I bring the kids to Friday and Sunday Twinsfest days but Saturday has traditionally been the day my buddy Shane V and I hang out without the kids running around. This year was no exception.
I got down to the ballpark around 8am and was in a little better spot than I was Friday night. It seemed as though Friday has turned into the busier day compared to Saturday which in the past was the busy day. Joe was signing right away so I went to his line. I was able to get through his line four times getting a baseball card signed each time. I then got in the line for Brian Dozier and that is where Shane showed up and met up with me. We were able to get a couple Brian Dozier cards signed and JR Graham cards while I got a ticket signed by Graham with “ML Debut”. We then headed to Trevor Plouffe’s line and waited. We got some Plouffe and Tom Brunansky cards signed. After this was done we headed to the Phil Hughes line and waited for that to start. Once we to the table we got Hughes, Danny Santana, John Hicks, and Pat Dean cards signed. After this I lost Shane on the way to the Trevor May line. I got Trevor to finish my 2014 All Star Game program that was already signed by Jose Berrios and Kris Bryant. That is now done with all three players on the cover having signed it! I then found Shane again and we got in line for Neil Allen and his group. This is where one of the funniest encounters with a player I have ever had happened. The 04.20.1987 Sports Illustrated magazine has a title of “What They Make” and listed a few players and their salaries on it. I happened to be flipping through some of my SI’s this winter and came across this issue and looked at it and was floored to see Neil Allen on the cover. Smack dab in the middle! I knew I had to remember to bring it to Twinsfest for him. As Shane and I get to him and hand him the magazine, he looks up and says “That’s a lie!”. I said “What? You didn’t make $1.26 million in 1987?” as stated on the cover. He says “Do you believe everything you read?”. He goes on to tell us a story about how his (now) ex-wife’s lawyer brought the issue into court and showed it to the judge and said “This is what he makes and this is what he should pay”. He had Roy Smalley and Butch Davis laughing like crazy as well as Shane and I. He says his mom has about 80 of that issue sitting in her closet. Then he says he and his ex-wife had a love/hate relationship… he loved her and she hated him. We all laughed and Butch Davis says “Yeah but she LOVED your money!” It was hilarious. I got Roy to sign the 1987 Twins Sports Illustrated and we each got Butch to sign a couple cards and Mudcat Grant signed a baseball and we headed on to see my buddy Rob who works for the Twins. I did not have a chance to meet up with him Friday night and I found out he was not working on Sunday so Saturday was the only time I could see him. We sat down and the three of us chatted about a number of things. It was real nice to see him and hang out for a few minutes catching up. We left to head up to the Alex Meyer line and as we walked by the Blyleven line, I noticed nobody was in it. I was afraid that Bert would personalize my scorecard to me so Shane said he would get it signed so he went in with it and it was Bert and John Gordon at the table and nobody in line. What happened next for Shane was a memory he will not forget. The scorecard was the actual scorecard that Lanny Frattare used when he broadcast the Pirates game on August 16th, 1980. Bert threw a complete game shutout striking out 12 Expos batters. I waited outside and listened to the three of them talking about keeping score and the game. They chatted for about five minutes about it before someone else got in line and Shane had to move on. Shane said it was awesome how each person keeps their own scorecard and the detail and personal style. The scorecard turned out awesome and Shane got a real nice memory. After that we headed to Alex Meyer’s line. Shane got Alex on a couple cards and I got a ticket with ML Debut. I also got a baseball signed by Mitch Garver and Oswaldo Arcia signed some cards for us. On the way to the car, we stopped at the Twins Yard Sale. I picked up a dvd of the All Star Game that was at Target Field as well as a really cool printed photo of the ballpark. I got a couple other small things but one thing I got that was cool was one of the back lit signs that hung in the concourse of Target Field. I have one from the Metrodome and I bought the one that has Josh Willingham connecting on a swing. This wrapped up Shane and my annual Twinsfest tradition. There was still one thing left to do. We headed to Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Afterwards I dropped him off at his car and headed home. I was pretty pleased how Twinsfest was going for me this year. A special thanks to Shane who kept me company while helping me get autographs… as he calls it “being my mule”. It was great catching up with him and keeping our tradition going. Thanks brother! I got home and again emptied my bag and updated my spreadsheet and got ready for the final day of Twinsfest 2016.
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Adventures in Autograph Collecting