Category: Cami

Today I woke up when my alarm went off with a headache.  I think it was from a lack of quality sleep and the excitement that comes with Twinsfest weekend for me.  I knew it was not going to stop me though!  I walked out to the living room and Cami was already awake and dressed ready to go.  Someone was even MORE excited for today than I was!  Caden said he had a real bad headache and could not go and stayed sleeping.  Cami and I got to the ballpark around 8am and was in the exact same spot we were at Friday night when we hopped in line.  Cami really wanted to get a card signed by Polanco and Berrios so she decided to head to that line first and would meet me in the Mauer line after I got through it. She was really excited to get the card signed and unfortunately Polanco smeared it when handing it back to her.  She said he apologized and felt bad and she was not too bummed because he felt bad.  She got me a couple Kurt Suzuki cards signed and walked to the Mauer line.  I had just gotten done with Joe’s line and went to get back in the line and she was just showing up.  It was perfect timing.  When I went through the line, I mentioned to Corey Koskie that I was eating breakfast while reading the article he wrote a couple days ago when I hit the toilet part.  He laughed and asked if I finished breakfast.  It was pretty funny.  We were both able to get through the line twice.  We then decided to head to the Phil Hughes line and got Phil on a couple cards as well as Glen Perkins (I screwed up and got a card signed I already had and missed on the one I needed) as well as a Ryan O’Rourke ML Debut ticket.  I got Stephen Gonsalves to sign a baseball as well.  Cami wanted an Eduardo Nunez card signed so she headed to that line and then was going to meet up with me in the kid’s game area where she was working on earning more Boardwalk Bucks for the kid’s auction later today.  I went to the Mauer line at the Twins Wives area and got him to sign one card for me there.  I then headed to the Kyle Gibson line (where I got him to sign a card I already had an missed the one I needed… dang!).  I got Tyler Duffey to sign a ticket with “1st ML Win” and a John Ryan Murphy ML Debut ticket.  I then went and found Cami and we went to the Twins Yard Sale again where we bought a couple small things.  We then headed down to the Radio Stage and listened to a pretty moving chat featuring Rod Carew.  It was pretty special to hear him talk about his experience and the people who helped him get through it… so far.  You could tell the fans were extremely grateful that he was still alive and able to be at Twinsfest as he got a couple standing ovations and many claps.  After that was done, it was time for the kid’s auction.  Cami had collected 315 of the Boardwalk Bucks from playing all the games she did in the kid’s area.  She thought she had a pretty good chance at winning something.  Well, not so much.  There were only five items that were auctioned off and she immediately found out that 315 was not going to win her anything.  She still bid and was high bidder on one of the items for all of about a half second.  She really wanted the Brian Dozier 4’x5′ autographed sign/photo.  Once the bidding on the final item got over 315 she kind of just sighed and looked at me and smiled.  What happened next was the kind of thing that makes me so proud of her.  She is so unselfish in day to day things and she proved yet again just how cool she is.  The little kid next to us had her mom bid 400 on the Dozier photo.  He thought she won it at that point and started walking up to get it when everyone laughed and said he did not win it.  Someone then bid 450 which was over what the little boy had and you could see his mom look deflated.  I looked at Cami and said what do you think about giving your Boardwalk Bucks to the little kid so he can keep going and without hesitating, she said yes.  As Dick Bremer started saying “450 going once!” I handed the little kid’s mom Cami’s 315 Boardwalk Bucks and she exclaimed “600!” to which nobody else had that many and the kid won the photo and went bananas.  The mom was extremely grateful and moved by Cami doing that and thanked us a few times.  I told Cami that while she did not win anything, she can know that she made the little kid’s day and that is more special than winning the photo.  She smiled.  She is so awesome.
After the auction was done we headed down to say good bye to my buddy Tony S and Joel B who both have tables in the dealer area.  We chatted with them and I told her it was time to leave.  She said “But dad!  I don’t want to go!  There is still an hour left!”  She did not want Twinfest 2016 to end.  We did end up leaving but man, did we have fun and make some awesome memories.

A wrap up of my weekend’s autographs (with help from multiple people– Caden and Cami have a bunch of their own items but this is just my list):
Neil Allen- 2 Sports Illustrated magazines
Oswaldo Arcia- 5 cards (1 for Mark C)
Jose Berrios- baseball
Bert Blyleven- 08.16.1980 Lanny Frattare Scorecard
Tom Brunansky- 3 cards (for Mark C)
Byron Buxton- ML Debut ticket, 4 cards
Butch Davis- 4 cards
Pat Dean- 2 cards
Brian Dozier- 4 cards
Tyler Duffey- 1st Win ticket
Eduardo Escobar- 1 card
Mitch Garver- baseball, signature card
Kyle Gibson- 1 card
Stephen Gonsalves- baseball
John Gordon- signature card
JR Graham- 2 ML Debut tickets, 1 card
Mudcat Grant- baseball, signature card
John Hicks- 6 cards, 2 signature cards
Trevor Hildenberger- signature card
Phil Hughes- 5 cards
Kevin Jepsen- 2 cards
Brandon Kintzler- signature card
Corey Koskie- 2 signature cards
Joe Mauer- 14 cards (and a whole lot of money spent to get them!)
Trevor May- 2014 All Star Game Future Stars Edition Program
Alex Meyer- ML Debut ticket, 2 cards
John Ryan Murphy- ML Debut ticket
Ricky Nolasco- 3 cards
Eduardo Nunez- 2 08.15.2011 Sport Illustrateds, 3 cards
Ryan O’Rourke- 2 ML Debut tickets, 2 cards
Byung Ho Park- baseball
Glen Perkins- 5 cards
Trevor Plouffe- 4 cards
Jorge Polanco- 2 cards
Jake Reed- baseball, 3 cards
Michael Restovich- 1 card
Randy Rosario- 1 signature card
Danny Santana- 4 cards
Roy Smalley- 11.02.1987 Sports Illustrated, 1 card
Kurt Suzuki- 2 cards
Stuart Turner- 2 cards
117 total autographs for the three day weekend.  I owe a lot to others who helped me with these.