Today started the final day of Twinfest. Cami was not able to go because she had a volleyball tournament and since Caden stayed overnight at a hotel with his buddies, I could get there whenever I wanted to. I took my time getting there and ended up arriving around 9:30. I did not need anything from the first set of stations so I went to drop off a Mauer final game ticket and some photos for Tony S and headed to the Royce Lewis line. Everyone there was in line for Royce whereas my main goals were the other guys at his station. I got Jason Castro, Fernando Romero, Gabriel Moya, and Royce Lewis all on cards. Royce finished off a cool Bowman Chrome card that I had gotten signed by Brent Rooker last Twinsfest. Royce commented that it is pretty cool that I finished the card. I then skipped over to the other line and got Rooker, Kohl Stewart, LaMonte Wade, Akil Baddoo, and Stephen Gonsalves. Gonsalves signed a Major League debut ticket and I asked him to inscribe it. He asked if I wanted 1.1 as well. He caught me off guard and I did not know how to react. After he signed it he smiled at me and I laughed back at him and smiled. It was pretty funny. He ended up lasting only 1.1 innings in his debut game. It was a hilarious moment. After that I sent to the Byron Buxton line. I got Buxton, Nick Gordon, and Jim Kaat. I then got back in line at the same station for the final group which was Michael Pineda, Max Kepler, CJ Cron, and Nelson Cruz. I asked Tony’s son Spencer if he wanted to get in line for me and get Kepler on a couple cards and he could have the other guys. He was excited to do that and waited in line with me. He is such a good kid. He got me a couple cards of Kepler and I Kepler on cards, Buxton on a 3 HR ticket (he said he could not inscribe), Pineda on a couple cards, and Cron on his first home run ticket. I asked him if he remembered who he hit it off of and he said “J. A. Happ”. Pretty cool. After that Spencer and I walked back to Tony’s table and Tony had gotten the artist who painted the painting of the Joe Mauer print they handed out to sign three copies of it for me. I said my goodbyes to Tony and Spencer and met up with Caden and headed home. Twinsfest 2019 was a ton of fun and spending it with Shane yesterday and experiencing different parts of it made it even more fun. I was able to knock off a bunch of items I needed ink for the collection with great help from the kids and other people. My tally of items for my collection from today include:
Jason Castro 9/12/17 Topps Now
Fernando Romero 2018 Topps Heritage, 2018 Topps
Gabriel Moya generic Twins signature card
Royce Lewis Bowman Chrome Recommended Viewing card
Max Kepler 2018 Topps team card, 2018 Opening Day Topps Now, 2018 Topps, 4/11/18 Topps Now
Michael Pineda 2018 Topps Heritage
Nick Gordon 2018 Topps Debut, 2018 Topps Heritage Minors
Brent Rooker 2018 Topps Debut
Alex Kiriloff 2017 Topps Heritage Minors
Kohl Stewart Ticket w/”First MLB Win”, Ticket w/”MLB Debut”, 2017 Topps Heritage Minors, 2017 Bowman
Stephen Gonsalves Ticket w/”MLB Debut”, 2018 Topps Debut, 2017 Bowman
Ryan Jeffers 2018 Bowman
Akil Baddoo OMLB, 2017 Topps Pro Debut, 2017 Topps Heritage Minors
Nelson Cruz OMLB
Mitch Garver 2018 Topps Heritage, 2018 Topps
Zach Littell 2018 Topps Debut, 2018 Topps
Byron Buxton 3 HR ticket
CJ Cron Ticket w/”1st ML HR”
Aldaberto Mejia Ticket from his debut game
Category: IP
2019 Twinsfest- Day 2
Today was a great day! I got to spend all day with my buddy Shane. Shane and I have a tradition where we meet up at Twinsfest and spend all day Saturday together hanging out and talking and getting autographs, etc. Last year Shane was not able to make it because he nearly died due to health reasons. This year we resumed our tradition and boy was it fun!
I was to meet Shane and his wife in Plymouth around 8am to get him (he lives a couple hours North of the Twin Cities). I headed out of the house around 7am with the kids when I received a text that he was running about an hour late. So, I took that time to drive to Target Field and drop the kids off before I headed up to Plymouth. It was so cool to see Shane after everything he went through over the last couple years. Shane is a fraternity brother from college and our relationship is an example of brothers for life. I got Shane in the car and we headed to Target Field. I was able to push Shane around in his wheelchair all day which I was pretty nervous about. He told me later I bumped a few people with his feet. I knew of two and apologized but he said there were a couple more that did not say anything. I tried my best to be aware of my surroundings! Anyway, the kids got up to Joe Mauer’s line and was able to get through the line twice each. They got three cards signed for me and Cami got a photo of the last game signed for her photo collection. Cami stopped by where Shane and I were sitting at a table and she got to chat with us too. She went and bought four “Balls in a Bag” at the Twins players wives booth. We ended up with Trevor Hildenberger, Max Kepler, and a pair of bleeding Tyler Austin baseball. With the tickets, she ended up going and getting three items signed for her collection and gave me the remaining ticket. Shane and I decided to try something different this year and instead of work autograph lines, we decided to chill, hang out, and do things we have not done at Twinfest before. One of those things was doing the White Glove Tour of the archive room. We went to where the sign up area was and found there was still an opening for the tour hosted by Michael Cuddyer. This turned out to be one of the coolest “Hidden Gems” of Twinsfest. It was certainly the highlight of the day for things we did. Cuddy is one of the coolest guys around and he spoke candidly about a lot of things while sharing stories about his career and time in baseball. Cami had to leave by this point as she had a two day volleyball tournament so Amy drove down to Target Field to get her and take her to the tournament. Shane and I went around checking things out and just hung out. One of the places we went was we stopped to talk with Tony so Tony could see Shane who he always says hi to each year. While there, Tony gave me some more tickets (Tony is amazing). He gave me a ticket and a suite pass for a 5.24.2015 game (Brian Dozier hit a pair of home runs), an upgrade to my Puckett HR 72 to a full season version, Kris Bryant’s 100th HR ticket, and if all that was not enough, he gave me a bunch of Twins spring training tickets from 1996. Why is this significant you might ask? It was the last spring that Kirby Puckett played in before having to retire. My task over the next few weeks is to try to track down the date Puckett got his last hit and add it to the Puckett ticket archive. I will have to look for old spring boxscores in older newspapers, etc. It will be a fun project. Tony is awesome! Shane and I then went up to the Suite Level and got in line for Glen Perkins. I needed a few Perkins cards sign ed for the collection since he was not at last year’s Twinsfest. He did not disappoint. We got Joe Nathan to sign a couple cards, Eddie Guardado to sign a card and a photo Cami took and Perkins on five cards. The photo of Everyday Eddie had him as a coach with his arms crossed and one finger on his chin like he was deep in thought. I told him my daughter took the photo and it looked like he was a professor thinking about the meaning of life. He laughed with a loud robust laugh that showed he really enjoyed it. Afterwards Shane and I grabbed a table on the suite level to hang out and we ran into Caden (he needed more money). On his way out he called me and told me that Jonathan Schoop was at the Wives Booth and did not have a line so we went there with minutes to spare and Shane got a ticket from his MLB Debut signed with the inscription. We asked if he remembered how he did and he said “2 for 3 with a solo home run!” Pretty cool interaction with him. After that we listened to the WCCO Radio Show that was being broadcast from Target Field and decided to head out to eat dinner. We met up with his wife and one of his daughters and enjoyed dinner. Caden went to the hotel his buddies had and they ended up going to Top Golf before settling in for the night. It was a real fun day but the highlight was being able to hang out with Shane like “the old days”.
A summary of items signed for my collection, mostly by the kids for me, include:
Stephen Gonsalves ticket w/”MLB Debut”
Stephen Gonsalves ticket w/”1st MLB Win”
Cole DeVries ticket w/”MLB Debut”
Jonathan Schoop ticket w/”MLB Debut”
Trevor May ticket w/”1st ML Save”
Joe Mauer 2017 Allen & Ginter, 2018 Players Weekend Topps Now, 5/5/17 Topps Now
Jason Castro 2017 Wild Card Topps Now, 2017 Topps
Max Kepler 2017 Topps Heritage, 2016 Allen & Ginter
Mitch Garver 2018 Topps, 2018 Topps Heritage
Joe Nathan 2009 Topps Heritage, 2010 Topps
Eddie Guardado 1994 Topps
Greg Olson 1992 Topps, 1993 Topps
Jeremy Hefner 2014 Topps Heritage
Byron Buxton 2018 Gypsy Queen, 2018 Allen & Ginter
Michael Pineda 2016 Gypsy Queen, 2018 Topps
Glen Perkins 2016 Topps Heritage, 2016 Allen & Ginter, 2016 Topps, 2017 Topps, 2017 Topps Heritage
2019 Twinsfest- Day 1
Today kicked off my most favorite weekend of the year, Twinsfest! This weekend I see old friends and new friends and hang out at the ballpark all weekend long spending money on autographs and making new memories.
I took today off so I can finish preparing for the weekend. I was woefully under prepared this weekend and this did bite me in the end but not too bad. Typically I get the kids out around 1 or so and we drive right from school to the ballpark. Since it was so cold today, we waited to head to Target Field until it was closer to the start time. The doors opened at 4pm so we planned on getting to the ballpark around 3:30. As we were walking to the ballpark, we noticed the skyway, where everyone waits, was empty. I said “Wow! We are lucky! Nobody is here!” to the kids. WRONG. The Twins did the right thing all three days and let people enter to get out of the cold and wait in the lobby areas. Pretty cool. We entered and went to the area away from the elevators where everyone was waiting. Once we were able to get in, we went to the Joe Mauer line. It was Caden, Cami, Caden’s friend, and I and we were like number 45 in line. Joe was his awesome self and signed Cami’s card as well as my card and commented how cool the Topps Now cards were to commemorate events. When Caden and his buddy got to him he signed both cards for each of them. Cami then took off to get Tony Oliva and others at that table and then to get her Zack Littel hat signed. I went back in line for Joe… two more times. Within an hour of Friday’s Twinsfest, I had eight Joe Mauer cards signed. Twinsfest was off to a great start for me!
Caden then left me to hang out with his friends and get his own autographs. The only time he looked for me was when he needed more money. Cami and I went our own ways too for the next stations. One station Cami went to had Tony Oliva. Cami met Tony O years ago and he remains one of her favorite former players. She never got to see him play so her interactions are limited to autograph and ballpark events but he never fails to make her smile. Cami got a card signed she had and told me the highlight was a short conversation in Spanish. Her exact words were “I had a conversation with Tony in Spanish!” I told her to tell her Spanish teacher and get some extra credit. Cami went to get a card signed by Rod Carew and a photo of Bert Blyleven. I went to get my call ball inscribed by Dan Gladden. I had sent a baseball to a signing for him to write his call of the walk off winner of the 2009 Game #163 and the ball was awesome but it was missing the inscription to tell you what it was! Dan grumpily signed the inscription so then I went to Scott Leius who signed a card for me. Next up was Kent Hrbek who signed a 1988 Baseball Illustrated magazine. The last person at the table was Scott Erickson who was cool and signed all three cards on my sheet for me. The kids continued to run around and do their thing and I went to the station that had Byron Buxton and others. The first person at the table was Joe Nathan. I congratulated him on being inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame (they announced it earlier today) and asked him to sign the ticket with “Final Save 377” which he did. Next up was Michael Cuddyer. Man, Cuddy is one heck of a guy. I had a ticket from the game he hit a cycle in when he played for the Rockies and it was a make up game so the ticket is from a game with a different date. Because of that I wanted him to put the date on it. He signed it with Cycle and the date although I wrote down 2018 for the year. He got to the year and looked at it and said “You have the wrong year on this.” He saved the ticket! He wrote in 14 and the ticket looks awesome.
Byron signed both of my cards and I went and met up with Tony S and his son Spencer. It is a highlight of each Twinsfest to meet up with Tony and chat tickets. He has helped me with my ticket collection more times than I could count. This year, after I showed him the Cuddyer cycle ticket, asked if I collected cycle tickets too. I told him really only Twins ones or players connected to the Twins at some point. He then pulled out a beautiful ticket from Paul Molitor’s cycle game against the Twins and gave it to me. He is just amazing. The kids did their thing while I did mine and we met up and headed home. The kids helped get some cards I needed signed so my day 1 tally was pretty good.
Michael Cuddyer ticket w/”Cycle 8/17/14″
Joe Nathan ticket w/”Final Save 377″
Taylor Rogers MLB debut ticket
Jonathan Schoop ticket w/”MLB Debut”
Joe Mauer cards: 9/30/18 Topps Now card, 7/21/18 Topps Now card, 9/25/18 Topps Now card, 2018 Players Weekend Topps Now card, 2017 Wild Card Topps Now card, 4/12/18 Topps Now card, 8/24/18 Topps Now card already signed by Rod Carew (he commented it was cool that Rod had signed it), 2018 Allen & Ginter
Jorge Polanco 2018 Gypsy Queen, 9/12/17 Topps Now
Byron Buxton 2018 Opening Day Topps Now, 2018 Topps Heritage
Tim Laudner 1987 Topps Team Card
Al Newman 1992 Topps Stadium Club
Nick Gordon 2017 Topps Heritage Minors
CJ Cron 2018 Opening Day Topps Now
LaMonte Wade 2018 Bowman Chrome
Alex Kirilloff 2017 Bowman
Tony O!
Today I went back to the Sports Show to get Tony Oliva. I had so much fun I thought I would try it again today! I had an idea for a baseball with Denny McLain today and thought I would give it a shot with him. When I got to the show I went to his table and spoke with him and his handler and explained that I looked up the 1968 World Champion Tiger roster and discovered that Eddie Mathews was on that team. I was surprised because I remember Eddie as a Brave but I guess I should get a pass because it was two years before I was born. I asked if he would write the 1968 post season team roster on a baseball and provided him the list of teammates. He told me he had never signed a baseball like that and thought it was pretty neat. I guess I have the first roster ball he signed! His handler shot me a price and told me to come back later. I walked around a bit and bought some 1965 Topps cards and sat down waiting for Tony O to show up. While waiting, Mr McLain’s handler delivered me the roster ball. I left it in the box until I got home which could have been disastrous if it was wrong but I wanted to be surprised. I was not disappointed! I will have to try that with other players! I also got five items 
signed by Tony Oliva and he was as cool as he always is at these events. I got the following signed by Tony O:
June 1971 Baseball Digest
2 @ October 1965 Official Baseball Sports Magazines
(Yet another) 08.23.1965 Sports Illustrated
(and another) mini bat
This was a fun weekend and I added some great items to my baseball collection!