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Greg Cleveland
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Had to drop off the camera with my wife who is at a 5th grade party with my son, so the few pics I took will have to wait until she gets back.
Anyway, today was the annual Twins Autograph Party. (a yearly fund raiser for the Twins Community Fund.) It's a guess that around 2,000 autograph tickets get sold (always sold out before the event) you can get as many autos as you can during the times given. Here's the map---
And here's the schedule...
It may looked crunched up, but there's a lot of room, especially on the Target Plaza (right side) My son and I got there about 9:30. Mauer and Morneau lines were incredibly long already, of course. I had my son get into the Jim Thome line--which was very long, too! I went to the Delmon Young/Kevin Slowey line, and was about the 10th person in line. The Twins Wives' had their Grab Bag booth ($15) and there was the usual assortment of past SGA's, and an autographed program or something. I took a chance on a Ball in a Bag. For $25, you got an autographed ball in a brown paper bag. I got a Matt Guerrier--still got the same ol' mojo--but it is on the new Target Field Logo OMLB's (which sell for $25 in the Prop Shop anyway) so it's a nice auto. Must be an overprint! For every Mauer or Morneau, there's probably 50 Guerrer's or Jesse Crains!
Anyway, at about 11:30 it started to sprinkle, and by 12:00, it was rain. Not a windy torrential downpour, but rain enough to make handling stuff difficult. Really, everything you have at events like this is highly susceptible to water damage--cards, photos, balls, uniforms, whatever. Even bats could get messed up if they're wet. (more on that later. :evil: ) Delmon, Slowey, and Plouffe came out at 11:55, and started signing right away. Got out so fast, I zipped to the Punto/Rauch/White line and got them, too. Took about 18 minutes to get through them both. Tough to beat that at Twinsfest! Checked on my son in the Thome line, and they had barely budged! Verrry slow line movement. The Twins are very good about letting folks in wheelchairs or motorized scooters jump to the front of the line for autos (to a fault, almost) Very nice, but it does slow down the lines, so I think that was happening there. Went around the corner, and jumped in to Liriano/Valencia/Liddle line. Started halfway through the third line of the maze (Twins fans know what I mean) and was farther along than Emmitt was in the Thome line, so I figured I'd get out before him, run over, and get him my auto ticket for Thome (and Duensing) Well, Thome must have kicked it into gear, because we hit the fronts at about the same time. After I got my autos from Liriano, etc., I ran over to Thome, and he had already gone thorugh! Somebody behind him had an extra ticket, and let Emmitt get the autos, even though I told him to let people go past until I got there. So thank you to a unknown Good Samaritan. By then, it was a little after 1PM. The players were signing until 1:30, so there was still time to either find a short line to get into (the Gardenhire/Mahay/Butera line was a shortie) or get in line for the veterans, signing at 2PM.
But...
It was pretty miserable out there. We were both cold, hungry and wet--I had my Columbia raincoat, he had a heavy pancho (not one of the cheapies.) My back pack was wet, and I was getting worried about things inside getting wet. Plus, I didn't like the mix of some of the veterans--Need that guy, but don't need the other two, line's too long already, etc. So we got Dinger Dogs, and called it a day. so here's the stuff...
White cards on the bottom are bench coach Steve Liddle and rookie Danny Valencia. Nice of coach Jerry White to go old school and use a ballpoint on the 77 Topps. And yes, I have the dreaded thumbprint smear on the Rauch.
Here's my Delmon auto. He was on the end, and the wind was a little gusty, so a few drops of water must have gotten on the pic. The white spots are from the pages of the program I put it in to protect it. And still... :evil:
:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:
Tried to scan my Thome auto ball, but it looks terrible, so I'll take a pic of it and my Guerrier ball later on. Wonder if they'll even get the game in tonight with all the rain. Anyway, worth it to get a Thome auto ball, and the cards all look great--Punto and Liriano are really nice in hand--so rain and all, it was a good day. Thanks for puting up with the long read!
Anyway, today was the annual Twins Autograph Party. (a yearly fund raiser for the Twins Community Fund.) It's a guess that around 2,000 autograph tickets get sold (always sold out before the event) you can get as many autos as you can during the times given. Here's the map---
And here's the schedule...
It may looked crunched up, but there's a lot of room, especially on the Target Plaza (right side) My son and I got there about 9:30. Mauer and Morneau lines were incredibly long already, of course. I had my son get into the Jim Thome line--which was very long, too! I went to the Delmon Young/Kevin Slowey line, and was about the 10th person in line. The Twins Wives' had their Grab Bag booth ($15) and there was the usual assortment of past SGA's, and an autographed program or something. I took a chance on a Ball in a Bag. For $25, you got an autographed ball in a brown paper bag. I got a Matt Guerrier--still got the same ol' mojo--but it is on the new Target Field Logo OMLB's (which sell for $25 in the Prop Shop anyway) so it's a nice auto. Must be an overprint! For every Mauer or Morneau, there's probably 50 Guerrer's or Jesse Crains!
Anyway, at about 11:30 it started to sprinkle, and by 12:00, it was rain. Not a windy torrential downpour, but rain enough to make handling stuff difficult. Really, everything you have at events like this is highly susceptible to water damage--cards, photos, balls, uniforms, whatever. Even bats could get messed up if they're wet. (more on that later. :evil: ) Delmon, Slowey, and Plouffe came out at 11:55, and started signing right away. Got out so fast, I zipped to the Punto/Rauch/White line and got them, too. Took about 18 minutes to get through them both. Tough to beat that at Twinsfest! Checked on my son in the Thome line, and they had barely budged! Verrry slow line movement. The Twins are very good about letting folks in wheelchairs or motorized scooters jump to the front of the line for autos (to a fault, almost) Very nice, but it does slow down the lines, so I think that was happening there. Went around the corner, and jumped in to Liriano/Valencia/Liddle line. Started halfway through the third line of the maze (Twins fans know what I mean) and was farther along than Emmitt was in the Thome line, so I figured I'd get out before him, run over, and get him my auto ticket for Thome (and Duensing) Well, Thome must have kicked it into gear, because we hit the fronts at about the same time. After I got my autos from Liriano, etc., I ran over to Thome, and he had already gone thorugh! Somebody behind him had an extra ticket, and let Emmitt get the autos, even though I told him to let people go past until I got there. So thank you to a unknown Good Samaritan. By then, it was a little after 1PM. The players were signing until 1:30, so there was still time to either find a short line to get into (the Gardenhire/Mahay/Butera line was a shortie) or get in line for the veterans, signing at 2PM.
But...
It was pretty miserable out there. We were both cold, hungry and wet--I had my Columbia raincoat, he had a heavy pancho (not one of the cheapies.) My back pack was wet, and I was getting worried about things inside getting wet. Plus, I didn't like the mix of some of the veterans--Need that guy, but don't need the other two, line's too long already, etc. So we got Dinger Dogs, and called it a day. so here's the stuff...
White cards on the bottom are bench coach Steve Liddle and rookie Danny Valencia. Nice of coach Jerry White to go old school and use a ballpoint on the 77 Topps. And yes, I have the dreaded thumbprint smear on the Rauch.
Here's my Delmon auto. He was on the end, and the wind was a little gusty, so a few drops of water must have gotten on the pic. The white spots are from the pages of the program I put it in to protect it. And still... :evil:
:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:
Tried to scan my Thome auto ball, but it looks terrible, so I'll take a pic of it and my Guerrier ball later on. Wonder if they'll even get the game in tonight with all the rain. Anyway, worth it to get a Thome auto ball, and the cards all look great--Punto and Liriano are really nice in hand--so rain and all, it was a good day. Thanks for puting up with the long read!
