This never gets old. I love how the Dodgers let you in three hours before game time to watch warmups and batting practice. The Angels need to do this for their season ticket holders.
The first Dodger to sign for us was Coach Don Mattingly. He started to sign over the bullpen after his bullpen session with Chris Capuano.
It's weird how Coach Mattingly was once my white whale for quite some time but I was able to get him back to back weekends this year. That's the nature of graphing I guess. That puts my collection up to three signed baseballs; 2 regular ROMLBs and one GG baseball. I do have cards of Coach Mattingly but I still can't drop a card of him since he is such a legendary Yankee. I need to find a nice photo of him to sign next time. You can never have enough signed Mattingly baseballs. I guess I can give one away as a gift or use one as trade bait.
Afterwards there wasn't much action until the autograph corral opened up. Thus I took more random photos. Here is one of Zack Greinke sipping on water chilling at the Dodger bullpen.
I swear Zack does an amazing job ignoring the fans which explains the reason why he is one of the toughest and most elusive autographs to obtain in baseball. This guy doesn't even look at you when you try to call him over and he always has his stone face on.
As soon as the autograph corral opened up we headed over there to get in the first group. The first two players to sign for us was Matt Kemp and Adrian Gonzalez. Adrian was initially about to go straight into the clubhouse but Matt convinced him to sign for the fans by telling him that he'd sign if Adrian signs. I was positioned better to get Matt's autograph so I pulled out my Kemp jersey. I noticed that several fans that presented baseballs to Matt all had the sweetspot cover on aka the "ball condom" which made no sense since Matt usually sweetspots without even asking. Using the sweetspot cover just makes you look like a dealer and chances are most of these guys who were getting his autograph using the SS cover were probably dealers. Matt seemed irked by this asking everyone what this contraption was and said "I smell ebay." I jokingly told Matt it was a "ball condom" so he started to laugh and started calling it the "ball condom" as well. Luckily Matt was in a good mood and still signed for everyone but he kept on telling everyone this better not go on ebay. Matt was nice enough to sign my jersey for me.
As soon as I got Kemp's autograph I pulled out my Adrian Gonzalez jersey. Sadly he was already done signing and went into the clubhouse. I think he signed for about 5 fans and left. I was still happy with the Kemp autograph though. One jersey down and three more to go. Maybe i'll get Adrian next time.
Soon afterwards Andre Ethier signed for us as well. He signed two cards for me.
Once our session was over we got back in line to join the second group. By then most of the players were already in the clubhouse. I was able to get Brandon League's attention by calling him over to sign for us. Brandon is great about signing as usual and he signed a photo for me.
By the time it was for the last two groups to go into the autograph corral all of the players were already in the clubhouse. Thus Benson and I decided to hang out near right field to graph the Pirates.
The first player to sign for us was Jeff Karstens who signed two cards for me.
The next player to sign was Jonathan Sanchez who was signing for a few fans in the VIP field level seats. What sucks about Dodger Stadium is that the VIP section has heavy security. Thus if you don't have tickets to those seats you can't get access to the players when signing unless the players summon you over. Thus you basically have to get the players attention so that he will sign for you. Luckily Jonathan called me over to my cards signed. He was nice enough to sign three cards for me.
This was the same situation for Jared Hughes. Jared was about leave after signing for fans in the VIP seats but luckily I got his attention and he signed three cards for me as well.
The last player to sign for me today was Paco Rodriguez who signed for me near the Dodger bullpen before the game started.
Overall it was another great day of graphing at Dodger Stadium. Clayton Kershaw pitched another gem and the Dodgers ended up beating the Pirates 1-0.
nice pickups.
ReplyDeleteI was lucky enough to get Beckett on sat. He signed for about 5 ppl on 3rd base side and I was the last one. You are right about Zack. Fanfest was the only reason I got him other than that he ignores like you said.
Thanks. I agree Beckett is indeed one of the tougher Dodgers to get. I think Grienke is by far the toughest, then Beckett then Uribe. It's weird since Beckett ended up signing for me back to back days when the Dodgers were in Anaheim. I guess he has changed since last year. Hopefully this new trend continues.
DeleteI probably would have gotten Beckett again had I not arrived an hour late to BP.
DeleteOnly reason I got Uribe was back in 2011 I got to take in BP on the field and he was there. Other than that I totally agree. You cant get him. And Zach is the hardest. I missed Ryu by the bullpen. Ugh. If you get a moment take a gander at my blog. DodgerPenguin. Trying for some Angels this Sat at Anaheim
DeleteGlad to see you get that sweet throwback jersey signed! See you tomorrow! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Kyle. I can't wait til Opening Day
DeleteI'm always in awe of your success. Great job Dave!
ReplyDeleteThanks Josh. Most of it is all luck in the autographing game.
Deletedo you know of any free autograph signings on weekends coming up soon
ReplyDeleteNope not that I know of. I haven't gone to a free signing in a long time. I hate waiting in long lines for hours and hours so I stopped going to free signings.
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