Tour Time Part Four

The last part of my self indulgent tour is here.  This is the remaining product that I have displayed in my house.  This part of my man cave is immediately opposite the wall I did as part of Part 3.  This is where most of my elite NBA player stuff is.  

The Jerry West was signed at a public signing he did a few years ago up in Ontario, California.  He was nice to talk to and was inquisitive of my shirt I was wearing that day.  Scroll around in this blog and find that story.  He put HOF for both a player and an executive on this piece.  Below that is a Leveon Bell signed photo from TSE Sports.

Both of these items were obtained in person at public signing events as well.  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was grumpy and didn't talk much, that post is in this blog.  Eric Dickerson was a public signing run through the OC Dugout which is a company I really enjoy going to for public signings and private signings alike.  My Mike Trout stuff has mostly been ordered through them via his private signings with MLAM.  I also ordered a private signing Clayton Kershaw ball from them in 2012 that was through a Tristar show in Houston.  Both of the photos above have HOF inscribed.

The Dr. J Julius Irving photo was signed at a public signing run through Honabach and Sons and hosted at Frank and Sons warehouse in LA.  I met Dr. J and Shaq on that same day.  The Patrick Peterson photo below was signed in person at a celebrity golf tournament held here on San Diego county.

Here is the Shaq signed photo I received at the signing I mentioned above.  It was really awesome to meet Shaq in person.  He is an immense human in both size and stature.  Below is a Miguel Cabrera signed Marlins World Series photo authenticated by MLB.  

On a little side wall I managed to find a place for yet another NBA all of famer obtained in person at a signing, and another hosted through OC Dugout.  Gary Payton inscribed with "The Glove".  Usually I would have HOF as the inscription but at the time I got Gary to sign the photo he was not yet in the hall. 

The second thing on this wall is a piece of a baseball from the inaugural game at Petco Park.  The photo is David Wells to Ray Durham of the Giants for the first ever pitch there. I've had season tickets off and on at this ballpark and absolutely love it.  I am a Padres fan if you haven't been able to tell in the past. 

Immediately to the left of the basketball wall is this second case of signed baseballs I have in display.  The first case you saw was a case full of Hall of Famers, whereas this case is my case of award winners.  Eventually this case will also be filled with Hall of Famers as I start to add more of them to my collection. Maybe you will recognize some of the balls in this case.  Many of them have stories posted about on this very blog.  Above the case is a signed photo of Kings future hall of famer drew Doughty, who is shown scoring a huge goal in the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals.  

To the left of this case, above the sliding glass door out to my balcony, is the Mike Trout bat I purchased a couple of months ago directly from the Mike Trout exclusive memorabilia company Major League Alumni Marketing.  Every Trout sit down signing is arranged through these guys.  Incidentally he just had another signing mid last week, but I didn't add anything else to that tally.  

Finally, as you walk down the stairs at my house, you will run into three more items.

The first thing is my ode to Mr. Padre, my all time favorite athlete, Tony Gwynn.  Every item I have of Tony's was signed in person, mostly at a car dealership down here in San Diego.  The photo though was signed as part of an event in which I won in Little League a chance to go down onto the field and meet Tony after a game at Qualcomm Stadium.  I was 12 years old, so that photo is 25 years old and one of my first ever signed pieces of sports memorabilia.  I took my brother's so I actually have two now.

The LaDainian Tomlinson photo was signed in person at a signing in Mission Valley at Field of Dreams, which used to have a location in Mission Valley.  I regret not paying the extra for the MVP inscription that he'd won right before that.

Lastly, we have a montage of my favorite team, the LA Kings Stanley Cup winning 2012 team.  This was their first ever Cup in team history so means a lot to me personally.  The fact that it's number 1 of 300 is kind of a cool touch.

And thus concludes the tour of all my displayed items.  This constitutes maybe 30% of my collection, and some of it will be cycled out as I get bigger and bigger names to display. 

Thank you for reading through this and allowing me to reminisce about the way I obtained some of my better signed memorabilia.