Graphin’ With Kevin

Today was the annual Twins Autograph Party.  I was curious to see how it would turn out with it being held at Target Field for the first time.  When tickets first went on sale, I asked Amy if she wanted to go with me and she said she would.  That was well before her back and hip surgeries.  Thankfully, my buddy Shane was available and volunteered to go with me and help me out.  Shane has done a lot of autographing with me.  We go back to the fraternity days and both have been to a whole lot of different ballparks together.
I woke up with the plan on heading down at 7am.  When I woke up I had a bad sinus headache so I took a couple Tylenol and went back to bed for a little bit.  I ended up getting up and heading down to the ballpark and got there around 8:30 or so.  They were not going to announce which players were at what station until 9am so it really did not matter what time I got there before that.
When they announced who was signing at what station, men, women, boys and girls all took off running to station 1 where Mauer was.  Since I was in the middle, and refused to run like that, I ended up waiting in line for Jim Thome.  While in line, I met Tom W and enjoyed chatting with him.  Shane showed up and we went through the line.
The weather was real sucky for an event like this.  Since it was raining you could not get your stuff out until you got inside the tent which slowed things down tremendously.
After Thome, we headed to the Delmon Young line.  From there we decided to check out a couple lines and they were all longer than time would allow so we headed to Killebrew’s line.  We got through that and headed inside to eat at Hrbek’s.  The food was awesome and exceeded our expectations.  After that we walked around the ballpark and I headed home.
Here is a wrap up of my autograph results:
Jim Thome:  Sweetspot OMLB blue ink/Target Field team ball under logo
Brian Duensing:  2010 Topps Heritage team card
Kevin Slowey:  2 baseball cards
Delmon Young:  4 baseball cards (cool guy to sign two for each of us)
Trevor Plouffe:  2010 Topps Heritage team card
Harmon Killebrew:  2 baseball card
John Castino:  baseball card/Sweetspot OMLB blue ink with 79 AL ROY
At one point I looked at Shane and said “This sucks.  I am not even having fun (because of the cold rainy crappy weather).” He just smiled.  For someone to give up a whole day and spend it with a friend in crappy weather and not ask for anything in return shows what kind of guy he is.  I cannot express my appreciation in words on a silly webpage.  Thanks a ton Shane!

I knew driving up to Brooklyn Park that today was going to be a busy day.  I had pretty much hit all the dealers yesterday so today was all about autographs.  I arrived at the place about an hour before the first person was to start signing.

My day started with Johnny Bench.  He signed the Sports Illustrated magazine that I already had signed by Will McEnaney.  He was pretty friendly and even inscribed it with “75 World Champs” as it is the issue celebrating the Reds winning the World Series.

I then went to the VIP signers area as two of the 1980 US Hockey Gold winners were signing.  I really do not collect hockey but since they were signing for free and I had the two Sports Illustrated magazines celebrating the team, I thought I would get them signed.  I first went through the Dave Christian line and got him to sign each of the SI’s.  I then went through the Neal Broten line and did the same.  I then went out and bought two pucks and two photos and went through each line again and got one of each signed by each person.  They were both really friendly.

It was now time to head through the Rod Carew line.  Rod was signing anything which meant that he would sign bats, jerseys and unlicensed photos which is all things he does not sign at the Twins’ events.  There were a ton of bats and jerseys there!  I went through the line and got the last three Sports Illustrated magazines I needed of him signed.  One issue was already signed by George Foster so I now do not have to worry about carrying that one around!  I also wanted a baseball signed by him with HOF 91 which he did.  He is a very quite person but was friendly enough to me today.

I then had a little time to kill so I found a dealer selling cards pretty reasonable.  I found a couple 1967 Topps high numbers I needed as well as some Twins cards I needed to have in case I ever get a chance to get them signed.  He also had nice Monte Irvin “HOF 73” signed balls for sale and I bought one of those.  I already had him but I know his health is not the best and I wanted to add another one.

By now Pete Rose started signing.  I had three Sports Illustrated magazines for him.  When I got up there, he asked me if I collected magazines and I said I did and he said “I am on 19 of them!”  I told him I had a couple of them already signed and am working my way through them all.  He was really nice.

Finally, the last signer I had tickets for came out to sign.  Dave Winfield was signing and chatting up a storm.  I got in his line and got him to sign two of the Twins cards I needed for my signed Twins cards.  I told him my next door neighbor was in the same Cub Scouts pack as he was and there was even a picture in one of his books with them.  I told him my neighbor’s name and he said it did not ring a bell but to ask him if he went to (can’t remember name)’s house for the meetings.

I drove home real happy with how the weekend went.  It was a fun time and I added some autographs to my collection.  I look forward to the next show in the Twin Cities!

This was the second day of the MN Sports News Show at the Earle Brown Heritage Center.  I went last night but since I do not really collect hockey, I just checked things out and picked up my VIP package to see whose autograph ticket was included.  This was a great show and a lot of fun to be at.  It was definitely the way to go with the VIP pass.

I was really impressed with EVERYTHING about this show.  The prices were fair, the free signers were great and they all asked what color marker/pen and location taking great care in getting it signed the way you wanted.

The first autograph guest I got was Larry Hisle.  He was free for VIP purchasers and we were able to get two per time through the line.  I went through three times getting 6 cards signed.  I needed three for my Twins sets and the other three will be traders.  Larry was a great signer.  He smiled, talked to people and thanked us.  The last time I went through I thanked him and he said “Thank YOU young man!”  Me, a young man.  Wow!  How nice!

After that I went to the Jack Morris line.  While I needed two cards signed for my sets, I decided to put most of my money on people who normally do not do signings in MN but since I wanted to support the show in hopes they do another one in the Twin Cities, I bought one ticket and got him to sign my Blue Jays Sports Illustrated magazine.  I asked him if he thought the Twins had a shot at winning the World Series this season and he said the hitters and defense were there it was all up to how the starting pitchers do.  He did not seem as surly as he normally does which was nice.

Then it was off to Carl Eller.  I do not collect football but the ticket I got in my VIP package was for him so I thought what the heck.  I found someone selling Goal Line Art cards and bought one for him.  He was VERY friendly and polite.  It was my first interaction with him and I did not know what to expect.  I told him that I used to work with his cousin Sharon M and asked him to say hi to her for me the next time he saw here.  He asked for my last name and I told him that she would remember me by my first name.

Before leaving, I was able to go through the Corey Koskie line as he was the later free VIP signer.  For him, I went through the line once for a fellow collector from Washington state who needed him on a couple cards.  I went through the line two more times and got four other cards signed that I will use for traders.

Between all this, I found a real nice person from New Jersey selling autographed cards.  I bought some deceased and harder to find signed Twins cards for the collection with the highlights being a 1965 Killebrew and a 1961 Earl Battey All Star.

It was a real fun day but I know tomorrow will be busy!

Today started with Caden telling me he decided not to go to Twinsfest with Cami and I so Cami and I headed out just the two of us.  We walked into the Metrodome around 10:45am and I asked Cami is she wanted to get her first autograph or play on the kids stuff.  She said she wanted to get an autograph (that is my girl!) and we headed to the Slowey/Casilla/Liriano line.  While waiting, my buddy Mike walked by with his wife and son.  It was nice to say hi to them.  We got to the line and Cami got her mini bat signed by Casilla, a card by Liriano and a card that she will *hopefully* trade to daddy for his set of Slowey.  I got Casilla on Caden’s ball, Liriano on a card and Slowey on a card.  After that, Cami decided she wanted to jump on the inflatable kids things so we headed to centerfield and she got to run around for a while there.  While there we ran into my buddy Shane and his wife and daughter.  We hung out while Cami played around and then TC came to the area for photos.  We got a picture of Cami with TC (as well as another with Shane’s daughter and Cami and TC).  After the photo, I showed TC the picture Caden drew of him.  He liked it and signed it “To Caden:  Nice picture!  Go Twins!” as well as a little photo card for all three kids.  After that Cami wanted cotten candy and a tattoo.  Of course dad gave in to that request.  She chose a baseball with flames shooting out behind it for the tattoo.  Then she wanted a balloon sculpture thing.  She chose a red butterfly.  I offered the guy a $5 tip and he told me to feel free to take change for it out of the tip jar.  I told him absolutely not and gave him the $5.  He thanked me and told me he would make an extra for Cami so he made a really cute ladybug bracelet.  She loved it.  We then headed to say hi to Rob in the ticket area and then to Michael Cuddyer/Brendan Harris’ line.  We waited in that line for a while and while waiting, Cami’s balloon butterfly lost a wing.  In no time the other wing popped so she was down to just the ladybug.  That survived the ride home at least!  We got to Harris/Cuddyer and I got Caden’s ball signed by Harris and Cami got her mini bat.  Cuddyer signed a card for Cami that will be sent to a friend who needed it for a set and he signed my cycle ticket with his name and “Cycle”.  All in all it was an awesome day to spend with Cami at the ballpark.  She totally had a blast and fell asleep on the way home.  It was a great Twinsfest weekend filled with great friends and a lot of autographs.