Had a really suprising busy weekend of autographing. Since I had an unexpected busy weekend of autographing, I decided to combine these recent results into one big post. I will obviously share each event seperately.
Ernie Harwell
While looking through the National Cherry Festival Official Program that came with the local paper up North here last week, I came across an ad in it that mentioned Ernie Harwell was going to be there back on Saturday for 2 hours. As while it said nothing about concerning autographs, I wanted to give this a go. Only problem is that, I had to work that day and I did not find this out in enough time to be able to try to get my shift switched at work. Of course they have to do this event while I had to work that day. Well when it was all said and done, I have a friend in Lake City,MI which is only about 1 hour from Traverse City decided to come up since I notified him about this. Now when it came down to it, I was able to get my mom to help me out. So my mom and my friend went down to give this event a go since that I was unable to make it. I got more to say but before I do here is the result from this appearance:
Ernie Harwell appearance at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Truck at the 2007 National Cherry Festival in Traverse City,MI 7/7/07:
Ernie Harwell 1 Sweet Spot OMLB (I was glad to get this!!! Thank God for my mom's help or else I would of never got anything from that appearance.)
I talked to my mom and my friend concerning this experience. Apparently they both showed up 1 hour before he was scheduled to be there. Once things got started, it was not looking good. Both the security there and the head person of Blue Cross Blue Shield was telling people that Harwell was not going to sign stuff. You could only get your picture taken with Harwell. It turns out that Harwell did not want to sign. After my mom and my friend went through the line, they decided to wait around to see if they can get Harwell to sign once he was done meeting and greeting people. Once they closed off the line to Harwell, the head person of Blue Cross Blue Shield motioned the 4 people (2 of whom were my mom and my friend) over for Harwell to sign for them. It was reported that Ernie Harwell signed my mom's OMLB (Which was mine), my friend's OMLB, an old pennant, and a book and that was about it. Apparently the lady (which is the head of Blue Cross Blue Shield) told the story of what happened; I guess from what my mom and my friend told me from what this lady said, one of the recent apparences Ernie Harwell did for this company downstate around Detroit happen to bring out a dad and his son. With one hour left for Ernie Harwell to get through people and sign, this dad and his son showed up with 30-40 things for Ernie Harwell to sign. Once the security saw this, they tried to cut him off and evantually did and this happened with about 80 people in line to go. So someone in Detroit ruined Harwell trying to get 30-40 items done on him. If anyone happens to know more of this story and can elaborate/tell me more on it, lmk because this incident is what almost cost my mom Harwell back on Saturday. Talk about a close call and why he now signs limitedly. Now I know that story. Thanks for looking!!!
Jack Morris
From doing a weekly check of Signings Hotline, this signing came up the following day. Once I saw where this was at, this was another shocker to me. Since I had more time to be able to prepare for this, I was able to get my work shift switched to where I got out of work with one hour left to get him before he was done. Again I talked to my friend from Lake City,MI and he decided to come up for this one to. When it was all said and done, here is how it worked out; once I clocked out at work, this friend of mine picked me up from work and he floored it up there to be able to try and find a parking spot again since that this was at the National Cherry Festival. Once we got a parking spot, we both bolted out running like track stars thinking there was a long line for him. We ran at least a mile and honest to God this should of been a "You Tube" classic, and a "The Amazing Race" classic. Well once we got there, we saw Jack Morris just sitting right there no line for him. So we both started to get our items out for him and walked right up to him (Like walking up to Phil). Before I say more, here are my results from Jack Morris' appearance:
Jack Morris at the 2007 National Cherry Festival Michigan Masons Booth in Traverse City,MI 7/8/07:
Jack Morris 4 cards, 1 Sweet Spot OMLB, and 1 8x10 photo provided by him!!! (Another true Hall of Fame player right here!!! I was glad to be able to get this guy to!!!)
Well when we got up to Jack, he greeted us and my friend and I were able to chat with him for 5 minutes since there was no line for him. From talking to other people, it turns out that he got there super early like 1 hour before he was schedule to sit down and sign autographs specifically for this event. He probably got most of that crowd then. Another factor that probably played into the small crowd was that there was an air show going on and people were much more focused on looking up then looking at anyone famous so that helped to. Once we were done chatting, there was only one lady behind us and that was about it. The only other thing I want to point out was that when he signed for my friend and I, he seemed to be getting tired of signing all these autographs. I guess when you been signing autographs since the 70s, it can wear on you a bit when you do appearances for the communities now and all that. Now I know the story of why he did not stop when I saw him at the Tigers-Twins game I went to about 2 months ago. When we asked then, he did not look at us going into the Twins dugout. I guess he is in the tired phase of signing autographs but thank God he still does it!!! Thanks for looking!!!
Frontier League: Traverse City Beach Bums vs. Slippery Rock Sliders 7/9/07
Coming off a suprise of 2007 National Cherry Festival former Detroit Tiger appearances here in Traverse City, it did not stop at this game either. I will have more of that once I get through my results. First off, I am finally glad to be back graphing the Frontier League again. This was my first baseball game back since I did Pawtucket in 97 degree heat about 2 weeks ago. It was not hot at this game for a change. Actually there was no batting practice today since they opened up 2 hours earlier then usual being that it was the last game before the Frontier League All Star break. Besides that, it was storming bad before this game to today. If it did not storm at all, there would of been batting practice. Oh well I was not to worried about that. Well once I got talking with the team in locating the player/coach I have cards of, the one player of course I need on this team with a bowman card out of course did not make the trip because of a disk injury in his throwing hand from when he threw a baseball. The coach I chatted with for a good 10 minutes explained what happened since I showed him that I had 20-30 cards ready of this guy. Once he saw the cards, this coach then goes right ahead and shows me with his right hand exactly where he injured it seperately when he was trying to throw the ball like a normal baseball player does in a team practice. I guess if you look at your right hand, look in the middle where the right hand and the arm connect right in that spot is where he seperated it and it was a disk in there that seperated it. Anybody that has played baseball may know more of this injury I am trying to explain in words. This coach was very detailed in explaining his injury. Now that I know he is not here, here are the results of who was here I had cards of:
Beach Bums vs. Slippery Rock 7/9/07
Slippery Rock
Greg Jelks 13 cards (Me: "So what happened with Evansville? You won the title for them last year???" Greg: "You explain to me what happened." Me: "Okay I take it that they dismissed you for no aparent reason no explanation." Greg "You exactly got it right. If you want to know more call them up cause I can't tell you anymore of why they did that. They gave me no explanation at all.") (Me: "So they have baseball down in Australia?" Greg: "Yeah they do. They have had a league down there since the 90s and I coach one of the teams in it during the winter months." Me: "So you reside in Australia or the US???" Greg: "My residence is in Australia.") (I guess maybe some of those players that can't be located in the US with Bowman cards out must surface in this league down there during the winter months. This would be another place to search for players not seen anywhere in US baseball leagues.)
Team Roster Printout Sheet
Kory Bucklew
Jason Cline
Zac Cline
Cy Donald
Greg Lasinski
Chris Rubio
Adam Shafer
Judson Smith
Dan Schwartz
Nick Tracy
Nate Yoho
There was another suprise appearance here at Wuerfel Park earlier tonight. Former Detroit Tiger Milt Wilcox threw out the first pitch tonight. It did not help me since that I was unaware and unprepared that he would be here. He is apparently participating in a National Cherry Festival event. So what I did was that I approached him shook his hand and asked if he was staying post game. He apparently was not and that I should try the open space sometime this week to locate him. Of course he tell me the days he will be there I will likely be at work. Anyhow I did plan to head out for the National Cherry Festival again tommorow. I will be bringing my Milt Wilcox cards to see if I will cross paths with him again. That is all I have to share for this game thanks for looking!!!
That is all I got to share for this very big post. As you can tell, these signings in Traverse City,MI came as a surprise to me and I planned the best I could to be able to get to them. Besides knowing that Milt Wilcox is around somewhere this week, I know Willie Horton is expected to be up here at the end of the week. Yeah and also for the record, I never seen so many signings in Traverse City before. In past Cherry Festivals, they never ever had stuff like this. This is the first time I ever seen the National Cherry Festival present all these autograph signings everywhere and it hit me unexpectedly. Wow what a unbelievable weekend I had!!! Thanks alot for looking!!!
Next up for me:
Willie Horton @ the 2007 National Cherry Festival (Pending if I will be able to go)
A Beach Bums game featuring a Bill Freehan signing
Ernie Harwell
While looking through the National Cherry Festival Official Program that came with the local paper up North here last week, I came across an ad in it that mentioned Ernie Harwell was going to be there back on Saturday for 2 hours. As while it said nothing about concerning autographs, I wanted to give this a go. Only problem is that, I had to work that day and I did not find this out in enough time to be able to try to get my shift switched at work. Of course they have to do this event while I had to work that day. Well when it was all said and done, I have a friend in Lake City,MI which is only about 1 hour from Traverse City decided to come up since I notified him about this. Now when it came down to it, I was able to get my mom to help me out. So my mom and my friend went down to give this event a go since that I was unable to make it. I got more to say but before I do here is the result from this appearance:
Ernie Harwell appearance at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Truck at the 2007 National Cherry Festival in Traverse City,MI 7/7/07:
Ernie Harwell 1 Sweet Spot OMLB (I was glad to get this!!! Thank God for my mom's help or else I would of never got anything from that appearance.)
I talked to my mom and my friend concerning this experience. Apparently they both showed up 1 hour before he was scheduled to be there. Once things got started, it was not looking good. Both the security there and the head person of Blue Cross Blue Shield was telling people that Harwell was not going to sign stuff. You could only get your picture taken with Harwell. It turns out that Harwell did not want to sign. After my mom and my friend went through the line, they decided to wait around to see if they can get Harwell to sign once he was done meeting and greeting people. Once they closed off the line to Harwell, the head person of Blue Cross Blue Shield motioned the 4 people (2 of whom were my mom and my friend) over for Harwell to sign for them. It was reported that Ernie Harwell signed my mom's OMLB (Which was mine), my friend's OMLB, an old pennant, and a book and that was about it. Apparently the lady (which is the head of Blue Cross Blue Shield) told the story of what happened; I guess from what my mom and my friend told me from what this lady said, one of the recent apparences Ernie Harwell did for this company downstate around Detroit happen to bring out a dad and his son. With one hour left for Ernie Harwell to get through people and sign, this dad and his son showed up with 30-40 things for Ernie Harwell to sign. Once the security saw this, they tried to cut him off and evantually did and this happened with about 80 people in line to go. So someone in Detroit ruined Harwell trying to get 30-40 items done on him. If anyone happens to know more of this story and can elaborate/tell me more on it, lmk because this incident is what almost cost my mom Harwell back on Saturday. Talk about a close call and why he now signs limitedly. Now I know that story. Thanks for looking!!!
Jack Morris
From doing a weekly check of Signings Hotline, this signing came up the following day. Once I saw where this was at, this was another shocker to me. Since I had more time to be able to prepare for this, I was able to get my work shift switched to where I got out of work with one hour left to get him before he was done. Again I talked to my friend from Lake City,MI and he decided to come up for this one to. When it was all said and done, here is how it worked out; once I clocked out at work, this friend of mine picked me up from work and he floored it up there to be able to try and find a parking spot again since that this was at the National Cherry Festival. Once we got a parking spot, we both bolted out running like track stars thinking there was a long line for him. We ran at least a mile and honest to God this should of been a "You Tube" classic, and a "The Amazing Race" classic. Well once we got there, we saw Jack Morris just sitting right there no line for him. So we both started to get our items out for him and walked right up to him (Like walking up to Phil). Before I say more, here are my results from Jack Morris' appearance:
Jack Morris at the 2007 National Cherry Festival Michigan Masons Booth in Traverse City,MI 7/8/07:
Jack Morris 4 cards, 1 Sweet Spot OMLB, and 1 8x10 photo provided by him!!! (Another true Hall of Fame player right here!!! I was glad to be able to get this guy to!!!)
Well when we got up to Jack, he greeted us and my friend and I were able to chat with him for 5 minutes since there was no line for him. From talking to other people, it turns out that he got there super early like 1 hour before he was schedule to sit down and sign autographs specifically for this event. He probably got most of that crowd then. Another factor that probably played into the small crowd was that there was an air show going on and people were much more focused on looking up then looking at anyone famous so that helped to. Once we were done chatting, there was only one lady behind us and that was about it. The only other thing I want to point out was that when he signed for my friend and I, he seemed to be getting tired of signing all these autographs. I guess when you been signing autographs since the 70s, it can wear on you a bit when you do appearances for the communities now and all that. Now I know the story of why he did not stop when I saw him at the Tigers-Twins game I went to about 2 months ago. When we asked then, he did not look at us going into the Twins dugout. I guess he is in the tired phase of signing autographs but thank God he still does it!!! Thanks for looking!!!
Frontier League: Traverse City Beach Bums vs. Slippery Rock Sliders 7/9/07
Coming off a suprise of 2007 National Cherry Festival former Detroit Tiger appearances here in Traverse City, it did not stop at this game either. I will have more of that once I get through my results. First off, I am finally glad to be back graphing the Frontier League again. This was my first baseball game back since I did Pawtucket in 97 degree heat about 2 weeks ago. It was not hot at this game for a change. Actually there was no batting practice today since they opened up 2 hours earlier then usual being that it was the last game before the Frontier League All Star break. Besides that, it was storming bad before this game to today. If it did not storm at all, there would of been batting practice. Oh well I was not to worried about that. Well once I got talking with the team in locating the player/coach I have cards of, the one player of course I need on this team with a bowman card out of course did not make the trip because of a disk injury in his throwing hand from when he threw a baseball. The coach I chatted with for a good 10 minutes explained what happened since I showed him that I had 20-30 cards ready of this guy. Once he saw the cards, this coach then goes right ahead and shows me with his right hand exactly where he injured it seperately when he was trying to throw the ball like a normal baseball player does in a team practice. I guess if you look at your right hand, look in the middle where the right hand and the arm connect right in that spot is where he seperated it and it was a disk in there that seperated it. Anybody that has played baseball may know more of this injury I am trying to explain in words. This coach was very detailed in explaining his injury. Now that I know he is not here, here are the results of who was here I had cards of:
Beach Bums vs. Slippery Rock 7/9/07
Slippery Rock
Greg Jelks 13 cards (Me: "So what happened with Evansville? You won the title for them last year???" Greg: "You explain to me what happened." Me: "Okay I take it that they dismissed you for no aparent reason no explanation." Greg "You exactly got it right. If you want to know more call them up cause I can't tell you anymore of why they did that. They gave me no explanation at all.") (Me: "So they have baseball down in Australia?" Greg: "Yeah they do. They have had a league down there since the 90s and I coach one of the teams in it during the winter months." Me: "So you reside in Australia or the US???" Greg: "My residence is in Australia.") (I guess maybe some of those players that can't be located in the US with Bowman cards out must surface in this league down there during the winter months. This would be another place to search for players not seen anywhere in US baseball leagues.)
Team Roster Printout Sheet
Kory Bucklew
Jason Cline
Zac Cline
Cy Donald
Greg Lasinski
Chris Rubio
Adam Shafer
Judson Smith
Dan Schwartz
Nick Tracy
Nate Yoho
There was another suprise appearance here at Wuerfel Park earlier tonight. Former Detroit Tiger Milt Wilcox threw out the first pitch tonight. It did not help me since that I was unaware and unprepared that he would be here. He is apparently participating in a National Cherry Festival event. So what I did was that I approached him shook his hand and asked if he was staying post game. He apparently was not and that I should try the open space sometime this week to locate him. Of course he tell me the days he will be there I will likely be at work. Anyhow I did plan to head out for the National Cherry Festival again tommorow. I will be bringing my Milt Wilcox cards to see if I will cross paths with him again. That is all I have to share for this game thanks for looking!!!
That is all I got to share for this very big post. As you can tell, these signings in Traverse City,MI came as a surprise to me and I planned the best I could to be able to get to them. Besides knowing that Milt Wilcox is around somewhere this week, I know Willie Horton is expected to be up here at the end of the week. Yeah and also for the record, I never seen so many signings in Traverse City before. In past Cherry Festivals, they never ever had stuff like this. This is the first time I ever seen the National Cherry Festival present all these autograph signings everywhere and it hit me unexpectedly. Wow what a unbelievable weekend I had!!! Thanks alot for looking!!!
Next up for me:
Willie Horton @ the 2007 National Cherry Festival (Pending if I will be able to go)
A Beach Bums game featuring a Bill Freehan signing
