Today was a fun day in Florida for spring training. Cami decided she wanted a baseball cap from each of the ballparks we went to so she got a white Blue Jays cap. We decided to ditch Amy and Caden and see who we could get autographs of while waiting with all the other autograph seekers. Turns out she got Kevin Pillar on her cap. Shortly after that former player and current coach Richie Hebner swung by and also signed her cap. She was all excited by that. We did not work the autographs too hard but there was one guy I really wanted… Mark Buehrle. I brought my perfect game Sports Illustrated to Florida hoping I could get him to sign it because it is a cool cover and he personalized through the mail. It turned out Mark was the starter at the game we were at. After the middle of the second inning I told Amy and the kids that Mark will be done pitching and I was going to try to get him on the magazine and left our seats to stand where I figured he would have to pass. After pitching his second inning I watched and waited. While there, a person next to me asked if Mark went by yet. I told him no and that he was the only guy I was after and that they already brought a reliever in so his day was done. All of a sudden Mark takes off from the dugout and runs by as myself and a few other guys asked him to stop and sign. He did not stop but all of a sudden the guy who asked me if Mark ran by yet whipped out some sort of MLB badge, threw it around his neck, opened the gate to get to the players and said “give me your magazine” and I did. I have no idea if this person was a trainer, former player, agent, drug tester or what but he went up to Mark and chatted a few minutes with him and got my magazine signed. While I was waiting, about 50 other collectors came up and were behind me hoping Mark would come over to sign. He never did. The person with my magazine walked to me, handed it to me and I thanked him and shook his hand and he walked out to the players’ parking lot. I was stoked! So, to the gentleman I have no idea who you were, THANK YOU! You made my day!
A HOFer and a 1st Overall Draft Pick
Today I received a couple items I am excited to add to the collection.
A few weeks ago I purchased a nice season ticket version ticket for Wade Boggs’ 3,000th hit game. I mailed it to him and got it back today signed beautifully.
A few days ago I purchased a baseball signed by Mark Appel. Mark was the first overall draft pick in the 2013 MLB draft. I bought it from Brad E (elchert13 on SCN). Brad packaged it really well and shipped it fast. A great ball for the collection!
Big Mac Times Three!
Today I received a box with three real nice Sports Illustrated magazines signed by Mark McGwire. Tom Orr (orr23mj on SCN) had a private signing with Mark on January 30th and these got signed there. The issues I got signed where:
June 1, 1992
March 23, 1998
August 3, 1998
They were all signed exactly where and in what color marker as I requested. As always, Tom does a great job.
Another Joe
I need about 35 Joe Mauer cards to complete his run of cards I need for my Twins collections. I have probably 15 signed. One of the four cards I got signed at Twinsfest was one I already had. Really? I thought I kept better records than that. I was pretty ticked off when I discovered that.
Well, it turns out I was not the only one who got a card signed by Joe they already had. Kevin W (yrocks2001 on SCN) did the same thing. The good news for me was that he offered his for sale. It was twice what the cost was at Twinsfest but I was ok with that. Today I got the 2009 Allen & Ginter signed beautifully in blue Joe Mauer card. It looks awesome. I guess this softens the sting of my screw up a little bit.