Category: Sports Illustrated

Cobra

Today I received a 05.30.1977 Sports Illustrated magazine I recently sent to Ohio Sports Memorabilia for a signing they were having with Dave Parker.  I saw their listing on signingshotline.com and sent it to them not knowing much about the company.  Wow!  I am more than pleased!  The event was on January 24th.  I got it in three mail days!  Not only that but it came with JSA certification on it too!  The company did a great job and I am very pleased with it.  I hope to watch for their future events based on the job they did this time around!

Twinsfest 2015 – Day 2

After last night’s excitement, I hard a hard time falling asleep. I think the last time I saw the clock it was around 1:30am. I got up at 6am and got ready and headed to Target Field to meet up with my buddy Shane. Shane and I have our tradition where we meet up on the Saturday of Twinsfest and hang out. I got to Target Field around 7:30am and was probably 50th in line. Not bad. The weather was so much nicer than in years past so the wait was fine. Once the doors opened I headed to Joe Mauer’s line and Shane went for Ervin Santana and Jordan Schafer. Shane then headed to Mauer’s line and we went through again with and I went for another card while Shane got a ball done. We then headed to the Danny Santana, Brian Duensing and Eduardo Escobar line. After that we decided to get something to eat. While eating, I saw Kurt Suzuki was signing for a minimum $20 donation to the Twins Wifes Group so I saw that as an opportunity to knock off the three card I needed for the $60 donation. We then split up and I headed to the Kyle Gibson, Alex Meyer and Neil Allen line. Shane and I then met up in the Oswaldo Arcia, Caleb Thielbar and JO Berrios line. We went to the Ricky Nolasco, Tommy Milone and BJ Hermsen line after the previous line was finished. We were in that line real early so we split up for the next group because Shane really wanted Phil Hughes and I need Tony Oliva. While waiting in the Oliva and Byron Buxton line, just behind me was Mike E (mudpuddlehuddle on Pat Neshek’s website) was standing behind me. We chatted a little and he asked me if I had anything I needed done for Tony Oliva as he was just getting Buxton. I actually had a pair of older magazines and jumped at the chance. A few years ago I sent Mike a couple dollars as he was going through an adoption. Mike remembered that this long later and told me he never will forget it. That was one of my highlights of Twinsfest… that he remembered it and STILL appreciate it. He was real excited to help me out. Shane got me a Sports Illustrated magazine signed by by Dan Gladden in the line where he went. After that is was off to the Trevor May, Jorge Polanco and Mark Hamburger line. Shane helped me out in this line with some items I had to get signed. After we were done, we headed to Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner and a little more reminicing. It was an awesome day from start to finish (minus the phone call from Amy that the dog got into some mouse poison while visiting another home– he is ok after a trip to the Pet Hospital ER). It was great spending the day with Shane and catching up on things. I miss not seeing my buddy Russ. He is another buddy who would hang out at Twinsfest with us. Hopefully next year we can get back to the old Gang of Three.
What I added to the collection today included:
Joe Mauer: 2014 Allen & Ginter, 2014 Gypsy Queen
Jordan Schafer: 2009 Allen & Ginter, 2014 Topps
Danny Santana: 2014 Topps, 2014 Topps Heritage
Eduardo Escobar: 2 @ 2014 Topps
Kurt Suzuki: 2014 Topps Update, 2014 Topps Update All Star, (For my buddy Greg) 2010 Bowman
Kyle Gibson: 2014 Gypsy Queen
Alex Meyer: 2 @ 2014 Topps Heritage Minors
Neil Allen: 1981 Coca Cola, 1989 Topps
Oswaldo Arcia: 2013 Topps Heritage High, 2014 Topps Heritage
Caleb Theilbar: 1st ML Win ticket w/”1st ML Win”
JO Berrios: 2 @ 2014 Topps Heritage Minors, 2014 Topps Pro Debut
Ricky Nolasco: 2014 Topps Heritage, 2014 Topps
Tommy Milone: 2014 Gypsy Queen
BJ Hermsen: 2009 Obak, 2010 Topps Pro Debut
Tony Oliva: 1966 Dell Sports Magazine, September 1970 All Star Sports Magazine
Byron Buxton: 2013 Topps Heritage Minors
Dan Gladden: 10.26.1987 Sports Illustrated
Trevor May: ML Debut ticket w/”ML Debut”
Jorge Polanco: ML Debut ticket w/”ML Debut”, 2 @ 2014 Topps Update
Mark Hamburger: 4 @ 2011 Bowman Chrome

I have already gotten more autographs (and spent more money!) than I ever would have guessed at this point. Special thanks go out to Shane and Mike for their help. I can’t wait for the icing on the cake day with the kids tomorrow!

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!