Aaron's Autographs

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Hartford Wolfpack @ Albany Devils 10/25/13

As I mentioned HERE, going to Albany Devils game is fairly cheap, as well as fairly easy for me. Recently, I went to the Times Union Center for a game between the Devils and the Hartford Wolfpack, AHL affiliate of the New York Rangers.

I went with one of my friends, and we had gotten tickets right next to the tunnel where this visitors would walk onto the ice. Since the game was on a Friday, tickets were only $10 each because we are college students. Included with the tickets was a voucher for a $1 hot dog and $1 soda.

After we each paid $2 for our hot dog and soda, my friend and I went to our seats just in time to catch the end of warm-ups. Once there, we were in a good spot to watch all the players run down the tunnel toward the locker room. As recently demoted Arron Asham was heading to the locker room, a fan asked him to sign something, and to my surprise, Asham obliged. I've never seen a hockey player in full uniform and skates sign something for someone after warm-ups, but Asham signed a card for the fan, as you can see on the right, and went on his way. If you are wondering about me, I'll get to that later.

As for the game, Hartford took an early lead and then Albany responded against a goalie that had never played an AHL game before. After one period the score was tied 1-1. When the Wolfpack took the ice, I took blurry photos of them running down the runway like the one on the left.

In the second period, the Albany offense exploded, scoring three goals against Hartford goalie Jeff Malcolm. The Devils maintained a 4-1 lead going into the third period.

In the third period, Hartford put up a good fight, scoring two goals to cut the lead to 4-3, but they couldn't get the equalizer and the Devils got the 4-3 win. Harri Pesonen had two penalty shots for the Devils, but couldn't put either one in the net.

Earlier, one of my friends had told me where the players exit is at the Times Union Center. Sure enough, I walked to where he told me it would be, and the bus was waiting for the visiting Phantoms. I had printed out 8.5x11 logo photos for both the Wolfpack and Devils. I walked to within 10 feet of the door where the players would be leaving, and the waiting began.

The first player to walk through the door was Darroll Powe, a healthy scratch for the Wolfpack. He signed my team photo and also signed an index card for me. I brought the index cards for random players that I would want more than one of and for people I didn't print a photo for. You can see the index card on the left.

I also got index cards of Brodie Dupont and Danny Kristo, top Rangers prospects playing for the Wolfpack.

After Powe, one of the first players to come out to the bus was Arron Asham himself. Asham had left the game in the middle of the third period, and I was worried that he had been traded or injured and wouldn't be there. But, when I asked him why he wasn't there, Asham said he pulled his groin. He signed two 4x6 photos for me and then took a very blurry picture with me. I met him about a decade ago when he was an Islander and I was a member of the Islanders booster club, and it was good to meet him again. I also got a photo of him on the Flyers, where he is fighting Cam Janssen, who is now playing for Albany. You can see that photo below. I didn't get Janssen's autograph on this day, but I should get it another day.

After that, another former Islander, Aaron Johnson, came out and signed for everyone. I had his headshot from when he was an Islander many years ago, and he signed that as well as my Rangers logo photo. I had a new gold marker and wanted to try it out, and it doesn't look that bad.

Shortly after Johnson got on the bus, the person I had been waiting all night for walked out the door. Micheal Haley, current Ranger and former Islander, came outside with a few of his teammates. If you don't recognize his name, maybe THIS will help remind you. And if that doesn't trigger your memory, click HERE. I wasn't sure if it was him, so I asked, "Micheal?" He responded by walking right over to me and signing a few photos that I printed out, as well as a puck. One of the photos is of Haley fighting Cam Janssen. A big assist goes to my friend for getting the puck signed for me. Haley also took a photo with me. You can see the other Haley autographs I got at the bottom of this entry.

As the night went on, many players from both teams came out and signed for the four or five people that were there. I wish I could remember who the player on the right is, but I can't. I know it is a Devil, but I can't put a name to the face. After a while, my friend and I thought it would be time to go, but we wanted to wait another two minutes in case someone else walked out. As we took our first steps away from the arena, Sergei Brylin came walking out the door. He signed for everyone, as you can see in the video below. Brylin is a special assistant for the Devils organization, and he was watching the game.

After getting Brylin, my friend and I took the bus back to campus and called it a night. Here are the autographs I didn't already picture.

Here are the team photos I got signed.

Albany Devils:
#31 Scott Wedgewood #14 Reid Boucher
#9 Joe Whitney #10 Rod Pelley
#26 Mike Hoeffel #12 Tim Sestito
#26 Dan Kelly #15 Harri Pesonen
#16 Chris McKelvie #2 Seth Helgeson
Sergei Brylin Signed under the word Devils in this photo.

Hartford Wolfpack:
#6 Andrew Yogan #17 Darroll Powe #16 Oscar Lindberg
#22 Andrew Rowe #44 Aaron Johnson #29 Danny Kristo
#5 Tommy Hughes #24 Brendan Nash #91 Brodie Dupont
#4 Conor Allen #8 Dylan McIlrath #26 Ryan Borque
#3 Sam Klassen #25 Danny Syvret #15 Marek Hrivik
#18 Michael St. Croix
Former Ranger Jeff Beukeboom signed on the bottom. His signature is sideways going onto the bottom of the word Rangers.

I'll be back at the Times Union Center in a few weeks. Thanks for reading. Good Luck Graphing!

Friday, October 11, 2013

Recent Autograph Tales

I didn't know whether or not to make this an autograph adventure. There were definitely an adventure involved in getting some autographs you will see later in this entry. But, I'll start with some of the through the mail autographs I've gotten recently.

In early September, I had seen that Mets outfielder Eric Young Jr. tweeted that he signs his fan mail. Knowing that, I sent two 4x6 photos to Citi Field. About a month later, I was happy to open my mail and find these inside. As you can see on the photo to the left, Young had written some sort of inscription that I haven't seen before. It looked to read #R2BI the first time I looked at it. Confused, I sent a tweet to @EYJr to ask what it said. To my delight, he favorited, retweeted, then responded to my tweet as you can see below. If you look at some of the pictures he has posted on his account, you see that he has written that inscription before and constantly tweets about his interactions with fans.

Former Braves catcher Greg Olson signed a card and a photo for me. I really like the picture of him that I found online after a quick search for his name.

Now it's time for the autograph adventures part of this blog entry.

As I might have mentioned in an earlier blog entry, I am currently a SUNY Albany student. A few weeks ago, I was working in my room at night. Suddenly, one of my friends told me that there was a reception going on for a famous Broadway actress named Carolee Carmello, who happens to be a UAlbany graduate. She had performed a concert on campus and there was a reception in her honor following. My friend went on to show me the autographs he got, as well as a picture he took with her. I looked it up, and luckily for me, the reception was still going on.

I grabbed a sharpie, brought my autograph book, and went to where the reception was being held. I wasn't allowed to go where the reception was because I didn't have a ticket, so I waited in the lobby of the building near where the only exit was. After about 20 minutes of waiting, Carmello walked down to the lobby where I was. I went up to her, and told her that I was sorry for missing the performance and asked her if she could sign some things for me. She was happy to sign something that I ended up giving away as a gift, as well as a program for me. I found a stack of programs on a table in the lobby and figured it would be better than my autograph book. While she had my sharpie, a few other people showed up wanting autographs, and she was happy to oblige anyone that asked. Before I left, I took a picture with her, shook her hand, and thanked her for everything. She thanked me for coming and I went back to my room to thank my friend for letting me know about the event.

Thanks for reading! Best of luck graphing!

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Autograph Adventures: Aberdeen Ironbirds

As a student at the University at Albany, I have access to a wide variety of sports teams. Recently, I attended a couple of Tri-City ValleyCats games. The ValleyCats are the Short-Season Class A affiliate of the Houston Astros. The most recent game I attended was a playoff matchup against the Aberdeen IronBirds, the Baltimore Orioles affiliate.

I got to the game as soon as the gates opened. I had printed out an Orioles logo on a large piece of photo paper. I had also printed out a basic Orioles 4x6 photo and a 4x6 photo of Zach Britton. Britton was rehabbing with the IronBirds, but unfortunately he wasn't at the game.

Chace Sisco Chance Sisco

Trey Mancini

Hunter Harvey, the Orioles' 1st round pick in the 2013 draft, was scheduled to pitch in the game. Some of the other people graphing at the game informed me that Bryan Harvey, Hunter's father and a former MLB All-Star, was in attendance. After someone pointed him out to me, I walked over to Bryan, and he signed a page in my autograph book. A nearby usher was confused as to why people were asking Bryan to sign things. Bryan's response to that was, "I was a big leaguer." Classic response.

As I always do, I brought my glove with me to this game. The ValleyCats have a policy where fans can enter and exit the stadium as much as they want, as long as they get their hand stamped by an usher first. During the game, I just stood in the area behind home plate, waiting for my chance to try and get a ball. It would come.

Foul Ball I got in the 5th inning

In the bottom of the 5th inning, Hunter Harvey was pitching to Yonathan Mejia of the ValleyCats. Early in the at bat, Mejia fouled off a pitch. The ball ended up flying out of the small Joseph L Bruno Stadium and going into the parking lot on the third base side. As soon as I saw the ball go out of the park, I was running full speed toward where I thought the ball would go. When I reached the parking lot, I saw that nobody else was there. Suddenly, I noticed a small speck on the pavement about 100 feet away from where I was. I sprinted in that direction, and found the ball lying on the ground right next to a car tire. I am pretty sure the ball bounced, hit the car tire, and came to rest right there. It was a beauty too, perfectly rubbed up with mud. I took the photo on the right as soon as I went back into the stadium.

That alone made my night, as I have never been able to get my hands on a game foul ball from a major league stadium, so getting the foul ball felt good. Later on, in the 8th inning, I was still standing in the same spot. In the top of the 8th inning, ValleyCats closer Gonzalo Sanudo was pitching to Jared Breen. Early in the count, Breen fouled off a pitch that went out of the stadium on the first base side. Once again, I was running to the direction of where I thought the ball was going to be. After looking for a couple minutes, I gave up and decided to go back into the stadium. As I was walking back in, I heard a ruffle in a tree near the side of the stadium. I looked up to see that Breen had hit another ball out of the stadium. This one hit a tree, and was coming straight to me. The ball hit the tree, bounced off the pavement, and then I caught it in my glove before it could go past me. I took a photo of the tree from the spot where I caught the ball after the game. Just like that I had actually caught a foul ball, and gotten my second one of the night. I took a (slightly blurry) photo of that ball when I came back into the stadium as well.

I had gotten two foul balls during the game, and I was happy to say the least, as you can see in the photo below.

After the game, I hung around the IronBirds clubhouse and got pretty much the entire time to finish signing my photo paper. I also got former big leaguers Alan Mills (Pitching Coach) and Matt Merullo (Manager) to sign a Orioles 4x6 logo photo that I printed. Mills quoted different verses of the bible on both autographs I also got Hunter Harvey to sign it as he may be in the big leagues one day in the near future.

Here is the big photo paper I got signed by almost everyone.

Here is a list in no particular order of everyone that signed it.

Coaches- Matt Merullo, Alan Mills,

15- Paco Figueroa

Players:

30-Steven Brault 16-Garret Cortright

33-Donnie Hunt 23-Hunter Harvey

26-Michael Joseph 56-Dylan Rheault

13-Austin Urban 12-Sebastian Vader

21-Jimmy Yacabonis 19-Jack Graham

35-Chance Sisco 9-Jared Breen

2-Jeff Kemp 34-Ronarsy Ledesma

51-Trey Mancini 10-Tanner Rust

6-Hector Veloz 53-Conor Bierfeldt

17-Manny Hernandez

28-Mike Yastrzemski

If I missed anyone let me know! I think I got everyone. Best of luck graphing!

Sunday, August 25, 2013

8/21/13 at Citi Field AND Yankee Stadium

This was one of the longest days of baseball that I have ever had. First, the Braves played the Mets at Citi Field. Then, the Blue Jays played the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Two games in one day for my father and I, it would be something that we've never done before.

The day started off when we got to Citi Field about two hours before the game was going to start. We had gotten tickets in the exclusive Delta Club four rows behind home plate. After going in through the Hodges VIP gate, we went right toward where our seats were. Unfortunately, this was the scene when we got into the stadium. Not surprisingly, there was no batting practice, probably because it was a day game after a night game.

Since there was no BP, I went down the first base line near where the Mets pitchers would be warming up. Before any of the pitchers came out, bullpen coach Ricky Bones came out of the dugout. Someone asked him to come over and sign, and he walked right over to everyone and signed for everyone that wanted. I got him to sign the side panel of a brand new official MLB ball that I had bought earlier. I had planned on getting plenty of Mets to sign one ball, and that was a good start to the day.

While Bones was signing, many of the relievers were getting warmed up for the game. The first player to come over and sign was reliever and spot starter Carlos Torres. He signed my ball right under Bones' signature. He signed for everyone that wanted, then went into the dugout to finish getting ready for the game. I was able to take a video of him signing for a little while, you can see it HERE. Carlos was very personable and talkative, as there was not much else to do other than warm up and sign.

As Torres finished up signing near the dugout, recently called up Greg Burke started signing. I got him to sign the baseball everyone else was signing under the MLB logo. I also got to take a picture with him. He was signing for a long time. My dad was further down the line, and he took a few pictures also. HERE is a video of him signing that I took right in front of him. Burke later got sent down after giving up THIS home run to lose the game against the Braves.

While Burke was signing by me, David Aardsma was signing for the people further down the line. When he finished signing down there, he came towards me. I had Aardsma's rookie card from 2004, and he signed that for me. That card is on the right. I tried to get Aardsma to sign the ball that everyone else was signing, but he was only doing one per person.

I had brought my glove with me, like I bring to every baseball game. While many other pitchers were signing, Dillon Gee was having a catch with one of the Mets bullpen catchers. When he was done, I put on my glove and asked him to toss the ball up. He responded by lobbing the ball underhand in my direction. I reached up and made the easy one handed catch. I've now gotten a ball at every game I've been to at Citi Field this season. Gee came over to sign shortly after tossing me the ball. He was kind enough to sign the ball he threw to me, as well as the team ball I was getting signed by everyone. HERE is a video I took of him signing.

As Gee was making his way down the line, All Star Game starter Matt Harvey had just finished signing for people down the line and was walking right towards us. Everyone was calling for him to come over, and he obliged. I had brought the umpire ball I got on May 20 to get signed by someone on the sweet spot. I took the ball out, gave it to Harvey, and he signed it beautifully on the sweet spot. He signed for a few more minutes, and I was lucky enough to get some of it on tape.

If you would like to see Harvey's autograph or any of the other autographs I got throughout the day, you can see them at the bottom of this entry. Harvey's would be the last autograph I got down the line.

Following Harvey, many of the pitchers went back into the dugout and got ready for the game. I went behind home plate toward my seats. After I had put my drink down in a cup holder, my father told me that there was a player signing in the corner near the Mets dugout.

I quickly noticed that it was none other than the recently called up Travis d'Arnaud. I ruffled through my bag, grabbed my team ball, and ran over there as fast as I could. Once I got there, d'Arnaud was still there signing for people that came over and asked. He signed my ball, then I took a picture with him as he wasn't going anywhere. My dad also captured me talking to Travis, and you can see that image HERE. Before he left, I shook his hand and wished him luck. He ended up drawing a walk in his first MLB pinch hitting appearance later that day.

Mets manager Terry Collins was sitting near the dugout steps, less than 10 feet from where I was standing. We yelled out to Terry to come and sign. He responded that he was working, and eventually came out. He walked right over to us, signed five or six autographs and left. I was lucky enough to get him to sign my ball on the sweet spot. My father got the image you see on the left while Terry was signing for the small group that assembled.

The national anthem was played right after Terry finished signing. Just when I thought about leaving, third base coach Tim Teufel walked right over to us and started signing very quickly. Teufel was on the 1986 Mets that won the World Series. He signed my ball on one of the side panels. I got a picture with him, and also shook his hand. Thanks to my dad for taking the video that I took this screenshot off of.

That would be everything I got for the Mets game. I returned to my seat, got shake shack delivered to my seat by a waiter, and had about a dozen waters to combat the 90 degree heat.

In the 9th inning of the game, the Mets loaded the bases for Juan Lagares with two outs. Instead of being a hero and getting a walk off hit, he grounded out, forcing extra innings. At that point, my dad and I left the game and headed to the Bronx for game two of our doubleheader.

We got to Yankee Stadium and were in line about 20 minutes before the gates were set to open. After going into the stadium, I tried to get a ball from the Blue Jays along the third base side. I was unsuccessful at getting a ball, as about five baseballs were within a few feet of me. A cop who picked up a ball told me he was going to give it to a kid. Luck just wasn't on my side at Yankee Stadium.

I went right next to the Blue Jays bullpen after batting practice ended to watch RA Dickey warm up for his start. Unfortunately, at Yankee Stadium, there are nets near the bullpen. I had to stick my camera through them to take this picture of Dickey and a coach walking toward the mound. When Dickey saw a ball he didn't like, he gave it to the coach. The coach tried to toss it up to me, but it hit off of the net and bounced back. When he tried again, he threw it over the net, as well as over my head into the lap of an unsuspecting fan. It was that kind of day.

In the bottom of the first inning, Ichiro came up to bat with a career total of 3,999 hits. Those hits include all of his hits in the MLB, as well as his hits from the Japanese professional league. See my video of the moment below.

I was sitting in my seat in left field when Alfonso Soriano came up in the eighth inning. The game was tied at two. Soriano hit a long drive in my direction. The ball landed about 15 feet to my right. It was bobbled by the people there, and came rolling toward me. I went through a row of seats, only to get beat out by a woman who kicked her beer over while picking the ball off the ground. You can see me in the blue circle in the screenshot I got off of THIS video. That two run homer gave the Yankees a 4-2 lead going into the ninth inning.

As he always does, Mariano Rivera came in to pitch the final frame. Surprisingly, he gave up a double to Rajai Davis. Before he threw a pitch to the next batter, he did something he has only done five other times in his career. He picked off a runner. Rivera turned around, and threw a bullet to Robinson Cano, who tagged out Davis at second base. It was at that moment that I questioned why Rivera is retiring. He closed out the Blue Jays for his 645th career save.

After the game, I went back over to the Blue Jays bullpen. I didn't get a ball, but I did get something. Check it out below.

The relievers had left the bullpen, and left the lineup card taped to the wall. There was a groundskeeper raking the mound. I asked him if he could get the lineup card and pass it to me. He walked over to the wall, ripped it off the wall, and passed it to me under the net. I took off the two pieces of tape that were attached to the lineup card when I got it.

Check out the lineup card right here, and click on it for a full size view.