I experienced a 60 degree swing in temperature on Saturday, March 22. We left Fort Myers, FL early afternoon when it was in the mid-80’s. We landed in Minneapolis, MN a few hours later to 20 degrees. At least we did not have to mess with snow!
While gone, we picked shells on the beach on Sanibel Island, went to Disney World, spent a day by the hotel pool and went to a couple Twins spring training games. While this blog is about autographs, I will focus on that but will mention a couple non-baseball highlights…
1. Cami picking all the white shells she could find was funny.
2. Caden thought mini golfing was fun.
3. Cami with the Disney princesses was absolutely priceless.
4. Caden calling out every “Gator Pond” as we drove in Florida as well as once we got home.
Back to baseball and autographs…
While overall I did not do as well as I had hoped, I really did not “work” for them. I waited for the opportunity to arise rather than chasing them down. I ended up getting four baseballs and three baseball cards signed.
DAY 1
We got back to Fort Myers in the early afternoon on Thursday, March 20. Amy dropped me off at the ballpark and was to meet me at our seats at game time. I took advantage and walked around the Major League complex area. I was standing by the batting cages watching Jerry White talk to the three potential centerfielders, Carlos Gomez, Jason Pridie and Denard Span for about 15 minutes. One of the guys I really wanted was Carlos Gomez. After they broke their discussion, Carlos walked towards me and I asked him if he would take a moment to sign a ball for me. He said he had to do batting practice but would sign for me when he was done. He turned around and Denard Span had beat him to the plate so he walked to me and grabbed my ball and pen and signed it for me. That was cool! I wanted a couple cards to be signed by Francisco Liriano but he headed a different way into the ballpark from the practice field. I saw he was tossing in the bullpen so I headed inside the ballpark. I was standing by the bullpen and he headed a different way to the clubhouse. I was not the only person who was looking to add Liriano’s autograph to an item and was shutout both days. While standing by the bullpen, Dan Gladden walked by and signed a card for me. I stayed near the bullpen area and saw Livan Hernandez walk into the clubhouse. As he was on his way there, I asked him if he would please sign my ball. He stopped as he walked through the doorway and turned around and came up to me. I handed him my ball and pen and he signed it for me. I was happy to get a real nice autograph of him in my collection. I then decided to head out back out to the batting cage area and the area between the practice field and the main field. While there, Mike Lamb finished his batting practice on the practice field. He walked to the short fence and signed for a lot of people. I was fortunate enough to get him to sign a ball for me. I did get rained on for a couple minutes while standing by the bullpen area. I was walking past the gift shop and looked up and saw Amy and the kids so we all got to sit down and enjoy the baseball game with Heidi & Bob. Heidi & Bob are people we met in 2002, my second season of having season tickets. Their seats were next to mine and we got to know them. After the cost of a single season ticket got to be over $3000, we decided to buy one seat each and trade every other game. It has worked out real well for both of us. They are really nice people and we were fortunate enough to sit next to them for both games we were at. We will be together for a long time as we each just bought our seat license for the new ballpark seats!
DAY 2
The second day was a lot of fun. It was decided that Bob would pick me up at 7:30 am and head to the ballpark. Bob is buddies with Joel Lepel who is the Twins Minor League Coordinator and Joel invited us to meet up with him at his office. We got there and I was introduced to Joel. Bob took a photo of the two of us and Joel gave us the minor league schedule for the day. He said we did not want to miss Tom Kelly’s speech to the minor leaguers as he was sure TK would drop a couple F-Bombs. Sure enough. It took him a while to warm up but the F-Bombs got in there!
I made my way to the Major League side of the Lee County Sports Complex and noticed that the pitchers were doing their daily warm ups and again waited for Liriano and again he ducked out a different way. One person who did stop was Boof Bonser. Boof signed a card for me as he went down the line for the fans along the short fence between the two fields. After that I went back to the Minor League complex and waited for Deolis Guerra. I asked Deolis if he would be willing to sign a ball for me and he said he would but he had to practice first and would after that. He finished practicing while I was on the Major League side so I missed him. It was then lunch time for the minor leaguers. I stood by the batting cages/area where they picked up their sandwiches hoping to see Deolis but he was gone. While I was standing there, Joel Lepel came by and asked me who the ball I was holding was for. I told him I wanted Deolis and he said he was not there. I saw Ben Revere (former first round pick of the Twins and someone I wanted as well) get his food and told Joel that I was going to wait for Revere to finish his food and then ask him. Joel then yelled “Hey Revie! Hey! Revie! Come here!” I really got nervous because the last thing I wanted to do was to inconvenience anyone. Revere came up to Joel and I and Joel said “Revie. This is my friend Kevin. I do not know why, but he wants you to sign a ball for him!” At that time Revere set down his sandwich, orange and two drinks and proceeded to shake my hand, sign my ball and shake my hand again. Joel walked off as if his work there was done and Revere grabbed his food and walked to sit down and eat with his teammates. I stood there, ball and pen in hand, in awe. That, and seeing Cami with the Disney princesses, was the highlight of my trip! That morning was the first time Joel ever met me. Not only did he remember my name but he also referred to me as his friend. That was sooooooooooo cool! I hope to run in to him again someday and tell him what that meant to me.
After that, everything else I got was icing on the cake. That was really neat. I made my way back to the ballfield with Bob and we went to our seats. Shortly after that Heidi, Amy and the kids showed up. We enjoyed the game even though the Twins lost. After the game was over, Bob was going to take our family photo inside the ballpark to be potentially used as a family Christmas card. I looked down and Brendan Harris was signing autographs at the end of the Twins dugout. I grabbed my cards and ran down and got him to sign a baseball card. We did get the family photo taken as well as another scene outside the ballpark and I am told they turned out real nice.
Overall, I had a fun trip and enjoyed the autographs. I got shot down more than I succeeded but that is ok. A lot of times the hunt is more fun than the kill anyway. I will eventually get all the guys that shot me down on a ball or card and have them in my collection anyway. It was a vacation that had a real nice relaxed pace. I look forward to going back to Fort Myers someday soon with my newfound knowledge and have even better luck.
Below is a photo of the Lee County Sports Complex and where I was when I got each autograph:
A. Carlos Gomez
B. Dan Gladden
C. Livan Hernandez
D. Mike Lamb
E. Boof Bonser
F. Ben Revere
G. Brendan Harris
