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!
Category: IP
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.
Jax of All Trades
The Twins had a season ticket holder event today where we could get Griffin Jax and Matt Wallner’s autographs. So, my brother and I headed down to the ballpark with our items and pens!
I ended up getting a Jax OMLB and two Matt Wallner cards, both 2025 Topps, #547 and #688. All turned out great and both guys were cool. It was a fun event and I cannot wait to see who is there for the August session!
The Spin Doctor!
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!