Two WS MVPs and the Terminator!

Today was a great day!  Cami and I left the house around 8am and headed to Bloomington to meet up with Joel B (brad0112 on SCN) and his son Elliott.  We then headed to Moundsview Square Mall where Tom Frantzen had Frank Viola, Jeff Reardon and Jack Morris appearing to sign autographs.  There was heavy demand for Viola so we made sure we got up to get the tickets when they opened.  We bought the tickets then headed to see Ted S.  Ted has been pretty gracious with his sked doubles and let me go through all his sked doubles and take what I need.  Today I traded his AL doubles that I went through and got a TON for the NL doubles.  I will go through those over the next couple weeks.  We then headed back and got in line for Viola and Reardon.

As usual, Frankie V was his happy, talkative self.  It was really neat to see him.  He signed a 1987 World Series ticket with “87 WS MVP”, the checklist card from the 1986 7-Eleven Twins team set and two home plates made out the the old Metrodome roof.  He looked at the checklist card and said “That isn’t even me!  Well, it has my face but that is my first roommate and best friend today!”.  I asked him who it was and he had me guess.  I asked for the first name and he said ‘Jack’.  I said ‘Jack O’Conner’ and he looked at me with wide eyes and said ‘Yes!’  He said That’s Jack’s windup but my [Frank’s] face!”  He signed it and we moved on to Jeff Reardon.  Jeff signed a home plate of the Metrodome roof for Cami.  Joel then took a photo of Jeff and Cami together.  We are going to get that printed out and send it to Jeff to sign it for Cami.

After that we left to eat and when we were done we went back to the show for Jack Morris.  Jack finished our two home plates with “91 W.S. MVP”.  Both home plates turned out really cool with the two Twins World Series MVPs on them.

We left and headed to Dick Blick in Roseville and found some really cool frames for the home plates.  After that we drove to where Joel’s car was parked and dropped him and Elliott off and headed home.

It was a long day but the four of us had a blast.  It was cool that Joel and I could do this while our kids got to know each other and hung out.  We cannot wait for the next autograph show where we can do this again!

Tune the Piano

Ok.  I admit it.  The title for this post is weak but if you bear with me, you will make the connection.  Jerry Trupiano (Piano) is a radio broadcaster (tune in the channel?) for the Boston Red Sox.  He was behind the microphone on 10/17/2004 for 2004 ALCS Game 4 when the Red Sox faced the Yankees.  The Yankees were up three games to none and no team, in any sport, ever came back in a seven game series after being down three games to none… until the 2004 Red Sox.  The champagne was on ice ready to be sprayed by the Yankees with the future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera on the hill protecting a one run lead in the bottom of the ninth.  In one of the most exciting games in any League Championship Series history, the Red Sox scratched together a run off Mariano to force extra innings.  In the bottom of the 12th inning, David Ortiz, Big Papi, hit a two run walk off home run to win the game and the Red Sox continued the momentum all the way to winning the following three games to get to the Fall Classic which they swept the Cardinals.

Jerry Trupiano wrote his call from Ortiz’s walk off home run in game four on my baseball I received today.  That was really cool.  Not only that, he put a note in he donated the money I sent to his church and even returned my pen.  Thank you Jerry for the awesome baseball!

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