Category: Misc

Twinsfest 2015 – Day 3

My expectations were exceeded in the first two days of Twinsfest so anything I got today would be icing on the cake. Traditionally Sunday is the day I take the kids so they can have fun and get excited for the upcoming Twins season and this year was no different. I picked up Caden’s friend Cayden at 7:05am and the four of us headed to Target Field. It was a little colder this morning than the previous two but we waited and at 9am entered Target Field. We were about 40th or so in line so we were in good shape. I thought maybe I could get through Joe Mauer’s line twice. While waiting in line, Caden’s friend Noah showed up and I offered him $10 if he would get a card signed by Joe Mauer with me. He was all over that so Noah and I went to the Mauer line and Caden and Cami went to Ervin Santana’s line. Ervin puts #smellbaseball on a number of his Twitter posts and Cami thought it would be cool to ask for the incription on her baseball. He did not let her down! He signed it on the ball and she was STOKED! Caden got a card and they both got the others in the line. When they were done, Cami came over to the Mauer line with me and Caden and Cayden walked around for a really short time. While the kids were getting Ervin, Noah and I got Joe. We then got back in line and Cami joined us and the three of us got Joe. Then Noah left to get someone else and Caden joined us and Caden, Cami and I got Joe. I could not believe it! I needed about 40 or so Mauers and finished the weekend with 17 signed cards. The third time I went through the line I told Joe he was on too many cards that I needed signed and he said “You are coming up with some good ones!” I handed him a card with him and Roy Halladay in the Topps Heritage set and he said he had never seen that card. That was pretty cool. Joe was very friendly and talkative which was really neat. After that, Caden and Cami headed to the Brian Dozier, Michael Tonkin and Tyler Duffey line and I headed to the Jordan Schafer and Nick Gordon line. I stayed in the same area and got the following players in the next group; Ricky Nolasco, Eddie Rosario and Trevor May. The kids went through the Kurt Suzuki, Ryan Pressly, Kohl Stewart and Blake Schmit line. Caden got Pressly on a ML Debut ticket for me. I joined Cami for the next group with Phil Hughes, Tommy Milone, Max Murphy and Tom Quinlan. Caden hung out with his friends and ended up getting in the line later on on his own and got a REALLY cool card signed by Hughes for his collection. The kids went to the Pop a Shot area to shoot hoops with some Twins players. While there, Cami joined them and Oswaldo Arcia was standing behind her. She was draining shot after shot and I saw Oswaldo look over at the other player and mouthed “WOW!” It was pretty cool. Once they were done, Caden and Cami each got a card signed by him and Cami got a picture. Cami then did the Speed Pitch and hit 32 mph! At this point I figured I was done and I would let the kids do what they wanted to. Turns out Caden and Noah and Cayden went in the Tony Oliva and Miguel Sano line while Cami and I went ot the Oswaldo Arcia, Eduardo Escobar, Jorge Polanco and Mark Hamburger line. On the way there, we headed to the Twins Wives table again and Cami got Danny Santana on a couple cards. Cami went through the line and got an autograph from each. We then headed down to the vendors and I talked to a couple of my favorite guys and Cami wanted to go to the Metropolitan Club and check it out. She saw that Paul Molitor was in the Selfie Station and got a photo with the Hall of Famer and new Twins manager. Once we spent a few minutes in that area we decided to walk to the boys and on the way there took a tour of the Twins clubhouse and then Cami took a few swings in the player’s batting cages. She did pretty good! We found the boys and I took one final photo of Cami in the lower level of Target Field. We headed home tired but really excited.
The tally for the day includes:
Ervin Santana: (Cami) OMLB w/”#smellbaseball”, (Caden) 2014 Topps
Butch Davis: (Cami) Index card
Frank Quilici: (Cami) 1972 Topps Twins Team, (Caden) 1971 Topps
Mike Kvasnicka: (Cami) Index card
Cole DeVries: (Cami) Index card, (Caden) 2013 Topps
Joe Mauer: (Me) 2010 Allen & Ginter, 2012 Allen & Ginter, 2006 Topps Heritage, 2007 Topps Heritage, 2008 Topps Heritage, 2009 Topps Heritage, 2009 Topps Heritage All Star, 2011 Topps Heritage All Star, 2010 Topps Heritage High Powered Battery, 2010 Topps Heritage All Star, 2014 Topps Heritage, 2014 Topps Heritage Batting Leaders (WOW! What a day!)
Brian Dozier: (Cami) 2014 Topps Heritage, (Caden) 2011 Topps Heritage High Number
Michael Tonkin: (Cami) Index card
Tyler Duffey: (Cami) Index card
Jordan Schafer: (Me) 2009 Allen & Ginter, 2014 Topps
Nick Gordon: (Me) 2014 Bowman Chrome, 2014 Topps Insert (with Kyle Schwarber)
Taylor Rogers: (Cami) Index card
Kurt Suzuki: (Cami) 2014 Topps Update All Star, (Caden) 2014 Topps Update
Ryan Pressly: (Me) MLB Debut ticket w/”MLB Debut”
Kohl Stewart: (Cami) 2014 Topps Heritage Minors, 2014 Topps Pro Debut, (Caden) 2014 Topps Heritage Minors, 2014 Topps Pro Debut
Blake Schmit: (Cami) Index card
Ricky Nolasco: (Me) 2014 Allen & Ginter, 2014 Topps
Eddie Rosario: (Me) 2014 Topps Heritage Minors, 2014 Topps Pro Debut
Trevor May: (Me) ML Debut ticket w/”ML Debut”
Phil Hughes: (Me) 2 @ 2014 Topps, (Cami) 2014 Topps, (Caden) 2014 Topps Heritage, 2011 Allen & Ginter Future Stars
Tommy Milone: (Me) 2014 Topps Heritage, (Cami) 2014 Gypsy Queen, (Caden) 2014 Topps Heritage
Max Murphy: (Cami) Index card
Tom Quinlan: (Cami) Index card
Tony Oliva: (Caden) 1969 Topps All Star
Miguel Sano: (Caden) 2011 Topps Heritage Minors
Oswaldo Arcia: (Cami) 2013 Topps, (Caden) 2014 Allen & Ginter
Eduardo Escobar: (Cami) 2014 Topps
Jorge Polanco: (Me) ML Debut ticket w/”ML Debut”
Mark Hamburger: (Cami) 2011 Bowman Chrome
Danny Santana: (Me) 2 @ 2014 Topps

It was an amazing weekend that exceeded my results by a whole day. It was fun to see the players all excited to see the fans. I saw Torii Hunter walking the halls a few times and he was smiling from ear to ear and giving hugs with everyone. It truly is great he is back with the Twins.

We cannot wait for Opening Day!

Twinsfest 2015 – Day 1

Today was Day One of my most favorite weekend of the year. For the second straight year, Twinsfest was held at Target Field and I was hoping it would be close to what it was last year in regards to the autograph lines. I took today off and since Cami has gotten 100% on every test, quiz, and assignment for the past two weeks (at least), I told her I would take her out of school early if she wanted to go with me. Of course she did so I picked her up around 2:30 and we headed to Target Field. We got in line and was around 60 or so in the Ramp A skyway. Once they opened the doors, we headed up to Joe Mauer and Kent Hrbek’s line. We were able to get through that line twice. I was pumped because I need about 40 cards signed by Joe for all my sets I am working on so to get through the line twice, and for Joe to sign two cards for each of us each time, I was 10% done with what I needed and was pumped! We headed to Kyle Gibson, Mike Pelfrey, Brian Duensing, Tim Stauffer and Gene Larkins line after that. We were early enough in that line that we could shoot over to Paul Molitor and Miguel Sano’s line and be in a great position. Cami conned me into paying the $10 extra for MLB authentication on her Molitor baseball. We then went over to the Glen Perkins, Tommy Milone, Aaron Hicks, Eric Fryer and Mike Kvasnicka line. A couple really cool things happened in this line. The first was when I got to Eric Fryer I asked him to sign the ticket I had to his first homerun game with the inscription. He asked me if I knew who threw the ball. I told him I had no idea and he looked at me and said “Tommy Milone” who was sitting three people before him. Tommy heard that and looked and nodded. That was pretty cool. Then we got to Glen Perkins. Cami asked Glen to sign his All Star update card from last year with “2014 ASG”. He asked ASG and asked if she knew what it meant and she said “All Star Game! I was there!” He signed it and then I got a couple cards signed by him. I follow him on Twitter so I asked him when he was going to invite us over sometime for his smoked ribs (he has a smoker) with a smile and he looked at me and kinda thought for a second and said “It’s kinda a spur of the moment thing” and smiled and winked. His response was awesome! Cami and I then headed down to the lower level because she wanted her most favorite Twins player Kennys Vargas’ autograph. We got in line and when we got to the table, Kennys was first and there was kind of a log jam of people so I told Cami to go stand next to Kennys and I will take a picture. Cami said “No dad. They said no posed pictures.” and Kennys saw us and waved her over and I took an awesome picture of the two of them. It REALLY made her night and was probably the highlight of Twinsfest for her. We got Kennys’ autographs and moved down the line through Kohl Stewart, J.R. Graham, Butch Davis and JT Bruett. After that we went to see my friend and fellow ticket collector Tony Swann. Tony lives in Chicago and is collecting a ticket from all the games Carlton Fisk played in. He is down to needing just over 100 games. Amazing. Even more amazing is how kind and thoughtful Tony is. Tony is on the lookout for Kirby Puckett tickets I need and gave me a full ticket to the game Puck hit HR #123. He also gave Cami, and one for Caden, a Kirby Puckett ticket strip from his weekend celebration in 1997. Thanks Tony! We swung by my friend Joel’s table and Cami talked me into getting a jar of Domepourri. We then headed to see my friend Rob M who works for the Twins. We had a real nice chat and closed down Day 1 of the weekend long party. We headed home for some much needed rest.
The full tally of what Cami and I added to our collections today included:
Joe Mauer: (Me) 2011 Gypsy Queen, 2012 Gypsy Queen, 2013 Gypsy Queen, 2013 Allen & Ginter
Kent Hrbek: (Me) 07.05.1982 Sports Illustrated, Original Metrodome #14 Seat Tag, 1986 7-Eleven, (Cami) 1991 10 Year Reunion card
Kyle Gibson: (Me) 2013 Topps Update, 2014 Topps Heritage, (Cami) 2014 Gypsy Queen
Mike Pelfrey: (Me) 2014 Topps, 2014 Topps Heritage, (Cami) 2014 Topps, 2014 Topps Heritage
Brian Duensing: (Me) 2014 Topps, (Cami) 2014 Topps
Tim Stauffer: (Me) OMLB, (Cami) index card
Gene Larkin: (Me) 1989 Topps, 1991 10 Year Reunion card, (Cami) 1991 10 Year Reunion card, 1987 Topps Traded
Paul Molitor: (Me) 2013 Allen & Ginter, (Cami) OMLB w/MLB authentication
Miguel Sano: (Me) 2011 Topps Heritage Minors All Star SP, (Cami) 2011 Topps Heritage Minors
Glen Perkins: (Me) 2014 Topps, 2014 Topps Update All Star, (Cami) 2014 Topps Update All Star w/”2014 ASG”
Tommy Milone: (Me) ML Debut ticket, 2014 Topps Heritage, 2014 Gypsy Queen
Aaron Hicks: (Me) 2013 Topps Heritage High, 2014 Topps Heritage, (Cami) 2014 Topps Heritage
Eric Fryer: (Me) 1st HR ticket, 2011 Bowman, (Cami) 2011 Bowman
Mike Kvasnicka: (Me) 2011 Topps Pro Debut, (Cami) 2011 Topps Pro Debut
Kennys Vargas: (Me) 2014 Topps Heritage High, 2014 Topps Heritage High, (Cami) OMLB
Kohl Stewart: (Me) 2014 Topps Heritage Minors, 2014 Bowman Chrome, 2014 Topps Pro Debut, (Cami) 2014 Topps Heritage Minors
J.R. Graham: (Cami) Index card
Butch Davis: (Me) 4 different minor league cards
JT Bruett: (Cami) Index card

Wow! What a haul! I cannot wait to see what I get tomorrow!

2014 All Star Futures Game

I decided not to head to Fanfest today even though I had a ticket.  I was just way too tired from the previous two days and got home late last night after the concert.  Amy did not care to go to the Futures Game so we took Caden’s friend Cayden who we spent all day Friday with.  The kids wanted to get to the Futures Game early so we headed down to get there before the gates opened.  We went to the railing and tried for autographs.  While there, a security guard gave Cami a foul ball.  It is cool that it has the Futures Game logo on it.

I got Blue Jays prospect Daniel Norris on a baseball.  He skipped over Caden and Cami unfortunately even though I was behind them.  Caden and I decided to get out of the sun so we walked around the concourse while Cayden and Cami went to the third base side to get some of the World team players.  They were successful there and Cami got three players to sign her All Star Sunday program.  The players to sign her program were Tayron Guerrero, Luis Severino, and Alfonso Alcantara.

The boys when up to their seats and Cami and I went to ours and we all settled in to watch the games.  It was a lot of fun to see these future stars shine!  In a few years we will be watching a few of them play in the “Main Attraction”!

A Two Time World Series Champion

Today Kent Hrbek was signing autographs at the Twin Cities Sports Collectors Show in Bloomington.  They were expecting a big turnout so Cami and I headed down to make sure we were there at 9am when tickets went on sale.  We met up with Joel B (brad0112 on SCN) as he was planning on being there too.  I had brought down a few items plus had a fellow SCN member send me some cards to get signed so I was hoping to get through the line twice and was able to.  The items I got signed today were:
1995 Twins Schedule Poster- This is now signed by all players on it with their uniform numbers including (Puckett, Oliva, Killebrew, Carew and now Hrbek)
11.01.1991 Sports Illustrated
#14 Metrodome Seatback (I had paid for 14 inscriptions to be written on it.  When I got to him he said he was there “to sign autographs and not write a novel” and that I “could write them on there”.  I was a little bummed but he did write “World Champs 87/91” on it.
1982 Topps rookie already signed by Tim Laudner
2 baseball cards for Cami
5 baseball cards for Robert T (lutherlafy on SCN).

After we were done getting autographs, Joel and I went to a dealer that was set up selling off a collection of really nice signed baseballs.  Unfortunately the owner ran into some health problems and had to liquidate his collection.  There were some really nice baseballs for sale.  I purchased the following gorgeous baseballs:
Brooks Robinson – “1964 MVP  16 Gold Gloves  1983 HOF”
Curt Gowdy
Hal Newhouser – “AL MVP 44-45 – HOF ’92”
Willie Stargell – “HOF 1988  475 HR  1540 RBI  .282 AVE”
Yogi Berra – “MVP 51-54-55   HOF 72”
AB Chandler
These baseballs are near mint snow white OAL/ONL baseballs that were stored in tubs and did not see the light of day in years.  The quality was unsurpassed by many.  I am really pleased.  My only regret was that I did not buy more!  Maybe next time.