Graphin’ With Kevin

Today started my most favorite holiday of the season; Twinsfest weekend!  I left work at 2pm in hopes of getting to the new location with enough time to get Jim Thome on the Sports Illustrated magazine he was on.  I got to the National Sports Center around 2:30.  The line was remarkably long.  I heard the first person got there at 2AM and there were about 200 people in line around 8AM.  They opened the doors at 4PM and the people in the front of the line entered and the line stopped.  Turns out the room was at the maximum fire code number of people.  They were going to allow one person to enter for each person that left.  What they did not account for was that people who got Joe Mauer could get back in line for him and then get in the line for Jim Thome and never leave the building.  I know two people who got through the Mauer line twice and Thome once and did not leave the building until after Thome.  That left a HUGE number (800+?) left outside in the cold in hopes of getting in the building.  This was the only thing the Twins did wrong this weekend.  They should have made each person leave the building after they got their first autograph.  The Twins did a fantastic job for having to change the venue so late in the planning to accommodate the Metrodome roof failure.  Sure, the lines were long and wrapped around and were unorganized but people dealt with it and it all went as well as it could have.  That is the agony part of the weekend.

I left the Mauer/Thome line around 4:20 when I noticed I was not moving and was too far from the entrance to have a shot.  I made a decision and boy did it pay off.  I went to the other building where the rest of the events were and walked right up to the first table and got Anthony Swarzak on a ticket with “ML Debut” and Juan Berenguer on a card.  I then went to another table and got Nick Blackburn on a card and Jason Kubel on two cards.  I then headed to wait in another line that was going to have Rod Carew and Tony Oliva signing during the next shift.  I got each on a card.  After that, I headed to get Jack Morris on a card (he used an ink pen???), Dan Gladden and Terry Steinbach each on a card and Jerry White on the Jim Thome Sports Illustrated.  After that I decided to look at what some dealers were selling.  Within 10 minutes I found a dealer selling an almost complete run of signed Twins cards that he had recently purchased from a person who was in his early 70’s and went to Spring Training every year since the team started.  This is where the Triumph part of the title comes in.  He was selling most cards for $4!  I got the following cards from him:
92 Paul Abbott
94 Rick Aguilera
95 Rick Aguilera
97 Rick Aguilera
94 Marc Barcelo
95 Marc Barcelo
91T Steve Bedrosian
01 Sean Bergman
84T John Butcher
96 John Butcher
06 Luis Castillo
97 Ron Coomer
00 Ron Coomer
09 Joe Crede
09 Michael Cuddyer
92 Chili Davis
82T Ron Davis
86 Ron Davis
90 Tim Drummond
81 Dave Edwards
10 Ron Gardenhire
08 Matt Garza
03 Chris Gomez
89 German Gonzalez
96 LaTroy Hawkins
98 LaTroy Hawkins
99 LaTroy Hawkins
01 LaTroy Hawkins
02 LaTroy Hawkins
03 LaTroy Hawkins
08 Livan Hernandez
94 Hocking/Munoz
02 Torii Hunter
03 Torii Hunter
03 Torii Hunter Gold Glove
07 Torii Hunter
00 Butch Huskey
82T Randy Johnson
75 Tom Johnson
03 Beau Kemp
00 Bobby Kielty
01 Matt Lawton
85 Rick Lysander
04 Joe Mays
94 David McCarty
95 David McCarty
97 Pat Meares
02 Eric Milton
03 Eric Milton
97 Paul Molitor
98 Paul Molitor
08 Craig Monroe
91T Jack Morris
92 Jack Morris
03 David Ortiz
89 Mark Portugal
08 Nick Punto
99 Brad Radke
04T Jay Rainville
71 Paul Ratliff
01 Mark Redman
02 Rick Reed
96 Frank Rodriguez
97 Frank Rodriguez
03 JC Romero
03 Johan Santana
04 Johan Santana
05 Carlos Silva
07 Carlos Silva
91 Paul Sorrento
92 Paul Sorrento
93 John Smiley
06 Shannon Stewart
88 Les Straker
07 Jason Tyner
99 Todd Walker
00 Todd Walker
81 Al Williams
84 Al Williams
85 Al Williams
81 Dave Engle
80 Graham/Sofield
70 Stan Williams
74 Joe Lis
93 Lenny Webster
92 David West
93 David West
06 Rondell White
81 Mickey Hatcher

I dropped about $80 on them and then went to the ATM that was on site.  I needed $300 and the limit was $100 so I had to do 3 transactions (of course they charged me $2.95 for each one!).  I paid the man and was really happy.

I ran into my friend Rob who works for the Twins and had him autograph a card for me.  I will be putting that card on my website of signed Twins cards.  I even have a “proof shot” of him signing it so if anyone is interested in buying it, I will offer it at a fair price.  At this time it is a 1 of 1 limited edition! 🙂

I then went over to see Joel Bradley about some of the stuff he got signed for me.  He worked with the Bob Feller Museum to get a discount because he has to many items to get signed.  I had him getting a couple Jeremy Hellickson ML Debut tickets signed and was very pleased with the job he did.  He had not gone to the Fergie Jenkins booth to get those items signed so he asked if I would help him when he went there.  I had no place to go so I did.  He got my last Jim “Mudcat” Grant card I needed signed and I helped him with the other stuff.

I then drove home thinking I should have bought more of the cards and hoped they would still be there tomorrow.

Today was the final day of the Sports News Show for the winter weekend.  The highlight for me was having Gary Gaetti there.  So, here is my Good, Bad and AWESOME part of the show today.

The Good:
I was able to meet Joel Bradley at the show.  He brought an Ichiro baseball that he got for me through a volume discount deal.  I met Joel via SportsCollectors.net and it was really nice to meet him in person.  He seemed like a great guy.

The Bad:
This was not all bad but it was bad for me.  Another member on SportsCollectors.net, Heidi G, asked if I would be able to get a couple bats and balls signed by Danny Valencia since I was going.  I offered to help because the items were not already signed and if something happened, I would not feel AS BAD as if something happened to something she already had signed.  I had her six tickets as well as my single ticket for Danny to sign his only Topps baseball card out there.  When I got to the table, I was informed that Danny would not be signing his rookie card because he was “under contract”.  I do not know what kind of douchebag would not sign a baseball card (except Albert Pujols but at least he EARNED the right to put that restriction on after winning multiple MVP’s and being one of the best players in the game) but when I said I did not have anything else to get signed, the ticket taker said “There are people all over selling his items” to which I replied “I do not want anything else signed” so I ended up getting a refund.  That was a real downer.  I was able to get Heidi’s bats and balls signed.  Danny asked where I got the bats with his name on them and I told him I had no idea and he laughed like I was the jerk.  Whatever.  If he was not so relied upon for the Twins infield this season, I would wish him what he deserves.  What a punk.

The AWESOME:
When the list of people showing up was listed, my heart skipped a beat when I saw Gary Gaetti’s name.  I am down to needing just Gaetti and Dan Schatzeder on my 1987 Twins team ball.  When I got to Gary, he signed the last three cards for me that I needed his autograph on to complete my run of his Twins cards and I told him I have been working on this team baseball since 1987.  He asked if I got all the autographs myself which I told him I did.  He said that there are a lot of balls he has seen that he did not sign that are out there.  He offered to sign the ball with his autograph that he used back in 1987 (the wide G’s).  That was pretty cool.

After getting Gaetti on my baseball I headed home.  It was neat to meet Joel in person as well as get Gaetti on my team ball after working on it for over 22 years!  One more to go!

This evening FanHQ in Ridgedale sponsored a signing with JJ Hardy.  I needed him on a couple cards for the sets I am working on and I was thinking about sending the cards in because it was a long drive from my house to Ridgedale.  When a collector on SCN contacted me asking for help in getting three of his Brewers programs signed, I decided that I would go.  Tickets were $10 per item so I ordered 6 tickets and had them reserved for me.  Good thing I did too as they sold out.
With Amy in Dallas, TX for work, the kids and I decided to go up and visit my parents since we were on that side of the Twin Cities and had a nice two hour visit with them.  We then headed to Ridgedale.  We got there, picked up the tickets and got in line.  It seemed that we were one of the last ones in line that there were a number of people already there before he started signing.  I had brought a baseball for the 6th item to get signed but while we were waiting in line, Cami asked me for a picture for her to get signed.  So, we bought a cool photo of Hardy batting at Target Field.  She was pretty excited to add that to her collection.
We left and got home around 7:30 or so stopping for dinner along the way.

Today was the Twins Legends game.  It was awesome.  The Twins really did a great job in getting people to show up and play.  It was the highlight of the Twins 50th Anniversary Celebration Weekend.

Cami wanted to go to the game today so she and I headed to the game a little earlier than normal since they were giving away fedora hats and I thought it would be something Cami would love.  I was right!  We go to the ballpark with enough time to get a hat.  We then headed to the Sunday Kids Autograph event.  It was Trevor Plouffe and Alex Burnett signing.  I think in all the times I got autographs when one of the kids were with me, there was only one time that I had them get an autograph for me.  This was the second time.  I talked Cami in to getting a card signed by Alex Burnett for me for my autographed Twins baseball card collection project and she was really excited to do that for me.  She got her ball signed with “Cami, All the best, Trevor Plouffe”.

We then headed to our seat and enjoyed the Legends Game.  On a scale of 1 to 10, it was a 20.  I had so many memories of watching these guys play as a kid.  Corey Koskie hit one out in batting practice which was cool to see he is healthy (a concussion ended his career) and able to get on the field.  Jim Perry, the 1970 AL Cy Young winner, even hit the ball and put it in play.  The highlight of the game was Kent Hrbek “sliding” for a foul ball.  He ended up taking out a divot the size of a basketball when he tried to
slide for a ball and just stuck.  It was hilarious and they kept showing the replay of it through out the three inning game.  Afterwards they interviewed him and he said he thought he was on turf and thought he would slide.  I sure hope this becomes an annual or semi-annual event because it was certainly a highlight.  The Twins won the game that was played after the Legends Game.  I have been to over 500 games in my life and never saw where a runner was called out for touching the third base coach but it happened today.  In fact, it was the final out of the game with the Twins winning.

As always, it was a great time at the ballpark with my “baseball girl”.