Category: Sports Illustrated

As most of you know, I really only collect MLB autographs.  A few years ago I had the opportunity to add a couple 1980 US Olympic hockey players to a couple Sports Illustrated magazines so I guess I started that project.  Today George Johnson from SportsNewsShows.com had most of the Miracle on Ice team at a local show so I decided to get the ones I needed on just one of my SI’s as I was not about to pay $29 per for a second SI.

Over the course of the day I added the following players to my team celebration SI:
Jack O’Callahan
Steve Janaszak
Ken Morrow
Bob Suter
Rob McClanahan
Eric Strobel
Mark Wells
I had a ticket for Dave Silk but he arrived early and I was going by the time.  When his time was up to sign, he was already gone and I missed him.  I did get a refund but I was still disappointed.  One of the issues I have about this show is the poor communication.  You have one guy yelling what ticket numbers and person was ready and everyone all standing around the entry way.  If you are off to the side, you cannot hear anything (props to the guy for not losing his mind though with everyone asking every 30 seconds “Is my number ready?”).  I doubt Silk will ever be back in the Twin Cities so I suppose I will never have him on it.  Oh well.

In between all the hockey players I added the following autographs to my collection… all on Sports Illustrated magazines:
Lou Brock on the 10.16.1967 issue and adding him to my 10.17.1968 issue.  He commented on the 1967 issue that it was “… from the 1967 World Series and I was trying to trick them I was going to steal.  And it worked!”.
Ozzie Smith on my 9.28.1987 issue.  Ozzie is as class as they come.
Roberto Alomar on my 10.14.1996 issue and adding him to my 10.26.1992 issue already signed by John Smoltz.  Roberto commented that “I cannot believe he got me out!”  While getting Alomar to sign, my buddy Joel B came with me because he purchased a “game used” bat from a local dealer but wanted to ask Alomar if it was truly game used.  He showed it to Alomar and he said he used that brand but not that bat.  He took a couple swings with it and said the bats he used were not flame tempered as this one was and when he found out it was purchased from Kirby Puckett’s collection he said he would have given Kirby a nicer bat than that one.  (note:  Joel brought it back to the person he bought it from and got his money back).  It was really cool hanging with Joel all day and he rally came down just to hang with me and to find out about the bat.  Had it been real, he would have gotten it autographed.  At one point Joel and I went out to my car to get some stuff I bought from Joel a while ago and on the way out, I ran into a loyal blog reader Mike!

Throughout the day I made a couple purchases.  I bought a 1987 Twins pocket schedule I did not have and a Puckett home run ticket stub from 1994 I did not have.  I also picked up a season ticket version from Paul Molitor’s 3000th hit game.  The biggest purchase though was three full 1961 Peter’s Meats panels I needed.  I now only need 10 more to complete the 25 card set.

After missing Dave Silk, I am down to needing four more autographs on the Celebration Sports Illustrated to have the entire team.

All in all it was a long but fun day!

Today Brian Harper was in town to sign autographs at the HarMar Mall.  I have been waiting a while to get something signed that I would have been unable to send to someone or a show via the mail so this was my perfect opportunity.

A number of years ago the Twins held a “Garage Sale” of sorts at the Metrodome.  It was before the move to Target Field and they basically offered for sale anything extra from the Dome as well as a ton of leftover stadium give away items.  I went there and picked up a couple really cool things.  One was a banner than hung on the street poles around the Dome with the 40th Anniversary team logo signed by Kirby Puckett.  I have since traded that banner but another cool thing I bought was one of those pictures that were printed on plexiglass that hung in the concourse with a light behind it.  The one I bought featured Brian Harper and Rick Aguilera shaking hands after either Game 1 or Game 2 of the 1991 World Series.  I got Aggie to sign it at one of the Friday Night Alumni Nights the Twins had at the Dome.  He thought it was pretty neat back then so I was excited to see what Harper thought of it.  Brian spotted it while signing the person’s items in line in front of me and kept looking at it.  When it was my turn and put it on the table, he looked and said “That was after Game 6!” and I told him Game 6 was a walkoff and he said “Oh you’re right.  Aggie got the win in 6.  It must have been Game 1 or 2.  All those games were close so he was in ’em all!”  He signed it with “World Champs ’91′”.  It turned out AWESOME!  I am really pleased with it!  I then handed him my 1991 Sports Illustrated and said he must have signed a million of those in his life and he said he has one of those framed in his home.

I then walked over and bought a 2013 Topps Update card set and some singles to finish my set and headed home.  What a great feeling to have finished something I bought around a decade ago!