I have had some pretty good mail days but I think todays mail day is the best ever! I received items from three people and all are people I admire in baseball.
The first package was from Tom Kelly. My friend Mark B is the Tigers Ticket God. If he does not have a specific Detroit Tigers ticket he will track it down and that is exactly what he did for me. On May 26, 1975 TK hit his only MLB home run and Mark found me a pair of tickets to that game. TK signed one of them with “Only MLB HR”. I will donate the other ticket to the Twins as they have the home run baseball on display. I think a ticket would go great with it. The other item TK signed for me was a ticket for the 09.08.2012 Twins game when his #10 was retired. He inscribed that ticket with “#10 Retired”
The next package I opened was from Dennis Eckersley. I had mailed him a ticket from the 2004 Hall of Fame Induction which was postmarked from Cooperstown. He signed it beautifully. Now I need to send it to Paul Molitor to complete it.
I saved the best for last and I was blown away with how perfect everything was signed. Doug Keating (4192HITS on SCN) had a signing with Joe and I sent in a few items I had that I needed signed. The items I received are:
2015 Topps #700 SP Variation
2022 Allen & Ginter #163
2018 Topps Now Players Weekend Bonus PWB-66
2021 Topps Project 70 #629
10.06.2009 Ticket with “2009 AL MVP” and “Batting Champ .365”
09.29.2018 Ticket with “Last Run 1,018” and “Last RBI 923”
06.15.2019 Ticket with “#7 Retired”
Game used baseball from the game Joe’s #7 was retired with “#7 Retired 6/15/19”
Retail baseball from the game Joe’s #7 was retired with “#7 Retired 6/15/19”
The 2009 ticket is from Game #163 and has Joe pictured on it. It is signed in ultra fine silver deco and looks amazing. Actually, all of them look amazing. I am really excited to add these to my collection!
Category: Misc
Twinsfest 2023
Wow! What a blast today! Twinsfest is back after a couple year hiatus. While the autograph day was only one day this year, with some help from friends, I was able to add some amazing items to my collection.
The weekend started Friday morning when I met up with my buddy Shane in Anoka. His wife drove him down to meet up with me for our annual trip to Twinsfest. This year Shane’s son Mark joined us. We went out for dinner and got ready for a full day of fun today.
My alarm went off at 6:03am and I wanted to roll over and sleep another couple hours but I knew if we had a shot to get the players in the first group we had to get going. Shane, Mark, and I got to Target Field around 7:20 and the line to enter at the skyway level was well into the parking ramp. It was cold. It was REALLY COLD. We were at least blocked from any wind in the ramp but standing there for an hour and a half before the doors opened was not fun. Eventually my season ticket partner Carol and her crew arrived as well as Caden and his buddy and we all joined the line together to wait. Once we entered the stadium, Shane and I headed to the service level as did Caden and Noah. Caden and Noah helped me this year and I could not have been more grateful for their assistance. The items they got signed for my collection really helped make Twinsfest successful for me and having Shane with me was just as helpful. I am eternally grateful for what they did for me.
Shane and I waited in line for Brooks Lee, Royce Lewis, Austin Martin and Jose Miranda while Caden and Noah waited for Carlos Correa. All four of us were successful and while Shane and I headed into the next line, Caden and Noah were able to get through the Kyle Farmer, Joey Gallo, Ryan Jeffers, Bailey Ober, and Jayce Tingler line.
The next time slot found Shane and I getting Nick Gorden, Alex Kirilloff, Trevor Larnach, and David Popkins. Caden and Noah got through the Joe Ryan, Josh Winder, and Simeon Woods Richardson line. This was an important line for me because I had tickets for two of the three guys in this grouping.
Caden and Noah went to get into the next line but it was so long and they discovered that the Joe Mauer line was already forming so they got into that line and waited… and waited… and waited. They waited in the Mauer line for three plus hours for me.
Shane and I were invited to a season ticket holder Meet and Greet so we headed there. On the way there we stopped to say hi to my pal Tony and his son Spencer. I met Tony probably 25 years ago at Twinsfest and his son probably 10 years ago. Tony and his son are two of the nicest, kindest, thoughtful people you will ever meet. Tony is trying to collect a ticket stub from every game that Carlton Fisk played in. It is an amazing collection and I am always on the lookout for tickets he needs. His son has grown A LOT since I last saw him pre-covid. He is taking after his dad as being a phenomenal person. Tony gave me a ticket to add to my collection too. I found one ticket for him years ago but have been shut out since. I would give anything to find another one (or two) for him for all he has done for me as well as others.
We moved on to the Meet and Greet but were a little late. We were able to find a spot and enjoy a half hour of Royce Lewis and Pablo Lopez. Let me tell you, this was THE highlight of the weekend! Both players were so personable it was so cool to see them in a relaxed environment and answer questions from a handful of fans. We got a photo with them after the talking and found out my buddy Rob was looking for us so Shane and I waited outside the suite for Rob to show up. It has been a long standing highlight for Rob and I to meet up and spend a few minutes chatting at Twinsfest. We chat throughout the year and see each other as well but ALWAYS at Twinfest. Shane’s buddy Pete and his son Daniel joined us and we had a nice half hour chat and catch up with everyone.
From here we headed to our final line. Shane and I were able to get Jorge Polanco, Tom Quinlan, Brian Raabe, and Christian Vazquez. This was a fun line because everyone in this group was very personable too. As we left the area after getting the autographs we were met by Caden and Noah. They dropped off their goodies for me and they headed back to their apartment on campus at the U of M and Shane and I started heading to the car. I was hoping to chat with Tony and Spencer a little bit but Shane received a call that his father was not doing well so we wanted to head out as soon as possible. But, we had one more tradition we had to complete. The annual “Pick Dave Goltz’s Nose” photo. On the suite level at Target Field they have oversized Twins baseball cards from various years on the wall. It turns out that Shane used to work or know Dave’s nephew so what started as a joke for Shane to put his finger near to nose on the 1974 Topps Goltz card image has continued just about every year since. As we got to the card, we hear “Shane?” and look up and there was Terry “Bo” Boevers sitting at a table. Terry was a founding member of the fraternity Shane and I were in in college. It was AWESOME meeting Terry (I think I met him once about 30 plus years ago (Shane kept in better tough with him over the years)). We got a photo of the three of us together and THEN we headed home. I met up with Shane’s wife and dropped him and Mark off and they headed home (a couple hours plus away) as did I.
Twinsfest autographs were only one day this year but with the help of three other awesome people I was able to get a number of items signed for my collection. The lines were longer and very congested but it worked. After not having Twinsfest the last couple years it was very refreshing to be at the ballpark in January and get fired up for the season. It was also amazing to see new friends and old friends (the usher of my season ticket section even stopped by to say hi to me!). My most favorite weekend of the year did not disappoint!
Here is everything I was able to add to my collection this weekend:
Carlos Correa: Ticket with “1st MLB HR”, 2022 Topps US39, 2022 Topps us230
Brooks Lee: 2 OMLB
Royce Lewis: 2022 Topps US105, 2022 Topps Heritage 515, 2022 Allen & Ginter 290
Jose Miranda: 2022 Topps US5, 2022 Topps US120, 2022 Topps Heritage 503, 2022 Allen & Ginter 214
Austin Martin: 2 OMLB
Kyle Farmer: 2 OMLB
Joey Gallo: 2 OMLB
Ryan Jeffers: 2021 Allen & Ginter 242, 2021 Topps 552, 2021 Topps Heritage 49, 2022 Topps Heritage 76
Bailey Ober: 2021 Topps US84 (streaked- I did not prepare it?), 2022 Topps 590 (streaked), 2022 Topps Heritage 632
Nick Gordon: 2022 Topps 598, 2022 Topps Heritage 599
Alex Kirilloff: 2021 Topps US41 (photo variation), 2021 Topps US41, 2021 Topps 413, 2022 Topps 197
Trevor Larnach: 2021 Topps US6, 2022 Topps 596
David Popkins: 2 Target Field card 2019 Topps 424
Josh Winder: 2022 Allen & Ginter 256, 2022 Topps US6, 2022 Topps Heritage 621, 06.01.2022 Topps Now 116
Joe Ryan: Ticket with “MLB Debut”, Ticket with “1st MLB Win”
Simeon Woods Richardson: 2 tickets with “MLB Debut”
Jorge Polanco: 2020 Topps 31, 2020 Topps 82, 2021 Topps 598, 2022 Topps 417, 2022 Topps Heritage 257, 2020 Gypsy Queen 95
Tom Quinlan: 1993 Score 309, 1991 Topps Debut 127
Brian Raabe: Custom card for my buddy Greg, Generic card
Christian Vazquez: 2 OMLB
Joe Mauer: OMLB under the Twins 60th Anniversary Logo, Joe Mauer Model Catchers mitt
What a fun day! Can’t wait for Twinsfest 2024!
Sir Rodney
A pile of Rod Carew signed items showed up today! Tom O (orr23mj on SCN) had a signing with Rod Carew as well as with Travis Wood. I started to acquire oddball Carew items since I had just about everything else signed by him and sent in a few of those oddball items. Travis Wood was signing at a different date but they were close enough that I mailed one package to Tom. Travis signed my 10.10.2016 Sports Illustrated issue. It now has been signed by twelve out of the nineteen players on the cover. This started on a whim knowing I would probably not get even half and here I am 63% complete! The Carew items I received today are:
1971 Cord Sportfacts magazine
07.01.1974 Sports Illustrated magazine
June 1975 Baseball Digest
1977 Sertoma Stars card
March 1978 Baseball Digest
Also arriving today was my April 1961 Baseball Digest signed by Al Spangler. Now that issue is off to Tony Kubek for completion!
A “Cheeky” Mail Day!
Wow! What a fun day of mail today! I received FIVE packages of mail that contained autographed items! Where do I start?
The first envelope I opened was from my buddy Steve C (last name pronounced Cheek thus the title of this post). He had sent me a baseball card of himself from when he was a kid and I sent it to him asking him to sign it. I included a little that I sent out to the ballplayers and got it back signed today. I half expected a price sheet for future autographs. LOL. Thanks bud!
The next envelope was from Vinnie M (vinniemiller on SCN) who had posted some cards for sale on a Facebook group. Vinnie provided me two 2021 Topps Heritage cards signed by Jose Berrios, the regular and In Action. Great job as always Vinnie!
Next was an envelope that I had sent to The Philly Show a while ago that had a ticket from Kyle Schwarber’s debut. He signed it nicely with MLB Debut and I paid for JSA Witness sticker.
Then, Brooks Robinson returned my Baseball Digest from July 1974 signed beautifully with HOF 1983. Looks awesome!
Lastly, I received my box of goodies from Redsfest that I had sent to Tony R (trogers on SCN). In it was a beautifully signed Elly De La Cruz baseball and a Spencer Steer ticket with MLB Debut inscribed. Tony even included some Reds schedules for me! I love it!
What a great day of mail today! It was a blast opening it all!