroke a year or so ago and it is cool to see him getting around so well.
I then walked around the show to kill time until Kody showed up. The Twins played a day game today and Kody was to arrive after the game. The show was massive… over 600 tables. And, walking around, it seemed like over half were Pokémon and the like cards. EVERYBODY had slabbed/graded cards too. I had four hours to kill so I walked around and around and around looking at everything. Prior to today I had only seen two 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle cards… one in the late 1980’s at a card show and one at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Today I saw three! They were PSA 1 and 2 with one being sold for $100k and the “cheap” one at $46k. I passed on all three. I did find a couple guys selling baseball cards and one guy had a bargain bin. Since I had so much time to kill, I flipped through his box. I rarely do that at shows because at this point the cards I am looking for not to be found in bargain bins. It turned out to be worthwhile for me this time as I found a 1967 Topps high number card I needed. I also found a Bert Blyleven rookie card in decent shape as well as a Blyleven 1976 cloth issue card. I also picked up a 1967 Topps Tony Oliva in the box. All told the cards were $45. Big spender. There were transactions going down all over the show today in the $10k range and dropped a whopping $45 on cards.
About fifteen minutes before Kody was to start signing I went and got in line. Kody showed up like three minutes before he was to start so it was perfect timing. I got to him and put two tickets down for him to sign. He looked at them and said “What do we have here?!” all excited. I asked him to sign one ticket with “MLB Debut” and the other with “3 HR Game” which he also did. I had him use the house gold marker for the HR ticket since it was dark and I only had a blue Sharpie. I made an error hoping the show would have decent markers. It was a dried out gold pen which looks mediocre at best but it works. He then ripped through signing five cards. Those cards are:
2025 Topps #US208
2025 Topps Heritage #658
2026 Topps Heritage #321
and two Topps Now cards from the three home run game on 09.12.2025 #699 and #ODB19.
I then hit the exit and was home before Kody was to finish his signing shift. It was a nice, relaxing, fun day!
Category: IP
Twinsfest 2026!
Wow! Today is my most favorite day of the year! Twinsfest Signature Saturday! I headed out to the ballpark this morning at 7am. I was hoping to get there to meet my brother and his wife at 7:45am. It was -13 degrees, yes, NEGATIVE 13 DEGREES when I left the house. I was dreading waiting outside for an hour for the gates to open. Luckily people got smart this year and lined up inside the skyway so it was not bad at all! The Twins let people in fifteen minutes early due to the cold which was nice too!
We headed right to the Festa/Keashall/Lee line. My sister-in-law helped a ton this year with extra items. She again collected smiles, photos of each player, along with the autographs for my brother and me. It is fun having her along because she is so excited about this stuff. Her photos are in the slide show below. I got a Brooks Lee debut ticket with “MLB Debut” signed and a Luke Keaschall ticket with “1st MLB HR”. David Festa signed a signature card for me. My brother and sister-in-law got me the following cards signed in this line:
Brooks Lee- 2025 Topps Complete Set variation #317, 2025 Topps Update #US243, and 2025 Allen & Ginter #73
Luke Keaschall- 2025 Topps Update #US16, 2025 Topps Heritage #614
David Festa- 2025 Allen & Ginter #249
I then headed to the Jenkins/Wallner line and my brother and his wife went to the Pablo Lopez line. I got Wallner on a 2025 Topps Heritage #682 and Jenkins on a baseball. The Top 100 MLB Prospects were just announced earlier today and Jenkins came in at #14. The dude RAKES! My sister-in-law got my 2024 Topps #155 signed for me. It shows Pablo giving a Gatorade bath to Carlos Correa. Carlos already signed it and Pablo loved that card! It really endeared Pablo to my sister-in-law. I think that was far and away her most favorite moment of the day! While they were getting Pablo, I was in the Funderburk/Perkins/Roden/Rogers line. I was really excited to see Taylor Rogers back with the Twins since he left the Twins right after COVID and it was tough to get some cards signed by him. I had his 2021 Topps #US215 card already signed by Mitch Garver so it was a no brainer to get that one finished. It looks awesome. I got Funderburk on a ball for my brother and a debut ticket signed by Glen Perkins. Alan Roden signed a pair of 2025 Topps Heritage #544 for me and I gave one to my brother.
My brother and his wife went to the Jackson/Kreidler/Woods Richardson line and I went to the Bradley/Caratini/Ober line. My brother got me a pair of signature cards signed by Jackson and Kreidler. He asked Simeon if he would sign his full name on the baseball and he winked and did it for him. That made him real happy. I got a 2025 Topps #368 signed by Simeon that my sister-in-law got for me. I got Bailey Ober to signed a pair of cards for me; 2024 Topps Heritage #536 and a 2025 Topps Heritage #448. Victor Caratini and Taj Bradley each signed a baseball for me.
We then went to get something to eat and sit a little. Then it was off to the final two lines. My brother and sister-in-law waited in the Royce Lewis line while I went through the Connor Prielipp and Emmanuel Rodriguez line getting a baseball signed by each. I got in the Royce Lewis/Josh Bell line with them and waited. While in line, we heard that Twinsfest was going to end a little early because a protester got shot earlier in the day. We were in the line already and they allowed it to finish so I got Josh Bell on a baseball and Royce Lewis signed my art ball. About a year and a half ago I had The Baseball Artist draw me up a Royce Lewis baseball and finally got it signed today. It looks absolutely amazing. Royce thanked me for bringing it so he could see it!
The three of headed to the exit, to the parking ramp, and wrapped up another fun day of Twinsfest! It was a lot of fun to share the day with them and I really appreciate all the help they gave me in adding items to my collection. I cannot wait until next year when I might have a couple others join me! Stay tuned for that! About 365 days away but who’s counting?
Coat Drive!
When Justin Morneau played for the Twins, he had a coat drive to acquire coats for the people of the Twin Cities who could not afford one. If you donated x coats you would get a ticket for an autograph. Even when he was traded to other teams, he kept his family in MN and continued the coat drive. Now that he is retired he STILL has the coat drive each year. What an amazing, giving person! This year Louie Varland, fresh off of a World Series appearance, joined Justin at the signing event. I was able to acquire a pair of tickets to the signing so Amy and I headed to Fan HQ for the autographs. Justin and Louie were awesome. Very friendly and it made it a wonderful event. I was able to get a 2023 Allen & Ginter #327 and a Topps Now 04.13.2025 #68 signed by Justin and Amy bought a couple 8×10 photos of Louie, one with a Twins uniform and one from the World Series with the Blue Jays, and we got those signed. Afterwards we enjoyed lunch at Big Bowl right next to where the signing was. What a fun day!
I am your father, Luke!
Today was the second season ticket holder signing event of the summer for the Minnesota Twins. It featured Kody Clemens and Luke Keaschall. Amy and I got to the ballpark a little late due to unexpected road traffic but we were in time. Kody signed a baseball for each of us and Luke signed a pair of Topps Now cards and a ticket and inscribed “1st MLB Walkoff HR”. Everything was great and it was a fun little outing. I gave my brother a Clemens ball and one of the Topps Now cards which he appreciated.
