Graphin’ With Kevin

Today Jack Morris was signing autographs at a local credit union in Maple Grove. Since it was from 4-5 and I work in St Paul until 4, there was no way I was going to be able to make it up there so I asked my buddy Shane if he would go there since he lives right there. He kindly obliged and I gave him a ball and three baseball cards (one for me, one for my buddy Vince and one for a SCN’er Nick).
Shane went through the line and got the three cards signed and then asked Jack to sign a ball for my story ball collection. He signed it on the sweet spot and then put 10 shutout innings on it and handed back to him telling him he could “fill in the rest”. Shane laughed and waited until there was nobody in line and went back and asked him to put the rest of the info on it. He again turned him down. I thank Shane a lot for not only getting the items signed for me but also for going the extra mile in trying to get it completed.

I read where the Twins players’ wives were putting on another ‘Ball in a Bag’ event on before the game tonight.  Caden wanted to go to the game with me because he heard Shane was going to be there.  We got to the line and bought one bag for $100 and one for $30.  The $100 bag had the option of getting Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Johan Santana and Torii Hunter.  The rest of the players and coaches were in the $30 bags.  I let Caden pick each bag in hopes that we could wait until we got home to open them.  Well, we couldn’t wait.  We opened them as we were heading to the car to drop them off.  We ended up getting a Joe Mauer and a Matt Garza.  Not bad.  It sure could have been a lot worse!

This morning featured players signing at the Twins Pro Shops. Since I had a 2007 Allen & Ginter card of Glen Perkins, I decided to start with Perkins at the Pro Shop in Apple Valley. Cami decided she wanted to go with me so we headed out and got there a couple minutes after he started. There were about 20 total people there to start with. We got in and had him sign four cards. He signed two Allen & Ginter cards and two 07 Heritage with “To Camden” on one. We then headed to the Roseville Twins Pro Shop.

We got up to the Roseville Pro Shop around noon and there were still people lined up albeit it was a short line and probably all of them were going through a second, third or more time. We went through and Cami got him to sign two cards for my buddy Vince in TX. I got a ball signed. We then went back in line and Cami got him on a ball for my buddy Shane and I got him on a ticket from the game when he got his first ML hit. I think Cami almost had as much fun as I did!

During the A’s recent visit to Arlington to play the Rangers (September 7-9, 2007), my pal Vince was able to get Nick Swisher to sign a ball for me.  It is a nice addition to the collection as I admire the way Nick plays.