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A WEEK OF WINTER BASEBALL
For a little over a week this winter it
was time to feed my autograph obsession. It started on Thursday,
January 16th with the Cub Caravan rolling into Peoria. We were lucky
to get tickets; the 500 allocated sold out in 2 days. I'm sure that
Matt Clement was the main attraction, but at the last minute both he
and Alan Benes were scratched and substituted with newly acquired
hurler Shawn Estes and broadcaster Dave Otto. Also appearing with
them were Mike Remlinger, Joe Borowski, broadcaster Chip Carey and
pitching coach Larry Rothschild whom I was especially glad to get
since I'd never had success with him by mail. Of course the gist of
the fan session was that the Cubs are going to be winners this year,
but that's easy to say during the winter hype-fest. It's doubtful
that anyone living has actual visual memories of the last Chicago Cub
World Championship. Maybe this year, Huh guys?
Friday the 17th was the Burlington Bees
Winter Fundraiser with Frank White coming to Burlington from the
Royals front office to be the featured speaker. He did a superb job,
and he was kind enough to sign a jersey card for me. A lot of
impressive items were up for both silent and live auctions. I thought
that the steal of the night was an uncut baseball card sheet signed by
the 2002 Iowa Cubs. It included 2 Mark Prior cards, both autographed,
and went for $110. The biggest bidding war was for a road jersey, a
bat and an 8x10 showing Frank White standing next to the 8 Gold Gloves
that he earned during his career. All three of the items were
signed. To my amazement the items went for a whopping $700! A football signed by the 2002 Packer team
wnt for $250 dollars. I won 3 bids, all silent auction. I picked up
an Adam Dunn bobblehead in his Dayton uniform for $20, a Shin-Soo Choo
bobble in a Rattlers uniform for $26 and a merchandise package which
incleded 3 hats, a Timber Rattlers T-Shirt and a Battle Cats card set
for $25. I also carried off a Bees mascot "Buzz" bobblehead as a
table door prize. The Bees put together a great program, and we had
alot of fun.
Monday night was the Cardinal Caravan.
Their lineup consisted of Miguel Cairo, Joe Cunningham Sr., Mike
Crudale, Danny Cox, Eduardo Perez, Ken Reitz, Eli Marrero, and Wayne
Hagin, their replacement for Jack Buck. A very good lineup. At the
last minute Eduardo Perez was scratch because he had to go home to
present at the birth of his child, and Ken Reitz didn't wait around in
the autograph line. Still it was a better lineup than the Cub Caravan
offered. I even laminated 3 nice pictures of Wayne Hagin from the
newest issue of the St. Louis Cardinal Magazine and he signed them
all. By this time my wife Nancy was probably a
bit tired of autograph lines. The best one was yet to come, though,
the annual Iowa Cub's FanFest on Saturday the 25th. It was scheduled
for 2 days, but I couldn't really justify missing a day's work to go
autographing on Friday. Still, Saturday had Ernie Banks, Lee Smith
and Gaylord Perry as featured autograph guests and also brought in
central Iowa ballplayers such as Nate Teut, Todd Sears, Shawn Sedlacek
and Wes Obermueller, Negro League player "Schoolboy" Johnson, and the
Iowa Cubs coaching staff which consisted of Manager Mike Quade,
Hitting Coach Pat Listach, and Pitching Coach Jerry Reuss. The
headliners limited you to 1 autograph per admission ticket, but the
rest of the group would sign 2-4 cards at a crack as many times as you
wanted to stand in line. I made it home with 80 signed items for my
collection plus cards friends had sent me to get signed for them. One
of the more interesting items I brought home was an 8x10 of the brawl
that ensued after the controversial "Pine Tar" decision. Tim
McClellan, the umpire that made the ruling, was at the show and he
signed it for me. Now I've got to get a few more signatures on it. I
see George Brett in the picture of course, and Johnny Wathen as well.
Not a bad week at all. Now I'm busying myself writing requests to
send out for spring training.
ANYONE UP FOR SOME TRADING?
I've finished the season with some
duplicate items that I'd like to trade for items I can use. The Bees
"Buzz" Bobblehead I'd gladly trade for a MWL bobblehead I need. I
could use Mark Grace/Peoria, Snappy or Don Money/Beloit, Brandon Inge/West
Michigan or Dinger/Dayton.
I also have signed sets to trade. Beloit
with 24 signed including Brad Nelson and Mike Jones, Peoria with 21
signed including Shaun Boyd and Justin Pope, Cedar Rapids with 27
signed including Dallas MacPherson and Jeff Mathis, Wisconsing with 19
signed including Shin-Soo Choo, West Michigan with 18 signed including
Matt Coenen and Chad Petty and Fort Wayne with 19 signed including
Greg Sain and Josh Barfield. I also have unsigned sets to trade,
including 2002 Cedar Rapids, Wisconsin, Michigan and Quad Cities, the
2002 Elizabethton 10 card Joe Mauer set, and a 1995 Burlington Bees
set with Paul Molitor. If interested e-mail me at
dnhanson@maplecity.com.
Well, I had fun this past week. Hope you
have fun with the hobby too. I sure do.
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