Today was Kids Fan Appreciation Day at the Twins game. Since it was a Sunday, Cami went with me. We had a blast. It started with the autograph session for kids and she added Doug Bernier to her baseball. The other person was Logan Darnell but he already signed her ball so she told him and said good luck and he smiled.
While in our seats I saw on Twitter that you could post a picture at the ballgame for a chance to win a signed ball so I took a picture of Cami and posted it. Later in the game I got a tweet from the Twins saying I won a ball! I got to the area to pick it up and was offered a bat signed by Pedro Florimon. Since he was just released, I asked who the balls were of and the girl said Chris Parmelee so Cami wanted that so she added a Parmelee ball to her collection (dad already has two). We walked around for a little while after that and decided to head to the seats for the last couple innings of the game. In the top of the 9th inning a foul ball was sent our way. It hit the first seat about four rows behind us and bounced to the row behind us and then rolled down the row. I reached back to grab it but was not fast enough. There was a man two rows behind us who jumped down and got the ball and handed it to Cami. She was so excited. She did not put the ball down from the rest of the game all the way until we got home and she put it in a ball cube. It was really cool. One of the neatest things was we were looking at the game used balls in the game used area when we were walking around and she asked me to buy a ball. I told her some other time and she ended up getting one anyways! The Twins lost today but all in all it was a GREAT time for Cami and I at her final game of the 2014 season!
Category: Cami
An Awesome Day!
Today was an awesome day. It started with Cami and I heading to Ridgedale Mall where Danny Santana and Kennys Vargas were signing autographs at Fan HQ. I had purchased my tickets a while ago which was great because they sold out. Fan HQ did a great job because English is not their primary language and inscriptions were offered. What they did was wrote down the inscription on index cards so you could give them to the player so they knew what to write. We got to Kennys first. He is a big strong man! I handed him a ticket from his ML Debut game and the index card with the inscription and he signed it. Then it was a baseball card for Cami. Then it was a baseball and then a final ticket from his first home run game with inscription. Cami then said “Gracias!” and Kennys looked up and his eyes got real big and went “OOOOooooooOOOOOooooo!” and smiled as he was surprised Cami knew (a little) Spanish. That was Cami’s most favorite moment of the whole day. We then went to Danny and got him on a ball and a card for Caden and lastly a ticket from his first home run game with inscription. Shaun H did a great job running the signing at Fan HQ. Cami and I walked away with smiles from ear to ear and an awesome memory.
Once we got home and got the mail I found a couple packages of signed stuff. The first was an envelope I sent in to a Gregory Polonco signing in Pittsburgh through 1st and Goal Sports. In it was a ticket signed by Polonco with MLB Debut on it. It looks phenomenal.
The last package I opened was from my friend Paul C in Florida. He has been working the Instructional Leagues for me down there and mailed the following blue ink sweetspot baseballs from the Rays prospects:
Taylor Guerrieri with “2011 1st Rd”
Andrew Toles
Kean Wong with “Go Rays!!”
Willy Adames with “Go Rays!!”
Casey Gillaspie
Another great batch of baseballs from Paul! He texted me today and told me he already got me three autographs from my current want list I sent him!
All in all it was an AWESOME day of adding items to the autograph collection!
May I Have a Pino, Please?
Today was, as is every Sunday home game for the Twins, Kids Day. That means two players will be signing autographs before the game for kids. That also means if I have tickets to the game, Cami is going with me. So, we got to Target Field and got in line. Turns out Cami was the second kid in line. The players signing were the two starters in yesterday’s double header, Trevor May and Yohan Pino. Cami was excited when she heard that because she has neither on her baseball. She does now! Both signed her baseball real nice and even smiled to Cami after she thanked them. It was a LONG day at the ballpark and the Twins lost but the day started with a pair of autographs for Cami!
2014 All Star Fanfest Day 3
Today was an awesome day. We got up early and met up with Cayden’s family and drove to the Convention Center for a day of fun. We got there well before the gates opened so that we would be sure to get the Tony Oliva bobblehead they were giving to the first 1000 people through the doors. We knew that Andrew McCutchen was going to be there today but was not scheduled to sign autographs but was going to be at the Skills Diamond. The event happened to be a parent/child ballgame with a rubber wiffle ball. From the previous time Cami partook in the clinic, I knew we needed to sign up right away so we headed to get our waiver stamp and sign up for McCutchen’s time slot. I had absolutely no interest in playing the game but for each kid, they needed a parent to sign up for the parent side. So, for Cami’s sake, I signed up. Everyone ran around until it was time to show up for the clinic. I was soooo nervous. I have not swung a bat in 15 years or so! The kids batted first with Cami being the second batter. She ripped the ball and McCutchen told her “Wooooo! You have a nice swing!”. When it was my turn to bat, I swung on the first pitch Cutch threw me and popped out to second base. Cami ripped a single in her second at bat. When it was done, Andrew signed autographs for the kids. Cami got a baseball signed by McCutchen and a memory of being on his team she will not forget.
We then headed to the MLB tv booth where John Smoltz was signing autographs and taking pictures with people. The line was long the the person running it came up to Cami and asked who she was with. I thought it was strange but Cami responded “Dad, my mom and my brother.” She then cut the line off right after us. It was really cool. Caden was running around and we could not get a hold of him so Cayden took his place. We got three baseballs and a Sports Illustrated signed by Smoltz. He could not have been nicer.
We walked around a little more and Cami made a commercial for Fox Sports North. A little while later we called it a day and headed to Target Field for the Home Run Derby.
We did not get any more autographs the rest of the All Star Week but kind of chilled the final day. We got to the Red Carpet Parade and watched all the players come down the parade and then went to the All Star Game. Some of the players we saw were Robinson Cano, Yu Darvish, Aroldis Chapman, Clayton Kershaw, Mike Matheny, Andrew McCutchen, Yasiel Puig, Giancarlo Stanton, Pat Neshek, Glen Perkins and Kurt Suzuki. Mike Trout tossed Cami a mini foam ball with “Troutstanding” on it. One of the funnier things was when Cayden’s brother Josh yelled to Clint Hurdle to “Raise the Jolly Roger!”. Clint yelled back “Who said ‘Raise the Jolly Rancher?'” I don’t know if he was kidding or not but it was pretty funny.
The All Star Game was awesome. Our seat mates Heidi & Bob got to take the big flag out on the field before the game. To see Derek Jeter make his final appearance and the game end up with the Twins battery of Glen Perkins and Kurt Suzuki was really special. The entire All Star week was awesome and gave us memories we will never forget.