Angels vs Blue Jays Series

Angels vs Blue Jays Game 8-2-13

I decided to attend the Angels vs Blue Jays game on Friday after work. It was a last minute decision but thanks to my friend Benson he was able to pick up a ticket to the game for me. It was nice to be back at the stadium today since it has been weeks since I attended a game at Angel Stadium. We arrived at the stadium a bit late as the Blue Jays were taking batting practice.

The personal goal today was to get Jose Reyes' autograph. I've always been a fan of Jose since his playing days as a Met back when I used to see him play at Shea Stadium when I lived in New York.

The first Blue Jay to sign for us was J.P. Arencibia who signed two cards for me over the dugout.

There wasn't much action going on afterwards. I decided to head out to the Diamond Field Box to watch Jose stretch after BP hoping that he would sign. Sure enough he signed for us after stretching. Jose was cool and signed my ROMLB on the SS.

Jose also signed Kyle's painting. As usual it came out spectacular and his artwork is simply amazing.

The good news was that the regulars all ended up getting Jose Reyes' autograph. That was pretty much it for pregame graphing.

For post game graphing I ended up getting Kole Calhoun to sign two cards for me. He was especially in a good mood since he hit his first home run that night.

The only Blue Jay I got post game was Casey Janssen who signed a card for me.

Today was a day of quality and not quantity. It was nice to add Jose Reyes' autograph to my personal collection. I want to give a shoutout to my fellow Anaheim graphers including Benson, Kyle S, Kyle M, Alex, and Rob. It's always fun graphing with you guys.

Angels vs Blue Jays Pregame 8-3-13  

I ended up getting a bunch of cards signed pregame as none of the major stars on the Blue Jays signed.

The first two Jays to sign were Mark DeRosa and J.P Arencibia who signed cards for me.

Afterwards R.A. Dickey signed a card and a baseball for me. I ended up getting his short signature. Luckily I used a used BP ROMLB.

Next up was Brett Cecil who signed a card for me. It was nice to finally get his autograph on a card. When I last met him a few years ago he didn't have a card out so I ended up getting a ticket stub signed. I asked him what his tattoo on his throwing arm meant and he told me that his was his son's name along with his birth date. That's pretty cool.

Following Brett, my favorite former Mariner Steve Delabar signed three cards for me. Steve has always been good to the fans so I was happy to see him having a great season this year. I congratulated him on his recent all star selection while he was signing my cards for me. It was nice to see him again in person since the last time I saw him was at Safeco Field back when he played for the Mariners. He is also historically significant in my autograph card collection since he was the first player to sign a card in my 2012 Topps Heritage set back when I started to get cards signed last year.

The next two players to sign were Darren Oliver and Adam Lind who both signed cards for me.

Next up was Mark Buehrle who I initially wanted to get on a baseball. As soon as he saw all the graphers he asked us what we wanted signed. Thus a few graphers yelled out cards and the others yelled out baseballs. Mark then tells all of us he can't sign baseballs since they go for too much money on eBay so he won't be signing any baseballs. We even asked him if he would personalize letting him know that we aren't selling them. He still denied all autograph requests on baseballs and would only sign cards. He said this in a comical manner so none of us were offended by his rejection. Thus I ended up getting a card signed by Mark. Still cool but it would have been nicer to get a personalized signature on a baseball.

The last player to sign was Todd Redmond who signed a card for me.

Angels vs Blue Jays Game 8-4-13 

I could have probably been better off staying home today as it was one of the slower days in graphing. Sundays are usually the worst days to graph since there is no BP.  Part of it was my fault as I ended up oversleeping and pretty much missed all chances of pregame graphing.

Benson and I ended up chilling at McDonalds too long and got the start time of the game confused so we entered the stadium a bit late. Thus we missed out on R.A. Dickey who was giving out his full signature today.

Luckily I didn't strike out as I was able to get Sergio Santos to sign two cards for me. It was nice to finally add his autograph to my collection. Although he is a local player i've always missed getting his autograph since his days playing for the White Sox. It was nice to finally add his autograph to my personal collection.

Next up was Casey Janssen who was running with a black sharpie. He ended up signing a card for me as well.

I'll probably just donate this card to my friend David A. who is the king of getting autographs on cards with exclusively black sharpie.

That was it for graphing during warmups. What made matters worse was that the Angels ended up losing to the Jays due to a blown call on second base from the umpires.

After the game I ended up getting Jerome Williams and JB Shuck to sign cards for me.