One of the top young players in baseball now is Adley Rutschman. Adley plays catcher for the Orioles and was called up this season and has been amazing so far. Adley had a private signing through Great Moments where they offered a Fanatics hologram added to signed items. I sent in the best baseball I could find and received it back today signed PERFECTLY on the sweetspot in blue ink with the Fanatics hologram on the back. This is a great ball for the collection to see how Adley continues to grow and play the game!
Category: Baseballs
Twins Welcome Back HOFers
Cami and I went to the Twins game tonight. It was a celebration of Jim Kaat and Tony Oliva and their welcome back from Cooperstown following their inductions into the Hall of Fame. The Twins offered a special package that included a pair of HOF baseball signed under the logos of Kaat and Oliva as well as a special bobblehead of each and the induction weekend program. It was all in a real nice box. I picked the one up I bought before the game and Cami and I enjoyed a Twins victory over the Blue Jays. Even though it rained for part of the game, we still had a blast.
Mauer Pauer
A couple months ago I started seeing player lists showing up on who was going to sign in Cooperstown, NY during Hall of Fame Induction Weekend. One of these players was Joe Mauer. Over the years I have gotten Joe a ton of times but rarely with inscriptions so I had saved a number of items to send in once I saw he was doing a signing with inscriptions. This was an opportunity I jumped at! Jack Berke had Joe and Justin Morneau and a few other guys present for the signing but Joe was the guy I was really after. While the fees were not cheap, they were cheap relative to what it will be the next time he signs. To prepare for this signing, I sold a couple Mauer tickets (a debut and a final game) to help offset the cost. Earlier this week Jack called me and told me there was a problem with the silver paint pen used on one of my tickets and he would get a new ticket done once he saw Joe next time. I was a little nervous after hearing that but outside of that ticket, I was blown away. These items were signed exactly as I requested and look phenomenal. I am unbelievably excited to add these to my collection! The items I added today are:
*Game used baseball from 6/15/2019 when the Twins retired Joe’s #7 signed under the special logo on balls used during the game. Joe included “#7 Retired 6/15/2019” under his name.
*The actual baseball from 9/12/17 when Joe got hit 1,966 and RBI 862 & 863 inscribed with those stats.
*Ticket from his Major League debut with “MLB Debut”
*Ticket from his 2000th hit game with Joe featured on it with “3,000th Hit”
*Ticket from his final game with “Final Game”
*Ticket from the 6/15/2019 game signed and inscribed with “#7 Retired” but the paint pen blew up on it. This is the ticket that will get redone in the future. I have a second ticket from this game so I will not have to find and purchase it.
This was a group of items years in the making for me waiting for a signing where I could get inscriptions. I was not let down! Outside of the silver paint pen malfunction, these items are perfect and I am so excited to add these to my collection!
Cruz’in
A while ago I saw where USA Sports Marketing was having a signing with Oneil Cruz. Having a hard to find debut ticket I decided to send it in to the signing along with a baseball. I sent it right away and a couple weeks after the signing was to take place, I reached out to Matt L (chickenlittle on SCN) who I set up a request with on SCN and found out the signing had occurred and everyone got their items back. I panicked! With the help of a buddy at the Post Office, I obtained a signature showing proof of delivery (thankfully I sent it with signature confirmation) and sent an email to Matt. Matt was out of the country but gave me a person to work with at USASM, Connor. Conner found my package and said the ticket will be signed the next time they see Oneil (sometime in mid August) and sent me a beautifully signed baseball that I received today. I look forward to getting the ticket signed in a few weeks!