Friday, January 31, 2014

The Last of My TwinsFest Autographs

Just three more autographs left to post, as well as one of my older son's that I forgot.

I was very happy to have Greg Olson add his autograph to the 1991 Sports Illustrated already signed by Dan Gladden.  I had Gladden sign it in 2011.  Apparently Gladden won't sign this now without personalizing it, so I guess I'm lucky I got it when I did.


Terry Steinbach signed a Twins Magazine.  I had hoped to also have Tom Brunansky sign it, but I didn't get the chance.  Maybe next year.


Finally, on Friday night I had Jack Morris sign a Metrodome ball.  I already have one of these it turns out.



I forgot to post a picture of my son's Miguel Sano signed ball, so here it is.  I have no idea how this signature spells Miguel Sano.



That wraps up another TwinsFest.  Last year I didn't go to many in person signings around the Twin Cities.  I'll try to go to more this year, if they're available.


Thursday, January 30, 2014

My TwinsFest Signed Pictures


I got several pictures signed for guys that I didn't have cards for, but was able to get some pictures of at FanHQ.  For those that I didn't have anything else to sign, I had them sign a Target Field picture.


Casey Fien



Samuel Deduno

 

Pedro Florimon

 

Andrew Albers (Just Released by the Twins) 

 

Jose Berrios

 

Darin Mastroianni

  

Alex Presley, Alex Meyer, BJ Hermsen, Logan Darnell, Nate Hanson and Sean Gilmartin
 

Chris Colabello, Kyle Knudson and Nate Hanson

 
I also got another picture signed by Tony Oliva.  I'm running out of things to have Mr. Oliva sign, but can't pass up the opportunity when I see him.
 

 I just have a couple more items to post including a Jack Morris ball and a couple magazines.  I think I'll get to it tomorrow night which will wrap up TwinsFest 2014.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Dick LeMay 1962 Topps

I won't have time to get to my other TwinsFest autographs tonight, but I did get a ttm return today.

Dick LeMay signed his 1962 Topps for me in about two weeks.


Tuesday, January 28, 2014

My TwinsFest Signed Cards

I only got ten baseball cards signed this year at TwinsFest.  Usually I try to make some good progress on some teams sets, including Topps Heritage and Allen & Ginter.  But as I mentioned earlier, the autograph sessions had an odd mix of prospects, current players and retired players, making it difficult to get around to see the current players.

With Jason Kubel returning to the team, I was able to get a couple cards signed that I didn't get to before he left.  I saw him once on Friday evening and once on Saturday.  He signed a 2009 Topps Heritage and a 2011 Allen & Ginter for me.




On Saturday, Joe Mauer signed his 2012 Allen & Ginter.



Last year at TwinsFest I got several cards signed from the 2012 Topps Heritage set, but like my son John, didn't have Brian Dozier's card from that set.  We bought cards before Christmas to be sure we could get them signed this year.




I saw Kurt Suzuki twice as well, and he signed his 2010 Topps Heritage and 2010 Allen & Ginter for me.



Jose Berrios signed his 2013 Topps Heritage Minors card, and Aaron Hicks signed his 2012 Topps Heritage Minors card.


Finally, I only got two cards signed form the 2013 Topps Heritage set: Glen Perkins and Trevor Plouffe.


That's a little weak for getting cards signed this year.  Maybe I should have gone back on Sunday after all.

I got a few pictures signed, and I'll post those next.

Monday, January 27, 2014

My Older Son's TwinsFest Autographs

I'm making record time getting all of my sons' autographs cataloged and posted.  Partly because we just wt two days instead of three, partly because the one hour signing sessions didn't allow us to hit as many different sessions, but mostly because they got a lot of autographs on their seatbacks instead of individual items.

John's seat back will look very similar to David's, but they got a couple of the autographs on different days.

On Friday, John got Terry Steinbach, Tim Laudner, Kent Hrbek, Ron Gardenhire, Dan Gladden, Jack Morris, Jason Kubel, Glen Perkins and Bert Blyleven on his seatback.

On Saturday, he got Joe Mauer, Tony Oliva, Scott Erickson, Roy Smalley and Rod Carew.



In addition to the seat back, he got several players on cards, including Tim Laudner, Jared Burton, Kevin Correia, Jason Bartlett, Darin Mastroianni, Samuel Deduno, Chris Colabello, Tony Oliva and Aaron Hicks.


 

 

Last year he worked on the 2012 Topps Heritage team set at TwinsFest.  We didn't have the Brian Dozier card and couldn't find one at the card show there.  We did find one before we went this year, so he was able to get it signed.


 This was our first year meeting Kurt Suzuki.  John is a catcher also, and like to get cards signed showing catchers in their gear, as opposed to batting.  He had Suzuki sign his 2010 Allen & Ginter.


John had Kyle Gibson sign a picture this year.


 John also used a picture of Target Field for those players we didn't have anything for them to sign.  These players included Nate Hansen, Alex Presley, Sean Gilmartin, Pedro Florimon, Tim Laudner, Ryan Pressly, Trevor May, Michael Tonkin and Max Kepler.


 That wraps up my kids' autographs.  Tomorrow I'll start on mine.

My Younger Son's TwinsFest Autographs

My younger son didn't go to TwinsFest last year, but I think he regretted it after my older son and I had a good time there.  He decided to go with us this year but originally planed to just hang out with us, and get us autographs.  But when the boys found the Metrodome seat backs for sale at the FanHQ booth, he decided it would be a fun project to work on.

He ended up getting 14 autographs on it on Friday night and Saturday.  The boys had a little trouble deciding who to have sign them.  Should it be only players that played in the Metrodome?  Only their favorite players?  Any player?

They both decided to include their favorite players that played in the Metrodome, as well as Twins greats from the past.  Although they got them at slightly different times, they both ended up with the same signatures on their seat backs.

On Friday, David got Terry Steinbach, Kent Hrbek, Tony Oliva, Ron Gardenhire, Dan Gladden, Jack Morris, Jason Kubel, Glen Perkins and Bert Blyleven.

On Saturday, he added Joe Mauer, Tim Laudner, Scott Erickson, Roy Smalley and Rod Carew.

Other players we talked about him getting in the future include Paul Molitor, Torii Hunter, Johan Santana and Justin Morneau. We'll see if those opportunities arise.


There was a picture posted on the Pioneer Press web site of Joe Mauer about to sign David's seat back.  Unfortunately, David isn't in the picture, just his seat back.  You can see it here:

http://photos.twincities.com/2014/01/25/twinsfest-2014-saturday/#5

He got a few cards signed from players that he didn't have sign the seat back.  These included:

Jason Bartlett, Kevin Correia, Jared Burton, Tony Oliva (after having him sign the seat back), Aaron Hicks and Kurt Suzuki.



 

Although the grab bags were pretty disappointing this year, David did get a Ryan Pressley signed calendar as part of his.


Finally, for those players that he didn't have anything specific to sign, he had them sign a picture of Target Field that I took a few years ago.  Signatures on this picture include:

Samuel Deduno, Chris Colabello, Alex Pressley and Sean Gilmartin.


That wraps it up for David's autographs.  Next, I'll start on my older son's.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

My TwinsFest Bobbleheads

School's out tomorrow!  I got an early start on taking pictures of my TwinsFest items so I'll post some of them tonight.

I got a record (for me) seven bobbleheads signed this TwinsFest, including six on Friday night.

First, as I posted on Friday afternoon, I got in line early for Mauer and was lucky enough to get him to sign his 2006 SGA BAtting Champ bobblehead.


Next, I got in a line with Tony Oliva, Terry Steinbach and Kent Hrbek.  Hrbek signed his SGA bobblehead from 2000.


The next session included Josh Willigham, who signed his SGA bobblehead from last year.


I was able to make it through two separate lines in the last Friday night session.  The first had Gardenhire and Gladden, then we went through Blyleven's lines.

Gardenhire and Gladden signed their SGA bobbleheads from 2008, and Blyleven signed his from 2001.





On Saturday, I just had one bobblehead to get signed which made my backpack much lighter!

Scott Leius signed his bobblehead from the 1991 World Series set, bringing my total for the set to 14.


Tomorrow I'll post the rest of the items I got, including some magazines, cards and pictures.