Today kicked off my most favorite weekend of the year… Twinsfest! The morning started at an orthopedic surgery center as Amy had surgery on her broken ankle. She knew Cami and I were going to be heading to Twinsfest around 1:30 and made sure her mom and dad were with us to take her home in case she was not done in time. As luck would have it, the surgeon came out five minutes after we left. She got home ok and celebrated Caden’s 16th birthday that night.
Cami and I arrived at Target Field around 2pm and got in line to wait two hours until the gates opened. When they opened we headed to the Joe Mauer/Royce Lewis line. From there we headed to the Torii Hunter Twins Wives line and got his autograph. After we were done with Torii, we headed to the Kepler/Garver/Grossman/Hildenberger/Rogers line. One of the items I got Kepler to sign was his Players Weekend Topps Now card. The nickname he had on his jersey that weekend was Rozyki. I asked him if he would sign the card with that and he said “I have never signed anything like that but will give it a shot for you.” From there we went back to the Twins Wives and got Eduardo Escobar. Eduardo is awesome. He took a nice photo with Cami because the line was so short. After that we went back in line in the Twins Wives line for Ervin Santana. After that we went to a private Meet & Greet that I was chosen for as being a season ticket holder. Ervin Santana was the first player there and walked around and shook everyone’s hand and said hello. Ervin was asked a few questions about ice fishing. Had he ever been ice fishing or ever been on a frozen lake. In both cases he laughed and said “No way.” He said he does not like the cold weather at all. Seeing him in the environment of not locked in a focused during a game was pretty neat. He was really funny and personable. Cami asked him if he was not a pitcher, what position would be play. He replied with “Center field. I am faster than Byron (Buxton)! You get to see him run because he has a lot of room to run. If I was out there you would see me run faster than him!” It was pretty funny and he seemed pretty serious about it. Ervin left and then Eddie Rosario came in to do a similar Meet & Greet. After seeing that we did not have an opportunity for an autograph with Ervin, I got to Eddie while they were still taking photos with Ervin. Eddie signed a couple cards for me. One of them was his Players Weekend Topps Now card. His nickname on the card was Banidou. I asked him how he got the nickname and he said it was a nickname between him and his brothers. Every Saturday of Twinsfest for the last number of years I would spend the day with my buddy Shane. Shane had some very serious health issues and was unable to make it this year. Cami felt so bad for Shane that she skipped getting Eddie to sign her photo and decided to get a baseball signed by Rosario for him. She wanted him to write “To Shane. Get well soon!” but he did not understand the name Shane so Cami wrote it on a sheet of paper and skipped the get well soon part. Cami is pretty cool to think of someone like that. During the Q & A part with Rosario, Eddie mentioned he is really looking forward to playing in Puerto Rico this summer as that is his homeland. Cami’s question to Eddie was what is his favorite ballpark to play in and he replied “Here! I LOVE playing here!” Oh, one thing both players said that was interesting was when they were asked what their favorite city to play in was. They both replied Chicago. We again lined up and I got a photo of Eddie and Cami. We headed out and went to the final line of the evening which was Rosario/Polanco/Duke/Romero. On the way out I stopped by and chatted with my buddy Tony and his son Spencer. We headed home tired but excited for the next couple days. The final list of items for me are (including items Cami got for me but not including things she got for herself):
Joe Mauer: 2017 Topps 404, 2017 Topps Now Road to Opening Day
Royce Lewis: 2017 Bowman BD-1, OMLB
Torii Hunter: September 30, 2002 ESPN Magazine, 2015 Topps 590, 2016 Gypsy Queen 347
Max Kepler: 2017 Topps 405, 06/12/2017 Topps Now, 2017 Wild Card Topps Now, 2017 Players Weekend Topps Now
Mitch Garver: 8/19/2017 debut ticket w/”MLB Debut” inscription
Trevor Hildenberger: 2017 Wild Card Topps Now
Taylor Rogers: 04/14/2016 debut ticket w/”MLB Debut” inscription
Eduardo Escobar: 2017 Wild Card Topps Now
Ervin Santana: 2017 Topps 678, 04/15/2017 Topps Now
Eddie Rosario: 2017 Wild Card Topps Now, 2017 Players Weekend Topps Now
Jorge Polanco: 2017 Topps 684, 2017 Wild Card Topps Now, 2017 Topps Now Road to Opening Day, 08/29/2017 ticket (when he hit a HR from both sides of the plate)
Zach Duke: 2015 Topps 293, 2015 Topps US178
Fernando Romero: 2017 Bowman BP134, 2017 Topps Heritage Minor 107, 2017 Topps Minors 149, OMLB
Category: IP
The Buck Stopped Here
Byron Buxton made an appearance today at the grand opening of Tria in Woodbury. Since it was so close I decided to go there with the kids. We got there around 10am which was about a half hour before he was to start signing. We were told we were somewhere in the 200 range of people lined up. The line went really slow but it was because they took photos of each person with Byron before he signed their autographs. It was quite unique how they did it and I thought it was cool. We got up to Byron around 11am and Cami went first for her photo. Caden and I then joined her and we got a photo of the four of us. Byron then signed a card for Caden and a pair of photos for Cami and I. Cami and I then left and Caden stayed back with a couple of his buddies as they were going to the Twins parking lot for pregame and then go to the game. Cami and I went home for a little bit and then headed to the Twins game. We ran in to Caden and his buddies in the Metropolitan Club and Caden said he got Jason Castro and Bartolo Colon as they entered the parking lot. Pretty fun day for all of us!
A Fair Time
Today was the first day of the MN State Fair for me. I took the kids along and we had a good time. It worked out that Byron Buxton and Eddie Rosario were there and we got a few autographs from both of them. The kids got me a couple cards I needed as well as items for their own collections. The cards I ended up with were:
Byron Buxton- 2017 Topps Now Road To Opening Day
Byron Buxton- 2017 Topps Now 08.18.2017 13.85 Seconds Inside the Park HR
Byron Buxton- 2017 Allen & Ginter #33
Byron Buxton- 2017 Topps #590- Triplet of Twins card that was already signed by Eduardo Escobar (now it just needs Sano)
Eddie Rosario- 2017 Topps Now Road To Opening Day
Eddie Rosario- 2017 Topps Now 06.13.2017- 3 HR Game
Eddie Rosario- 2017 Topps Now 06.13.2017- Franchise Record 28 Hits
Eddie Rosario- 2017 Topps Heritage #80
Eddie Rosario- 2017 Topps #304- Team card already signed by Eduardo Escobar
Cami got a couple photos signed by Buxton and Caden got a Buxton card for his collection.
We all had a great day at the Fair but to get to meet Twins players makes it so much more fun!
30 Years Down The Road
Back in October 1987, I was just starting my senior year of high school and the Twins did something they had never done and that was win a World Series. I have a lot of great memories of that fall and most of them are related to the Twins.
Fast forward thirty years to today when the Twins honored the 1987 team with an on field ceremony. Before the game though, Cami and I had some autographs to get!
Fan HQ had a signing with over twenty players from that 1987 team and I had some items that needed some ink (or Sharpie). I purchased the tickets at the door of the event and got in line. The line was long and hot but rewarding at the end. While waiting in line, they announced that people with one or two players could go in and get their items signed. While I was not moving, I thought it would be easier on me for when I did get in there to have less items to dig out and mess around with so I had Cami take a couple items and get them signed so I would put them away. The first thing she did was went to Tony Oliva and got a couple older magazines signed. I asked how Tony was and she said “He was classic Tony”. That meant friendly and happy. (Side note: Tony O is one of her favorites of the old timers and has a few interactions with him and he has been awesome each time.) Once she brought those back to me I gave her a large photo of Randy Bush’s slide in game 2 of the 1987 World Series that I already had signed by Dan Gladden. Randy signed it and Cami came back to wait with me. All that was left was a couple Sports Illustrateds and a baseball. Our turn finally came up and we started with Roy Smalley. Roy signed one of the SIs and said that “Jeff still tells me how my hand is blocking his face on that photo!”. Then it was over to Sal Butera. Sal signed both issues and I told Cami that Sal is Drew Butera’s dad. Her eyes lit up when she made the connection. Sal had on his champion ring and showed it to Cami and said “Drew’s is much bigger!” Then I hopped in line for Dan Gladden while Cami took the magazine to Mark Davidson. She said he was really nice and polite. We waited in Gladden’s line and when we got up to him he signed the SI and looked at Cami and said “You are too young to have seen this” and that “you missed a good time!” I gave Cami the SI and she got in line for Steve Lombardozzi. Steve greeted her with “Hi cutie!” so she thought that was just awesome. Then it was to Tim Laudner’s line. Tim, or rather the back of his head, is featured in the bottom right corner of the cover. Tim commented about having hair back then to Cami and then said “You know, I have hair on my dresser that I forgot at home today. I usually wear it on Sundays.” she laughed and he said “I am just kidding” and gave her knuckles. She thought that was neat. Then we went to Jeff Reardon’s line. Jeff signed the cover and commented that “That was the only time Roy ever touched my face and it happened to be on the cover!” This completed both Sports Illustrated magazines and all that was left was a 1987 World Series baseball and Frank Viola. We got right up to him and he signed the ball under the World Series logo with “87 WS MVP” and Cami and I packed everything up and high fived each other for a job well done!
We had an hour or so to kill before our next event so we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to Target Field. One of the things I signed up for in my Sweet Spot Rewards was to be a part of autograph signing events. Cami and I went to our event which had Brandon Kintzler, Eduardo Escobar, and Jose Berrios. Cami had a photo for each person and when she got to Kintzler, she congratulated him on being an all star. He signed her photo with “2017 A S” and signed my Topps Now Road to Opening Day card commenting “There is a card of me with the Twins!” Next up was Escobar. Eduardo signed Cami’s photo and a pair of cards for me. My cards were from Topps Series 2 this year. Then Berrios signed Cami’s photo and my Topps Now card from May 18th. We had tickets to the Twins game tonight but it was so hot that we decided to go home so I could shower and change clothes rather than staying at the ballpark. We did just that and got back to watch the pregame ceremony honoring the 1987 team. The Twins won the game and after the final out Cami looked at me, high fived me, and said “Today was pretty successful dad!” Yes, Cami, it sure was. Thanks for letting me tag along.