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Man, I've been procrastinating on blog posts again. Since my last post I've been to a D-Backs autograph event, Fan Fest, and a spring training practice. I guess those are three pretty good excuses for not blogging.
The day before Fan Fest, I met up with Daniel from It's Like Having My Own Card Shop to get a few autographs. You can check out what he got here. We had a good time.
The next morning was D-Backs Fan Fest. It was also the preregistration sale for San Diego Comic Con badges. I chose to try my luck at SDCC badges instead of getting to Fan Fest early. I failed miserably.
We got down to Chase Field later than I would have liked. The day wasn't lost because I was able to score autograph tickets for the afternoon autograph sessions during the online sale which took place on Friday.
My son and I got autographs from Miguel Montero, Addison Reed, Randall Delgado, and Alan Trammell at the regular autograph tables. We also hit up the alumni signing at the Game Seven Grill and got Brandon Webb, Shea Hillenbrand, and Augie Ojeda to sign a few cards. Afterward we checked out the last session for the kids' tables. We got Brad Ziegler, Dave McKay, and Daniel Hudson. There was no line for Huddy so I was able to talk to him for a minute. He gave me an extra Fan Fest 5x7 plus the one for my son. Thanks, Daniel!
They set a record for attendance so the lines for the games and other kids stuff were extremely long. We didn't get to do quite as much as we would have liked but that's okay. All in all it was a great time.
One of the great things about the Diamondbacks Fan Fest is they have kids only autograph tables. The lines weren't too bad so I talked my son into leaving the play area with the inflatable bounce houses just long enough to get an autograph from D-Backs manager, Kirk Gibson.
Gibby signed his 2001 Fleer Greats of the Game card for us. This is my favorite Greats of the Game set. After I explained to my son that Kirk Gibson was Diamondbacks coach kind of like the coach of his t-ball team he thought it was pretty cool. Hopefully he'll still think so in a few years because this is the first baseball card that he's ever gotten signed all by himself.
I missed out on getting Patrick Corbin to sign a card at the signing I went to last Friday. We were able to get Patrick to sign his 2012 Topps card at the Diamondbacks Fan Fest.
I like Patrick. He's one of the D-Backs many options for a fifth starter this year. Even if he doesn't make the team out of Spring Training, I wouldn't be surprised to see him throw quite a few innings with the big club before the year is over.
The next autograph ticket I bought for Diamondbacks Fan Fest was of starting pitcher, Trevor Cahill. I got Trevor's autograph last year but it was on an A's card. He has plenty of D-Backs cards to choose from now. I went with this 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen. After seeing the signed version, I stand by my choice. It looks great.
Saturday was the annual Diamondbacks Fan Fest. This year was a little different for me.
The biggest change was the policy for the autograph tickets. This year the sessions were broken up into three groups. The early sessions were available in an online presale only for season ticket holders. The late sessions were available to everyone in an online presale and the middle session was only available in person on Saturday morning.
Surprisingly this worked to my advantage. My son had a t-ball game that morning so there was no way I could get down to Chase Field super early like I usually do. Thanks to the online presale I was able to purchase tickets for a few of the autograph tables and I didn't have to hurry downtown.
The table that I was most excited for had Tyler Skaggs and Cliff Pennington. For my $5 donation I was able to get Tyler to sign his 2013 Topps card.
This is our fourth signed White Border Parallel card from the 2008 Topps Opening Day set. Man, I had no idea I would be going after all of these different variations when I started this collection / blog. It's probably a good thing since it's starting to get harder to find new players to add to our base set.
# 64 - Aaron Hill - Opening Day White Border Parallel
A red border on a Toronto Blue Jays card? Probably not the greatest as far as coordinating colors go but this card is still a nice addition to our 08 Topps collection.# 64 - Aaron Hill - Opening Day
Back in July of 2010 we added the signed base version of Aaron Hill's 2008 Topps card to our collection. Since I knew he'd be at the Diamondbacks Fan Fest this year, I had to come up with some different cards to get signed. Fortunately he had a few nice options including this Gold Border Parallel.# 146 - Aaron Hill - Gold Border Parallel
Aaron Hill was one of the players I was hoping to be able to score a few autographs from at Diamondbacks Fan Fest this year. We were able to get tickets for his line with no problem and with my wife's help, got some nice cards signed.The first one is from the Toronto Blue Jays 14 card team set.# TOR11 - Aaron Hill - Team Set
This is the final card that Stephen Drew signed for us at the Diamondbacks Fan Fest earlier this month. This one's pretty cool. It's the bronze refractor version of his 2008 Topps Chrome card. It's numbered to 599 on the back.# 4 - Stephen Drew - Bronze Refractor
Here's another nice card that Stephen Drew signed for us at the Diamondbacks Fan Fest. This one is a Refractor from the 2008 Topps set. I'm a sucker for a nice Refractor.# 4 - Stephen Drew - Chrome Refractor
This is our third signed White Border Parallel card from the 2008 Topps Opening Day set. Personally, I think a white border parallel is kind of boring but these are numbered to 2199 so I guess they're kind of cool.# 8 - Stephen Drew - Opening Day White Border Parallel
Here's the second card we got signed by Stephen Drew at the D-Backs Fan Fest. This one might be the nicest. It's from the 2008 Topps Opening Day set. The red border looks great with the Diamondbacks Sedona red jersey.# 8 - Stephen Drew - Opening Day
One day last week I bought two more packs of 2012 Topps at my local Walmart. I got lucky and pulled the Ian Kennedy Pie in the Face SP. Of course I brought it with me to Fan Fest. Ian hadn't seen it before so it's pretty cool to know that at least for a few minutes, I had the only signed version in existence.
With my wife's help, we were able to score three signed cards for our Daniel Hudson collection at this year's fan fest. The Allen & Ginter and 2011 Topps are nice but I think the Bowman Chrome Refractor is my favorite.
Probably the coolest thing I got signed at the 2011 All-Star Game Fan Fest was a Sports Illustrated from when the Diamondbacks won the World Series in 2001.
Back in February, my wife found the magazine in a box she hadn't gone through since we moved. I asked if I could have it. She obliged and I quickly began thinking of how I was going to get it signed.
A few weeks later, I got to work. At the Diamondbacks Fan Fest I was able to get autographs from D-Backs legends, Mark Grace and Matt Williams.
At the All-Star Game Fan Fest, I was able to add a lot more. It is now signed by nine members of the 2001 World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks. Pretty cool.
Jay Bell
David Dellucci
Erubiel Durazo
Steve Finley
Luis Gonzalez
Mark Grace
Reggie Sanders
Greg Swindell
Matt Williams
A few weeks ago we picked up Joe Saunders 2008 Topps Black Border Parallel card in hopes of getting it signed at the Diamondbacks Fan Fest. We were successful!This is the first Black Border Parallel card that we have been able to get signed. Very cool.# UH 210 - Joe Saunders ( Black Border Parallel # 13/57 )
