Today was Kids Fan Appreciation Day at the Twins game. Since it was a Sunday, Cami went with me. We had a blast. It started with the autograph session for kids and she added Doug Bernier to her baseball. The other person was Logan Darnell but he already signed her ball so she told him and said good luck and he smiled.
While in our seats I saw on Twitter that you could post a picture at the ballgame for a chance to win a signed ball so I took a picture of Cami and posted it. Later in the game I got a tweet from the Twins saying I won a ball! I got to the area to pick it up and was offered a bat signed by Pedro Florimon. Since he was just released, I asked who the balls were of and the girl said Chris Parmelee so Cami wanted that so she added a Parmelee ball to her collection (dad already has two). We walked around for a little while after that and decided to head to the seats for the last couple innings of the game. In the top of the 9th inning a foul ball was sent our way. It hit the first seat about four rows behind us and bounced to the row behind us and then rolled down the row. I reached back to grab it but was not fast enough. There was a man two rows behind us who jumped down and got the ball and handed it to Cami. She was so excited. She did not put the ball down from the rest of the game all the way until we got home and she put it in a ball cube. It was really cool. One of the neatest things was we were looking at the game used balls in the game used area when we were walking around and she asked me to buy a ball. I told her some other time and she ended up getting one anyways! The Twins lost today but all in all it was a GREAT time for Cami and I at her final game of the 2014 season!
An Awesome Day!
Today was an awesome day. It started with Cami and I heading to Ridgedale Mall where Danny Santana and Kennys Vargas were signing autographs at Fan HQ. I had purchased my tickets a while ago which was great because they sold out. Fan HQ did a great job because English is not their primary language and inscriptions were offered. What they did was wrote down the inscription on index cards so you could give them to the player so they knew what to write. We got to Kennys first. He is a big strong man! I handed him a ticket from his ML Debut game and the index card with the inscription and he signed it. Then it was a baseball card for Cami. Then it was a baseball and then a final ticket from his first home run game with inscription. Cami then said “Gracias!” and Kennys looked up and his eyes got real big and went “OOOOooooooOOOOOooooo!” and smiled as he was surprised Cami knew (a little) Spanish. That was Cami’s most favorite moment of the whole day. We then went to Danny and got him on a ball and a card for Caden and lastly a ticket from his first home run game with inscription. Shaun H did a great job running the signing at Fan HQ. Cami and I walked away with smiles from ear to ear and an awesome memory.
Once we got home and got the mail I found a couple packages of signed stuff. The first was an envelope I sent in to a Gregory Polonco signing in Pittsburgh through 1st and Goal Sports. In it was a ticket signed by Polonco with MLB Debut on it. It looks phenomenal.
The last package I opened was from my friend Paul C in Florida. He has been working the Instructional Leagues for me down there and mailed the following blue ink sweetspot baseballs from the Rays prospects:
Taylor Guerrieri with “2011 1st Rd”
Andrew Toles
Kean Wong with “Go Rays!!”
Willy Adames with “Go Rays!!”
Casey Gillaspie
Another great batch of baseballs from Paul! He texted me today and told me he already got me three autographs from my current want list I sent him!
All in all it was an AWESOME day of adding items to the autograph collection!
Balls and Tickets and Magazines, Oh My!
Today I received a pair of packages. One was like Christmas! Back in spring training I sent some stuff to Josh S (jslaw on SCN) and he did a great job (as he always does for me). I left him some items to get signed from his hometown Marlins as well as some other teams for over the summer. He did not disappoint! He also included me in a private signing with a friend of his with Jose Fernandez. This was before Fernandez had to get Tommy John surgery and was at his meteoric rise (and was the stud of my fantasy baseball team). He also thought of me with a couple tickets during the season too. I received from him the following:
2 Jose Fernandez OMLBs
Jose Fernandez 1st Win Ticket
Kevin Slowey 1st Win Ticket with “1st Win”
Marcell Ozuna ML Debut Ticket. This one is awesome. Josh asked for MLB Debut. Marcell’s English must not be too good as he wrote “MLB Day View”
Jarrod Saltalamaccia Sports Illustrated (11.04.2013)
BJ Upton AND Justin Upton Sports Illustrated (10.07.2013)– Now I need to find a way to get Kate Upton to sign it! 🙂
Andrew Heaney ML Debut ticket
Gregory Polonco 1st HR ticket 06.13.2014 (unsigned)
Jacob deGrom 1st Win ticket 06.21.2014 (unsigned)
As always, Josh does a phenomenal job for me. I look forward to spring training next year with my stuff! Thanks Josh!
The other package I received today had a baseball signed by the latest Cuban to join the Major Leagues, Rusney Castillo. Dan C (scfdff on SCN) got Rusney on a baseball on September 3rd and I was the first one to offer on it. It arrived today and is a pretty neat item to add to the collection. I missed out on getting Yasiel Puig when he first started and was not going to miss Rusney. The ball looks awesome! Thanks Dan!
Not a Lump of Cole
Today I received a ticket I had sent in for a signing with Gerrit Cole a month into the season. It was scheduled and then cancelled because he got hurt and then delayed again because he was rehabbing. Well, he was back in the Majors and the signing happened. I sent the ticket to J Carr (graphmanj on SCN) who worked through LoJo Sports to get it signed. It was a debut ticket in which Gerrit got his first ML win too. It was signed “MLB Debut/First Win” in fine gold paint pen and looks awesome!