Saturday, June 27, 2009 I went with my dad, mom and brother to the New Britain Rockcats’ game. It turned out to be a record setting attendance at this beautiful ball park. We arrived at 2pm and left at 9:45pm. I got a lot of autographs and had a ton of fun.
We arrived at the stadium and got the Rockcats coming in. I started off getting Matt Fox to do all 5 cards. Then I got Kyle Wadrop. He is a good prospect, a 2007 first rounder. He had just been called up to the team so all I had for him was a 4×6, ugh. He was really nice and asked me and my brother how we were doing. He apologized for not being able to sign my brothers’ blanks. He signed the 4×6 and included a sweet inscription: 1st rd, 25 overall. It came out sweet so I was happy with that.
Matt Fox, Juan Portes and Matt Moses Signed Cards:
Kyle Waldrop signed 4×6
Up close of this SWEET inscription
I got Juan Portes walking in to the stadium. I chatted with him for a while on how he plays with the DWL team, Las Aguilas. He told me he was injured last year so he did not play. He was nice enough to sign a blank for my bro and a ’06 Bowman card for me. Then comes Matt Moses. I know the dude is tough so I gave him a lot of space and time to do his thing. Now normally a players’ “thing” was to kiss his girlfriend/wife or whatever but this was different. Mr. Moses WAVES to his wife and proceeds to kiss and lick his dogs for a solid 3 or 4 minutes. Gross. He does a blank for my brother and I nicely ask if he can do a second. He says sure no problem and decides to sign one. What? It is cool because I am still grateful to him that he signed and I finished him up later. You can see pictures of signed cards of both players above (the same photo as the signed Fox cards). Just as we finished with him, another two cars pulled in. One I was told was Anthony Slama by a park employee, but as I was getting him on a blank the guy said he was kidding and the player really was Ryan Mullins. Thanks a lot, funny. So Muilins who was a REALLY cool dude signed 5 cards for me.
He has a really nice looking autograph and here it is:
He was extremely impressed that I knew that he was a 3rd round 105 overall pick. I knew this because I made a quick cheat sheet before the game which I use as a roster. They contains interesting facts about each player that not many people know. It helped me get some sweet inscriptions.
Here are picks of the cheat sheet:
A close up so you can read some of the facts:
In the other car comes out three hispanics. The first two were Yancarlos Ortiz and Jose Lugo. Did I have cards for them? Nah. It was okay because the other guy was reliever Yohan Pino. He was a really nice guy and I talked to him about playing winter ball in Venezuela. He was nice enough to do 5 cards for me and AGAIN a blank for my brother.
He had an AMAZING signature: Here are scans
The blank:
Next came Brandon Roberts. I had four 2007 Bowman Chromes for him. I pulled them out and he said “That is not me!” Whatever..too bad. Dinkleman and Gardenhire then came in and each did a nice custom card for me. I had the Topps turkey red and they were really nice guys. Gardenhire waited for Dinkleman to sign. I appreciated that and so did my brother.
I had done well for 45 minutes of work and put a nice dent in what I brought. I had not gotten Wilson Ramos who was my main target on the Rockcats but I had hopes on getting him inside the stadium. I realized after talking to Yancarlos Ortiz that not many others were left. I decided to head with my family to the Defenders side. We started to eat from our cooler lunch that we brought and have a catch in the parking lot, but when that got into full force a Peter Pan bus comes up and we frantically rushed to get our stuff ready. Their was only one person there plus my crew of four. We waited for Bumgarner. He was one of the last off the bus and he was nice. Did not talk much but did a 8×10 for my brother, 2 11×14′s for my dad, 1 card for me, 1 card for my mom . Here are a few photos with Bumgarner.
They came out like this!
He he is signing for me
:
Notice how my dad (the TALL one) was more ripped than Madison? LOL. As you can see in the photo when Bumgarner is signing I am looking the other way. I look and see Henry Sosa. Sosa played in the 2007 Futures Game. I had about 80 cards for him when I went to see him in the DWL but he never showed at the stadium. He was really nice and did a page of 15 cards. He told me he would get the rest later. He did four 8×10′s for my dad and one 8×10 for my brother as well. NOTE: MY MOM AND DAD GOT STUFF SIGNED FOR ME WHILE MY BROTHER GOT SOME STUFF SIGNED FOR ME AND THE REST FOR HIMSELF. He are some nice pictures with Sosa.
The bus was dropped off and I went inside the stadium (some doors where open) to look for players walking around. I saw Antoan Richardson who was nice but I did not need. I did see Jesse English. He, Joaquin, and Sosa are the three Defenders on the 40-man. English signed 3 photos (4×6′s) for me and inscribed 6th round, 187th overall.
I went back to the snoop around the locker and saw Bumgarner. I ran back to get the photos and as we went to approach him he walked inside. Bummer. I then walked down to the stands to try to get more Defenders. SWEET!!! I got in way before an hour and a half before the game (which was advertised). My family and I parked in the front row to get more Defenders. I met nan2108 from sportsgraphing.com who was a really nice guy. Nice meeting you man. Thanks for pointing players/coaches out. At this point some players had gone out to practice, some were returning from the field and some were going out to the field. Mike Mooney and Eddy Esteve Martinez walked out. Mooney did a nice custom for me and Martinez nicely said he would get me later. They both informed me that Williams and McBrye were not there which I did not know.
Then Tim Alderson walked out and did four 8×10′s for me.
I had plans to get the 4×6′s and cards for him later. My brother got him on a blank. Sharlon Schoop came out and talked to me for a while. We talked about where he was from and were I was from and he was impressed that I spoke Spanish but in reality it was definitely not as cool that he could speak Spanish, English and Dutch. I asked him if by any chance he could hook me up with a pair of batting gloves or a bat. He said sure and talk to me during the game. He did sign 2 blanks and two 4×6′s for me. Then Madison comes back from warming up. He does two 8×10′s for my dad, two cards for me, two cards for my mom, two 8×10′s and a OMLB for my brother. Nan2108 also racked him. At first I asked him to do a second card but he did as he said he was supposed to only do one. Note and tip to others: He seems to do 1 per for cards and multiples on photos. Multiples be two but some how my brother got three. Props to him. Adam Witter walked back but I had nothing for him. Then Alderson comes back. My brother wanted him on a ROMLB but he did not have a pen so he did not get him. Alderson did about 10 4×6′s and 9 cards for me. He was really nice and I truly appreciate him signing.
My man Henry Sosa then comes out and he did not know what hit him! He signed 60 cards for me giving me a total of 75 signed cards of his. I gave him three 4×6′s, one 8×10 and 3 cards for his German girlfriend. It was amazing seeing him TAKE HIS TIME on every single card and I really, really appreciated it and it meant I lot to me. I talked to him the entire time.
Believe or not I still would end up getting more than a dozen more autographs of his. Brandon Crawford who I missed walking in from warm-ups comes out with Snyder. Snyder did a custom for me and Crawford did 9 cards. I asked him about the draft and if that was where he thought he was going to be drafted. He said not really and I said that was what I thought because I thought was he going to be a 1st or 2nd round pick. I then said that none of that matters when he makes the majors and that teams will have wished they changed the 106 picks made before his name was called. He liked that. He then told everyone he had to warm-up.
Sosa came back and I asked him if he could possibly do a FEW photos and he said after he returned. Meanwhile I got Pill, Bond and Tyler LaTorre who all signed inscriptions of what round and overall pick they where. I love when players do inscriptions. Within the next 5-10 minutes I got all three of their coaches. First of I got Garey Ingram to sign 4 cards (I misplaced one by accident so it got unsigned) and I gave him one. I threw out his MLB debut date and asked him if that was the best day of his life and he looked up, smiled and said yes, why it is.
I then called over Decker. He was a big league catcher with the Marlins. Just like Ingram I threw out his MLB Debut but his response was that it was not, baseball is just a game and that the best day of his life was when his kids were born. Wow, he seemed like a REALLY nice guy and he asked me if I was out of school yet and he told me he had a 15 year and 16 year old son. I then called over Grimsley and I asked him again the same question. He asked if that was his MLB DEBUT date I said yes and he said wow I did not know the exact date. That is amazing that he is truly one of those guys who doesn’t follow numbers or dates or anything like that. He is just a fan of the game. When players on TV say numbers don’t matter I really thought that was not the truth but I think now that maybe it is real. I thought that the three different response from the three coaches were very nice and unique.
In between me asking for coaches I had a conversation with Twins top prospect Wilson Ramos. The Twins system have often got it right with their farm system players (Ortiz, Cuddyer, Mauer, Morneau) so I did not miss out on a player that I thought was a future star. He told me to meet him on the other side. So after waiting for him to finish hitting (he put on a show) he met me on the side and did about 8 cards. He said he would do the rest.
I was happy to have him but it was not enough as I did have 20 cards and photos for him. My brother wanted him on a ROMLB. At this point once we got Ramos I want back over to the other side to get some other Defenders. I got Dan Otero to sign a few items for me. He had a pretty bad signature for a minor leaguer (wonder what is will look like if he reaches the bigs?) but he was okay personality wise and still signed. I called Sosa over and he did the photos for me which where a few 8×10′s and at least eight 4×6′s.
I then called Crawford back over. I handed him a stack of around 20 4×6′s and sincerely asked if he wanted any. He said no but he proceeded to sign ALL my photos. Nice guy and I wish all the best to him (after today I do for everyone but MAYBE Carlos Gutierrez). Before I could ask him to do my four 8×10′s he took off.
I felt bad asking him for the third time (he previously did cards and photos) but I did and he grinned. I think it amused him. He nicely signed all four photos and they looked really really nice. They will be framed in my basement if I can find room to put it. That was it. I was basically done with the team of Connecticut, the Defenders. I really could not complain. Bumgarner signed when asked, and everyone else did everything. I honestly do not expect someone like Madison to sign everything because so many people go for him. I was really impressed by how nice everyone on the team was. I debated on staying for Bumgarner or trying to get the Rockcats or the rest of the team. I went for the Rockcats because I figured I would get Bumgarner post game. Good move. Let’s just say it worked out. When I got to the Rockcats dugout no one was in there because they had just gotten off the field. I did get a ball thrown up to me by a security guard. Cool. Even better it was a game used ROMLB, not an Eastern League ball.
I waited for about 5 minutes and meanwhile I traded some girl one 8×10 of Rene Tosoni and Alex Burnett for a card of Burnett and three 4×6′s of Ramos. The first guy to come was Floyd Rayford. I hear he likes to fool around with autographers but was nice, but I did not have this EXACT experience. I asked him and he said signing was for players. I said but you were a player Floyd. He did NOT acknowledge me. I got my brother to call him and he did it in a very high voice so he sounded younger than he was. It worked. He did 3 out of 4.
I called Tom Nieto but got denied. I could understand because he looked extremely busy. I got Stu Cliburn to do my lone card of his and he has a nice autograph portraying his whole name. Next came out Rene Tosoni. Firstly he did a card of mine. I also got the 8×10″ the girl traded me signed. I asked for him to inscribe 2009 Futures Game. He said you do it but I said please and sincerely begged 3-4 times. He wouldn’t do it. It”s cool. He still signed and you win some and lose some. Don’t worry I would go one to win more.
I got Moses to do one more card for me. It is good because he did not see my face. If he did I do not think he would of done it. I got two Australians Allan De San Miguel and recent call up Dan Berg to sign cards for me. Allan and I chatted about Double-A Australian catcher Michael Collins as he was about that only other Australian catcher I know of . I talked with Berg about playing the WBC and his teammate Craig Anderson. Both were really nice guys. Frank Mata came over and signed 5 cards for me. He and Pino have the two nicest signatures on the team. Both are beautiful and I appreciate them taking so much times to sign. Engel Beltre could probably sign 15 cards (not an exaggeration) before either of these guys did one. Jay Rainville another former first rounder also came over and signed 2 cards and I forgot I had two other on the other page to get signed. I do not think he would of signed the other two but it’s ok.
I got one more player to sign there but he was THE GUY I was looking for: Wilson Ramos. I did give him an 8×10 but Wilson took care of me signing three 8×10′s, 18 cards, and a omlb for my brother. Thanks a lot Wilson, its great that you signed everything for me. I did have about four or five 4×6′s but he was in a rush, he was catching and I did not want to push him.
I ran back over to the Defenders side. By this time we had around 15 minutes before the game and I realized I needed one more Defender (other than Bumgarner on some cards) Eddy Esteve Martinez. A long time ago the Giants drafted him and he was supposed to be a MLB star until he had a injury a few seasons ago and he has yet to come back the same. I had heard horror stories about this player being an awful signer. Remember when I asked him and he said I will get you later? He will he kept his word and signed 2 cards for me. I will pretty stoked because I thought he normally signed 1 per person. I am always proud when I can get a player to break their signing habits for me. That was it for me pre-game but I was not done. I had opportunities during the game getting players while charting. I went down the first time to talk to my boy Henry Sosa for about 10 minutes about baseball. It was pretty cool because the seating was like this: Sosa, me, Alderson. I was inbetween to great pitching prospects. I did not need either one of them because they had signed for me but I did not have one of the players below. His name was Carlos Gutierrez. I went down and asked him to sign. He was a Gator and a 37th overall pick and I ask him to inscribe Go Gators and 1st rd , 37th overall pick. He said not a chance and I am not going to sign all of these. Carlos, you were not even charting. It was in between innings and I had four cards! Come on dude. He did two purposely smudging one and not signing the other two. Okay. That was not nice. I do not mind having a player not signing because they are busy but being flat out rude when you have nothing to do? At Double-A, come on!
I did get my mom to go and get him to sign the last two. I was happy because they were dual cards of him and Blake Tekotte and him and Dennis Raben. They were both #’ed out of 1500. Apparently he was very nice to my mom.
Notice the difference in the autograph from the card Carlos signed for me and for me mom. Wow.
I went back to Sosa after returning from my seats (I waited for my mom to get Carlos) and I got him to sign an official DWL ball which he SS and inscribed 2007 Future Game. Cool. Then the security called me up and told me that I can’t do this and I said well I know this guy and he would not have any of it.
An OFFICIAL Dominican Winter League Ball:
I sat down and watched baseball. Cole Devries pitched decently giving up a shot to Brett Pill. The Defenders right fielder made a great catch at the wall, but the Rockcats answered by their own right fielder gunning a runner at the wall. Juan Portes reached the warning track twice and Jesse English threw 6 scoreless giving up three hits. After watching a bit I went down to talk to Sharlon Schoop. I reminded him about the bat/gloves and he said after the game. I then tried something I had not done before. I snuck into a restricted area where a group was having a private picnic. Next to them was the bullpen. I called over Alex Burnett to sign after sneaking into the picnic and he said he could not sign during the game but he would after the game. It’s fine, rules are rules. The next inning when I was in my seats I had gotten a ball but my brother had not. I was trying hard to get him a ball. So at the end of the inning Brett Pill the first baseman comes running in and throws me a ball. It is sailing right into my hands when a man who is in his mid 40′s reaches right in front of me and makes the grab. I nicely ask for it and everyone else yells at him to give me the ball. He did not acknowledge me or anyone. It was not a big deal because that is probably proudly displaced in his room in his moms basement with his 11th out of 12th place trophies. But ya know what, it is okay because I will be the bigger man. I did end up getting him a ball. Remember how security said I could not go down? So I got my mom again (THANKS!) to get me Tim Alderson. He did 5/5 baseballs. 2 ROMLB’s, 1 GU ROMLB’s. 1 GU ILB, 1 GU ELB. He inscribed 22nd pick on 4 of the 5 balls. Alderson is a nice guy who I never saw say no.
I do not like his graph though. I went down for a final time in the 8th inning to try to get Matt Fox but I was denied. I did however talk to Sosa for the last time and we exchanged numbers. Sweet. The game ended in a 1-2-3 inning and I struggled down in the stands to find a spot by the dugout to get Schoop’s attention. He came right over and said give me a second and take a ball for now. He flipped one up, another big league ball (for my brother) and started asking around for a bat. 4 minutes later he came back saying he could not find anything but would continue to look. Just when I thought he had left he found a bat. It was a slightly cracked Eddy Esteve-Martinez bat. Nice! I gave big thank you.
I ran out post game to get Martinez on the bat and Bumgarner on cards. Martinez came out first and nicely did the bat. He would not inscribe game used. I talked with Schoop about the Netherlands team he was on and the players he played with. He told me it was great experience and I told him he made my dad an unhappy man (I told him he is Dominican)! Schoop took a photo with me and here it is below.
A minute later English came out and I took a photo with him. I congratulated him on the win and pitching performance (Connecticut won 3-0). Check out that shirt he is wearing!
At 9:25 my dad says we have to go in 5 minutes. My mom goes to get the car. At 9:30 I say one minute and literally after 1 minute he came out. He did 1 card for my dad, 1 for my brother and 1 for me. Since so many people were their for him I had time to get more. I found three nice people who where not getting items signed to help me out. One of them I believe was Brandon Crawford’s girlfriend. I got caught by Bumgarner but I ended up with three more of his out making a total of 17 Bumgarners for the day. Just as we were going to leave I saw Crawford and I go to get a photo with him.
All in all I had a great day with the help and patience of my mom, dad and brother! I DID AMAZING, and had a blast. Thanks for reading.
My Final Results:
Connecticut Defenders
Steve Decker: 4/4
Garey Ingram: 4/5
Ross Grimsley: 3/3
Tim Alderson: 9/9, 10/10 4 x 6′s, 4 8 x 10′s, 5/5 Baseballs
Madison Bumgarners: 10/15, 2/2 11 x 14′s, 5/5 8 x 10′s
Jesse English: 2/3 4×6′s
Waldis Joaquin: 2/2 4×6′s
Brooks McNiven: 2//2
Mike Musgrave: 1/1
Dan Otero: 2/2
Ben Snyder: 2/2
Henry Sosa: 76/76, 10/10 4×6′s, 4 8×10′s
Tyler LaTorre: 1/1
Jackson Williams: SICK
Brock Bond: 1/1
Brandon Crawford: 10/10, 20/20 4×6′s, 4 8×10′s
Brett Pill: 1/1
Sharlon Schoop: 4/4
Bobby Felmy: 1/1
Eddy Martinez: 2/2, 1/1 GU Bat
Mike McBryde: SICK
Mike Mooney: 1/1
SAW BUT DID NOT NEED:
Ramon Castro
Adam Witter
Brad Boyer
Joe Paterson
Matt Yourkin
Daryl Maday
Dan Griffin
New Britain Rockcats:
Totals:
Allan de San Miguel: 1/1
Dan Berg: 1/1
Brian Dinkleman: 1/1
Toby Gardenhire: 1/1
Whitney Robbins: MISSED
Erik Lis: MISSED
Juan Portes: 1/1
Rene Tosoni: 1/1, 1/1 8×10
Matt Moses: 2/2
Cole Devries: MISSED
Carlos Gutierrez: 4/4, 0/4 4×6′s
Ryan Mullins: 6/6
Matt Fox: 4/5
Alex Burnett: MISSED
Kyle Waldrop: 1/1, 1/1 4×6
Frank Mata: 5/5
Jay Rainville: 2/4 (MY MISTAKE)
Yohan Pino: 6/6
Stu Cilburn: 1/1
Floyd Rayford: ¾
Tom Nieto: MISSED
Wilson Ramos: 26/26, 1/1 OMLB, 4/4 8×10
Mascot: 1/1
TOTAL # of AUTOGRAPHS: 273
MISSED OUT ON:
Conneticut Defenders:
- Garey Ingram – MY FAULT
- Madison Bumgarner
New Britain Rockcats
- Wilson Ramos 4×6′s
- Tom Nieto
- Floyd Rayford
- Jay Rainville
- Alex Burnett
- Cole Devrie
- Erik Lis
As I had mentioned before I did not have much for this team: I did have 2 cards for Felix and an 8×10. I had not gotten him before so he was my goal, the reason why I went in today. 20 minutes after Carp signed for me Felix came out. By that time there were six graphers. I got Felix to sign the 8×10 for me nicely, and one of the other graphers Cliff got an Allen & Ginter signed for me. Thanks Cliff! Felix was nice and I was really happy to get him. My day was complete: I had gotten what I had arrived for.
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When it got dark and crowded I spotted Roy Halladay I ran up to him just before he was going to enter the hotel and he said “not right now.” Now don’t get me wrong I was disappointed because I understood because…
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