SoCal Autograph Odysses

Spurred on by my relative success with the Tigers just a few days before, I decided to attend the first game of a four game series between the Rockies and the Padres.  The Rockies are pretty well regarded in the autographing community for their generosity in signing for people.  This is including the bigger names like Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez, who often make a point to sign a couple of times every series.  One of my older posts on this blog actually alludes to a day I went down to Petco Park to do some pregame Rockies graphing for the first time.  It was a successful experience.  With that as a backdrop, I eagerly anticipated what type of success I might have heading into this game. What was immediately apparent upon arriving downtown, was the lack of people in comparison to a Friday night against a marquee opponent like the Tigers.  Lawrence (who I met up with at the ballpark after his long day of pregame graphing) and I were able to get right...

In the first Padres home weekend series of the recently begun MLB season, the match up was versus a team rarely seen in San Diego; The Detroit Tigers.  Since this is a team that rarely visits San Diego, and having never had the chance to try and get autographs from the team before, my friend Lawrence and I decided to attend the game.  It was a Friday afternoon, so obviously traffic slowed our plans.  We had intended to get to the ballpark as early as possible to try and see who we could get during Tiger's batting practice.  We still made it in time to watch BP, but the ballpark was pretty packed.  Here is a picture of the chaos; Only one two members of the Tigers signed during the entire course of BP, someone named Collins and Omar Vizquel.  I would have used a ball on Vizquel, but he only signed for about five or six people so by the time I got near him he was gone.  It was a big miss overall, but knowing that no one signed while you are there is b...

Up to this point, this has been a blog entirely dedicated to obtaining autographs in the realm of sports. I do, however, have some items signed by actors and bands, and I added to the latter collection over the past weekend. The band TOOL was in town, playing in San Diego at the Valley View Casino Center, fka the San Diego Sports Arena. TOOL is one of if not my favorite band and I never miss an opportunity to go to their shows when they are around. Here are a couple of shots I took during the performance.  My friend Lawrence and I were seated right down the middle up high, allowing for an excellent vantage point.  Obviously I am biased, but not only does TOOL have incredibly complicated and great music, the shows themselves with images in the background and lasers are just a sensory overload... Of course, this is a blog about memorabilia so of course I did pick a little something up while attending the event on Sunday.  Keep in mind I am a huge fan of Maynard Ja...

Yesterday I delved into my first autograph excursion in quite some time.  During the offseason of baseball, I tend to take long hiatuses from my hobby to better recharge my batteries for the upcoming season.  It sounds kinda peculiar to hear that having a professional athlete sign autographs for you can be tiring, but it really is.  A lot of preparation goes into getting ready for each event.  When you add travel time and a lot of standing/walking with a backpack on to the equation, by the end of the day you feel drained.  However, after a long idle time, I was rearing to go and heard a couple weeks ago that Dodgers FanFest was going to change its procedure when it came to obtaining autographs from the team at the event.  I have heard that in the past the FanFest was pretty disorganized, though to be honest, I had never attended one.  This year was going to be the first year that you had to purchase tickets to each signing "session" that you wanted...

Here is the latest in my new series of items from the past.  I just randomly pulled out some of the hundreds of baseballs I have, and I will include a little blurb about each.  As I have said in the past, when Petco Park first opened I had the mini 20 game season ticket package with my friend so there was a lot more added to the collection during those times.  Then a family happened so of course I don't have the time or frankly, the desire, to spend as much time on my hobby.  That's why organized paid events seem more appealing to me now.  Let's get to it. This is one of those matted photos you can buy with the name plaque of the player already built in.  At the time, these types of photos went for about $20 a pop, so needless to say I didn't buy a whole lot of them.  I got this one signed either the night Trevor Hoffman got his 400th save or shortly thereafter.  At one point, I was tempted to have a photo collection of 400, 500, and 600 with ...

In continuing with my new idea to post some photos of items I have in my collection that would not necessarily have gotten into my blog without it, here are a few more items I deem to be of interest.  I will include a quick little blurb about how I obtained each item as I see fit.  The first is a LaDainian Tomlinson signed jersey I got signed during the off season after the season in which he won the NFL MVP. It was a signing at a Field of Dreams store in the Fashion Valley mall in San Diego, a store that no longer exists.  It is one of the more valuable items I have in my collection. If you notice, there is a LaDainian Tomlinson Authenticated hologram in the bottom right corner of the "2" on his jersey.  I know this is an authentication tactic that is more commonplace than it was at the time of this signing. Next is a Miguel Cabrera 8x10 I had signed.  It is an MLB photo commemorating a big homerun he hit during the 2003 National League Championship Se...