Many Mets Games July-August 2015

I'm falling behind on blogging about Mets games, and for that I'm sorry. But I'm going to make up for all of that at once in this entry, as I didn't have any spectacular games. Hope you enjoy.

Dodgers @ Mets 7/23 
This game turned out to be a very interesting one. I didn't show up too early for BP, but I did show up in time to get an autograph. On the day Chris Heston threw a no-hitter at Citi Field, I got a ball tossed to me by Curtis Granderson. Now, I wanted him to sign the ball.

Before the game, as he usually does, Granderson warmed up then came over and signed minutes before the game was going to start. I found a good spot in the well-organized line and then waited for my chance to get down. After a couple minutes, I got down to the bottom and gave Granderson the ball and pen. I asked him to personalize it to me, which he did. I also told him he threw it to me the day of the no hitter, and he just nodded and said that was cool. Before I left, I got a quick selfie with him before meeting my friend to watch the game.

The game itself was a tough one to watch as a Mets fan. Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw started off strong. Through six innings, he had faced 18 batters and retired all 18. It was 2/3 of the way to a perfect game. Then, Granderson led off the seventh inning with a solid single to right, breaking all of the pent up tension at Citi Field. Kershaw dominated the rest of the way, allowing just three hits in a complete game shutout and 3-0 Dodgers win. After the game, I tried to get a ball from the home plate umpire, Ben May, and was thankfully successful.

Here is the ball, but stay tuned below for some more Mets game recaps.

Padres @ Mets 7/30
A week after that first game, I was back at Citi Field for a weekday day game between the Mets and Padres. I got to the stadium really early, and immediately noticed there was no batting practice. The Mets relief pitchers were warming up, and I wanted to see if I could get any of them to sign. I brought a ball that Granderson and Josh Edgin signed for me last year, and I wanted to add some signatures on it.

One of the first guys out of the dugout was Carlos Torres. A couple people near me asked him to sign, and he obliged. He signed the ball right under Graderson's signature from last year and took care of everyone before getting ready for the game. I met Torres in 2013, and he was very nice then as well.



The next guy out of the dugout was hard throwing reliever Hansel Robles, and he also came over and signed. I got him on the same ball right under Torres' signature. His signature isn't much, but it is what it is.

A couple minutes later, new Met Tyler Clippard emerged from the dugout. When he was walking to warm out, I yelled out and asked if he would sign when he was done. He replied that he would. True to his word, he came over a few minutes later after getting ready. I took the video below:



Clippard signed the ball and he also signed a Washington Nationals logo card that I had on me for a while. Here is the ball and the card:













After getting Clippard, none of the other Mets pitchers came over to sign. Before the game, I got Granderson to sign a photo of him on a magnet that I got in a Detroit Tigers fan pack many years ago. I think I'm finally out of stuff for him to sign, we'll see how that goes. The magnet is a little smaller than a regular baseball card.

During the game, I again watched with my friend and left in the top of the ninth inning when the game went into a rain delay. It wasn't pretty. I watched the top of the ninth at field level and the bottom of the ninth four hours later at home.

Rockies @ Mets 8/10 
At the next home stand, I went to the Monday night opener between the Mets and Colorado Rockies. I headed straight to the third base side to see what I could get from Colorado. Batting practice yielded little, but I saw a good chance when I was waiting by the dugout and saw Rockies reliever Tommy Kahnle walk into the little tunnel where I previously met Shawon Dunston. He is from the Albany area, and he was telling an usher to let his family members down to see him.

While he was waiting for his family to come down, he signed a blank autograph card for me. He didn't sign much, but he did get to see his family, which was a cool sight to see.




Before the game was going to start, I got in position to try and get the big target for the day, former Met Jose Reyes. I got Reyes to sign a ball and a card for me back in Citi Field's first year, and I hadn't gotten his autograph since. That changed on this night. I don't have many photos, but I just happened to be in the right spot and he signed a ball for me on the sweet spot. Here is a tweet I posted that describes what happened.

@lamelaza_7 blurry pics but thanks for taking the time to come and sign last night. You'll always be loved in NY!!! pic.twitter.com/SfYszNBYji

— Aaron Cheris (@AaronHowie) August 11, 2015

Notice why my tweet has so many retweets? That's because Reyes himself retweeted it to his more than 150,000 Twitter followers.  Here is a better photo of the signed ball.

The Mets won this game in dramatic fashion. That does it for this entry. Thanks for reading!

Giants @ Mets 6/9/15 at Citi Field

For the first time in many months, I was able to get to a baseball game in time for batting practice. You probably know what happened in this game already, but I'm obligated to share my tale anyway.

I found a good ticket deal online for the Tuesday game between the Mets and Giants, and my friend an I decided to go and meet at the game. I got to Citi Field at about 4:40 and was first in line at the Jackie Robinson Rotunda when the gates were going to open. My friend arrived a few minutes later, and we were in a good spot when the gates opened.

Now, I didn't have a regular ticket stub for this game, nor did I have a print at home ticket. I had an e-ticket, which I accessed from Passbook on my iPhone. As I got to the gate, I showed the ticket taker my ticket and a small type of ticket-type paper was printed out of a machine and handed to me. It says on the paper that it's not a ticket, but it's used as a ticket because people figured out that e-tickets can be altered to show many possible seats. I'll call it a receipt. On the right is what I got when I entered the stadium. If you notice the time, it says 5:10:17 PM, which is just seconds after the gates opened.

After fumbling to put the receipt in my pocket and grab my glove, I raced toward the third base side of the field in foul territory. I was one of the first ones to get there while the Mets were still taking BP, and as I was grabbing something from my bag, I heard the crack of Anthony Recker's bat. He sent a line drive foul ball into the empty seats a section behind me. I raced up the stairs and saw the ball rolling down from row to row in the middle of the row of seats. After picking the right row, the ball rolled right into my waiting glove a moment before another guy stuck his hand out to try and make the snag. On the left is a photo I took of the ball from the approximate spot I snagged it.


The rest of batting practice was pretty boring. The Mets left the field soon after that and during the Giants portion, Joaquin Arias threw a ball toward me, but it sailed a couple feet over my glove. That was pretty much it. I was getting ready to head back toward my seats on the first base side when I noticed a person in a Giants uniform standing in the tunnel near the Giants dugout. The same tunnel where I got baseballs from umpires last season.

Once I walked over to the tunnel, I was told that it was former big leaguer Shawon Dunston. He played 17 years in the major leagues for six different teams. He was an All-Star twice and was a pretty good shortstop. He briefly played for the Mets and finished his playing career with the Giants in a 2002 World Series loss. I went over to him and asked him to sign a blank Giants history card I had on me, and he was happy to sign it. He works in the Giants front office, and he was letting fans try on his World Series ring from last year. I didn't get to try it. Here is a video I took of him signing autographs.


After taking that video, I went toward where my seat was on the first base side and met up with my friend. We wanted to meet Curtis Granderson once again. I met him a couple times last season, and I think my argument is justified when I say he is the nicest player in the league. He usually signs right after the national anthem, so I headed over toward the spot he usually signs from. After the national anthem, he high-fived all the pitchers going to the bullpen, then walked over and signed. My friend and I were at a good place in line and I'll let the video below describe everything else.

My friend Larry was very happy to see the video. As you can see, Granderson signed two cards for me then shook my hand. Nice guy. If you're keeping track, Grandreson has now signed six cards for me over the last year. I have no more cars for him to sign, so if I want to meet him again I may need to get something creative for him to sign. Here are the cards:

After that, we ate food and went back to our seats and watched the game. In the top of the first inning, Giants leadoff hitter Nori Aoki bounced an infield single to open the game against Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard. A that time, I said something to my friend that I wouldn't say again the rest of the night.


"Well, there goes the no-hitter," I told him jokingly.

Giants rookie Chris Heston was mowing down the Mets one after the other. On a team that includes Madison Bumgarner, Tim Hudson, and Tim Lincecum, Chris Heston was the last person I expected to do anything noteworthy. In fact, I'd never even heard of him before I looked up who the starting pitchers for the game were. If you're wondering, here is the view from my seat. It was down the right field line in foul territory.

In the fourth inning, the Giants loaded the bases with two outs and gave Heston a chance to help himself, which he did. 

So the game went on and as the game went on, the tension grew. The Giants were able to build a lead and in about the fifth inning, people started to figure out what could be going on. Heston was mowing down the Mets and would have been in position for a perfect game if not for a couple pitches that hit Mets batters in the fourth inning.

In about the sixth inning, I can honestly say I started rooting for Heston. I was at Shea Stadium in 2007 when John Maine had his no-hit bid broken up by a Paul Hoover infield single. I wanted to see history, even if it was at the expense of the Mets.

Throughout the game, I was wearing my glove like I always do. Right fielders Curtis Granderson and Justin Maxwell were always warming up in from of me, and I tried unsuccessfully for the first few innings to try and get a ball from them. However, once the Mets made a pitching change in the seventh inning, I got my opportunity.

Granderson was having a catch with bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello as the new relief pitcher warmed up. I went down to the front row to try and get Granderson's attention. When they were done playing catch, Granderson saw me in the crowd. He ran over and lobbed an underhanded toss in my direction. I reached my glove out and made the easy one handed catch without anybody else really knowing what's going on. Here's a photo I took of the ball with Granderson in the background.

After getting the ball from Granderson, the game only got more intense. People were rooting for the Mets to get a hit, and others were rooting for history. The Mets kept hitting weak ground outs and couldn't do anything. When Heston came to bat in the top of the ninth inning, he got a standing ovation. In the bottom of the ninth inning, most of everybody at Citi Field came to their feet.


Finally, it was time to do or die for Heston. With all the built up tension, Heston's first pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning nailed Anthony Recker, the third batter Heston hit on the night. The next batter, Danny Muno, struck out looking. Granderson followed Muno by striking out looking as well. That left Ruben Tejada as the last out between Heston and history. In the middle of that at bat, I took the photo below of the scoreboard. It is off-center and missing part of the board, but it captures the essence of what was happening.

Tejada worked the count to 2-2, and the videos below will show the moment when Chris Heston marked his name in baseball's history book. The video below is my view and call of the last out. 

Below is the call of both sets of radio and TV announcers.

Heston's no hitter was the fourth no-hitter for the Giants in as many seasons. They have now had no hitters in each of the last four seasons. The no-hitter was the 288th in Major League Baseball history. That amounts to about 1-2 per season. With 2,430 games played during the regular season, the odds of seeing a no-hitter are about 0.0008 percent. That is an 8 in 10,000 percent. Going to a no-hitter is on everyone's baseball bucket list, and I can now cross that off mine.

When I checked online for pictures the next day, I saw myself in the background. I'd like to call myself a freckle in the face of history. I circled myself in the photos below. Thank you, yellow shirt. You may need to click on them and zoom in to get a better shot of me.

MLB.com

USA Today

That is all for this entry. It will be hard to top this game. Thank you for reading!

Top 10 Autographs of 2014

Happy New Year! I hope you had a great one like I did. I did a Top 10 Autographs of 2013 post last year, and it's time to do it again for 2014.

I'm making this list with the following rough guidelines. 

• How good the person is. (All Star, Award Winner, Hall of Famer, etc.)
• How much the person means to me. 
• How I got the autograph. (Through the mail, in person, etc.) 
• Any fun story behind getting the autograph. 

With that, let the countdown begin. 

10. Harrison Barnes-Golden State Warriors Forward

One of the finest young players in the NBA today, Barnes did something few athletes do in today's world. Early in the summer, Barnes posted THIS message on his Facebook page. He invited fans to send him items for him to sign with specific guidelines. The day I saw that message, I sent out a 4x6 photo. A couple weeks later, I got the photo back signed in silver. He is now having a pretty good season playing for one of the top teams in the NBA. This was a great success from a class act to say the least. 

9. Trevor Gillies-NHL/AHL Hockey Player 

Up until this point, the NHL career of Trevor Gillies has been brief and full of controversy. He only has two NHL goals, but he is more known for his fighting skills. He was one of the main players in the famous brawl against the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2011. Now, he is playing for the Calgary Flames AHL affiliate, the Adirondack Flames. I went to see their morning skate a few weeks ago, and Gillies was as nice as could be. Click HERE for the full story. He might not be a great player, but I saw him with the Islanders and he will always be a fan favorite for me. Also, how can a guy who draws a mustache on his autograph not be on this list? 

8. Matt Kemp-MLB All Star

The first in-person autograph I got at Citi Field last season was that of MLB All-Star Matt Kemp. He was playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers at the time. He was recently traded to the San Diego Padres. He signed for a few minutes before the game, and I was lucky to get his autograph on the sweet spot of an official MLB ball. There was a huge mosh pit of people, and I was very happy to get this autograph. 

7. Al Arbour-Hockey Hall of Famer, Former Islanders Coach

The Islanders have had many legends over their 43 year existence. Few are greater than coach Al Arbour. He was the Islanders coach for all four Stanley Cup Championships, and was the coach for exactly 1,500 games over his career. I attended game number 1,500 in 2007. It was an amazing experience, and the Isles got Arbour his 740th career win that night. I have autographs of pretty much everyone whose banner hangs in the Nassau Coliseum rafters, but Arbour's has been hard to find for a long time. I sent him a couple photos and an autograph card in hope of getting a response. To my delight, I got everything back signed in the mail. It was great to finally add his autograph to my collection. 

6. Dwight 'Doc' Gooden-Former Mets and Yankees Pitcher

One of the most celebrated pitchers in recent baseball history, Dwight Gooden is also one of New York's beloved baseball stars. He won a World Series for both the Mets and Yankees during his time in the MLB. However, he also had problems with drugs and alcohol during his career. Over the summer, he appeared at the Nassau County Health and Fitness Expo to give a speech on how his addiction made his life difficult. He also did an autograph signing that day, and he signed three cards for me and took a photo with me. One of the cards was previously signed by Wade Boggs. It was great to meet him and hear him admit his mistakes. 

5. Darryl Strawberry-Former Mets and Yankees Outfielder

Similarly to Gooden, Strawberry is also one of New York's beloved baseball stars. He was Gooden's teammate for many years on both the Mets and Yankees. Over the summer, he was a part of the Meet Mr. Met Tour, a Mets sponsored tour of Citibank locations that featured various Mets alumni. I met Strawberry twice over the summer, and I took a photo with him and got three autographs from him over the course over the summer. He was a nice guy, and I was happy to get his autograph.

 4. Curtis Granderson-Mets Outfielder
A man who made this list last year returns again. I got his autograph in the mail last year and said I hoped he would be in a Mets jersey next time I saw him. It turns out I was correct. Granderson didn't have the year I hoped he would, but he's a Met and he's here to stay. He has a reputation for being one of the nicest current players in baseball, and he lived up to that reputation over the summer. I met him two separate times over the summer, and got five autographs from him. He is truly a class act, and I hope to meet him again next season. He also gave my aunt a shoutout, as you can see in the video below.

3. Jadeveon Clowney-Houston Texans Linebacker
Although Jadeveon Clowney didn't have the rookie season anybody planned on, I had a good experience with him before the season started. I had won a free ticket to meet Clowney at the Steiner Sports Store on Long Island. I got him to sign a photo I printed out. He was a funny guy, and if you want to read the full story from that day, click HERE. Hopefully Clowney will be ready to star for the Texans next year, or he could end up being another top draft pick bust.

2. Dave Coulier-Actor/Comedian
I very rarely get autographs from people that aren't related to sports. However, the perfect opportunity arose when I found out Dave Coulier would be doing a free comedy show on my college campus. Since I grew up watching Full House, I knew I had to get his autograph. After his hilarious comedy show, I went to try and find him. Long story short, I did get his autograph and a picture with him. HERE is the full story from that night. He is one of my favorite actors now, and one that I will always remember. 

1. Denis Potvin-Hockey Hall of Famer, Former Islanders Captain
As I mentioned earlier in this post, I have autographs of nearly every Islander who has a banner hanging in the Nassau Coliseum rafters. The one player that eluded me for most of my life was Denis Potvin. He was one of the league's top defensemen and the captain of all four Islanders Stanley Cup Championship teams. I finally met him in November when I was home for Thanksgiving. HERE is the full story from that night. The fact that I was finally able to meet him after many, many years puts him in the number one slot as my top autograph of 2014. 

Thanks for reading and good luck graphing! Happy New Year!

Cubs @ Mets 8/18/14 at Citi Field

After a pretty successful series last week at Citi Field, I was back one more time before I go back to college. The day before the game, I got great tickets on StubHub. I went to the game with my mom, who had never been to a Mets game with me before.

The game was a bright and early one, with a 12:10 p.m. first pitch on a Monday afternoon. I arrived at about 10:30, 20 minutes after the gates had opened. That wasn't early enough for me, but it was almost too early for my mom. Upon arriving at the gate, I noticed something I'd never seen before: no line. Usually when entering Citi Field, there is a line dozens, if not hundreds of people deep waiting to get in. But this time, I just showed up and walked through the gate no problem.

Being that it was also a Military Monday at Citi Field, I figured I'd get in on the act. I dug up my camouflage Mets hat that was a giveaway at a game at Shea Stadium in 2008 and wore it for the first time in recent memory. Once I got inside, I squeezed myself into a corner spot in the front row right next to the Mets dugout. Within a few minutes of getting to my spot, reliever Josh Edgin signed a baseball for me. I don't have a picture of him signing, but take my word, he signed for everybody that wanted one. You can see the signed ball at the bottom of this entry.

Since there was no batting practice, there wasn't much action happening before the game. The only other person to come over in the long lull before the National Anthem was Mets manager Terry Collins. He came and chatted with someone he knew in the crowd behind the dugout for a few minutes before walking over toward the crowd of people I was in. When he was near me, I took a selfie with him when he wasn't looking up. Unfortunately, I had already put the baseball Edgin signed away by the time Collins came over. I also had a signed baseball from him that I got last season. Instead of getting another one signed, Collins signed a blank autograph card for me. Here is a brief video I took of him signing for some of the people.

After Collins, there was no action until the National Anthem. I sat down with my mom in a spot where I figured we had the best chance to meet Curtis Granderson. I had met him on Thursday, and wanted to try again. Granderson signed three cards for me on Thursday, and I brought three more in hopes of getting them signed. True to his form, Granderson came over after the national anthem and started signing. I gave my mother the baseball in hopes of getting that signed as well. Here's a video I took as I got closer to Granderson, with a shoutout to my Aunt Jill (huge Yankees fan) at the end.


In the still frame of the above video before clicking play, Granderson is holding a card and blue sharpie. That was my card. He signed one card and then handed the card and sharpie back to me. After, I gave my camera to a nearby security guard to try and take a picture with Granderson. My mom was a couple people behind me in the line of people, but she managed to sneak her way forward when she saw a picture being taken. It came out great, as you can see on the left.

After the picture, my mom handed Granderson the ball Edgin already signed and a pen. Granderson quickly signed the ball and handed it back to my mom. For someone who hasn't gotten an autograph before, she did a great job. Also, if I didn't compliment my mom, what kind of son would I be? (Don't answer that.) Here's the card Granderson signed, and the ball that he and Edgin both signed. Edgin's signature is on the top.

After meeting Granderson, we went back to watch the game from our seats. If I haven't mentioned this already, the Mets stink. That's all for this entry. I probably won't be at another Mets game this season. If that's the case, than I think I went out on a high note. I will have another entry up soon once I'm back in school. Have any questions or want any tips? Have you met Curtis Granderson? I'd love to hear about it in the comments. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Nationals @ Mets 8/13/14 and 8/14/14 at Citi Field

I was at the final two games of the New York Mets recent series against the Washington Nationals at Citi Field, and I figured I'd combine the two games into one entry.

Wednesday August 13
The decision to go on Wednesday was a last-minute one, as the weather forecast wasn't looking good until a few hours before the game was set to begin. Ultimately, the decision was to go and go early for batting practice.

My friend and I arrived at Citi Field at about 4:45 p.m. When we got to the Jackie Robinson Rotunda gate, there were two lines of people waiting to get in the gate. The lines were formed behind two tables that would be used for bag checks. There was a third table set up about 30 feet to the right of where the second line formed behind Zack Hample. I knew the third table was going to be a line, so my friend and I decided to start the line. Within 15 minutes of starting the line, dozens of people were behind me.

Since I was in the front of the line, when the gates opened at 5:10, I was one of the first people inside. I went down the third base line where I figured the Nationals pitchers would be warming up. When I was running down the stairs, I saw a security guard holding a ball while making a throwing motion. I raised up my glove in acknowledgement of him, and within a few seconds we made eye contact. The guard threw the ball as far as he could, but I was just too far away for him. The ball clanked off a seat two rows in front of where I was. But, since nobody was there, I walked down the stairs and picked up the ball off the floor. I waved and thanked the security guard before going to my normal spot.

Eventually, I made it to my normal spot and watched the Nationals pitchers warm up. A few other people were standing near me, but I had enough personal space to myself. After wandering for a few seconds, my eyes widened when I saw a ball in a puddle. When I noticed nobody looking at me, I quickly snapped the photo on the left, then picked up the waterlogged ball. It was completely soaked when I picked it up. As I'm writing this entry a few days later, it is still wet and heavy. Right after I picked it up, someone told me, "Nice grab." I'm guessing the person saw the ball, but just didn't get to it before I did. Within five minutes of entering the stadium, I had already gotten two baseballs. I was off to a good start.

Most of the Nationals pitchers were warming up just a few feet in front of me. The closest player was Doug Fister, who was playing catch with fellow pitcher Tanner Roark. When they were finishing their catch, Roark was walking closer toward Fister. At the end, the two of them were throwing the ball to each other from behind their backs and through the legs from about five feet away. After Fister signaled that he was done, Roark turned his back to the crowd and flipped the ball into the stands. It landed a row or two behind me and hit a seat back. I ran over to grab it, and snatched it off the ground with my bare hand as a sea of other hands descended on where the ball was. I had snagged three baseballs, and didn't need my glove for any of them. Those were all the baseballs I snagged on Wednesday. Here are the balls and the sweet spots. Don't go away, there is more that happened on this day.







Shortly after getting the third baseball, a message was shown on the scoreboard that got my attention. Former Mets and Montreal Expos great Rusty Staub would be doing an autograph signing at the Verizon Studios in center field from 6-7 p.m. Since I was going to be back the next day, I figured I'd go to the signing and get a guaranteed autograph instead of standing around in the cloudy weather. After a brisk jog around the Citi Field concourse with my friend, we made it to the Verizon Studios behind a short line. After about five minutes of waiting, we went inside. No outside items would be signed, just the 4x6 photo they were giving out. My friend and I each went inside and got the signed photo from Staub. About a half hour later, after a rain storm had went through Flushing, I put on my sweatshirt and a different hat. Looking different than I first did when I met Staub, I went inside and got a second photo signed as there was almost no line. Below are the signed photos I got from Staub. That was it for Wednesday, as my friend and I just went to our seats and watched the game after meeting Staub.

Thursday August 14

Less than 24 hours after leaving Citi Field, I was right back at it with a different friend. Unlike the day before, I wasn't at the front of the line. After entering Citi Field, I went right behind the Nationals dugout with my friend. We saw Jordan Zimmerman signing for people further down the line, but couldn't get to him before he ran back to the dugout. Many different Nationals including Bryce Harper and Michael Taylor signed, but not for many people. Thankfully, I did get an autograph from one of the Nationals. 

Adam LaRoche was walking toward the dugout after taking batting practice when a kid in a Nationals jersey asked him to sign. LaRoche stopped, and the kid threw LaRoche a ball and pen. LaRoche signed the ball for the kid, then signed a few more, including mine, before going into the dugout. He actually dropped my ball when I there it, but got it, dusted it off and signed it for me. He used the first kid's black pen for all the balls. He has a nice signature, as you can see on the right. That was the only autograph I got from a member of the Nationals in this series. 

Shortly after getting the autograph from LaRoche, batting practice was over. One of the last players to leave the field was former Met Scott Hairston. He was walking to the dugout with a ball on his hand. As he got closer to the dugout, I asked him for the ball. He then looked up and tossed the ball to me underhanded while walking down the dugout steps. Within two minutes of that, all the players were off the field. One of the Nationals ball boys was tossing balls into the crowd on the other side of the dugout, so I ran over there and got one of the balls that he threw into the crowd of Nationals fans. Within a few minutes, I had quickly snagged two balls, which is all I would catch on the day. Here they are. Keep scrolling down though, I'm not done yet.

Once Nationals BP was over, my friend and I headed over to the Mets side to try and meet one of the best signers in the MLB, Curtis Granderson. Over the course of the season, I noticed that Granderson signs pretty much every single game, just before the game began, in the exact same spot. In hopes of  not getting kicked out by a security guard, I took a seat a few rows back from where I hoped he would sign. After the national anthem, Granderson came right over to where I thought he would be, true to his form. The security guards made everyone form a single file line on one side of the aisle. Here's a short video I took when Granderson walked over.

Eventually, I made my way to the front of the line. The person in front of me was getting a jersey signed, but didn't have a pen. I handed Granderson my blue sharpie and waited for him. As he signed the jersey, I thanked him for coming. While many people were getting baseballs signed, I figured I'd try my luck with cards since I don't usually get them signed at games. I handed Granderson three cards, one on top of the other. He signed all three rather quickly, handing them back to me one at a time as he signed them. It isn't much of a signature, but with a name as long as his, he can be forgiven. I thanked him, then went back toward my seat for the game. You can see the cards below.

My friend got a ball signed on the sweet spot. It seemed like Granderson was only signing balls on the sweet spot after personalizing them. Unfortunately for my friend, Granderson spelled his name wrong. In the crowd yelling for him, something must have gotten lost in his ears. Granderson signed for about ten minutes before going into the dugout at about 7:05, right before the game would begin. 

That was everything I got at these games. It was a good two days autograph and baseball wise. But for the Mets, it was terrible. I won't go into that, as I'm sure you know that already. Thanks for reading. Good luck graphing! Feel free to follow me on Twitter for live updates of what I'm up to.