SoCal Autograph Odysses

It has been a long while since I posted one of these random pieces entries, so as I was going through some of my stuff I decided I'd write a post about some random autographed baseballs I've collected over the years.  The first is a ball Mike Lowell signed for me while still a member of the (at that time) Florida Marlins.  This was on a new baseball and I believe it was the inaugural season of Petco Park in 2004 when he signed it. The second item I wanted to share is a ball signed by David Wells that he signed the first year the Padres played at Petco Park as well.  The story behind it is pretty cool.  Both David and Trevor Hoffman were playing wiffle ball with kids at the little diamond they have at Petco prior to a game later that evening.  Those who have been to the ballpark are familiar with this little diamond.  It was great to see two all star caliber players taking the time to mingle with impressionable young fans.  Wells was pitching and Hof...

This year the company I work for had our holiday party at Petco Park, in the Western Metal Building.  Petco Park is the ballpark in which the Padres play.  In keeping with the ballpark theme, many of the raffle prizes ended up being sports memorabilia.  Out of the 400 or so employees working in my building, I doubt any cared for the prizes as much as I did.  Anyway, I ended up having my ticket pulled for a game used broken bat signed by Chase Headley.  Now, I've never once collected a signed bat, nor would Chase Headley be my first option of players to choose from.  However, this item is actually quite cool.  The fact that it was game used and broken during an at bat in a regular season game just adds to the neat factor.  It is authenticated by MLB as well. 

Obviously, one of the things I like collecting most are baseballs signed by MLB Hall of Famers.  At last count, I had 28 such signed balls, and with the induction of Ken Griffey Jr. into the Hall that number is now 29.  To rehash this story, this is one of the very first signatures I ever obtained and I got it as a kid at Qualcomm Stadium, the former home of the San Diego Padres.  All I remember was that it was one of the first interleague games ever, and that I was hanging over the Mariners dugout.  This is on one of the old AL only major league baseballs that were used before MLB went to one uniform ball. The fact that the ball is in such good condition and I never played catch with it or anything is astounding to me, because kids don't know any better.  I had no idea how rare it was to get him to sign, I had no idea I was lucky to get him on the sweet spot, nothing.  Now, he is in the Hall of Fame and pretty much the first signature I ever remember...

As some may recall, I posted photos of an autographed TOOL concert poster previously from a concert back in March of 2014.  One of the coolest and most unique aspects of TOOL artwork is that much of it is done by guitarist Adam Jones.  What makes finding the signed versions of these tour posters even more difficult is the fact that getting tickets to the concerts themselves is hard.  When tickets went on sale for this event at Viejas Arena on the SDSU campus, tickets were literally gone within seconds.  The demand was so high that the band even set up a second date for next day (today, coincidentally) and those tickets were gobbled up just as quickly.  Also, the band will only sign a couple hundred posters at most, which means you have to go straight to the merchandise tent and hope they still have them.  One more very cool thing about these posters is that each one is different for the specific city they are playing in.  Since I went to the concert la...

As anyone who has either read my blog or actually is into this hobby can attest, the winter months can be an especially slow time for collecting signatures, especially when the main sport you collect is baseball.  There are major memorabilia shows going on nationally here and there, but those are expensive and very time consuming.  The one area where you can add a piece or two is by looking for good Black Friday or holiday deals from reputable companies.  I took advantage of one such deal by adding Brooks Robinson to my Hall of Fame baseball collection.     I had heard through the grapevine, or to be honest another guy's blog, that Target had some autographed baseballs for sale in which you buy a box and it has a random signature in it.  It was run by Leaf.  While at Target buying other things, I remembered I had read about this and decided to give it a shot and purchase one.  I pulled a Boog Powell with 4x All-star inscription....