Today’s Twinsfest started with promise but it quickly turns South. I got to the Dome around 2:20pm with the gates opening at 5:30. I waited outside over 3 hours in the below zero windchill. Russ, Shane and I were around 50th in line outside. When the gates opened, Russ, Shane and I went directly to the line where Mauer and Morneau were signing. When we got there, we were suddenly W A Y behind a lot of people. Looking around, the people in line in the first couple “lanes” (of the zig zag) did not have coats or were recognizable from our long wait outside. Come to find out, they were family members of the vendors on the floor who were inside the Dome before we were able to get in line. I heard from another person in line at a later point saying there was a vendor bragging about sending his family up there. I took the first “shift” and ducked down to the Ron Coomer line to get Coomer on a card for a fellow SCN’er. I was able to get two Coomer cards and a Denard Span debut ticket with “MLB Debut ’08” on it. I then went back in the M & M line and waited. Needless to say, after waiting 3 hours outside and another 1.5 hours inside waiting for M & M to start to sign and then through .5 of their 1.25 hours of signing, Shane & I left the line leaving Russ. Russ ended up missing out by about 30 people. If that was not frustrating enough, after leaving that line, Shane and I checked out the Hrbek/Oliva line. It was the only time Hrbek was signing and that line was too long and a lot of people missed out of them too.
We then got in line for Jason Kubel, Joe Nathan and Delmon Young to get my Young batting glove signed. Turned out that DY was sick and was not there so we decided to move on to another line.
We decided to head to check out the Molitor line and that was too long and decided, in an effort for Shane to not get completely shut out, headed to the free guys. We went through the free guy line and I got Trevor Plouffe, Anthony Swarzak and Danny Valencia on OMLBs as well as, with Shane’s help, got two Swarzak cards and three Eli Tintor cards signed.
Shane, Russ and I all headed home greatly disappointed but with hope Twinsfest 2009 – Day 2 would be better.
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Adventures in Autograph Collecting
Man, that was disappointing… I can’t believe how long we stood in the FREEZING cold and then inside only to get shut out… Now I have to lug around my 2006 “Awards” poster some more… I thought for sure I’d finish that up, as all I needed was Justin. I also got NO HOF’s on my HOF print… so it was basically a total bust… I did enjoy hanging out and talking baseball, as this time of the year is HARD… I can’t wait for pitchers and catchers to report… My best auto for the weekend was John Castino and he inscribed it with ’79ALROY so that was pretty cool…
I didn’t get a Ben Revere, but did get an Anthony Slama… so 1 out of 2 ain’t bad… and it was fun going thru the Tony O line 3 times, so much that he remembered me and said something… I honestly don’t think he was mad, like you thought… I think he was just trying to be funny, but with that accent… WHO KNOWS???? I’m so sick of the 1982 Twins now, after watching the video at least 1 zillion times… It’s like they don’t remember that the 1982 Twins lost 102 games… hardly worth making a video about… I will miss the Metrodome, mostly because of the World Series wins and those types of memories… Can’t wait for The Autograph Party, Jeez… June is 5 months away… ouch!