Saturday, August 13, 2011

Matt Kemp Living Spaces Signing 8-13-11

On 8-13-11 Living Spaces Redondo Beach was hosting an autograph signing featuring MVP candidate Matt Kemp. He was scheduled to sign autographs for fans from 10am until noon. I knew that this signing was going to be crazy since Matt is a popular Dodger and any Dodger signing always draws a crowd. The policy for autographs were for only the first 300 people in line. Thus you had to get there early. I was fortunate that my friends Joseph and Chris were nice enough to hold my spot for me. They started lining up at midnight. The first person in line was there since 6pm the night before. I ended up buying my friends breakfast for holding my spot for me. Thanks Joseph and Chris.

Me being the lazy bum ended up arriving around 4am. I did have an excuse though. My friend Josh from http://www.dodgerbobble.com/ had a contest giveaway for the SGA Duke Snider Bobblehead. Since I couldn't attend the game to get the bobblehead myself I was lucky enough to win the Snyder Bobblehead through Josh's contest on his website the night prior to the Matt Kemp signing. When I arrived at the signing there were at least 150 people ahead of us in line. As it got close to the time of the signing there were over 300 people.

About two hours before the signing the workers at Living Spaces started passing out wristbands. That led to a bit of chaos as fans were trying to swarm in and get multiple wristbands which is what I did as well. I figured that if we were camping out this long to get Kemp's autograph we have to take full advantage of this opportunity. When the signing began we noticed that Kemp's agent Dave Stewart walking into Living Spaces. I asked him to sign a baseball for me but he told us that he'd get us inside.

While I was in line inside Living Spaces I asked Dave Stewart to sign my baseball. Initially it was a bit intimidating going up to him and asking for his autograph. Normally I don't have problems asking athletes for their autographs since I don't get star struck too much. However Dave has this intimidating look he gives you just like when he pitching for the A's and Dodgers in the 80s. However he was nice as can be and signed by ROMLB on the SS.




When it was my turn in line I had Matt Kemp sign a Rawlings bat since i've gotten him on baseballs in the past.



Matt was nice enough to inscribe 2011 All Star on my bat. As soon as we got out items signed we noticed that the line was dwindling since it was almost noon so we hopped back in line. I didn't have a 2nd items prepared for Kemp to sign. I did have a few extra ROMLBs but i've gotten Kemp on baseballs before. Luckily my buddy Larry (the guy that sells autograph supplies such as baseballs, bats and mini helmets at all of our local signings) had an extra 2011 MLB All Star Baseball. I ended up buying the all star ball from Larry so I can get Matt to sign it for me as well. Matt again inscribed 2011 All Star for me on the baseball.



All in all another great day of signing thanks to Living Spaces.

4 comments:

  1. That bat and ball both look amazing. Three autographs and a bobblehead within a 24 hour period! Can't beat that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know you can't beat that. Thanks again for hosting the bobblehead contest. It was a great day. Sadly due to Matt's meteoric rise in fame I don't think he will be hosting anymore free signings in the future. Glad most of us were able to get him for free from years past.

      Delete
  2. Great stuff David, I knew I should have got back in line like you. I found out that one of my friends showed up at 11:45am and was able to score an autograph without a wristband.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jesse. If you are talking about Art Diaz then yeah he was the one of my friends that hopped in line with us without a wristband. He ended up getting a bat signed. We let him cut with us in line since he had work earlier in the morning and barely made it out to the signing.

      Delete