A few weeks ago a friend of mine who lives in Washington State, Greg N (justgreg on SCN) reached out to me to see if I had been to any of the Chuck Foreman autograph events. I did not even know about it so I looked into it and saw that he was signing just about every weekend of late in the Twin Cities. I told him to send the cards. Side note that today I was going to buy a new grill. The current one is about fifteen years old and the burners started to not push flames out that strong so I figured I would replace it. I could have purchased the parts to fix it but I did not want to mess around with all the greasy parts, etc. I found that Lowe’s in Blaine had the one I wanted in stock so between that and Chuck’s appearance in Blaine, I decided to head up there. I got there about five minutes after Chuck was to show up. The person working with him had the table all set up and ready for Chuck. He showed up about twenty minutes late. MNDOT decided to shut down a couple interstates for road work this weekend and it caused delays for Chuck. I was the first to get his autograph. He was super cool and chatted with me for about ten minutes. He threw any inscription on any item. He was raising money for the Children’s Miracle Network. I got Greg’s three cards signed. I purchased a Sports Illustrated to get signed too. It is pretty beat up but it was the only one I could find unsigned on short notice. He signed that with all his career accolades as well as a card for me and I bought a cool black and white 8×10 photo. I asked him to sign something “To Greg” but he insisted in not signing that but rather a special postcard he had. Hopefully that will be a fun surprise for Greg. Chuck also insisted on placing his personal hologram on the items. He was really nice and friendly. It was a fun experience and I was happy to help out my buddy Greg!
Category: IP
A Major League Minnesotan
Today was super cool. While on vacation, I attended the Washington Nationals game. What made it cooler was the I attended with Chris L (ChrisL999 on SCN) and his wife. Chris and I did some ‘graphing before the game by the Marlins dugout. I was hoping for fellow Minnesotan Max Meyer but he did not come out of the dugout before the game. Connor Norby, however, did. I got Connor to sign a baseball for me. It was pretty fun to see Chris in action and to get Connor on a ball. I should be getting a box of signed baseballs from Chris soon as he has been getting a bunch of balls signed for me all season so far! It was really fantastic to attend the game and meet Chris. He is a cool dude!
The Last Straw
What a fun day today! A month or so ago my friend Greg N (justgreg on SCN) reached out and told me that his friend Spencer N (SLNoble01 on SCN) was going to be in the Twin Cities for a work conference and wondered if I could connect with him regarding how to get to Target Field and places to eat, etc in the area. I found out that Spencer was planning on going to the Twins game today and I happened to have tickets to the game so I said I would show him around and take him to the ballgame. I figured a friend of Greg’s is a friend of mine. We had a blast! It turned out that Spencer did charity work with one of the Blue Jay coaches so he was able to get field passes for batting practice for us! I have never had field passes at Target Field so this was a great experience for me too! During batting practice Rocco Baldelli came over and signed a ball for Spencer and I got a picture with him. He was very friendly. I mentioned to him that he had signed tickets for me long ago from the game he hit his first HR and first grand slam HR (both in MN) and they were still in my collection. He told me he remembered signing those because he had never seen them before. I told him this was my 25th season as a season ticket holder and he thought that was really neat. Dan Gladden signed a couple cards for Spencer too. I was hoping to get Jose Berrios but BP finished before he came back from his between start throwing in the bullpen. Myles Straw came out of the Jays dugout and signed for Spencer. I grabbed two cards from him to get signed for him and he offered one to me so I got the 2023 Topps #474 signed. Spencer also gave me a signed Byron Buxton debut ticket as thanks for the game. That was pretty cool! We had a great time and it was awesome meeting Spencer.
Tony O!
A friend of mine reached out to see if I saw a post on SCN regarding a free Tony Oliva appearance at a local business. I had not so I looked into it. I saw it was coming up and asked my brother if he and his wife wanted to join my wife and I and afterwards we could go visit our parents and take them out to dinner and he was all in. We arrived at The Ballpark around 1pm and there was a very short line. The four of us got through the line within 15 minutes. My wife got a pair of Allen & Ginter cards signed and I got his Hall of Fame induction ticket. My sister-in-law got my Spanish Hall of Fame postcard signed for me and my brother got a ball for himself. Then my wife and sister-in-law sat down and my brother and I went through the line again. This time I got a ticket stub from the game he had his #6 retired and my brother got a card for himself. The staff at The Ballpark was amazingly friendly welcoming us and hoping we enjoyed our time there when we left. It is a place my brother and I spoke of having to get to sometime and take some cuts in the batting cages for fun. Tony is now 86 and it slowing down so it was real nice to get some autographs for the collection. A round up of what I added to my collection today was:
2022 Allen & Ginter #165
2024 Allen & Ginter #322
2022 Hall of Fame Induction Ticket
Spanish Hall of Fame postcard
07.14.1991 Twins ticket stub with #6 inscribed
