What's cool about Dodger Stadium is that they allow fans into the field during the fireworks show. The distraction gave us an opportunity to graph the Astros as they were being escorted by security. What's difficult about graphing the Astros or any other team without major stars is that you have to think quickly and recognize the players immediately after you see them. Thus you can miss out on a chance for an autograph when a player walks right by you if you don't happen to know their name. The first player to walk out was Carlos Lee. He was with his wife so he didn't sign for anyone.
The first person to sign for me was Matt Downs. I was lucky enough to get him to sign for me tonight since nobody else recognized him. Matt was nice enough to sign my 2012 Topps Heritage card.
The next person to sign for me was Wilton Lopez who signed my 2012 Topps Heritage card. Again nobody recognized him so I was able to get his autograph easily inside the stadium. He had family over so people ended up getting him outside the stadium as well. Wilton is cool and ended up signing for everyone. The picture below shows him signing outside the stadium.
The next person to sign was JD Martinez. He happened to be with his family and friends inside the stadium and met up with them after the fireworks show. I broke the ice by congratulating him on the HR he hit tonight and politely asked for an autograph. He ended up signing my 2012 Gypsy Queen Card.
After the fireworks show security kicked everyone out of the stadium so we waited by the gates. Wandy Rodriguez walked out and signed my 2011 Allen and Ginter Card. As he was signing he kept on complaining how the weather was so cold outside saying "hace frio." I guess he wasn't prepared for the cold weather here expecting it to be warm all the time in California.
The last person to sign for us was Brian Bogusevic. Brian was nice and ended up signing 8 cards for my friend Greg. I was up next and I had only one card of his which happened to be his 2011 Allen and Ginter Card. While Brian was signing for Greg I mentioned that I only had one card for him and pointed out the Ginter card which was positioned on the left next to my Jason Castro card since I place cards in alphabetical order. Brian accidentally signed my Castro card as well. If you compare the two cards they look similar so I guess it was a case of mistaken identity. I guess Brian thought he was signing the same card. By the time he signed it was too late since I didn't get a chance to stop him like the time when I stopped Kevin Gregg from signing the wrong card. Still I want to thank Brian for stopping and being a cool guy for signing multiples for everyone. Now I just need to find an unsigned Jason Castro 2011 Allen and Ginter card just in case I run into him in the future. If anyone has an extra one to spare let me know.
I want to give a shout out to all the graphers/friends who were out there tonight including Benson, Greg, Alex, and Josh. I always have a fun time graphing with you guys. Time to sleep. On to the next signing.
Nice seeing you last night Dave. I think we all did a pretty good job considering we couldn't recognize half these players. Wandy was real cool. I wish more players signed like that.
ReplyDeleteI agree Josh. I think we did well last night. I'm just happy whenever we don't strike out. The tough part about last night was identifying the players. I think if we called most of them out they would have stopped and signed. It's always fun regardless. Josh you need to come out and graph with us at Angels Stadium one day. You will realize how much easier it is to graph there compared to Dodger stadium.
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