Tonight was another great night of graphing. I decided to head out to the stadium after the game to see if I can get a head start on Blue Jays autographs since it was the first game of the series. I also brought my Mark Langston Rawlings Authentic Jersey from the late 80s and early 90s. I've been trying to get this jersey signed by Mark for quite some time. Mark does the radio broadcasting for Angels home games this year and each time I didn't bring the jersey to the stadium he'd sign for other fans and on the days I brought the jersey he is nowhere to be found. I decided to try my luck again tonight to see if I could get Mark's autograph.
The Angels gave out their calendar tonight at the game and my friend Nancy http://twitter.com/Sombrero_Girl got one for me. Thanks again Nancy.
We all waited for the players to walk out and it seemed like Mark either already left the stadium or went out through a different gate. Thus I put my jersey back into my bag. Then all of a sudden he walks out of the front gates and all of my graphing buddies were telling me to get my jersey out asap to get it signed. Luckily a few other fans stopped him to sign so I had enough time to get my jersey out of my bag, prepare my deco and ended up getting the jersey signed my Mark. Mark is always a gracious signer and he was nice enough to even add the 7 x Gold Glove inscription on my jersey. He also took a photo with me.
That pretty much made my night. If this was the only autograph I got the rest of the night I was good to go home. Things got even better.
Ricky Romero and Kyle Drabek walked out together. Ricky didn't sign for fans saying that he was out with his family and needed to go home but he'd sign for us tomorrow. I think he ended up signing for one kid. Kyle Drabek did however sign but only for a few fans since he was getting a ride from Ricky and he was in a hurry to leave as well. A bunch of us mistakenly thought Kyle was Adam Lind so when we presented our Adam Lind cards to him he told us that we had the wrong cards. Kyle was in good spirits though and as soon as we found out who he was he signed for all of us. Kyle was nice enough to sign my ROMLB on the SS and he signed a few cards for my buddy Scotty pictured below.
As soon as I started to walk back towards the entrance there was a mob of fans surrounding Omar Vizquel. Last year Omar didn't sign for any of us walking out but this year he was in a better mood. I ended up getting Omar to sign my Rawlings Gold Glove Baseball on the SS. I was happy to finally get Omar's autograph. He's one of the best defensive players in our era and I believe there is a good chance he will be a future HOFer one day.
The last Blue Jay I saw walking out was Jose Bautista aka "Joey Bats." He came out through the front gates holding his daughter. I figured that wasn't the best time to ask for his autograph but as usual a hoard of fans tried to ask and were all rejected. When players are with their kids or when they are eating at a restaurant I don't bother asking since most of the time they'll reject your autograph request. Plus I feel it's a bit rude to bother them.
Afterwards Benson and I ended up going to the Angels parking lot hoping to get Pujols but nobody stopped to sign. We did find out later that Brandon Morrow came out late through the front gates and signed for the few fans that were left.
Overall it was an awesome night of graphing. I'm tired. Time to sleep.
Very cool, you got your Langston jersey signed!
ReplyDeleteYea it was nice to get that project finished finally. Thanks for the props Martin.
DeleteThat Langston jersey looks great. I am going to Corvallis tomorrow to see Oregon St. vs. Standford. Mark Appel plays for Stanford and could be the overall #1 pick in next months MLB draft.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kelly. A buddy of mine got Appel at the Stanford vs UCLA game back when they were here about a week ago. I heard he's good about signing. Good luck and let me know how it turns out.
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