Twinsfest 2014 – Day 3

Today was the final day of Twinsfest.  Over the last few years Sunday’s turned into kid’s day as I bring the kids and do not focus on autographs.  This year we invited Caden’s friend from his baseball team to come along.  This was going to be Cayden’s second time at Twinsfest and he was pretty excited for it.

We left the house and got to Cayden’s house just after 7am.  We headed to Target Field and got in line in the skyway as we were hoping it would block the wind better than being out in the open of Gate 29.  We waited for the hour in the cold.  I kept telling the kids that waiting in the cold would insure they got the player they wanted; Byron Buxton.  Caden and Cayden headed to Buxton’s line which was still over an hour away from starting to get in line.  It was a good thing they did.  They ended up being around number 60 in line still over an hour before he was scheduled to sign.  I told them they could decide who they wanted but they were not going to be able to get both Joe Mauer and Byron Buxton because of the length of the lines and they wanted Buxton so they headed there.  Cami and I went to Joe Mauer’s line and were were around the 150 or so number.  We got through and Joe signed his 2007 and 2008 Allen & Ginter cards.  All four cards I got signed by Joe this weekend were the last cards I needed to complete my Twins team sets for those sets.  There are about 35 more cards I need signed by Joe for my sets so I will be at it for a long time with him!  After that Cami and I headed to meet up with Caden and Cayden.  I noticed there was not much of a line for the group that was signing at that time so Cami and I went through and Cami got Tom Kelly on the TV Guide issue he was on the cover of while I got a ticket with the inscription 1,000th Win.  Frank Quilici signed Cami’s ball for her while I got him on a 1973 manager card already signed by Bob Rodgers and Al Worthington.  Then Cami got Ron Gardenhire to sign her baseball while I got him on the 2011 team issue Topps card already signed by Tsuyoshi Nishioka as well as his 2013 Topps Heritage card for Mark.  I asked Gardy if he ever talks with Nishi and he said he does communicate with him via a translator.  I told him it was too bad the things ended up and he said “he was an all star this year!  He was just too overwhelmed here”.  I could tell Gardy liked Nishi and was happy things are going better for him back in Japan.  Cami and I let Caden and Cayden walk around and sat in their spots as they were stuck there for a while.  While sitting there, they found out a classmate from their school was there and he met up with the boys and hung out for most of the day.  It was then time for Buxton to start signing.  At that time the line must have been over 400 people.  All weekend long the Buxton line was incredible.  We went through the line and I did not have anything for the other people in line so I got Buxton on a card I had.  I did not expect to get Buxton at all over the weekend as I tried to avoid his line.  The kids all got a baseball signed by him and when we walked out, all four kids (Caden, Cami, Cayden and their friend from school) had smiles from ear to ear.  I even took a photo of the four kids holding up their Buxton autographs they were so proud of.  I asked each if it was worth standing out in the cold an hour before just for that moment and each one said “Well duh.  Of course!”  This past season I caught a foul ball at a game I was at with Cami.  She was all excited when I did and told me she wanted to get Brian Dozier to autograph it some day.  Today was the day.  We got in his line and Cami added Darin Mastroianni to her baseball and I got a 2013 Topps signed.  Next up was Brian Dozier.  He remembered me from yesterday when he called Tyler and asked how I was doing today.  Cami gave him the foul ball he hit and proudly said “My dad caught this!”  I told him it was the first one I ever caught.  He signed a 2013 Topps card for me and we moved on to Mudcat Grant.  Cami told him that he had already signed her baseball and he gave her a smile and a high five.  Mudcat is a kind, kind man.  All of us then headed down to the dealer area and got in line for the next group that was signing there.  Cami got her baseball signed by all the players and Caden got a team ball started.  I got Kevin Correia to sign a 2013 Topps card.  Scott Diamond signed his 2013 Allen & Ginter card for me and his 2013 Topps Heritage for Mark.  Vance Worley then signed his 2013 Allen & Ginter and his 2013 Topps update for me.  Cami got Brian Raabe on her baseball and we walked to the Champions Club to sit down and listen to the events going on there.  We decided to get in line for the final group of the day.  For this group, Cami wanted Glen Perkins on a baseball card instead of her baseball and Caden wanted a sweetspot baseball signed.  Cami added Pedro Florimon, Jason Bartlett and Michael Tonkin to her baseball while I got Perkins on his 2013 Topps for me and his 2013 Topps Heritage for Mark.  I also got Pedro Florimon on his 2013 Topps Heritage for Mark.

I headed to say goodbye and safe travels to Tony Swann and talked with my buddy Joel and we all headed home.  We talked about all the fun we had and autographs we got on the way home.  Twinsfest 2014 was a crazy good time and great times had by all!  We cannot wait until Twinsfest 2015!