Sunday, September 9, 2012

Angels vs Tigers Weekend Recap

9-7-12 Angels vs Tigers Post Game Graphing

I decided to do some post game graphing at Angel Stadium. It was nice just heading out to the stadium and graphing again since I haven't graphed at Angel Stadium in over a week.

Brennan Boesch and Joaquin Benoit were the first two to walk out of the side gates and both players signed cards for me.



Next up was a group of three players to walk out which included Octavio Dotel, Al Alburquerque and Jose Valverde. Since I didn't have anything for Octavio I had him sign my team card and I had Al sign my Topps Heritage card.







There was a big mob surrounding Jose Valverde so I got his autograph last. I asked Jose to sign my baseball on the SS but he replied back and let me know that he is under contract and cannot sign baseballs on the SS. I should have done my research since he has a terrible looking signature. Luckily I used a BP baseball on him. Next time I plan on getting cards signed instead.





That was pretty much it the entire night. The good news was that the Angels beat the Tigers in the bottom of the 9th after Alberto Callaspo had the game winning single to seal the victory over the Tigers.

9-8-12 Angels vs Tigers Game 

Today my graphing instincts were completely off since I ended up missing out on getting Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera which were both easily had if I made a few different decisions. It was one of those days where a baseball player goes 0-4 at the plate with four strikeouts. Simply put, today was extremely frustrating and my friends Alex, Benson and Matt had to go through the pain with me.

During pregame I did well as I ended up getting Ramon Santiago, Luis Marte, Don Kelly and Jhonny Peralta to sign cards for me. It was a great start.









Benson and I went to get lunch and we soon found out that Miguel Cabrera signed. Had we waited a bit longer we would have easily had Miguel's autograph. That was strike 1.

When the gates opened I decided to head out to the Tigers dugout with my friend Alex. We waited there patiently to see if we could score some autographs especially since we wanted to get Cabrera or Prince Fielder.



Prince did come by and signed for fans over the dugout. He was signing down the line so I figured this will be my shot at getting Prince today. An impatient fan threw a baseball at Prince when it wasn't his turn to get an auto and the baseball hit Prince. Afterwards Prince looked annoyed and told everyone he would now only sign for kids 12 and under. At that point it was Alex's turn to get Prince's autograph then my turn and Prince literally skipped over us and signed for two kids and left. What made matters worse was that for some inexplicable reason Prince ended up signing that baseball that hit him from the rude fan and tossed the baseball back to him. The baseball was side panelled and the rude fan complained which simply annoyed me. That fan cost us an autograph from Prince. That was strike 2.

So far I was swinging and missing and striking out. Austin Jackson signed a few over the dugout as well but he didn't sign for me. Max Scherzer was only signing baseballs and ran with a black sharpie so I didn't get him either over the dugout since he wasn't signing any cards.

Post game we decided to put all our eggs in one basket and go after Fielder again. Our friend Laurie was the only fan to get Fielder's autograph the previous night since she waited near the visitors tunnel to get him. Most of the graphers ended up finding out about this info so there were a lot of graphers waiting for Prince near the visitors tunnel. What I regret most was not being logical about the entire situation. There were a ton of people which means Prince would have probably not signed for everyone had he did come out through the visitors tunnel. Yet we waited their like sitting ducks waiting to get killed. Some of the shrewd graphers ended up changing their game plan and went to the front. A few minutes later I get a call from one of the graphers that Prince walked out from the front gates and signed for about 20 fans. That was strike 3. Today reminded me of the Royals game at the beginning of the season where everything was going wrong for me. I guess it wasn't meant to be. 

I was literally bummed out since we lost our chance to get Prince again and missed out on Cabrera too. As I was walking towards the front of the stadium to leave we noticed that Jim Leyland was signing. I was so bummed out that I didn't even try going after him. I just wanted to get out of the stadium as soon as possible.

Thus after pregame I ended up with zero autographs the rest of the day. On a brighter note though my good friend Alex ended up getting Albert Pujols' autograph today and the Angels beat Verlander 6-1. Mike Trout also made an awesome catch in center field robbing Prince Fielder of a homerun.


2 comments:

  1. I'm sorry about you missing out on Miggy and Prince. That's all part of the hobby. I wish I could've joined you guys BTW.

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    1. All good. I am over it since it happens occasionally. Some days you are on fire and get everything and the other days you strike out. I was happy that Alex did finally get Pujols though so something good came out of yesterday though.

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