Category: Baseballs

Oh Balls

Today I received my final package from Paul C in Florida until February.  It was three prospects from players who finished up their season playing in the FL instruction league.
The three baseballs are:
Austin Meadows w/”Go Pirates”
Anderson Espinoza
Harold Ramirez
As always, Paul did a great job.

Another package I received was a 1979 Topps Twins Prospects card signed by Kevin Stanfield.  Kevin’s autograph finished off the card as it was already signed by Sam Perlozzo and Rick Sofield.  This is my second card signed by all three.  Kevin signed the card via a private signing by Curtis C (curtisc on SCN) and was signed real nice.

That’s The Ticket!

Today I received a package with the final items Vinnie M (vinniemiller on SCN) got signed for me from the teams visiting the Mariners.  This package had three autographs in it:
Lance McCullers baseball
Mark Trumbo ML debut ticket
Pat Venditte ticket with “MLB Debut”
As always, Vinnie does a great job and I cannot wait until next season to see what he can get signed for me!

A First and a Gift

Today was bittersweet.  It was the last game of the 2015 season for the Twins.  It was the first time in a long time they were playing meaningful games all the way up to the final weekend.  The season certainly exceeded my expectations.

As was our Sunday tradition, Cami and I headed to the game early enough for her to get autographs in the kids autograph area.  Today it was Logan Darnell and JR Graham.  I had just received a Twins Topps Heritage High Number set a few days ago and in it was JR Graham.  I happened to put one in the pile of cards we take to the game just in case and it paid off!  Cami got Logan on a signature card and when she got to JR, he looked at it and said it was his first MLB rookie card.  He had not seen it before then!  Cami asked if he would sign it with first time I sign this card or something like that and he did!  He signed his name on the front and on the back wrote “10-4-15 1st RC signed J.R. G”.  It was pretty cool!  She was really excited.

Later on during the game Cami asked me if she could go to the restroom and I let her go.  When she came back and had a Kennys Vargas signed baseball in her hand.  She was stoked and told me an usher noticed her volunteer shirt (she had volunteered at the Twin Cities Marathon with Amy earlier that morning) and asked what she volunteered for.  She told him and he asked if she volunteers anywhere else and she mentioned her family goes to Feed My Starving Children about once a month.  The usher said keep up the good work and gave her the baseball.  Later on he came to our seats and explained why he did it and why her.  I am always proud of the kids and their volunteering so this just reaffirmed to Cami that she is doing the right thing.

The Twins lost the game but afterwards Cami ran the bases and we walked out looking forward to being back there in January for Twinsfest.

Let It Sano

Even though the Twins were officially eliminated from post season play, today was a great day.  It started with Caden and I having high hopes for a miracle that the Twins could win their final two games and the Astros and Angels would lose theirs as we headed to Target Field.  The game was pretty close until a couple bad plays led to the Royals scoring four runs in an inning.  The Twins ended up losing the game and any chance at the post season.  Caden and I had a blast at his final game of the season.  After the game we headed to my friend Joel B’s place and got him and we headed to Ridgedale where Fan HQ was having a signing with Miguel Sano.  I had a couple things I wanted signed with inscriptions and since Miguel’s English is not too good at this point, I figured the only way to get an inscription is at a paid event.  We got there and hung out.
When it was our turn Miguel signed my ML Debut ticket with “MLB Debut”, first home run ticket with “1st MLB HR” and a baseball with “Let It Sano”.  All three turned out awesome and I could not be happier with how they look.  It was fun hanging out with Joel and his daughter Eve too.