Back in October 1987, I was just starting my senior year of high school and the Twins did something they had never done and that was win a World Series. I have a lot of great memories of that fall and most of them are related to the Twins.
Fast forward thirty years to today when the Twins honored the 1987 team with an on field ceremony. Before the game though, Cami and I had some autographs to get!
Fan HQ had a signing with over twenty players from that 1987 team and I had some items that needed some ink (or Sharpie). I purchased the tickets at the door of the event and got in line. The line was long and hot but rewarding at the end. While waiting in line, they announced that people with one or two players could go in and get their items signed. While I was not moving, I thought it would be easier on me for when I did get in there to have less items to dig out and mess around with so I had Cami take a couple items and get them signed so I would put them away. The first thing she did was went to Tony Oliva and got a couple older magazines signed. I asked how Tony was and she said “He was classic Tony”. That meant friendly and happy. (Side note: Tony O is one of her favorites of the old timers and has a few interactions with him and he has been awesome each time.) Once she brought those back to me I gave her a large photo of Randy Bush’s slide in game 2 of the 1987 World Series that I already had signed by Dan Gladden. Randy signed it and Cami came back to wait with me. All that was left was a couple Sports Illustrateds and a baseball. Our turn finally came up and we started with Roy Smalley. Roy signed one of the SIs and said that “Jeff still tells me how my hand is blocking his face on that photo!”. Then it was over to Sal Butera. Sal signed both issues and I told Cami that Sal is Drew Butera’s dad. Her eyes lit up when she made the connection. Sal had on his champion ring and showed it to Cami and said “Drew’s is much bigger!” Then I hopped in line for Dan Gladden while Cami took the magazine to Mark Davidson. She said he was really nice and polite. We waited in Gladden’s line and when we got up to him he signed the SI and looked at Cami and said “You are too young to have seen this” and that “you missed a good time!” I gave Cami the SI and she got in line for Steve Lombardozzi. Steve greeted her with “Hi cutie!” so she thought that was just awesome. Then it was to Tim Laudner’s line. Tim, or rather the back of his head, is featured in the bottom right corner of the cover. Tim commented about having hair back then to Cami and then said “You know, I have hair on my dresser that I forgot at home today. I usually wear it on Sundays.” she laughed and he said “I am just kidding” and gave her knuckles. She thought that was neat. Then we went to Jeff Reardon’s line. Jeff signed the cover and commented that “That was the only time Roy ever touched my face and it happened to be on the cover!” This completed both Sports Illustrated magazines and all that was left was a 1987 World Series baseball and Frank Viola. We got right up to him and he signed the ball under the World Series logo with “87 WS MVP” and Cami and I packed everything up and high fived each other for a job well done!
We had an hour or so to kill before our next event so we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to Target Field. One of the things I signed up for in my Sweet Spot Rewards was to be a part of autograph signing events. Cami and I went to our event which had Brandon Kintzler, Eduardo Escobar, and Jose Berrios. Cami had a photo for each person and when she got to Kintzler, she congratulated him on being an all star. He signed her photo with “2017 A S” and signed my Topps Now Road to Opening Day card commenting “There is a card of me with the Twins!” Next up was Escobar. Eduardo signed Cami’s photo and a pair of cards for me. My cards were from Topps Series 2 this year. Then Berrios signed Cami’s photo and my Topps Now card from May 18th. We had tickets to the Twins game tonight but it was so hot that we decided to go home so I could shower and change clothes rather than staying at the ballpark. We did just that and got back to watch the pregame ceremony honoring the 1987 team. The Twins won the game and after the final out Cami looked at me, high fived me, and said “Today was pretty successful dad!” Yes, Cami, it sure was. Thanks for letting me tag along.
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Adventures in Autograph Collecting