SoCal Autograph Odysses

When I started this blog, I did so with the intent of providing myself an outlet to talk about my hobby, not knowing if anyone would ever actually stumble across it let alone read it.  Well, about a year later I now have a blog that has been viewed more than 2,000 times.  To be honest though, I don't even know if that is a high number, but it makes me enthused nonetheless. I would like to thank the people who have tweeted, re-tweeted, and Facebooked my blog in the pursuit of, well...nothing really, other than my happiness.  A sincere thank you to all of you out there who read this drivel on a consistent basis and pretend to be amused.  Enough of the tomfoolery, and on to some autograph stories that I probably wouldn't get around to sharing in another post! This first picture is of a ball I had signed by Yu Darvish last season when the Rangers were in town to pay the Padres at Petco Park.  This particular signing occurred during batting practice, when Mr. Dar...

First, let me wax nostalgic on this Seattle team.  I have had a very good history with this ball club dating back as far as the mid to late 90's when I first began my excursion into the realm of autograph collecting.  It's rather odd really, considering Seattle is an American League team one would not usually associate with playing the Padres, until you realize that the Mariners are actually the Padres "natural rival".  Being a natural rival in MLB essentially means you are in opposite leagues and forced to play an inter league series annually, which to me seems nothing more than an ill disguised attempt at contriving a rivalry out of none that exists.  Sometimes it works (see: Mets/Yankees, Cubs/White Sox), but in this case it does not.  That all being said, having the Mariners show up in San Diego has lead me to collect some of the biggest luminaries in the history of the Seattle ball club.  I'm talking Ken Griffey Jr, Alex Rodriguez, and Randy Johnson ty...

I thought I should share with those who live in the Southern California area that Orange County Sports Cards is having quite a few upcoming signing events.   http://www.ocsportscards.com/servlet/the-Autograph-Signings/Categories I highly recommend this place, as I have actually had quite a few things signed there in the past.  It is a relatively painless process, you purchase the ticket for the type of item you want signed by the player you want it signed by, show up where the event is occurring (many times in the OC Dugout), and wait in line.  You get to meet many stars and have any type of memorabilia you want signed, so long as you are willing to pay some money.  Mike Trout is making his only public signing appearance this year with these guys, but there are many more players lined up with them right now as well.  Speaking of Trout, here is a ball I had signed by him last year... A couple years ago, I attended a dual signing event at the OC Dugout where ...

I headed down to the ballpark to try and get Ryan Braun to sign an official Rawlings Major League Baseball, as I have for quite a few years now.  The Brewers are a club without a lot of star power so the potential targets on a team such as this one, as opposed to say the Los Angeles Dodgers, is relatively low.  At least it is from the standpoint of getting baseballs signed.  It's been mentioned ad nauseum in this blog that I don't really like using baseballs on mediocre players because they are expensive, and take up a lot of space.  That being said, I came prepared with cards for the current Brewers roster, as well as a few balls to get signed by someone such as Braun. Something to keep in mind with Braun is that he is from southern California (he went to Granada Hills High School), therefore when he is town he generally has a large contingent of family and friends with him when he leaves the ballpark.  During these times, I absolutely refuse to ask a player ...

I decided to head downtown to Petco Park for the first time this new season for my first foray into my hobby of collecting autographs in quite some time.  I skipped out on Opening Day due to the fact that all the hoopla associated with the opening of any new season.  I walked to my spot during the bottom of the ninth in what turned out to be a 4-3 Dodger win. I found out from one of the guys waiting (a nice fellow who was visiting from Florida) that the Dodgers were staying in the Omni Hotel, which is actually connected to Petco Park by a bridge that visiting players often use to circumvent the autograph hounds that wait below.  This was a little disheartening at first, until I also found out that most of the dodgers actually walked out at ground level the night before.  All in all there were only about ten or so "graphers" waiting, as opposed to the rumored forty the night before, so the potential for a good get was obviously there. On this night, I was focused ...

Just wanted to give a heads up that there is another card and collectibles show hosted by Tristar happening in San Francisco April 19-21.  I posted earlier about my experiences at last years show, where I added a lot of really good names to my growing collection of sports memorabilia.  If you want to take a gander at some of the items I came away with, check out that previous post.  A lot of the Giants will be attending the show as will some big retired names like Frank Thomas, Wade Boggs, Reggie Jackson, and a lot more.  You can find anything you want to know related to this show at  http://www.tristarproductions.com/schedule.html Again, I can't stress enough how awesome of an event this is as not only do you get to meet, greet, and come away with some memorabilia, but this event draws a lot of the big name dealers and vendors that are known around the country.  It's definitely worth the weekend trip up to the Bay area.  As I already have pictures p...

This is a pretty slow time of year as far as collecting sports memorabilia goes, at least for me.  I find that collecting autographed baseballs and pictures looks the best, therefore that leads towards me tending to target baseball players for autographs more so than other sports.  Since there are no baseball games going on in this region, that means I keep an eye put on public signing events on the signingshotline website I mention now and again. One thing I did want to mention though, is something you think would be pretty obvious but actually suckers a lot of people every year.  A lot of people out there who collect sports memorabilia do not have the time to go and get the players they want in person.  Instead, they purchase items online.  The problem is that there is a huge amount of forgeries out there, and they are so good you can't really tell any difference between what's fake and what's authentic.  I realize there are now third party companies (P...