SoCal Autograph Odysses

One of the main questions on many people's mind when I tell them that one of my hobbies is collecting sports memorabilia is why on earth I would want someone's signature.  The plain truth of the matter is, I really don't know other than to me it's pretty awesome to have as big a collection as I do, filled with all types of stories regarding how I obtain certain items.  The interaction you have with the some of the best players in their respective sports is something you take with you, as opposed to say only a baseball with a guy's signature on it.  In other words, it's about the story behind it as much as it is about the item itself.  For example, this past April I attended a signing show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, where I got to meet all types of Hall of Famers (Carlton Fisk, Johnny Bench, Frank Robinson, Chris Mullin, etc.).  While getting Fisk to sign a ball I happened to be wearing a Los Angeles Kings hat, which happens to be my all time f...

I suppose I should preface this post with the admission that unlike many of the "hardcore" autograph hounds, I really only try to collect maybe once every two weeks during the baseball season.  I realize that many people go pregame, to batting practice, and post game for every single home game of the season.  Frankly, I have neither the time nor patience to try that often, so I try to cherry pick certain teams and/or players.  As such, there will be gaps in between my posts that I am going to try and fill with my opinions on the hobby.  The first pet peeve I have is with the grown men that get all bent out of shape when kids "get in the way" of them obtaining a player's autograph.  This happened just the other day at the Astros game I mentioned in my last post when kids kept throwing stuff down from above the dugout for JD Martinez to sign, and he politely requested that they make eye contact first.  Kids being kids, they didn't heed JD's r...

As an aside, let me first say that this was the first attempt my friend Lawrence and I have made to get autographs prior to BP at a Padres game at Petco Park.  We have been collecting autographs at Petco Park both during BP and post games since Petco's inception in 2004.  After trying our luck against the Astros both during BP and post game on 7/16/12 and coming away with only a Bud Norris signed Topps 2012 card, we decided to get the Rockies coming into the ballpark for the first game of a weekend series.  We had been given the good tip by fellow collectors, and it proved a lucrative decision. We arrived at approx. 12:15, and waited on the corner across from the Omni Hotel, adjacent to Petco Park, and right up against the parking structue, which enabled us to have a view of any player/coach coming from any one of three ways.  The first player we spotted was Jeremy Guthrie, who oddly enough had been traded the night before to the KC Royals and was cleaning ...