Willingham and Butera Signed Items

When we first arrived at the signing today (at Festival Foods in Brooklyn Park), I was surprised to see how long the line was.  However, once we walked by everyone, I was pretty certain we'd get through with no problem, as many of the people in the front of the line were very spread out.

However, after we were there for about 10 minutes, a woman from Klements (I think), who was sponsoring the event, came to the back of the line where we were and told us it was unlikely that we'd get an autograph.  She said they were guaranteeing 100 autographs, and that tickets had been handed out to the first 100 people in line.  She said she'd been doing this for 5 years, and they'd never got more than 125 people through a line.  I've been to enough of these signings to know that they get way more than that through the lines.  Unfortunately, several people left that probably would have gotten an autograph.

The line moved very quickly and when we got towards the front of the line, they had just handed out tickets up through number 200.  I'm not sure why the woman originally told us 100.W  e were #202 and #203 in line, but we were close to the front and there was still 15-20 minutes left in the signing.

The woman had also told us that the folks that were in the front of the line camped out from the previous evening at 8:00 pm.  If that's true, those people are not too bright.  We got there just under an hour before the signing started, or over 14 hours later than they did, and still got an autograph.

They gave out some kettle corn samples from Angie's, and malt cups from Kemps, so at least my son was well-fed.  They also had some hot dogs from Klements for a donation to a food shelf, but we headed to Taco Bell for lunch.

Anyway, my son had Butera sign a 2005 Bowman card, and Willingham sign a photo.

I had Butera sign a photo and decided to have Willingham sign his 2012 Topps Heritage.  Butera signed his picture in a dark area in blue sharpie.  This always seems to happen to me.  Oh well.  Beggars can't be choosers.

I have several more items I'd like to have Willingham sign, including his 2012 Allen & Ginter and a photo.  It would be cool if he could get to 40 homeruns this year, but he'll need quite a run here in the last few weeks to hit that.