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

2009 Florida Spring Training Tour, Day 4, Part 2 (Cincinnati Reds)

BY: T.C.

I got bored on my drive to Fort Myers, so I decided to make a quick stop in Sarasota to see if I could pick up a few more ‘graphs as the Reds players left practice.  I got there after most of them had left, but I did have a few successes.  I hung out for about 45 minutes and was able to pick up the following 24 ‘graphs:

Chris	Denove	Card	x	1
Chris	Dickerson	Card	x	1
Chris	Speier	Cards	x	6
Darnell	McDonald	Card	x	1
Drew	Stubbs	Cards	x	2
Jeff	Keppinger	RMLB	x	1
Jerry	Hairston, Jr.	Cards	x	3
Luis	Bolivar	Card	x	1
Norris	Hopper	Card	x	1
Paul	Janish	Card	x	1
Sam	Lecure	Card	x	1
Todd	Frazier	Cards	x	3
Wes	Bankston	Cards	x	2

2009 Florida Spring Training Tour, Day 4 (Detroit Tigers)

BY: T.C.

As much as I love the Tigers, I have to admit that their camp in Lakeland is among the most fan-unfriendly spring training camps in Florida.  There is really only one place to get autographs, which is along an approximately 100 foot fence that runs from the player’s parking lot to the practice fields.  You only have access to players on their way to and from the fields.  This is the element that bugs me the most about Tigertown.  Many of the other camps that are in Florida offer tremendous access to the players (the Twins and Astros come to mind).  At some of these camps, you can even walk with the players as they move from field to field.  The large number of fans that the Tigers draw to Lakeland compounds the accessibility problem.  If you don’t get to Lakeland early in the morning and “stake your claim” to a spot on the fenceline, you have virtually no chance of getting autographs.  This makes for a very long and boring day, as you really cannot give your spot up to go watch practice.  In fact, the most interesting thing I saw at the Tigers’ camp on Monday was a bird that was plucking lizards out of the bushes. 

I ended up staying in Lakeland until about 12:30, at which point I decided to leave and head down to Fort Myers.  Here are my totals for the day:

Tom	Brookens	Card	x	1
Ray	Burris	Card	x	1
Casey	Crosby	Cards	x	4
Casey	Fien	Card	x	1
Alexis	Gomez	Cards	x	3
Curtis	Granderson	Card	x	1
Scott	Green	Cards	x	3
Mike	Hessman	Cards	x	2
Edwin	Jackson	Cards	x	4
Jeff	Kunkel	Cards	x	3
Brandon	Lyon	Cards	x	2
Macay	McBride	Cards	x	3
Ryan	Perry	Cards	x	7
Rick	Porcello	Cards	x	2
Rick	Porcello	RMLB	x	1
Ryan	Raburn	Cards	x	3
Bobby	Seay	Cards	x	3
Zach	Simons	Card	x	1

2009 Florida Spring Training Tour, Day 3, Part 2 (Cincinnati Reds)

BY: T.C.

After the Pirates finished practice, I headed 10 minutes down the road to Sarasota to see if I could catch some of the Reds as they left the field.  I was fortunate, because the Pirates had a short day, and the Reds ended up going a little longer…which means it was a good idea to head over there!  In just over an hour, I was able to get quite another 40 autographs, which are pictured below (click to enlarge).

2009 Florida Spring Training Tour, Day 3 (Pittsburgh Pirates)

BY: T.C.

Today was a helluva day for ‘graphing in Bradenton.  I arrived at the Pirates camp at about 8:30 am, which was just in time to catch the guys heading out to the field.  Before practice, a photographer from Topps was shooting a bunch of the players.  The guys were getting some good-natured heckling from the fans because the photographer was making them do some really cheezy poses.  A bunch of the guys stopped to sign on their way in or out from getting their photos taken.  Once practice started, the ‘graphing was still good, as the group of 10-15 graphers was able to get some of the guys to come over in between stations.  During practice, one of the stations was the sliding drill (see pictures below).  It was amusing watching the players slide on the mats and act like they were little leaguers.  It also amazed me that some of the players in the big league camp still don’t know how to slide correctly!

  

After practice, several guys stopped again to sign up some more stuff.  Pictures of the items I got signed are below (click on the image to enlarge).  Altogether, I got 91 items signed by Pirates today, including their big prospect, Pedro Alvarez.

     

2009 Florida Spring Training Tour, Day 2 (Houston Astros)

BY: T.C.

Today wasn’t as prolific as yesterday in terms of sheer number of autographs, but it was still a fun day in the sun.  Houston is always a fun camp to go to because of how close you can get to the players.  It is fun to stand in between the 4 practice diamonds and watch the players walk right past you without feeling the constraints of ropes, fences, etc.  It definitely has a more old-school feel than Atlanta’s spring home.

Today I was able to get 40 autographs.  I got 3 balls signed–Bud Norris, Hunter Pence, and the elusive Roy Oswalt.  Roy has always been somewhat of a white whale for me.  He has a reclusive personality around fans and, until today, I haven’t even SEEN him sign before.  After he was finished doing a couple of interviews after practice, he had the security guys line everyone up in a single file line.  He signed 1/per person for the entire line.  Needless to say, I’m pretty fired about adding that one to my collection!

There weren’t too many major stars in the crop of cards that I got signed, but I was happy to get Bud Norris on 3 of them and Jason Castro on one of his Razor cards (he is one of Razor’s exclusive signature guys).  On a side not, I asked Jason if his “exclusive” contract with Razor precluded him from signing his TriStar Prospects Plus card.  He told me that as far as he knew, he was allowed to sign them.  The exclusivity must be limited to “pack-inserted” cards.  All of the signed cards can be seen below.

2009 Florida Spring Training Tour, Day 1 (Atlanta Braves)

BY: T.C.

It’s that time of year again…when the wind chill is still below zero back home in Michigan, but I’m in sunny Florida hearing the crack of the bats and the pop of the gloves for the first time of the year.  As I walked into Disney’s Wide World of Sports, those familiar sounds immediately made me feel nostalgic–thinking back to the days when I was a youngster and my grandparents would take me around to the different spring training camps to get autographs.  Right up there with Christmas, spring training is one of those times when I feel like a 12 year old trapped in an old dude’s body. 

This year proved to be a great start to the spring autograph hunting season for me.  Although Chipper Jones wasn’t in camp today, I was still really happy with the ‘graphing experience.  When it was all said and done, I came away with over 80 autographs.  A few highlights of the day were:

• Jimmy Williams signing a ball for me & inscribing it with “Red Sox 1999 M.O.Y.”  (Manager of the Year).  Jimmy is a very friendly old guy…I wish more of the old timers had his attitude and personality.
• Jason Heyward literally signing everything I had.  At various points in the day, he ended up signing 2 balls and 8 cards for me.  I don’t like asking players to sign that much stuff, but he said he didn’t mind at all.  He’s a nice kid, which kind of surprised me because he’s a big-time prospect who has probably been hounded pretty heavily already.
• Brian McCann signing autographs for everyone and then participating in a bubble (gum) blowing contest with some kids at a charity event (pictures below).

 

Here are photos of the items that I brought home today:

Getting Autographs at the Consumer Electronics Show

Every January, over 130,000 electronics geeks converge upon Las Vegas, NV for the largest convention in America–the Consumer Electronics Show.  I’ve been attending the show for the past 7 years with my company and have occasionally had time to walk the show floor and see some of the celebrities that make appearances at the show.  This year was no different, as I was able to sneak away from our booth a few times to snag a few autographs.  Among the folks I met this year were:

• Ronnie Lott (Samsung booth-signed a mini helmet.  He was pretty friendly considering he’s Ronnie Lott.  We chatted briefly about Kenny Easley who is one of his buddies.)
• Eric Dickerson (Samsung booth-signed a mini helmet and two cards.  He was very personable & had some funny comments about the Jheri Curl and goggles he was sporting on his rookie card.)
• Bill Walton (Haier booth-Signed an SI cover and two cards…dude was TOO friendly, as he spent 1-3 minutes chatting with EVERY person in line.)
• Robert Parish (Haier booth-signed an SI cover and a card.  He was nice enough, but kinda quiet.)
• Clyde Drexler (Haier booth-signed a USA Dream Team jersey.)

I also got a few baseball autographs at the Sharp booth.  The Sharp people were Nazis about the whole experience, though.  You could only have items signed that THEY provided.  On the second two days, those items were cards produced by Topps that had a Sharp logo (kind of cheezy, but I get why they do it).  However, the first day, the cards didn’t make it to the show, so the Sharp people went out and bought baseballs for the players to sign.  The baseballs were of the Rawlings ROLB3 variety, or– as we in the hobby tend to call them– “ghetto balls.”  They are ghetto balls because they are cheap and the autograph on them will fade and eventually disappear after a couple of years.  The part that really bummed me out was that I could have gotten David Ortiz to sign the 2004 World Series ball that I had in my pocket,  but was not allowed to by the Sharp Stormtroopers.   The baseball players that I did get autographs from were: David Ortiz, John Maine, Ryan Theriot, and Matt Holliday.  Pictures of everything are below:

Getting Autographs at San Francisco Giants Games

By: T.C.

On the final day of my work trip, I was able to finish up early and decided to head over to AT&T park to snag some ‘graphs as players entered the stadium.  On the advice of a cool SCN (Sportscollectors.net) member I knew that the visiting players entered next to the Giants Dugout store, which is where I went to hang out.  When I arrived around 2:30 pm, there were about 10 or 15 other ‘graphers there.  Most of them were really cool and two in particular (Nick and Jerry) were really helpful.  I was able to snag quite a few players as they were entering the stadium, including Chase Headley, Jerry Hairston, Chris Young, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Justin Hampson, Sean Kazmar, and even Hall of Famer Jerry Coleman. 

Inside the stadium, the ‘graphing was a bit tougher.  None of the players came over to sign during BP.  The only ‘graph I got was Glenn Hoffman (who is coaching for the Padres).  I had an opportunity to get Vida Blue (he was signing for the first 100 fans in line), but I passed it up for a chance to get Jake Peavy and Trevor Hoffman (which didn’t pan out).  In retrospect, that was a bad call.  I guess I forgot the old adage that a bird in hand is worth two in the bush!

Overall, my impression of AT&T park was that it’s a very cool place to see a game.  If you’re ever in San Francisco, you should certainly make a trip there.  The wide variety of choices for food and souveniers also add to the stadium experience.  You should also bring a jacket, because the wind coming off of the bay makes it very chilly.  When you get cold and hungry at the game, I highly recommend the chili in a sourdough bread bowl with some Ghirardelli hot chocolate! 

Of the stadiums I’ve been to, AT&T park reminds me the most of Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark.  The seating areas between the foul poles go up extremely high, with the outfield walls being very low.  It makes for a very scenic view from the upper deck. 

To see where to go for ‘graphs, see the diagram below.