The Conclusion of Pinstripe Pandemonium

Hey guys, Drew back here! I spent my Friday night at Madison Square Garden seeing Jack White with my Dad, and let me just say that he's as talented as it gets. In today's era of music, he is still keeping old fashioned rock and roll alive, and he does a phenomenal job live. If you guys want to hear last night's show, click here! Pandora is playing the show repeatedly over the next few days, which is a pretty unique idea; as Jack seems to be full of those. It's safe to say I'll be adding his 2015 Topps card to my collection as soon as possible.

Anyway, getting back to the conclusion of another amazing day. I originally had arrangements to meet Ron Guidry, and he apparently cancelled far prior to the actual show. Same with Reggie Jackson. I'm not quite sure what the deal was with that, because there was absolutely nothing on MAB's website to suggest that they wouldn't be appearing. However, I did decide to get one more guy on my picture before I wrapped it up for the day.

Former Yankee hero Jim Leyritz became the 56th name on my Mickey Mantle photo last Sunday! We already met Leyritz at MLB Fanfest about a year and a half ago, and we were both impressed by how nice he was. He has had a lot of legal troubles over the past few years, but it appears that he's gotten everything together.

Leyritz was no different from the first experience we had with him; very friendly. I had him sign my picture towards the top of the left side, a part in which I didn't believe I'd add to. It came out great, I think.

The ink looks a little dry on his signature, but I think that's because of the area he signed it. He has a beautiful autograph though, and I'm proud to add the guy who made a name for himself hitting home runs in key moments for the Yankees in their late '90's dynasty. 

And now... here is the updated full Mickey Mantle picture:

As you can see, there isn't much room left. I'm going to attempt to add 4 or 5 more signatures on it, but I'm not quite sure how just yet. From here on, I'm going to only add star names to the photo; such as Don Mattingly, Dave Winfield, Ron Guidry, or possibly Paul O'Neill. I have some ideas as to how to finish off the project, but I've got some time to sort it all out. I'm surprised how much I've been able to add in such a small portion of time, but then again, it hasn't been cheap. I'm not even going to try to add up each cost, but when it's all said and done it'll be my prized possession, and it'll all be worth every penny.

We finished our day by getting to meet Lee Smith for the third time in a few years. We didn't have any intentions of getting a ticket for him after already adding multiple autographs of his over the years (including on the picture above). But we were supposed to get a free autograph ticket for Charlie Hayes alongside our Tino Martinez ticket, and Hayes missed his flight that morning and didn't make the show. They reciprocated us with a free Smith ticket, and we decided to make good use of it, although we had to wait another hour for him.

Mr. Smith was great as always with us, and he made the autograph worth the wait.

We got a baseball at the show to have signed, and Smith inscribed his number and save total for free. It looks great in person, and while he is just on the cusp of being in my new Hall of Fame display, I have plenty of great places to display it. I don't need a whole lot else of Smith's from here on, but I really hope he can find a way into the Hall. Maybe he doesn't have the legacy of some players, but he is right there in my opinion with Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter, and others of his era.

Doc Gooden was signing next to Smith, but as we walked by my Dad called him out and thanked him for all the wonderful experiences he's given us in the past when we've met him. He appreciated the compliment, and I was actually able to get a quick picture with him. Awesome.

I have a few more quick items to display from the show, but that was it as far as meeting the players went. It was an amazing day, and I'm really lucky to be able to share so many special days with my dad. I also got to meet Frankie of My Life in the Sports Card Hobby. Please, everyone do yourselves a favor and check it out if you haven't already. He's a smart young kid with a ton of promise in our hobby, and he's only in 7th grade! The emotion and passion he puts into his posts makes him seem much more mature and older, and it was great meeting him and his mother.

Thank you to everyone that helped make last Sunday so special! See Ya!

2013 All Star Fanfest Recap! Part 2!

Hey guys, Drew back here! In case you haven't noticed, I decided to bring my blog back to the old design. I couldn't tolerate needing to update my Java every other day in order for the page to actually load correctly. Sorry if the site was inconvenient to any of you, but fortunately now we are right back on track. So when I left you all yesterday, I just finished showing off my "Big Hurt" and Jack Morris signed balls, after a very unlucky opportunity with my favorite player. Let's continue my coverage of 2013 Fanfest, shall we?

After we finished adding Morris and Thomas to our collections, we immediately bounced over the Sirius XM Radio station. Rumor had it that Curtis Granderson was there earlier and that they were planning on having Cal Ripken Jr. there along with Bud Selig later on! Sure enough, the "Ripken Baseball" interview was just getting underway at Sirius with Cal and host Adam Schein. Had we not had specific goals that day, we would've all stayed and listened to the legend talk, but instead, we rotated in and out of the station, making sure to keep our spot in case he signed autographs. While I was holding our spot, I recorded a little bit of what Cal had to say about the steroid era. Check it out:

Cal spent the better portion of two hours answering fan's questions, and it was really entertaining to hear his opinions on many of the games current issues. I wasn't too concerned about getting his autograph, since I already paid to do so earlier this year. However, I wouldn't have minded a second one, and I wanted to help my buddies add him to their collections. After the interview, he signed for many of the people there, but it was probably the biggest mob I've ever dealt with in a signing before. I ditched out because it wasn't worth all of the pushing and shoving for me, while my friends hung around. Unfortunately, they were pushed around so much that after about an additional hour of trying, they came up short as well.

While they desperately tried to get Cal to sign for them, I moved to the WFAN station where former Yankee Jim Leyritz was signing. I haven't heard much about Leyritz since his legal troubles a few years ago, and I didn't even know if he was in prison or not. However, you could have never guessed what happened to him if you met him that day. He was as nice of a guy as they came! I told him I'm a big Yankee fan despite the Pirates jersey, and he curiously asked me why I was wearing it, and I told him it was in order to try and get McCutchen's attention. I told him how all of that went down and he seemed pretty sympathetic. I asked him if he could inscribe 1996 World Series champions because that was the year I was born, and he was more than happy to oblige. Unfortunately, the security didn't allow a picture, but I snapped a few from the bottom of the stage as I walked away. I'm glad I got to meet Mr. Leyritz because it gave me an entirely new opinion on him as a person, so I can begin to watch his classic playoff home runs again without thinking of his darker times.

While we were in line to meet Leyritz, we overheard a few people talking about Rollie Fingers signing autographs. I didn't expect to see him there because he wasn't on the lineup, but I should've known better considering he had been there every other day of the show. Sure enough, we bounced over to the Fergie Jenkins Foundation area, which asked for $20-30 donations for any of the players signing. Bert Campaneris, Gaylord Perry, and Rollie Fingers all were sitting there with very short lines. I ended up getting Fingers while my Dad paid to get Gaylord Perry. We passed on Bert because he normally signs TTM for free and I didn't have much interest in adding a signed ball of his.

Rollie was as cool as always, and after he signed my baseball, I told him that his signature is beautiful, but not as beautiful as the moustache. I wonder how many times he's heard that one before. He was kind and friendly to us as he had been when Dad & I met him last summer, and I'm glad we took advantage of meeting him again.

Mike was currently holding down the fort for Cal at the time, but when I told him about Fingers signing he gave up and gave in for the handlebar man. I got him a picture with Mr. Fingers and told him "long time no see"! After Mike got his autograph, we left the station and started to roam around. We saw an older man wearing a blue Detroit cap, and neither of us knew who he was.. but we decided to get him anyway. There is no situation more awkward than when you're trying to get an autograph of an unrecognizable person, however we politely asked the man if he could sign for us and he was more than happy to. He asked us "Do you want my teams?" and we said sure, considering we'd use them later on to find out who he was. It turns out that it was Pedro Sierra, a former Negro League pitcher for the Indianapolis Clowns and Detroit Stars.

Sierra was a nice surprise, and by the time we got him and made another loop around the building, we saw George Foster enter the building and go to the Fergie Jenkins foundation. For $20, I wasn't going to pass on one of the most underrated players on one of the best teams of all time. Foster was a quiet but relatively nice guy, and he was patient enough to wait for me to walk all the way around Fingers and Campaneris for a picture. While he was decked out in Mets stuff since he played most of his later years in New York, I'll always look at him as a member of the Big Red Machine, and I had him sign the ball recognizing just that.

So, I believe that Foster is a pretty solid place to stop for now, and I'll have the rest of FanFest for you guys tomorrow! Indeed, there is more! Keep on the lookout!

See Ya!