My son has been going with a couple teammates from his baseball team to a local baseball training place and his primary hitting coach is Michael Kvasnicka. I enjoy watching Michael and the boys interact and I have certainly seen a great improvement with Caden’s hitting. I thought it would be cool to get some of Michael’s cards to give the kids to get signed after one of their hitting sessions. Tonight was the night. After hitting, Caden and his friend Blake went to Michael’s office and asked if he would sign some cards for him. I ended up going there a few minutes later and had a short chat about baseball stuff for a little bit. It was really cool. Michael signed his Gophers cards but I made a rookie mistake and did not prep the Topps Pro Debut thinking the Steadtler would be fine. Even that beaded up so he said he would sign them after I prepped them. While chatting with him, I told him that I had gotten one of the Pro Debut cards signed at Twinsfest a few years ago. He told me he remembered me. (I doubted it but still thought it was cool). While looking for other cards of his I came across Jay and asked if it was his dad or uncle. It turned out his dad was drafted by the Twins and played in the Twins system just like Michael. I thought that was really neat. I will prep the cards and let the kids in Caden’s hitting sessions have them to get signed. I think that is pretty cool.
Category: Caden
Berenguer Boogie
Today Caden, Cami, Cami’s friend Skyla and I all went to the Hall of Fame exhibit by the Mall of America. It was really neat. While there, Juan Berenguer was signing autographs. We did not know that until we got there so we did not have anything for him to sign but the kids got their exhibit tickets signed. Afterwards was the coolest part of the experience. I told Cami to go up to Juan and ask him to hit his fist and throw his hand in the air like he did in 1987. He did it for her and laughed. I asked him what was in his briefcase that he was always seen carrying around. He laughed and said just photos of his family. He said he was afraid of flying so he always looked at them and said a quick prayer “in case they were going down.” It was pretty dang funny. Juan was full of smiles and had a lot of fun interacting with us.
Sir Rodney Part II
Today I received the second package from Isaias F (franco858 on SCN) and he did not disappoint! This package contained the remaining items I had sent in for his private signing with Rod Carew:
3 2015 Gypsy Queen cards (one for me and each of the kids)
2 Hall of Fame Postcards
1967 Topps Rookie card! My last Rod Carew card I needed to complete the run of Carew Topps Twins cards!
Petersen’s ’78 Pro Baseball magazine
Street & Smith’s Official 1978 Baseball Yearbook
04.10.1978 Sports Illustrated
I am pleased with how everything turned out. Thanks Franco! You did a great job!
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.