Category: Topps Twins Project

Twinsfest 2016 – Day 3

Today I woke up when my alarm went off with a headache.  I think it was from a lack of quality sleep and the excitement that comes with Twinsfest weekend for me.  I knew it was not going to stop me though!  I walked out to the living room and Cami was already awake and dressed ready to go.  Someone was even MORE excited for today than I was!  Caden said he had a real bad headache and could not go and stayed sleeping.  Cami and I got to the ballpark around 8am and was in the exact same spot we were at Friday night when we hopped in line.  Cami really wanted to get a card signed by Polanco and Berrios so she decided to head to that line first and would meet me in the Mauer line after I got through it. She was really excited to get the card signed and unfortunately Polanco smeared it when handing it back to her.  She said he apologized and felt bad and she was not too bummed because he felt bad.  She got me a couple Kurt Suzuki cards signed and walked to the Mauer line.  I had just gotten done with Joe’s line and went to get back in the line and she was just showing up.  It was perfect timing.  When I went through the line, I mentioned to Corey Koskie that I was eating breakfast while reading the article he wrote a couple days ago when I hit the toilet part.  He laughed and asked if I finished breakfast.  It was pretty funny.  We were both able to get through the line twice.  We then decided to head to the Phil Hughes line and got Phil on a couple cards as well as Glen Perkins (I screwed up and got a card signed I already had and missed on the one I needed) as well as a Ryan O’Rourke ML Debut ticket.  I got Stephen Gonsalves to sign a baseball as well.  Cami wanted an Eduardo Nunez card signed so she headed to that line and then was going to meet up with me in the kid’s game area where she was working on earning more Boardwalk Bucks for the kid’s auction later today.  I went to the Mauer line at the Twins Wives area and got him to sign one card for me there.  I then headed to the Kyle Gibson line (where I got him to sign a card I already had an missed the one I needed… dang!).  I got Tyler Duffey to sign a ticket with “1st ML Win” and a John Ryan Murphy ML Debut ticket.  I then went and found Cami and we went to the Twins Yard Sale again where we bought a couple small things.  We then headed down to the Radio Stage and listened to a pretty moving chat featuring Rod Carew.  It was pretty special to hear him talk about his experience and the people who helped him get through it… so far.  You could tell the fans were extremely grateful that he was still alive and able to be at Twinsfest as he got a couple standing ovations and many claps.  After that was done, it was time for the kid’s auction.  Cami had collected 315 of the Boardwalk Bucks from playing all the games she did in the kid’s area.  She thought she had a pretty good chance at winning something.  Well, not so much.  There were only five items that were auctioned off and she immediately found out that 315 was not going to win her anything.  She still bid and was high bidder on one of the items for all of about a half second.  She really wanted the Brian Dozier 4’x5′ autographed sign/photo.  Once the bidding on the final item got over 315 she kind of just sighed and looked at me and smiled.  What happened next was the kind of thing that makes me so proud of her.  She is so unselfish in day to day things and she proved yet again just how cool she is.  The little kid next to us had her mom bid 400 on the Dozier photo.  He thought she won it at that point and started walking up to get it when everyone laughed and said he did not win it.  Someone then bid 450 which was over what the little boy had and you could see his mom look deflated.  I looked at Cami and said what do you think about giving your Boardwalk Bucks to the little kid so he can keep going and without hesitating, she said yes.  As Dick Bremer started saying “450 going once!” I handed the little kid’s mom Cami’s 315 Boardwalk Bucks and she exclaimed “600!” to which nobody else had that many and the kid won the photo and went bananas.  The mom was extremely grateful and moved by Cami doing that and thanked us a few times.  I told Cami that while she did not win anything, she can know that she made the little kid’s day and that is more special than winning the photo.  She smiled.  She is so awesome.
After the auction was done we headed down to say good bye to my buddy Tony S and Joel B who both have tables in the dealer area.  We chatted with them and I told her it was time to leave.  She said “But dad!  I don’t want to go!  There is still an hour left!”  She did not want Twinfest 2016 to end.  We did end up leaving but man, did we have fun and make some awesome memories.

A wrap up of my weekend’s autographs (with help from multiple people– Caden and Cami have a bunch of their own items but this is just my list):
Neil Allen- 2 Sports Illustrated magazines
Oswaldo Arcia- 5 cards (1 for Mark C)
Jose Berrios- baseball
Bert Blyleven- 08.16.1980 Lanny Frattare Scorecard
Tom Brunansky- 3 cards (for Mark C)
Byron Buxton- ML Debut ticket, 4 cards
Butch Davis- 4 cards
Pat Dean- 2 cards
Brian Dozier- 4 cards
Tyler Duffey- 1st Win ticket
Eduardo Escobar- 1 card
Mitch Garver- baseball, signature card
Kyle Gibson- 1 card
Stephen Gonsalves- baseball
John Gordon- signature card
JR Graham- 2 ML Debut tickets, 1 card
Mudcat Grant- baseball, signature card
John Hicks- 6 cards, 2 signature cards
Trevor Hildenberger- signature card
Phil Hughes- 5 cards
Kevin Jepsen- 2 cards
Brandon Kintzler- signature card
Corey Koskie- 2 signature cards
Joe Mauer- 14 cards (and a whole lot of money spent to get them!)
Trevor May- 2014 All Star Game Future Stars Edition Program
Alex Meyer- ML Debut ticket, 2 cards
John Ryan Murphy- ML Debut ticket
Ricky Nolasco- 3 cards
Eduardo Nunez- 2 08.15.2011 Sport Illustrateds, 3 cards
Ryan O’Rourke- 2 ML Debut tickets, 2 cards
Byung Ho Park- baseball
Glen Perkins- 5 cards
Trevor Plouffe- 4 cards
Jorge Polanco- 2 cards
Jake Reed- baseball, 3 cards
Michael Restovich- 1 card
Randy Rosario- 1 signature card
Danny Santana- 4 cards
Roy Smalley- 11.02.1987 Sports Illustrated, 1 card
Kurt Suzuki- 2 cards
Stuart Turner- 2 cards
117 total autographs for the three day weekend.  I owe a lot to others who helped me with these.

Twinsfest 2016 – Day 2

I bring the kids to Friday and Sunday Twinsfest days but Saturday has traditionally been the day my buddy Shane V and I hang out without the kids running around.  This year was no exception.
I got down to the ballpark around 8am and was in a little better spot than I was Friday night. It seemed as though Friday has turned into the busier day compared to Saturday which in the past was the busy day.  Joe was signing right away so I went to his line.  I was able to get through his line four times getting a baseball card signed each time.  I then got in the line for Brian Dozier and that is where Shane showed up and met up with me.  We were able to get a couple Brian Dozier cards signed and JR Graham cards while I got a ticket signed by Graham with “ML Debut”.  We then headed to Trevor Plouffe’s line and waited.  We got some Plouffe and Tom Brunansky cards signed.  After this was done we headed to the Phil Hughes line and waited for that to start.  Once we to the table we got Hughes, Danny Santana, John Hicks, and Pat Dean cards signed.  After this I lost Shane on the way to the Trevor May line.  I got Trevor to finish my 2014 All Star Game program that was already signed by Jose Berrios and Kris Bryant.  That is now done with all three players on the cover having signed it!  I then found Shane again and we got in line for Neil Allen and his group.  This is where one of the funniest encounters with a player I have ever had happened.  The 04.20.1987 Sports Illustrated magazine has a title of “What They Make” and listed a few players and their salaries on it.  I happened to be flipping through some of my SI’s this winter and came across this issue and looked at it and was floored to see Neil Allen on the cover.  Smack dab in the middle!  I knew I had to remember to bring it to Twinsfest for him.  As Shane and I get to him and hand him the magazine, he looks up and says “That’s a lie!”.  I said “What?  You didn’t make $1.26 million in 1987?” as stated on the cover.  He says “Do you believe everything you read?”.  He goes on to tell us a story about how his (now) ex-wife’s lawyer brought the issue into court and showed it to the judge and said “This is what he makes and this is what he should pay”.  He had Roy Smalley and Butch Davis laughing like crazy as well as Shane and I.  He says his mom has about 80 of that issue sitting in her closet.  Then he says he and his ex-wife had a love/hate relationship… he loved her and she hated him.  We all laughed and Butch Davis says “Yeah but she LOVED your money!”  It was hilarious.  I got Roy to sign the 1987 Twins Sports Illustrated and we each got Butch to sign a couple cards and Mudcat Grant signed a baseball and we headed on to see my buddy Rob who works for the Twins.  I did not have a chance to meet up with him Friday night and I found out he was not working on Sunday so Saturday was the only time I could see him.  We sat down and the three of us chatted about a number of things.  It was real nice to see him and hang out for a few minutes catching up.  We left to head up to the Alex Meyer line and as we walked by the Blyleven line, I noticed nobody was in it.  I was afraid that Bert would personalize my scorecard to me so Shane said he would get it signed so he went in with it and it was Bert and John Gordon at the table and nobody in line.  What happened next for Shane was a memory he will not forget.  The scorecard was the actual scorecard that Lanny Frattare used when he broadcast the Pirates game on August 16th, 1980.  Bert threw a complete game shutout striking out 12 Expos batters.  I waited outside and listened to the three of them talking about keeping score and the game.  They chatted for about five minutes about it before someone else got in line and Shane had to move on.  Shane said it was awesome how each person keeps their own scorecard and the detail and personal style.  The scorecard turned out awesome and Shane got a real nice memory.  After that we headed to Alex Meyer’s line.  Shane got Alex on a couple cards and I got a ticket with ML Debut.  I also got a baseball signed by Mitch Garver and Oswaldo Arcia signed some cards for us.  On the way to the car, we stopped at the Twins Yard Sale.  I picked up a dvd of the All Star Game that was at Target Field as well as a really cool printed photo of the ballpark.  I got a couple other small things but one thing I got that was cool was one of the back lit signs that hung in the concourse of Target Field.  I have one from the Metrodome and I bought the one that has Josh Willingham connecting on a swing.  This wrapped up Shane and my annual Twinsfest tradition.  There was still one thing left to do.  We headed to Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner.  Afterwards I dropped him off at his car and headed home.  I was pretty pleased how Twinsfest was going for me this year.  A special thanks to Shane who kept me company while helping me get autographs… as he calls it “being my mule”.  It was great catching up with him and keeping our tradition going.  Thanks brother!  I got home and again emptied my bag and updated my spreadsheet and got ready for the final day of Twinsfest 2016.

Just The Ticket!

Today I receive a pair of packages on the mail from some items I sent out to people to get signed for me.  The first package was some tickets from Steve S (cosmo on SCN).  Steve went to the Boston Red Sox Winter Weekend and got me the following tickets signed:
Blake Swihart w/”MLB Debut”
Xander Bogaerts w/”MLB Debut”
Henry Owens w/”MLB Debuet”  [sic]
Rusney Castillo
They all look awesome!  Thanks Steve!

I also received a package I sent to Joe M (probowler on SCN) for when the Twins Caravan went to his town.  I was unsure if the schedule would work out for Twinsfest for me to get Glen Perkins on all the items I needed so I sent him a couple cards as well as a card for Kyle Gibson.  He got me the following:
Glen Perkins 2015 Topps Update #US141
Glen Perkins 2015 Topps Heritage #416
Kyle Gibson 2015 Topps #632
These cards turned out awesome too!  Thanks Joe!

Twinsfest 2016 – Day 1

Twinsfest 2016 started off great.  I took the day off and picked Cami up from school at 1:45pm.  After I let the receptionist know I was here to pick her up, I went outside to wait.  I turned around and she was walking out with a smile from ear to ear and had a skip in her step.  She gave me a high five and was so excited to get going.  We then headed over to pick up Caden and his buddies from school.  I let the receptionist know there that I was ready to pick up Caden, Cayden, and Noah.  One by one they showed up in the lobby with smiles on their faces.  We all piled into the car and headed to Target Field.
We got to the ballpark around 2:45 and the skyway line was backed up to the doors at the parking ramp.  We were in good shape.  Once we got in, the boys wanted to go to the memorabilia dealers because a couple of them needed to look for some items to get signed.  I had given Caden a $50 bill to buy what he wanted and to get whatever autograph lines he wanted to get in.  Cami and I got in Glen Perkins’ line and waited for it to open.  Once we got to the table, we got Stuart Turner to sign a couple cards each and Brandon Kintzler to sign an autograph card.  Then we got to Byung Ho Park.  He signed a baseball for each of us.  Once done, Cami said “gomabseubnida” which is thank you in Korean.  Byung Ho’s eyes got real big and he smiled and said “OOOoooo!” just like when Cami thanked Kennys Vargas in Spanish last year.  It was pretty neat and brought a smile to both faces.  We then got back in the same line and waited for the next group.  The boys met up with us at which time Caden informs me he lost the $50 bill I gave him.  I could tell he felt really bad but I still gave him grief.  That kid…  Cami took off for the Dozier, and others line and the boys and I stayed in the Mauer line.  We went through and each of us got cards signed by Joe and some by Jose Berrios who was with him.  I got a baseball signed by Jose.  The boys then went down to get in the Buxton line and I walked over to meet up with Cami.  She loves Brian Dozier so she was really excited to see him.  We then met up with the boys in the Buxton line.  They all helped me get all the cards of Byron signed as well as Eduardo Nunez.  Cami and I each got Nunez to sign the 08.11.2011 Sports Illustrated magazine signed.  I asked him if he signs a lot of those magazines and he said he does and laughed.  After that I let the kids run around while I chatted with my friend Tony S who I see at Twinsfest each year as well as my buddy Joel B who I see way more often but is still fun to see him at his table.  Joel gave me a piece of the baggie that was in right field at the Metrodome.  He was able to obtain a piece and saved me a 1′ square.  Thanks Joel!
We all headed home and I dropped off each of the boys and we got home around 11.  I emptied my bag, updated my spreadsheet on what I got done, packed up for tomorrow, and went to bed looking forward to Day 2.