Getting Autographs at Kansas City Royals Games

BY: T.C.

Work took me to Kansas City this week, which worked out well because the Tigers were in town to play the Royals.  After flying in on Tuesday, I grabbed lunch and hit the Negro League Baseball Museum.  I would highly recommend it to anyone that appreciates baseball history.  They have some really interesting diplays and a neat video that was narrated by James Earl Jones.  The admission is only $8, and they have a pretty cool gift store, too.

I ended up arriving at Kauffman stadium around 2:30.  I wandered around the outside of the stadium and found a small cluster of ‘graphers.  I had actually corresponded previously with a couple of them on sportscollectors.net.  It was nice to be able to put some faces with the names. 

The ‘graphing outside of Kauffman is really good…one of the best MLB ballparks that I’ve been to from that standpoint.  Almost all of the visitors walk right past you to get in the stadium (there are two places they can enter from, which are illustrated in the graphic below).  Many of the Royals also park right out in the public lot in front of the stadium, which makes it pretty easy to get them, as well.

Inside the stadium is a bit tougher.  If you want to ‘graph the visiting team, you should enter the stadium when the OUTFIELD gates open at 4:30.  You can watch BP from the outfield until 5:30 pm, at which time all of the gates open.  Once it is 5:30, you have to hurry down to the home plate side of visitors’ dugout on the 3rd base side of the stadium.  There is a small place to stand on the right side of the dugout that accomodates about 3 or 4 people.  If you don’t end up in that spot, you will have to do “ball toss” over the dugout, or try to call players over from up the 3rd base line (which didn’t look like it worked very well).

Overall, I really like the stadium.  It is very spacious and has some cool ameneties in the outfield (mini baseball field & various games) for families and kids.  The fountains give it a great atmosphere, and the scoreboard is incredible!

The game itself was pretty painful from the standpoint of a Tigers’ fan.  Grienke pitched for the Royals and was lights out after giving up one run in the first.  It’s amazing to watch that kid throw pitches from 62 mph up to 96 mph from the exact same arm slot.  He really has it going right now!

When it was all said and done, I filled up about 1/2 of my Tiger team ball, with ‘graphs from: Magglio Ordonez, Fernando Rodney, Rick Porcello, Ramon Santiago, Bobby Seay, Adam Everett, Nate Robertson, Dane Sardinha, Gerald Laird, Jeff Larish, Ryan Raburn, Josh Anderson, Brandon Lyon, Zach Miner, Ryan Perry, and Curtis Granderson.

I also got pretty lucky and got several Royals on the way out, including: Billy Butler (x 3 cards), Mark Teahen (x 3 cards), Robinson Tejada (x 2 cards), John Gibbons (x 2 cards), Kevin Seitzer (1 card), Trey Hillman (x 1 card),  Jamie Quirk (1 card), Tony Pena (1 card), Frank White (ball), and Zach Grienke (x 2 balls).

Charleston RiverDogs @ Lexington Legends (5/13/09)

BY: T.C.

I had to go down to Kentucky for a wedding, so I decided to leave early to check out this game.  I was excited to see Charleston because of all of the guys that had major-issue cards on their team…not to mention Andrew Brackman, who was one of the last 3 guys I needed to complete my 2007 TriStar Prospects Plus set.  Another reason I was excited was to see Pat Venditte, the pitcher that throws with both hands.

The game didn’t disappoint, as Hector Noesi threw a no-hitter through 7 innings.  In the 8th, Charleston brought in Casey Erickson and he retired the side 1-2-3.  That set the stage for a no-hitter going into the 9th inning!  To make things even better, Venditte entered the game.  Pat retired the first batter, but disaster struck with one out in the ninth.  Ronald Ramirez, Lexington’s shortstop that is batting less than .200 took Pat deep for a home run.  DAMN IT!  Pat went on to get the next two outs without allowing a hit, so I got to see a one-hitter.

Before the game, I was able to ‘graph both teams with the help of my wife, my brother, and his girlfriend.  I ended up with quite a haul!  Here are my totals for the day:

Lexington:

• Jay Austin, 9/9
• Tom Lawless, 5/5
• Jordan Lyles, 5/5
• Ross Seaton, 5/5

Charleston:

• Mitch Abieta, 8/8
• David Adams, 8/8Abraham Almonte, 1/6, 1/6 (only one per)
• Carmen Angelini, 4/9, 3/9
• Andrew Brackman, 9/9, 6/6
• Dan Brewer, 5/5
• Brandon Braboy, 3/3
• Pat Venditte, 5/5, 1/1 (Signed 3 cards, his ESPN the mag article, and a baseball on the sweet spot with both hands)
• Taylor Grote, 9/9, 9/9
• Corban Joseph, 7/7
• Mike Abiso, 3/3
• Mike Lyon, 5/5
• Brett Marshall, 7/7
• David Phelps, 3/3
• Chase Weems, 1/1

Peoria Chiefs @ Lansing Lugnuts (5/5/09)

BY: T.C.

My wife bought me a partially signed official 1984 World Series baseball for Easter.  It is a great starter ball, as it already had autographs of: Sparky Anderson, Jim Campbell, Lance Parrish, Alan Trammell, and Chet Lemon.  Since ‘84 Tiger Barbaro Garbey is a coach with Peoria, I figured it would be worthwhile to make the trip up to Lansing to get my ball signed by him.  Barbaro was a VERY friendly guy and gladly signed the ball and chatted about the 1984 team for a few minutes with me.  Overall, the Peoria guys were great signers, with Josh Vitters being the only one that didn’t sign everything I had (he did sign 4, though, which is plenty).  Here are all of the ‘graphs that I obtained:

• Barbaro Garbey, 1/1
• Marty Pevy, 2/2
• Josh Vitters, 4/9
• Rebel Ridling, 3/3
• Luis Flores, 3/3
• Kyler Burke, 9/9
• Ryan Flaherty, 9/9
• Josh Harrison, 8/8
• Jeff Beliveau, 1/1
• Josh Whitlock, 1/1
• Chris Huseby, 8/8
• Aaron Shafer, 8/9 (asked to keep a card that had him & Dusty Coleman on it, which I gladly gave him)
• Chris Carpenter 1/1
• Justin Bristow, 4/4

Colombus Clippers @ Toledo Mudhens (4/17/09)

BY: T.C.

The Mudhens had a weird start time for a ballgame tonight (5:30 pm).  We got there at about 4:15 pm and they already had the gates open.  This is unusual becasue the gates don’t usually open until 1 hour before the game.  I’ll have to figure out if it was some sort of “weird start time phenomenon,” or if they are opening up gates earlier this year.

Anyhow, I accomplished my goal of getting Matt Laporta’s signature on two items (with the help of my wife).  The first was a one-of-one printing plate from the 2008 TriStar Projections set.

The second item was his 2007 TriStar Prospects Plus card.  This is the 95th card from the set that I’ve gotten signed…only 5 more to go!

I also had a cool experience tonight with Torey Lovullo and Rey Palacios.  Torey is the manager for Columbus and signed his 1989 Fleer card for me.  The cool part came in when Rey Palacios showed up in the crowd to say hi to Torey, who was an old teammate of his.  I got to talking to Rey and finally put two and two together that he was the other dude on the card that I had Torey sign!  Anyway, Rey, Tony, and I all had a good laugh when we figured out this little bit of serendipity. 

Here are the other autographs I came away with:

• Luis Valbuena 3/3 cards
• Jordan Brown 9/9 cards
• Andy Cannizaro 5/5 cards
• Wes Hodges 1/6 cards
• Andy Marte 3/9 cards
• Michael Brantley 1/9 cards
• Tony Sipp 2/4 cards
• Wyatt Toregas 1/1 cards
• Stephen Head 2/2 cards

Fort Wayne Tin Caps at Lansing Lugnuts (Opening Night 4/9/09)

BY: T.C.

I froze my butt off at the Lansing home opener on Thursday night.  The graphing was pretty good, though.  There were only 3 people doing the Fort Wayne side, so I was able to get just about everyone I brought cards for.  Here is what I came away with:

• Alexis Lara, 1 card 
• Simon Castro, 1 card
• Sawyer Carroll, 9 cards…and a smart-assed comment about eBay–which I hated becasue I have NEVER sold an autograph that I’ve gotten myself.
• Drew Cumberland, 5 cards
• James Darnell,  9 cards
• Nick Schmidt, 8 cards, I also gave him an Arkansas jersey card of his that I pulled, which he thought was very cool.
• Jeudy Valdez, 3 cards
• Allan Dykstra, 7 cards
• Blake Tekotte, 9 cards
• Dan Robertson, 1 baseball with “NWL MVP 2008″ inscribed

Spring Training Trip: By the Numbers

BY: T.C.

Since I’ve always been a math geek, I have always loved statistics…which means that I always loved seeing the “by the numbers” type of stories in magazines and newspapers.  Because of this, I figured I’d do my own “by the numbers” column for my spring training trip.  When it was all said and done, here are all the facts:

• Days in Florida: 10
• Teams I saw: 8 (Braves, Astros, Pirates, Reds, Tigers, Twins, Red Sox, Mets)
• Total cost of airfare, hotels, and rent-a-car: $954 (’gotta love Priceline!)
• Cards signed: 446
• Balls signed: 29
• Total autographs obtained: 475
• Average cost per autograph: $2.01
• Autographs of Hall of Famers: 4 (Rod Carew x 2, Paul Molitor, Phil Niekro, Peter Gammons)
• Best inscriptions:
  1. Denard Span (”Human Highlight Reel” on a ball)
  2. Pat Neshek (”I should not have thrown that pitch!” on an A-Rod road to 500 HR card)
  3. Bill Virdon (”N.L. ROY ‘55″ on a ball)
  4. Tommy Hanson (”AFL MVP ‘08″ on a ball)
  5. Jimmy Williams (”Boston Red Sox 1999 M.O.Y.”)
• Top 10 Signers:

1.  Pat Neshek: 12 items

2.  Jason Heyward: 10 items

3.  (tie) Denard Span, Todd Frazier: 9 items

5.  Jordan  Schafer, 8 items

6.  (tie) Ryan Perry, Jason Kubel, 7 items

8.  (tie) Russ Ortiz, Jair Jurrjens, Brian Buscher, Johnny Gomes, Chris Speier, Ian Snell, Jeff Keppinger, Brandon Moss, Chris Valaika,  Kelly Johnson, Devin Mesoraco, Matt Capps, J.R. Towles, Drew Stubbs: 6 items

• First autograph: Gregor Blanco
• Last autograph: Donnie Kelly

2009 Florida Spring Training Tour, Day 9 (New York Mets @ Detroit Tigers)

BY: T.C.

My cousin and his wife flew into Orlando on Thursday to take their kids on a Disney vacation.  Before the trip, my cousin and I had planned on taking my godson (Caden), who is 4 years old, over to Tigertown to see a spring training game.  This day really wasn’t about ‘graphing for me…it was more about making sure that Caden had a good time.  We got to the game early and lined up outside the gate.  Our timing must have been perfect, because after standing in line for about 5 minutes, a couple of girls that work for the Tigers came by and asked Caden if he’d like to take the resin bag out to the mound before the game!  This turned out to be a really cool experience for the little guy.  He got to go out on the field with the players during the national anthem, and also got to spend a little bit of time in the dugout before the game.  When it was time, he ran out to the mound to drop off the resin bag.  Somwhere on his way to the mound, though, he forgot the instructions he was given on where to put the bag.  As he got out to the mound, he walked around it, trying to figure out where to put the resin bag he was carefully holding in his hand.  The crowd started cracking up as he walked up on the mound and looked around.  He finally just figured that he’d walk up to the pitching rubber and set it down there.  When he did this, the whole crowd lost it.  They were laughing and clapping for him–which brought a huge smile to his face.  Once he made it back to the dugout, he got some high-fives from the players and coaches.  He even got a baseball handed to him by Rafael Belliard (that he had Jim Leyland sign).

All in all, this day was a great experience.  It was spring training ball at its laid-back best.  I did manage to get a couple of ‘graphs (Donnie Kelly, Michel Abreu, and Fernando Martinez), but I really didn’t care.  Today was all about making sure that a little guy had a memorable experience…which he most certainly did!

2009 Florida Spring Training Tour, Day 8 (Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros)

BY: T.C.

My original plan on this day was to go to Viera to see the Nationals play the Astros.  However, after 7 straight days of driving all over Florida, I just didn’t feel like getting up early and making the drive all the way over to Viera.  Instead, I woke up and headed back to the Braves’ camp, which was only a 5 minute drive from my hotel.  The Braves were playing an away game that day, so I was hoping to get a couple of the stars that didn’t make the trip.  Unfortunately for me, most of the stars DID make the trip on this particular day.  There was one lucky occurrence, though.  This happened to be one of the days that Phil Niekro was in town as a guest instructor.  After spending a couple of hours there, I was able to get a few ‘graphs…including Phil Niekro on a ball!

Once I got Niekro’s autograph, I considered my day at the Braves camp to be a success (even though I only got a couple of other autographs).  I then decided to head over to the Astros’ camp to see if I could get a few ‘graphs as guys that didn’t make the trip to Viera left practice.  I ended up getting there just as practice was ending.  A lot of the Astros’ big guns stayed back (Berkman, Lee, Oswalt, Tejada), but they didn’t sign.  I did get a few ‘graphs, but nothing great.  Honestly, I really didn’t care that much.  I was ecstatic that I got Niekro earlier in the day!  Here is what I ended up with for the day:

Tim	Byrdak	Card	x	1
Mike	Hampton	Card	x	1
Tommy	Hanson	ROMLB	x	1
Latroy	Hawkins	Card	x	1
Jair	Jurrjens	Cards	x	3
Phil	Niekro	ROMLB	x	1
Russ	Ortiz	Cards	x	6

2009 Florida Spring Training Tour, Day 7, Part 2 (Minnesota Twins vs. Cincinnati Reds)

BY: T.C.

After starting the day bright and early in Fort Myers, I made the hour and a half drive up to Sarasota.  I arrived just in time to see the first pitch of the Cincinnati Reds vs. Minnesota Twins game.  Because I arrived so late, I didn’t get a good feel for how the ‘graphing was at a Reds spring training game.  It didn’t really matter to me, though.  I was content enough sitting outside on a warm, sunny day and watching a game. 

During the game, a guy from Cincinnati and his son (Austin) sat next to me.  I saw that the kid had some cards and a couple of autographs.  I started chatting with them and found out that this was their first trip to spring training.  So far, they had experienced a little bit of success in getting ‘graphs, but not a ton.  Part of the problem was that they were relying too heavily on trying to get autographs in the stadiums on game day.  I talked to them about some of the strategies that I use for ‘graphing and the dad seemed really appreciative.  It was kind of cool chatting with them, because it reminded me a lot of myself going to spring training games when I was that age (around 10 years old).  After the game, we caught a couple of players heading back to the clubhouse.  I was able to get Yonder Alonso to sign a card, which was one of the ones that I really wanted to get signed.

Once the stadium was empty, I led the father/son combo over to the Reds player parking lot and showed them how to get stuff signed over there.  I think this little insight helped their quest for autographs out quite a bit!!!  At the end of my day at the Reds game, I ended up with about 20 ‘graphs, which I listed below.  I have to say, though, my favorite part of the day was helping a dad be able to give his son a better collecting experience on his first trip to Florida!

Yonder	Alonso	Card	x	1
Jerry	Hairston, Jr.	Card	x	1
Ryan	Hanigan	Cards	x	3
Billy	Hatcher	Card	x	1
Jacque	Jones	Card	x	1
Jeff	Keppinger	Cards	x	2
Robert	Manuel	Card	x	1
Devin	Mesoraco	Cards	x	6
Josh	Roenicke	Cards	x	2
Drew	Stubbs	Card	x	1

2009 Florida Spring Training Tour, Days 5,6, and part of 7 (Minnesota Twins)

BY: T.C.

The Twins camp is one of those classic Florida experiences.  The players are generally very accessible, they have Hall of Fame guest instructors (Molitor & Carew), and the Twins fans were very friendly.  I enjoyed my experience so much here that I decided to stay an extra day and a half.  

Here is a quick overview of the best areas to ‘graph at the Twins’ camp (click to enlarge):

On the first day, I watched the Twins practice and was able to get a ton of ‘graphs.  I also met a couple of cool ‘graphers from Mankato, Minnesota (named Sean and Dean).  I started chatting with them and we found out that we were all members of Pat Neshek’s message board.  I ended up hanging out with them most of the next couple of days, which made the stay in Fort Myers a lot more enjoyable. 

On the second day, the Twins had a night game.  We figured that we’d head over to the park early to see if we could watch some morning practice.  Bad decision.  Little did we know that the first players wouldn’t be reporting until about noon.  If I had it to do over again, I would have headed over to the other side of town to catch the Red Sox morning practice.  Oh well, live and learn, I guess!  The ‘graphing activity wasn’t that great on this day.  I probably got about 25 throughout the day.  I must say that the Twins’ park is NOT GOOD for autographs during games, especially for the visiting team.  You have NO access to the visiting players, as the bus drops them off in a fenced-in area.  You might pick up a few ‘graphs down by the field before the game, but generally speaking, I wouldn’t recommend going to Twins spring training games to ‘graph.  Stick with the practices. 

During the game, I stood next to the bullpen and ended up chatting with a really cool guy for about 5 innings.  After chatting for a couple of innings, we asked each other what we did for a living.  It turned out that this guy was a ballplayer in the Twins’ minor league system.  He played high-A ball last year and was hoping to jump to AA this year.  The guy’s name was Juan (although he goes by Quentin) Portis.  He was a helluva nice kid and was fun to talk to.  He actually gave me a lot of insight about the minor leagues and some of the political elements that determine who gets promoted and who doesn’t.  I’ll definitely be following him and hoping he makes it to “the show” someday.

After ‘graphing the Twins for two days, I was ready to head up to Sarasota to catch a Reds game on Thursday.  However, before I took off, I decided to hit the Twins camp early in the morning to see if I could pick up a couple of more ‘graphs.  This turned out to be a GREAT decision, as I ended up having the best haul out of any day I was there (at least in terms of quality).  On this particular morning, I was able to get Denard Span, Justin Morneau, Francisco Liriano, Jason Kubel, Michael Cuddyer, Rod Carew and Paul Molitor.  I ended up with well over 100 autographs during my stay in Fort Myers.  Here is the breakdown:

Richard	Anderson	Card	x	1
Scott	Baker	Card	x	1
Nick	Blackburn	Cards	x	3
Brian	Buscher	Cards	x	6
Rod	Carew	ROMLB	x	2
Alexi	Casilla	Cards	x	4
Joe	Crede	Card	x	1
Michael	Cuddyer	Cards	x	2
R.A.	Dickey	Cards	x	2
Brian	Duensing	Cards	x	3
Ron	Gardenhire	Card	x	1
Toby	Gardenhire	Card	x	1
Mike	Gosling	Card	x	1
Brendan	Harris	Card	x	1
Luke	Hughes	Cards	x	3
Philip	Humber	Card	x	1
Ben	Julianel	Cards	x	4
Tom	Kelly	RMLB	x	1
Corey	Koskie	RMLB	x	1
Jason	Kubel	Cards	x	7
Francisco	Liriano	Card	x	1
Francisco	Liriano	ROMLB	x	1
Alejandro	Machado	Cards	x	5
Dustin	Marting	Cards	x	3
Paul	Molitor	ROMLB	x	1
Justin	Morneau	Card	x	1
Justin	Morneau	ROMLB	x	1
Kevin	Mulvey	Cards	x	5
Joe	Nathan	Cards	x	2
Pat	Neshek	Cards	x	12
Brock	Peterson	Cards	x	5
Wilson	Ramos	Cards	x	3
Deibenson	Romero	Card	x	1
Kevin	Slowey	Card	x	1
Denard	Span	RMLB	x	1
Denard	Span	ROMLB	x	1
Denard	Span	Cards	x	7
Anthony	Swarzak	RMLB	x	1
Anthony	Swarzak	Cards	x	4
Matt	Tolbert	Cards	x	5
Danny	Valencia	Card	x	1
Jerry	White	Cards	x	3