Today kicked off my most favorite weekend of the year. Twinsfest was shortened to two days this year so I was unsure what to expect.
The day started for me after requesting the kids to leave school at 1pm. This year Cami decided to bring a couple friends along so there was a car full heading down to Target Field. We arrived at 2pm and were in a pretty good spot in the parking ramp (skyway entrance from Ramp A). The plan was for Caden and I to head to Johan Santana’s line first and Cami and her two friends to head to get Max Kepler and his group. Two of Cami’s friends LOVE Max Kepler so I wanted to make sure they could meet him. Cami had to leave early tonight because of volleyball practice so I asked her to go to the Carew group line after she was done with the Kepler line. That did not work out as they got cut off from the Carew line as time ran out. So, the girls decided to run around and have fun at the ballpark doing the games and checking things out. While I got in line for the Johan Santana group, Caden went through the Rocco Baldelli/Ehire Adrianza/Jorge Polanco/Fernando Romero/Mike Bell line and got each guy to sign something. He then got in line with me for Johan Santana. I need a TON of Santana cards for all the projects I am working on. It seems like when he was with the Twins he had a Cy Young card, an All Star card, a base card, a couple league leader cards, and so on so I have a lot of catching up to do. Caden and I went through the Johan Santana/Jacque Jones/Carlos Silva/Tony Diaz/Sean Poppen line. After this, we went our separate ways. Let me say this now… Caden was a superstar. He waited in so many lines, without complaining, to get autographs for me. I kept telling him over and over how much I appreciated it. It got to the point where he was like “I GOT IT! YOU ARE WELCOME!” What an awesome kid. Caden headed to the Lewis Thorpe/Jorge Alcala/Dakota Chalmers/Luke Raley line and then to the Brusdar Graterol/LaMonte Wade Jr/Cody Stashak/Devin Smeltzer line while I went to the Royce Lewis/Brent Rooker/Jordan Balazovic/Gilberto Celestino/Jhoan Duran and Randy Dobnak/Bert Blyleven/Glen Perkins/Terry Steinbach/Brian Raabe lines. When I spoke with Royce Lewis, I told him he had a heck of an Arizona Fall League season. He replied that the hot air down there really helped the ball fly. Between the two lines, I headed down to say hi to my pal Tony Swann and his son Spencer. Tony is the guy who collects Carlton Fisk games played tickets. He is down to like 37 tickets from Fisk’s entire career. Tony is awesome too. He has helped me out many times with my ticket collection rarely asking for anything in return. As it turned out, we chatted for a few minutes and he asked me to run a bat to his son who was waiting in line to have Rich Hill sign it. It was a really cool bat with a ton of pitchers who threw no hitters. When I was there, Spencer asked if I needed anything from anyone else in the group and I gave him a Josh Donaldson card and headed to the Dobnak group. I gotta say that this station was the highlight of my night. First, I had Bert Blyleven sign a table tent from a Wendy’s promotion for Bert’s Burger from years ago. He looked at it and said “I remember this shit!”. Mind you, at this point Bert had a few beers and had one sitting on the table next to him. It was hilarious. When I got to Glen Perkins, I had a debut ticket for him and asked him to sign it with ML Debut. He did and I asked him if he had a ticket from the game. He said he thought his parents might but he was not sure and he did not have one. I had an extra so I gave it to him. He was like “Wow! Thank you! Thank you very much!”. I gave Kent Hrbek an extra debut ticket for his game a few years ago and he appreciated it as well. I really like sharing things like this with the players. I asked Glen if he remembered it and that I noticed he came in relief of Johan Santana. He said “The first batter I faced was Carlos Pena and I struck him out!” I am always amazed by what players remember from a game or event in their career.
While I was at the Dobnak group, Caden was at the Dan Gladden/Kent Hrbek/Tim Laudner/Tony Oliva line. He would have been cut off in that line but they kept it open about 15 minutes longer so everyone could get their autographs. I thought that was a really cool gesture by the guys signing.
Caden and I met up and we headed home looking forward to tomorrow, the final day of Twinsfest 2020.
The autographs we all got today are:
-Eddie Rosario- 2018 Topps Heritage #262, 2019 Gypsy Queen #37, 2019 Allen & Ginter #190
-Mitch Garver- 2019 Topps Now Post Season Team PS-94, 11.07.2019 Topps Now, 08.31.2019 Topps Now
-Max Kepler- 2019 Topps Heritage 378, 2019 Topps Now Post Season Team PS-105, 2019 Topps Now Opening Day #141, Topps Now 06.06.209 Bonus ODB-13, 2019 Topps (given to Cami’s friend), 2019 Gypsy Queen (given to Cami’s friend)
-Rocco Baldelli- Managerial Debut ticket from 03.28.2019
-Ehire Adrianza- 2019 Topps #608, 04.29.2019 Topps Now #155
-Jorge Polanco- Cycle ticket from 04.05.2019
-Fernando Romero- ML Debut ticket from 05.02.2018
-Mike Bell- 2019 Topps Target Field card #424
-Johan Santana- 2007 Topps Cy Young card #321, 2008 Topps #115
-Jacque Jones- June/July 2002 Twins Magazine, April/May 2005 Twins Magazine
-Carlos Silva- Ticket from 05.30.2005 when he threw a complete game in only 74 pitches, 2 @ 2008 Topps Heritage #187
-Tony Diaz- 2019 Topps Target Field card #424, Signature Card
-Sean Poppen- 2 @ ML Debut tickets from 06.19.2019 with one with “MLB Debut”
-Lewis Thorpe- ML Debut ticket from 06.30.2019
-Jorge Alcala- ML Debut ticket from 09.21.2019
-Dakota Chalmers- Sweetspot OMLB
-Luke Raley- Sweetspot OMLB
-Brusdar Graterol- 2019 Topps Now Post Season Team PS-101
-LaMonte Wade Jr- ML Debut ticket from 07.28.2019
-Cody Stashak- Game used baseball that he used in his ML Debut for his 3rd career strikeout
-Devin Smeltzer- ML Debut ticket from 08.04.2019
-Royce Lewis- Bowman Next AZ Fall league AFL-37
-Brent Rooker- 2019 Topps Heritage Minor League #146, 2019 Bowman #BP-45
-Jordan Balazovic- Sweetspot OMLB
-Gilberto Celestino- Sweetspot OMLB
-Jhoan Duran- Sweetspot OMLB
-Randy Dobnak- ML Debut ticket from 08.09.2019 with “ML Debut!”
-Bert Blyleven- Wendy’s Table Tent
-Glen Perkins- ML Debut ticket from 09.21.2006 with “MLB Debut”
-Terry Steinbach- 1999 Topps #146
-Brian Raabe- Signature Card
-Dan Gladden- 1991 Topps #778
-Kent Hrbek- 1989 Upper Deck #213 (for Mark C- clubnuts on SCN)
-Tim Laudner- 1987 Twins Team card #206
-Tony Oliva- Big League Baseball 1965 Magazine
Category: Cami
A Fair Day
Today Cami and I went to the MN State Fair for a few hours. It was fun to hang out with her and bum around the fairgrounds. I noticed that Tony Oliva was going to be there so I grabbed a couple of the items I had for the Twins Hall of Fame Breakfast (he did not attend) and put them in a notebook. We got to the Fair and went to the Twins booth and found Tony O was tossing Wiffleballs to kids in the Wiffleball field. We walked around and got some food and went back just in time as he sat down to sign a few autographs. Cami got a 2019 Allen & Ginter and a 1968 Atlantic card signed. I got a 2019 Allen & Ginter signed as well. He was in a great mood taking pictures and signing autographs. We had a great day at the Fair!
Carry A Tune
Cami and I headed to the Twins game today hoping for a Twins sweep. The last Twins game we went to was with my sister-in-law when she was in town. It was her first visit to Target Field and as I was explaining everything about the ballpark, I mentioned that the organist was located in one of the bar areas in the upper deck. She asked if I had her autograph in my collection and I didn’t and she told me I had to make it my mission to get her autograph. So, before the game today, I brought a Target Field baseball card from Topps Series 2 this year and we spoke to Sue Nelson and she signed it. I got a photo of her and Cami by the organ too. Sue signed her name with both the treble and base clefts. It is pretty neat. She also confirmed that the organ is the same organ that played at the Metrodome AND the Met. Cami and I had a great time and the Twins beat the Royals for the sweep!
2019 Twins Hall of Fame Breakfast
Today was the annual Twins Hall of Fame breakfast where we celebrated the induction of Joe Nathan and Jerry Bell into the Twins team Hall of Fame. I went to this even last year and enjoyed it so much I decided to go again. Last year the kids could not make it so I brought Caden’s buddy Noah. We had a great time and Noah wanted to go again this year and said he would get me the autographs if I got the ticket so I did. The four of us had a great time. Torii and TK were really funny. Joe Nathan was extremely happy to be included in the HOF. After the breakfast and speeches were completed, there was an autograph event. They were pretty strict at the one autograph per person and since I had four people, I did ok. I brought items for all the people in the Twins HOF not knowing who would be there for the autographs. I was caught off guard last year but not this year! I also helped out a buddy from Washington with some autographs of the guys I did not need. Tom Kelly saw my 1987 Twins Report showing all the front office guys and himself and made a comment of a motley crew and they all looked like they should be in a police lineup. Brad Radke shook my hand and when I mentioned I sat next to him at last year’s breakfast he said he remembered me. I doubt it but it was still cool. When I asked Michael Cuddyer to sign my ticket from his debut game, I asked him if I recall correctly that Bob Casey announced him as ‘Michael Cudd-yer’ rather than ‘Cud-dyer’ and he laughed and said “Probably!” Joe Nathan signed my 300th Save ticket and I asked him “Wasn’t that last pitch a little outside?” He laughed and said “Nope! It was a strike all the way!” It was pretty neat. Here is what I got with the help of Caden, Cami, and Noah…
Tom Kelly- Metrodome #10 Seatback, Oversize card for 1,000th Win, Twins Report magazine from 1987, 1987 Topps (for Greg)
Brad Radke- 1997 Topps, 2003 Topps (for Greg), 2004 Topps (for Greg), 2000 Victory (for Greg)
Michael Cuddyer- 2 ML Debut ticket with “MLB Debut” inscription, 2003 Topps already signed by Michael Restovich, 2012 A&G (for Greg)
Torii Hunter- Cami finished her photo already signed by Buxton and Rosario, 2016 Topps variation, 2019 A&G, 2003 UD Vintage (for Greg)
Johan Santana- 2008 Topps Heritage, 2009 Topps Strikeout Leaders, 2006 Topps Strikeout Leaders, 2006 Topps
Joe Nathan- 2 300th Save tickets/ 1 with “300th Save”, 2015 A&G (for Greg), 1999 Revolution (for Greg)
John Gordon- Legendary Voices card with “Touch ’em all!”
It was a fun few hours and I cannot wait for next year’s event!