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!