Adventures in Autograph Collecting
Today I received a couple items I am excited to add to the collection.
A few weeks ago I purchased a nice season ticket version ticket for Wade Boggs’ 3,000th hit game. I mailed it to him and got it back today signed beautifully.
A few days ago I purchased a baseball signed by Mark Appel. Mark was the first overall draft pick in the 2013 MLB draft. I bought it from Brad E (elchert13 on SCN). Brad packaged it really well and shipped it fast. A great ball for the collection!
Today’s morning started with me meeting my buddy Shane outside Gate 29 at 8am. After not knowing what was going to happen in the skyway entrance from the previous night, I did not want to take any chances so I went to Gate 29. We were probably 50th in line or so. The weather was nicer than it was Friday afternoon which was nice. They opened the gates and Shane and I headed to Joe Mauer’s line. We ended up being in the 110 or so range for numbers. I thought “heck I was around 250 yesterday so today will be a piece of cake!” Shane got a Sports Illustrated signed and I got Joe’s 2007 Topps card signed. We then headed to the next station we were hoping to get. There was no line for the current group so I went through and got Chris Colabello and and asked him to write 1st MLB Home Run on the ticket and he replied “I love to write that!” and did. I got Nate Hanson on Cami’s baseball and get to Jason Kubel. I handed him a pair of cards for my friend Greg N (justgreg on SCN). He signed them both and showed Nate the one and said “Look at this” with a smirk. Nate looks at it and says “Is that even you? It does not look like you!” Jason smirked again and said “I guess so!” The card was a 2003 Donruss Diamond King card. It does not look like him at all and the whole interaction between Jason and Nate was pretty funny. I got back in the line with Shane and we waited for the next group to start. I got Josh Willingham on his 2013 Allen & Ginter card and Sean Gilmartin, Austin Malinowski and Mudcat Grant on Cami’s baseball. After this Shane and I split up. Shane headed to get me a couple autographs while I waited in another line. Shane and I have been going to Twinsfest for a long, long time. We joke that he is “my mule” helping me get autographs. He is awesome. It is just about the only time we get to hang out together every year but we have so much fun doing it. Shane headed to another station and got me Scott Erickson on my 1991 Sports Illustrated magazine and Kevin Correia on a 2013 Topps update card. In my line I was able to get Trevor Plouffe on his 2013 Topps card. Next up was Andrew Albers. I respect Albers a lot. It was announced that he signed (or was about to sign) with a baseball team from Korea. He still honored his commitment to the Twins to show up to Twinsfest. That was a classy move by Andrew. He was really friendly and was thanking everyone. I got to him and put down a ticket from his ML debut game and asked him to signed it with ML Debut and 1st Win and he did. I asked him if he had a ticket to that game and he said he did not so I gave him one. He was very thankful for it. After seeing how much fun he was having there I was glad I gave him it. Shane went in another line and got me a couple Jose Berrios cards signed. After that I got in line for Call a Friend. Call a Friend is a new feature at Twinsfest where a player will call a friend of yours or leave your outgoing voicemail message. I got to the line about a half hour before it was to start and waited for Brian Dozier to show up. A friend of mine in Rochester, NY got me a ton of autographed cards for my Twins collection over the past few seasons and while there, his young son got to know Brian Dozier. I thought it would be awesome for Brian to call and talk to Tyler and was not at all let down! Dozier was PHENOMENAL. He talked to Tyler for a minute or so and had a smile the entire time. I could only imagine Tyler on the other side of the call doing the same. It made me really happy to facilitate that moment between Tyler and his hero Brian. After that, Shane and I bummed around the dealer area and walked through the Champions Club area and waited for the final group time of the day. Shane and I headed to the final group of the day which was one I knew I had to get through. All day I lugged around a photo/artwork case that held my 1995 Twins poster schedule already signed by Kirby Puckett, Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva as well as my 1978 Twins poster schedule already signed by Dave Goltz. Both were just waiting for Rod Carew’s autograph to be added. Shane got my 1978 poster signed (finishing that poster) and I got the 1995 signed and asked Rod to add his #29 to match the others on the poster. He added it and it looks awesome. The other person in the group was Tony Oliva. Shane got me a 1975 SSPC signed and I got Tony O’s rookie card signed beautifully for my friend Robert T (lutherlafy on SCN).
I headed down to say hi to Joel and Tony and Tony gave me a couple Puckett tickets. One was the game he announced his retirement and the other when the Twins retired his #34. Tony is the man! He is so, so thoughtful and his gestures are greatly appreciated. Thanks again Tony!
That wrapped up Day 2 of Twinsfest. Shane and I headed to Huberts by the Metrodome for dinner telling stories and laughing. We headed home and I looked forward to the final day of Twinsfest 2014 with the kids tomorrow!
Twinsfest 2014 was held at Target Field for the first time ever and I went in to the weekend not knowing how it would work out and certainly set low expectations. I was pleasantly surprised!
I left work Friday afternoon around 2:30 and arrived in the skyway line at 3:00. I was probably 60th in line. I waited an hour in the cold but it was not as cold in the skyway leading to the Legends Club entrance. They opened the doors and there was only one person there to scan tickets. I was quickly getting frustrated that our line was barely moving but I could see the line at Gate 29 moving so fast people were practically running. I figured there was no shot for Joe Mauer for me. The line finally started moving after a second ticket scanner arrived and I went right to the Mauer line. Luckily for me I was number 248 and fully expected to get through the line. The people running the Mauer line were awesome getting people through the line. I was able to get Joe to autograph his 2006 Allen & Ginter card. I then went from the Suite Level to the Service Level for the next signing station. There I got Phil Hughes on two Topps Heritage cards for clubnuts (Mark C on SCN). I then got Brian Duensing to sign his 2014 Topps card. Next up was Kyle Gibson. I told him he made his ML debut on my birthday on my birthday and my daughter was at the game with me. He commented “That was a great day!”. I asked him to sign my ticket with ML Debut and 1st Win and he did. Caleb Theilbar was next and signed his debut ticket with ML Debut. Last was Mike Kvasnicka who started Cami’s Twinsfest baseball by signing on the sweetspot. I then scurried to the next station and got Ricky Nolasco on a baseball. Next up was Casey Fien and Kyle Knudson who added their autographs to Cami’s baseball. Last was Jason Bartlett. I handed him an eTopps card and a Topps Heritage card (for Mark C) with a picture from the 2008 World Series on it. He commented “These are a couple cool cards!” and signed them. Then it was off to the next station. There I got Josh Willingham on his 2013 Topps “Over the Wall” short print card. He commented that this card showed his “non-existent vertical” as he was jumping over the wall but could not get to the ball in the picture which went for a home run. That was pretty funny. Alex Meyer, Jose Berrios and BJ Hermsen each signed a pair of cards for me and Logan Darnell signed Cami’s ball. I then walked to the other side of the suite level and got Mike Pelfrey on his 2013 Topps Heritage high numbered card as well as his 2013 Topps update card. Jared Burton signed his 2013 Topps Heritage card for Mark C as did Chris Parmelee (sporting a cast on his right wrist/hand) and Chris Herrmann. Joe Vavra signed Cami’s baseball and asked who signed the sweetspot. I told him it was Mike Kvasnicka and he kinda looked at me with a “who in the hell is Mike Kvasnicka and why is he signing the sweetspot” look. I shrugged my shoulders, took the baseball and got back in the same line for the next group. We waited for Samuel Deduno to show up. Everyone was there but Sam and when he showed up about 10 minutes late, everyone clapped. It was funny. I got Sam on his 2013 Topps Update card and moved to Glen Perkins. Glen signed his 2013 Topps update all star card and his 2013 Topps Heritage card for me. Next up was Kurt Suzuki who signed a baseball for me and Chris Colabello who signed his 2013 Topps update card. Last was Alex Presley who signed a couple Topps Heritage cards. I headed to the next station I hope to get and they cut off the line with only four people in front of me. The poor woman who volunteered felt so bad about doing it. She was genuinely sad. It was cool though. Can’t be upset at her for doing her job and doing it without pay!
I headed down to the dealers’ sections and saw my friend Tony Swann. As I mentioned last year, Tony is trying to get a ticket from every game Carlton Fisk played in. Tony is awesome. He knows I collect Kirby Puckett tickets and gave me a ticket from the game he got his 1,000th hit. Tony is the man! Thanks Tony! I then cruised over to my buddy Joel and talked with him for a bit and headed home.
Day 1 turned out to be a great day and I was pumped for Day 2!
I sent my friend Mark C (clubnuts on SCN) a season ticket from Tony Gwynn’s 3,000th hit game in Montreal. I got some autographs for him at Twinsfest and sent him the ticket in case he attended one of Tony’s free signing events in the San Diego area. Today I received it back. It looks phenomenal. I had one of the box office ones signed but it looked ugly and when the opportunity came up for me to purchase a pair of rare season ticket versions (seriously, how many season ticket holders were there in Montreal in 1999?), i bought them. Mark got it signed with a silver Deco marker and it looks awesome. He told me Tony was not looking very good at the event heath-wise. I sure hope Tony is ok. Thanks for being Santa for me Mark!