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.
Category: Caden
Awesome Eddie
Eddie Rosario was signing autographs today at the Cub Foods in Crystal. It so happened that I was off work and heading to Caden’s state baseball tournament in Big Lake and it worked out that Crystal was on the way. I picked up Caden’s friend Cayden at 11 am and headed to Cub Foods. We got there about 25 minutes before he was supposed to start signing. My family was at Eddie’s Major League debut and witnessed him hitting a home run on his first pitch. It was awesome. Before that though, Cami and I reserved a game used baseball from that game and knew we were going to get it signed at some point. Today was that moment. We got to him and I explained we were at the game and bought the two baseballs and requested an inscription on the ball. He signed each of our baseballs with “1st Game MLB Debut 5/6/15”. They look really cool. Caden got a ticket from that game signed with “MLB Debut Home Run”. Cayden got a couple cards signed for his collection. Afterwards we got in the car and got to Big Lake in time to start warming up. We ended up winning that game so it was a great day all around!
Twinsfest 2015 – Day 3
My expectations were exceeded in the first two days of Twinsfest so anything I got today would be icing on the cake. Traditionally Sunday is the day I take the kids so they can have fun and get excited for the upcoming Twins season and this year was no different. I picked up Caden’s friend Cayden at 7:05am and the four of us headed to Target Field. It was a little colder this morning than the previous two but we waited and at 9am entered Target Field. We were about 40th or so in line so we were in good shape. I thought maybe I could get through Joe Mauer’s line twice. While waiting in line, Caden’s friend Noah showed up and I offered him $10 if he would get a card signed by Joe Mauer with me. He was all over that so Noah and I went to the Mauer line and Caden and Cami went to Ervin Santana’s line. Ervin puts #smellbaseball on a number of his Twitter posts and Cami thought it would be cool to ask for the incription on her baseball. He did not let her down! He signed it on the ball and she was STOKED! Caden got a card and they both got the others in the line. When they were done, Cami came over to the Mauer line with me and Caden and Cayden walked around for a really short time. While the kids were getting Ervin, Noah and I got Joe. We then got back in line and Cami joined us and the three of us got Joe. Then Noah left to get someone else and Caden joined us and Caden, Cami and I got Joe. I could not believe it! I needed about 40 or so Mauers and finished the weekend with 17 signed cards. The third time I went through the line I told Joe he was on too many cards that I needed signed and he said “You are coming up with some good ones!” I handed him a card with him and Roy Halladay in the Topps Heritage set and he said he had never seen that card. That was pretty cool. Joe was very friendly and talkative which was really neat. After that, Caden and Cami headed to the Brian Dozier, Michael Tonkin and Tyler Duffey line and I headed to the Jordan Schafer and Nick Gordon line. I stayed in the same area and got the following players in the next group; Ricky Nolasco, Eddie Rosario and Trevor May. The kids went through the Kurt Suzuki, Ryan Pressly, Kohl Stewart and Blake Schmit line. Caden got Pressly on a ML Debut ticket for me. I joined Cami for the next group with Phil Hughes, Tommy Milone, Max Murphy and Tom Quinlan. Caden hung out with his friends and ended up getting in the line later on on his own and got a REALLY cool card signed by Hughes for his collection. The kids went to the Pop a Shot area to shoot hoops with some Twins players. While there, Cami joined them and Oswaldo Arcia was standing behind her. She was draining shot after shot and I saw Oswaldo look over at the other player and mouthed “WOW!” It was pretty cool. Once they were done, Caden and Cami each got a card signed by him and Cami got a picture. Cami then did the Speed Pitch and hit 32 mph! At this point I figured I was done and I would let the kids do what they wanted to. Turns out Caden and Noah and Cayden went in the Tony Oliva and Miguel Sano line while Cami and I went ot the Oswaldo Arcia, Eduardo Escobar, Jorge Polanco and Mark Hamburger line. On the way there, we headed to the Twins Wives table again and Cami got Danny Santana on a couple cards. Cami went through the line and got an autograph from each. We then headed down to the vendors and I talked to a couple of my favorite guys and Cami wanted to go to the Metropolitan Club and check it out. She saw that Paul Molitor was in the Selfie Station and got a photo with the Hall of Famer and new Twins manager. Once we spent a few minutes in that area we decided to walk to the boys and on the way there took a tour of the Twins clubhouse and then Cami took a few swings in the player’s batting cages. She did pretty good! We found the boys and I took one final photo of Cami in the lower level of Target Field. We headed home tired but really excited.
The tally for the day includes:
Ervin Santana: (Cami) OMLB w/”#smellbaseball”, (Caden) 2014 Topps
Butch Davis: (Cami) Index card
Frank Quilici: (Cami) 1972 Topps Twins Team, (Caden) 1971 Topps
Mike Kvasnicka: (Cami) Index card
Cole DeVries: (Cami) Index card, (Caden) 2013 Topps
Joe Mauer: (Me) 2010 Allen & Ginter, 2012 Allen & Ginter, 2006 Topps Heritage, 2007 Topps Heritage, 2008 Topps Heritage, 2009 Topps Heritage, 2009 Topps Heritage All Star, 2011 Topps Heritage All Star, 2010 Topps Heritage High Powered Battery, 2010 Topps Heritage All Star, 2014 Topps Heritage, 2014 Topps Heritage Batting Leaders (WOW! What a day!)
Brian Dozier: (Cami) 2014 Topps Heritage, (Caden) 2011 Topps Heritage High Number
Michael Tonkin: (Cami) Index card
Tyler Duffey: (Cami) Index card
Jordan Schafer: (Me) 2009 Allen & Ginter, 2014 Topps
Nick Gordon: (Me) 2014 Bowman Chrome, 2014 Topps Insert (with Kyle Schwarber)
Taylor Rogers: (Cami) Index card
Kurt Suzuki: (Cami) 2014 Topps Update All Star, (Caden) 2014 Topps Update
Ryan Pressly: (Me) MLB Debut ticket w/”MLB Debut”
Kohl Stewart: (Cami) 2014 Topps Heritage Minors, 2014 Topps Pro Debut, (Caden) 2014 Topps Heritage Minors, 2014 Topps Pro Debut
Blake Schmit: (Cami) Index card
Ricky Nolasco: (Me) 2014 Allen & Ginter, 2014 Topps
Eddie Rosario: (Me) 2014 Topps Heritage Minors, 2014 Topps Pro Debut
Trevor May: (Me) ML Debut ticket w/”ML Debut”
Phil Hughes: (Me) 2 @ 2014 Topps, (Cami) 2014 Topps, (Caden) 2014 Topps Heritage, 2011 Allen & Ginter Future Stars
Tommy Milone: (Me) 2014 Topps Heritage, (Cami) 2014 Gypsy Queen, (Caden) 2014 Topps Heritage
Max Murphy: (Cami) Index card
Tom Quinlan: (Cami) Index card
Tony Oliva: (Caden) 1969 Topps All Star
Miguel Sano: (Caden) 2011 Topps Heritage Minors
Oswaldo Arcia: (Cami) 2013 Topps, (Caden) 2014 Allen & Ginter
Eduardo Escobar: (Cami) 2014 Topps
Jorge Polanco: (Me) ML Debut ticket w/”ML Debut”
Mark Hamburger: (Cami) 2011 Bowman Chrome
Danny Santana: (Me) 2 @ 2014 Topps
It was an amazing weekend that exceeded my results by a whole day. It was fun to see the players all excited to see the fans. I saw Torii Hunter walking the halls a few times and he was smiling from ear to ear and giving hugs with everyone. It truly is great he is back with the Twins.
We cannot wait for Opening Day!
Another Nice Mail Day!
Today I received three packages from various people with autographed items in them. One was a box full of baseballs gotten for me at the Arizona Fall League, one was a World Series ticket, and the other a couple photos I traded for.
The baseballs came from Christian B (hheroes10 on SCN) who has gotten me autographs from Arizona Spring Training and Fall League over the past number of years. This group contained:
Jesse Winker
Hunter Dozier
Anthony DeSclafani
Eddie Rosario
DJ Peterson
They were all signed perfectly in blue on the sweetspot just how I like ’em!
A couple weeks I saw where Dan C (scfdff on SCN) was going to a signing with Jim Kaat in New York and was offering to take items. I had a Game 2 of the 1965 World Series ticket I had been wanting to get signed by Jim for a while. I sent it to Dan asking if he would ask Jim if he would write “Complete Game Winner” on the ticket too. Dan emailed me right after the signing and said Jim’s agent was saying no inscriptions but he asked and Jim told him it was such a unique item he would inscribe it. Today I got the ticket and COULD NOT be happier! It turned out AWESOME!
The other package was a tube with a pair of photos. Bryan W (bryanwood on SCN) contacted me about an NFL Duke football I posted on SCN a long time ago for trade. He was going to see someone a couple days later and wanted it for the signing. Since I bought the ball in hopes of having Brett Favre sign it when he was a Viking and it never happened, it was just gathering dust so I looked over his trade items and picked out a couple cool signed pictures. The first picture is an 8×10 of the fight between George Brett and Graig Nettles in the 1977 ALCS signed by both of those guys. I showed it to Caden and we watched the video of it and he wanted that photo so I got that one. The other one I received is a really cool 11×14 of Phil Niekro on the mound in mid-windup about to throw a knuckleball while playing for the Yankees. What makes this photo so cool is there are five inscriptions on the photo all signed in perfect silver paint pen. Cami saw that picture and said she wanted that one.
All in all it was a really nice mail day!