I was lucky enough to have the ultimate birthday for a baseball fan – the All Star Game/Festivities were in town for my 30th B-day. I was able to attend most of the festivities, along with a few extra events.
St. Louis went all out – even the street thugs put the violence on hold while we were on the national stage.
Friday started with the Fan Fest and it ran through Tuesday. Sunday was the first All Star Marathon, a 5k run that raised money for cancer, and the Futures Game, an all star game of the top prospects in baseball. Monday was the Home Run Derby, which was the only event I didn’t make it to. Tuesday was the All Star Parade and the game itself. There were also various autograph signings through out the city – some free and some pretty expensive.
On Sunday, I went to the Futures Game. I was a little disappointed after the fact that that I didn’t go down for the marathon – not to run, but to get autographs. Apparently Brooks Robinson was down there for it.
As for the Futures Game, it was a great experience before the rain. We got there shortly before the gates opened and took up a position on the USA Team side of the fields. Most players were very approachable for autographs – very few were jerks about signing. Some players did have their own sharpies to sign everything, which was disappointing because my team ball have sharpie and ballpoint pen on it. After most USA players signed, we went over to the World side, since the players just started to come onto the field. By the time we got their, most World players were being told it was time to go – go over to where we were to sign for the other side. We notice that the USA players were coming over to were we moved to. We ran back to where we started to get the World guys. Shortly after, we went to our seats and the game was about to start.
We saw 3 outs before the rain moved in. I was very impressed with some of the players during the rain delay. Some of the USA pitchers were signing in the bullpen and Tyson Gillies of the Mariners signed in the rain for almost 2 hours at the World dugout (it got to the point that a fan bought him a poncho to wear to keep dry). Danny Duffy of the Royals was also a trooper; he was talking to his mom about the weather when I approached him for an autograph. A bunch of kids saw me approach him and swarmed around us. He asked if it was OK if he signed for me after the game, to which I replied that was fine. About 5 minutes later, he popped his head out of the dugout and motioned for me to go down to the side of it. He said that he felt bad about not signing and said that he’d either get wet in the dugout or get wet signing autos. It was a class move on his part – he was out there for at least an hour after that. After waiting 4.5 hours, we came to a tough decision – do we stay, or do we leave to go to a private signing with Reggie Jackson. We decided that the Jackson signing was a better shot at that point as we didn’t think that the rain was going to stop for the game to re-start (which we were wrong).
The Jackson signing was an event on itself. It was at our Harrah’s and was an invite only event (my father-in-law is a high roller there). There was free food and drinks. Jackson showed up a half an hour late and decided he was going to give a half an hour speech. He was entertaining and I thought everything I’d heard about him was wrong. That wasn’t the case. After his speech, he went over by the bar and began signing autographs — not to the table that was set up for him. He was very grumpy and unaccomadating. I was there with 3 buddies, 2 of whom also collect autographs. The first one had 2 baseballs for Jackson to sign. Jackson used his standard Sharpie on the first one; my friend asked him to sign the second one in ballpoint pen. You would have thought my friend asked if he could have 10 minutes with his wife. He threw down the sharpie and grabbed the ballpoint from him. I was next and I had a photo and a baseball; I wanted the photo in sharpie, but you would have thought it was the end of the world when I requested the baseball in pen and for him to put his HOF year. I still have nightmares about the look I got. Friend #2 had 2 baseballs, requested pen, HOF year, and the inscription “Mr. October”. His request was fulfilled, but again Jackson wasn’t very happy. The final friend (the non-collector) didn’t ask for anything specific because he didn’t care a lot, but also saw the reactions we were getting. Normally I wouldn’t care about something like this, but it’s a public signing that Jackson agreed to and he dropped in his speech that we was being paid $250,000 to be there. That should be enough to fake a smile and to act like it’s not the end of the world to add an inscription.
Autos for the Day (20):
USA Team Ball – Madison Bumgarner, Chris Carter, Kyle Drabek, Danny Duffy, Tyler Flowers, Jason Heyward, Desmond Jennings, Mat Latos, Brad Lincoln, Michael Stanton, Brett Wallace (ROMLB)
World Team Ball – Wilmer Flores, Tyson Gillies, Jesus Montero, Francisco Samuel (ROMLB)
Madison Bumgarner (ROMLB)
Reggie Jackson (ROMLB, 8×10 Print)
Dayan Viciedo (ROMLB)
Brett Wallace (ROMLB)
