Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Monday, May 11, 2015
Ozzie Smith and Eddie Murray Locke College Prep Academy Field Dedication 5-9-15
Thanks to a last minute tip from my friend Jeremy I decided to check out the field dedication at Locke College Prep Academy to honor the school's most famous alumni; Ozzie Smith and Eddie Murray. It's crazy to think that two HOFers attended the same high school at the same time. The event was scheduled to take place at 10am on Saturday.
As you can see from the time stamp I literally got the message less than an hour before the event started. With field dedications and events where there are no guaranteed autographs it's always a huge risk since a player can decide whether they want to sign or not. It's really up to their mood, how the event is set up ie location and logistics, and also what level of security there is. When it involves two HOFers you have to at least try so I couldn't pass up this opportunity.
I arrived around 10:30am. I hate driving to LA since it takes me at least an hour to get there all the time. Admission to the field dedication was $12 with all the proceeds going to charity.
As you can see from the photo above the baseball field was gated off and there was heavy security. My goal today was to get Eddie Murray's autograph since i've never gotten his autograph before but I went there with low expectations since he is notoriously known to be a tough graph in general.
I got pretty lucky. A lady that knew Eddie from their high school days wanted to talk with him so he came by the fence to chat with her.
Afterwards she wanted an autograph for her son but they didn't have a pen. Thus I let them use mine.
Afterwards Eddie signed my baseball which I had to throw over the fence to get it to him. Eddie wasn't paying much attention as he ended up signing my baseball on the sweetspot but reverse HOF logo.
I couldn't complain since it was still a free autograph. After he signed my baseball he left to chat with the baseball players on the field. I was pretty lucky since he signed for just me and Jeremy among the regular graphers that day. A lot of people struck out. We even saw him deny kids. The only people he would sign for were for the high school players on the field as security was with him the entire time.
We got this close to him after the event and yet he denied everyone. He just wasn't in a mood to sign.
I also ended up getting Ozzie Smith over the fence. Again I had to use the pen trick as he was talking to some of his former classmates. Someone needed a pen so I let Ozzie use mine. The entire community showed up to support this event. It was cool to see how both Ozzie and Eddie remembered most of the people in the stands. Some alumni even brought old yearbooks to get signed.
Afterwards he went toward the mound to throw out the first pitch with Eddie Murray.
I want to give a shout out to Jeremy, Spencer, Jack, Juan, Adrian, Marc, David S and the rest of the graphing family. I want to give a special thanks to Jeremy for the heads up on this event.
As you can see from the time stamp I literally got the message less than an hour before the event started. With field dedications and events where there are no guaranteed autographs it's always a huge risk since a player can decide whether they want to sign or not. It's really up to their mood, how the event is set up ie location and logistics, and also what level of security there is. When it involves two HOFers you have to at least try so I couldn't pass up this opportunity.
I arrived around 10:30am. I hate driving to LA since it takes me at least an hour to get there all the time. Admission to the field dedication was $12 with all the proceeds going to charity.
As you can see from the photo above the baseball field was gated off and there was heavy security. My goal today was to get Eddie Murray's autograph since i've never gotten his autograph before but I went there with low expectations since he is notoriously known to be a tough graph in general.
I got pretty lucky. A lady that knew Eddie from their high school days wanted to talk with him so he came by the fence to chat with her.
Afterwards she wanted an autograph for her son but they didn't have a pen. Thus I let them use mine.
Afterwards Eddie signed my baseball which I had to throw over the fence to get it to him. Eddie wasn't paying much attention as he ended up signing my baseball on the sweetspot but reverse HOF logo.
I couldn't complain since it was still a free autograph. After he signed my baseball he left to chat with the baseball players on the field. I was pretty lucky since he signed for just me and Jeremy among the regular graphers that day. A lot of people struck out. We even saw him deny kids. The only people he would sign for were for the high school players on the field as security was with him the entire time.
We got this close to him after the event and yet he denied everyone. He just wasn't in a mood to sign.
I also ended up getting Ozzie Smith over the fence. Again I had to use the pen trick as he was talking to some of his former classmates. Someone needed a pen so I let Ozzie use mine. The entire community showed up to support this event. It was cool to see how both Ozzie and Eddie remembered most of the people in the stands. Some alumni even brought old yearbooks to get signed.
Afterwards he went toward the mound to throw out the first pitch with Eddie Murray.
I want to give a shout out to Jeremy, Spencer, Jack, Juan, Adrian, Marc, David S and the rest of the graphing family. I want to give a special thanks to Jeremy for the heads up on this event.
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