Let's hit the TTM first: Mike Easler, c/o home, 6/6 cards, 10 days. Easler is a fellow Clevelander and a graduate of Benedictine High School, one of the rivals of my University School Preppers.
Anyways, I decided to skip the tunnel this morning. After being up until 1 am working on a Photoshop project (I found a tutorial for colorizing black and white images, so I set to work on my grandfather's senior portrait from high school in 1920) and stalling on pulling my Twins cards, I decided I'd just skip the early stuff to sleep in and get my stuff ready and have a decent lunch.
Sadly, I learned I missed Adrian Beltre.
So I instead arrived at the Ballpark when the gates opened and went over to the Twins' side. Paul Molitor was there but wasn't in a signing mood. Apparently he signed Friday, so I'm hoping maybe he'll do it tomorrow. He's in two of the Topps All-Time Fan Favorites sets. Ricky Nolasco was the first one I got. He signed everything in a single blue Sharpie; fortunately I just had three Topps Heritage cards so they came out fine.
Samuel Deduno signed down the line as well; I had no cards of him, so I had him sign my 2012 Topps Heritage Twins team card. I figure cards like that can come in handy for players I have nothing for, and they often can hold multiple players' sigs. I even added Caleb Thielbar and Casey Fien to it later. Maybe I'll tack on a few more tomorrow (now that I'm out of cards of Nolasco, and a few others).
Kyle Gibson came down the line next, signing one-per. Gibson is another who adds Bible verses, putting Ephesians 2:8-10 on every sig. Based on that quote ("For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."), I'd guess Gibson is of a Calvinist faith. Something Protestant for certain.
Matt Guerrier came through next, signing the two I had of him, followed by Brian Duensing on one. I went over to the dugout for a while with no luck on anyone coming off from the Twins' short batting practice session, but did go back next to the camera bay again to get Sam Fuld on a pair of cards.
A few of us went up top, hoping for Bert Blyleven. Unfortunately he only signed one, a seatback that the guy already had Nolan Ryan, Ferguson Jenkins, Goose Gossage, and Gaylord Perry on. After that he refused the rest of us. Apparently last year, he had security called on the 'graphers who wanted him. Circle this, Bert.
The last one I got inside was Ron Gardenhire who signed all three cards I had of him. Gardenhire seems like a fun guy: when they announced the Rangers lineup while he was signing for us, he looked over at us and booed.
The postgame tunnel was its usual near-pointless self. Kevin Kouzmanoff stopped but only signed for a few people because he had another car coming up behind him. Security asked him at least to pull over to the side but instead he just left. Which sucks for me because I have yet to get him and he's a former Indian. We did at least get Brian Dozier walking out, signing the lone card I had of him. He was another who just signed with one pen and I was briefly scared because I hadn't rubbed down the 2014 Topps card I had of him, but the Sharpie stuck just fine without bubbling. Good to know the current Topps releases will require minimum prep work. I usually stick as much as I can to my trusty Staedtlers so I have zero prep but once in a while someone just grans a single pen and rocks out on everyone's stuff.
Not a bad day. Hoping for Terry Steinbach, Paul Molitor, and a few others tomorrow. I gotta search for Deduno cards as well because I think I may have some somewhere. I'll have another report tomorrow and later this week a preview of the National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland, July 30-August 3.
TOTALS: 16 autographs from 10 players, plus six from one via mail.
Blog is on indefinite hiatus as of November 2020.
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