Wow! \u00a0What a day! \u00a0Where do I start? \u00a0I had a plan I came up with over the last few days looking at the schedule for Day 1 and thought I would do ok with it if I could execute it properly. \u00a0Well, it did not go as planned. \u00a0It went better! \u00a0I was hoping to get a few cards for my sets I am working on as well as a number of items for my friends who have helped me over the years. \u00a0I went with semi-high expectations because of the record for the team the last few years and expecting the crowds to be smaller for the weekend. \u00a0I planned that right.<\/p>\n
I left work at 2:15pm and got to the Dome and parked and was in line by 3pm. \u00a0The first think I did was get a Mauer and Morneau wristband. \u00a0I was in a great spot in line as I was probably one of the first 50 people. \u00a0It was cold but when the wind was not blowing, it was not too bad. \u00a0They opened the doors a little after 4pm and I decided to head to the Josh Willingham line and ended up being about the tenth person in line. \u00a0I got Josh to sign his 2012 Topps card. \u00a0I then headed down to the floor to see how the lines were down there. \u00a0The line for the rookies was long (as it was all night) but that left Station 1 & 2 with short lines. \u00a0I jumped in line at Station 2 and got Scott Diamond to sign his 1st win ticket with “1st ML Win”, Jared Burton on his 2012 Topps card and Darin Mastroianni on his first ML home run ticket. \u00a0There was nobody in line so I went back through (paying another $15) and got Diamond on his 2012 Topps card, another Burton 2012 Topps card and Mastroianni on a ball I started for Cami. \u00a0After that I noticed that Brian Dozier was just getting done in the photo line. \u00a0My buddy Jon S from Rochester, NY sent some cards and a card his son made for Brian that included Tyler’s first baseball card. Tyler is Jon’s son and Dozier and Tyler have taken to each other. \u00a0They have great stories of times they shared together. \u00a0Brian knew I had a card for him so I walked up to him as his turn was done in the photo line and mentioned I had the card and if he would like, I could hold on to it for him for later as he had a few other commitments before I would see him again. \u00a0That worked out well for Brian. \u00a0Since nobody was in line at Station 1, I went through it. \u00a0I got up to Tom Quinlan in line and asked him if he was doing a Baseball Clinic again this spring and that my son was in it last year and enjoyed it. \u00a0Tom said it is coming up in a few weeks and to give him my email address and he will get me the info. \u00a0He asked who my son was and I told him Caden and he said “I remember Caden”. \u00a0I thought that was cool. \u00a0Tom seemed really nice. \u00a0I had him sign Cami’s baseball. \u00a0Next was Brian Raabe and he too signed Cami’s ball. \u00a0Then up was Anthony Swarzak. \u00a0Swarzak signed a Red Wings card that Jon had sent me. \u00a0Next was Ron Coomer. \u00a0Ron was talking to someone but he signed \u00a0a couple baseball cards for me and I moved on.<\/p>\n
The next station I headed to was Rod Carew’s. \u00a0I brought along a blue brick from Met Stadium and he signed it in silver paint pen. \u00a0It looks awesome. \u00a0While waiting in line, I heard my Joe Mauer wristband color was picked so I was able to go through Mauer’s line. \u00a0I was excited. \u00a0I finished Carew’s line and went to the station next to it and got in line. \u00a0I had about 10 people after me and really hoped that I would get through the line before Joe’s time was up. \u00a0I got up there with about 15 minutes to spare. \u00a0When I got to Joe I handed him my sheet of paper with two baseball cards on it. \u00a0It works out really well for me to have a couple cards on a sheet because I can tear out the sheet of paper and hand it to the person without worrying about dropping them or whatever compared to digging them out of a card holder or box. \u00a0I handed him the sheet with the two cards on it and congratulated him on his recent wedding. \u00a0He sounded sincere when he thanked me and I told him to pick his favorite to sign. \u00a0He ended up signing them both for me. \u00a0I was pumped! \u00a0So, I got the 2004 Topps card signed as well as a 2011 Topps Heritage “Mauer Sended One Into Orbit” card. \u00a0Knowing I had 15 minutes left before the current groups were done, I bolted down to Station 2 where there was no line. \u00a0I was able to get Mike Pelfrey on a card for my buddy Greg N (justgreg on SCN) and Jamey Carroll signed his 2012 Topps card and his 2012 Topps Heritage card for my buddy Mark C (clubnuts on SCN). \u00a0I noticed I had four minutes left in this shift and swung around to the other side and got to Station 1 with seconds to spare. \u00a0This was the station that had Brian Dozier signing so I handed him Tyler’s card and he loved it. \u00a0I asked to take a photo of him with the card and he was very cool about it. \u00a0He said he was going to tweet about it later. \u00a0I asked him if he wanted the rigid magazine holder I had it in to keep it nice and he said sure if I did not mind. \u00a0He got it! \u00a0He then signed a couple cards for me, the 2012 Topps Heritage High Number and his 2012 Topps card. \u00a0Next was Joe Benson who signed a 2012 Topps Heritage Rookie Stars card for Mark C and a 2012 Allen & Ginter card for me. \u00a0Last in that group was Alex Burnett who went out of his way to pick a silver Sharpie to sign his Red Wings card for Jon S and a different marker for his 2012 Topps card for me.<\/p>\n
I then got back in the same station’s line for the next group. \u00a0Again, this line was really short. \u00a0I was able to get Tim Wood on Cami’s baseball, Tyler Robertson on his debut ticket with “ML Debut” and Cole DeVries on his debut ticket with “MLB Debut”. \u00a0Lastly in this station I got Bobby Cuellar on Cami’s baseball.<\/p>\n
I went back around to the other side and got in line for Vance Worley. \u00a0Vance signed my baseball with “Vanimal”. \u00a0He is going to be fun to watch this season! \u00a0I then got Ryan Doumit on his 2012 Topps Heritage card and his 2012 Topps card. \u00a0I finished up with Kevin Correia on Cami’s baseball.<\/p>\n
I was really excited on how well things were going. \u00a0I walked over and checked out a couple dealers’ tables and said hi to my buddy Joel B. \u00a0I ran into Caden’s coach Dan from last years’ baseball team and his family as well as my buddy Fred B. \u00a0I decided to head up to see how Gardy & Perkins’ line was and to my surprise, it was empty! \u00a0I went in and handed Gardy a pair of cards and asked him to sign the one (2004 Topps team card which completed my 2004 Twins team!) and he said “I’ll sign both. \u00a0It’s not like people are beating down the door for our line!” so he ended up signing his 2012 Topps Heritage card for Mark C. \u00a0He thanked me for coming out to Twinfest and then I went to Glen Perkins. \u00a0He signed his 2012 Topps card. \u00a0I noticed that the line was non-existent at Station 2 so I got in that line. \u00a0I was able to get Trevor Plouffe on his Red Wings card for Jon S. \u00a0While there, he looked at his 2012 Topps card and said “They put Drew Butera on my card.” \u00a0I had not ever noticed that. It was pretty funny. \u00a0I told him I would get Drew to sign it later. \u00a0Next was Chris Parmelee who signed his 2012 Topps Heritage Rookie Stars and 2012 Topps Heritage, both for Mark C. \u00a0Last was Brian Duensing who signed his 2012 Topps card. \u00a0I walked around a little bit and grabbed some schedules and realized there was nobody in the rookies’ line so I jumped in that line with about 5 minutes to spare. \u00a0I got Alex Meyer and Trevor May each on a baseball and Nate Hanson and Austin Malinowski on Cami’s baseball. \u00a0I then talked to Joel B a few minutes and headed home. \u00a0I could not fall asleep as I relived the evening with how well I did for me and my friends and looked forward to Day 2!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wow! \u00a0What a day! \u00a0Where do I start? \u00a0I had a plan I came up with over the last few days looking at the schedule for Day 1 and thought I would do ok with it if I could execute it properly. \u00a0Well, it did not go as planned. \u00a0It went better! \u00a0I was hoping … Continue reading “Twinsfest 2013 – Day 1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14,26,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseballs","category-ip","category-tickets","category-topps-twins-project"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kemmetmueller.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kemmetmueller.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kemmetmueller.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kemmetmueller.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kemmetmueller.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kemmetmueller.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kemmetmueller.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kemmetmueller.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kemmetmueller.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}