Nassau County Health and Fitness Expo 8/9/14

This past Saturday, August 9, was the annual Nassau County Health, Fitness, and Sports Expo at Mitchel Field on Long Island. I didn't find out about it until the night before, and once I heard Dwight Gooden was going to be there, going to the expo was an easy decision.

While I recently met Darryl Strawberry and Ron Darling, Dwight Gooden was supposed to be one of the scheduled signers. However, he cancelled the day of the first signing with Strawberry. Once I saw on his twitter where he was going, I figured out that it would be easy to go. 

Gooden was scheduled to be at the expo to talk about his drug and alcohol addictions problems, which caused him to miss the parade after the Mets won the 1986 World Series. I knew he would be doing a signing also, but I didn't know what time. 

The expo was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., so I arrived right after the doors opened. After walking in circles around the expo looking for where Gooden was going to be, I found the tent where he would be. The tent was pink for the company he was working with. Once I found it, I was within the first ten in line.

Eventually, Gooden showed up with his son. They sat at the table for a few minutes while security guards and other people arrived. The organizer then went and made an announcement on the main stage that Gooden was signing autographs at the tent. Within ten feet of the tent, there were a few security guards, organizers, among other people. After about five minutes of just sitting at the table fiddling with a pen and his phone, Gooden began signing.

A few minutes after the signing began, I approached Gooden. I shook his hand and introduced myself. Before he could sign my cards, a woman that was working at the expo handed him a sheet of paper and asked him to sign it.
No, she wasn't an autograph seeker. Gooden's son wanted to walk around the expo and play in the various sports clinics that were going on. But to do so, a parent needed to fill out a waiver. Gooden filled out the waiver for his son, signing and spelling out his name along with the date on the waiver. I wonder whatever happened to that waiver.

After signing the waiver, Gooden looked up at me and took the blue sharpie I held in his direction. I placed all the cards I had on the table, including a card of him and Wade Boggs that Boggs had signed in the mail years ago. He signed all three cards that I had, then I took a photo with him, thanked him, and walked off. Gooden had no problem signing multiple items for people as there was no handler sitting next to him. But when the line got longer and he was rushed, he signed one item per person. I was lucky to get the three cards signed that you can see below.

After that, the line for Gooden got longer and I walked around the expo for a while. Eventually, I noticed there were a few members of the New York Cosmos at a table signing. I had been to the Cosmos game against the New York Red Bulls a few weeks earlier, and was familiar with some of the players. However, I had no clue who was signing at this table. Only after getting signed giveaway photos from both Jimmy Mulligan (white shirt) and Jimmy Nealis (blue shirt) did I figure out exactly who they were. The Cosmos were also doing a raffle for tickets to a game and promoting their fall schedule. At the game I went to, they crushed the New York Red Bulls, who are in the MLS, while the Cosmos are in the lower league NASL. Hopefully they continue to bring the fun soccer to Long Island.

 After meeting the Cosmos, it was time for Gooden to give his speech. Here is a short segment of it that I recorded. That's all I have for this entry. Good luck graphing!

Strawberries and a Darling

The past few weeks haven't been too busy for me in terms of getting autographs, but I've done a few things. Here's a quick summary of a few signing that I've been up to recently.

I met Jadeveon Clowney a few weeks ago, but he wasn't the only athlete I met that day. The Meet Mr. Met Tour was near me at a Citibank that day, and I decided that I was going to go. Originally, the signing was scheduled to be with former Met and SNY analyst Ron Darling. However, the day before the signing, it was changed to Dwight "Doc" Gooden. I arrived about 20 minutes before the signing was going to begin. While I was standing on line, one of the Citibank representatives said that Gooden couldn't make it and Darryl Strawberry would be "pinch hitting" for him. During that time, I had a picture taken with Mr. Met. 

For me, that news was sad because I had cards of Gooden that I was hoping to get signed. I wasn't the only one, as people were holding photos of Gooden and other items for him. During the wait for Strawberry, the Citibank representatives were very friendly, handing out water and cookies for people to enjoy. Also, they were giving out forms for people to sign. The forms were for Ron Darling signed baseballs. The Citibank people said Ron Darling felt bad that he couldn't make it and he wanted to make it up for everyone. I filled out a form with my name, email address, mailing address, and whether or not I would like a personalized ball. (I'll take a personalized one, thank you.) The baseball hasn't came yet, but I'll be on the lookout for it.

Eventually, Darryl Strawberry showed up, parking his car in the middle of the street for a Citibank person to move it. I took the photos below of him coming in. I shook his hand as he walked past me into the building.

The line through the Citibank moved quickly. However, few people had stuff for him to sign. People mostly gave him baseballs or generic items to sign. Eventually, as I was getting to the front of the line, a Citibank representative went to the table with bags full of Modells products. During the signing, one of the people had went to the store and bought buckets of baseballs for Strawberry to sign. There was actually a group of people that didn't have items to get signed that were waiting for the baseballs to arrive. Here's a quick video I took of him signing. 

I soon made my way to the front of the line. I thanked Strawberry for coming on short notice, asked if I could get one of the baseballs signed, and thanked him. He then reached into the bucket, grabbed a Rawlings Official League baseball, not an official Major League ball, signed it, and handed it to me. Then I took a photo with him, thanked him again, and soon left the Citibank. The ball is a cheap ball, and the autograph should fade very soon. I knew that when I got it, but I had nothing else to get signed. I wonder how long it will take to fade.

Fast forward a week, and the Meet Mr. Met Tour was going to be back in town. Like the previous week, Ron Darling was supposed to be the scheduled guest. Also like the previous week, the website changed from Darling to Darryl Strawberry. Expecting to just see Darryl Strawberry, I brought a card and a large 5x7 card from the early 1980s that I found in my dad's old collection. Since I assumed it would be just Strawberry, I didn't bring anything for Ron Darling or anybody else.

I arrived about 45 minutes before the signing was going to begin, and the line was much longer than it was for the one the previous week. I got a good spot in line, just outside the front door of the Citibank branch. The line eventually went out the door, and around the corner of the block.

While talking to the people near me on line, one of the Citibank reps told us that Ron Darling would indeed be at the signing with Darryl Strawberry. As I was getting angry at myself for not bringing any Ron Darling items, the Citibank people said there would be photos of Darling and Strawberry available for signing. The rep also told us that no posed photos with Darling and Strawberry would be allowed because of the size of the line.

Once inside the store, everyone had the opportunity to take a photo in front of a green screen with Mr. Met. Since I took one the previous week, I figured I didn't need another. As I was moving my way through the line, a couple Citibank reps and a Nassau County police officer were trying to figure out a way to manage the line more efficiently. People were still entering the bank for banking purposes, and they had to deal with hundreds of baseball fans. 










Eventually, I made it to the front of the line about a half hour after the signing began. The person in line before me handed Strawberry a photo similar to THIS one, and Strawberry chuckled as he signed it. When it was my turn, I handed him the normal size card and larger 5x7 card. He signed both without saying much, then handed them to me and said, "Here you go." I thanked him, shook his hand, and proceeded to move on to Darling. With Darling, I asked for one of the giveaway photos. He grabbed one off the pile, signed it beautifully in blue sharpie, writing every single letter of his name on it. I thanked him, shook his hand, and got off the line.

Here are the autographs I got at the second signing. The Ron Darling photo is an 8x10. The Darryl Strawberry big card is the one with the white border, and it is 5x7 in size. It is made out of the same material as a baseball card, and even has stats on the back. It is a 5x7 card. I don't have much info on how these came to be on how many there are, I just found one in my basement. I wish the Darling photo was one of him playing, but it is a pretty good picture nevertheless.

That's all I have for this entry. It should be a fun month of August ahead. Thanks for reading and good luck graphing! 

UPDATE 8/28/14: Click HERE to see if I got those Ron Darling signed baseballs. 

Card Show 4/12/14

I am back on Long Island for a few days. It figures that I picked the one weekend the Albany Devils had 3 home games in 3 days to go home, but I still got some graphing in.

This weekend was the time of the big Long Island National card show, taking place at Hofstra University. I've attended this show in the past, most recently meeting the late Ralph Kiner in 2011. 

Now, back to the present day. There were many good players at the signing, but there were only two that I were interested in getting autographs from. The first was former Islander and Devil, Glenn 'Chico' Resch. Before I talk about him more, take a look at this brief video below. Resch recently announced his retirement from the broadcast booth. Here is what he told the viewers of MSG on Saturday night.


I heard Resch is nice to meet in person, and I wanted to see for myself. He was also one of the two people signing at the card show that was free with paid admission to the show. Other people, like Mike Bossy, were charging for autographs.


Resch was scheduled to be there from 11-1:30. I got to the line at about 12:15, and was behind about 100 people. The line was moving slowly, and I soon found out why. Unlike the other people who were sitting behind a table and signing, Resch was standing at the side of the table, signing and talking to everyone that had a ticket for him.

After about 45 minutes of waiting, my father and I finally approached Resch. We bought an 8x10 photo and had a puck for Resch to sign. First, I shook his hand, and told him that I had seen the Albany Devils many times this season. He asked if they were going to the playoffs, and I told him they likely were as he singed the 8x10 photo. I handed him the puck which wasn't an ordinary black puck, and my gold sharpie. Resch asked if I was sure I wanted gold on the puck because it may not come out well, and I said it would be fine. He signed the puck, then he said it didn't look too good. To my surprise, he flipped the puck over and signed the back as well. Before I left, he wished me luck in my studies, shook my hand and my dad's, and thanked us for coming. My dad was taking photos of the whole thing, as you can see here. Here is the puck (both sides) and the photo that he signed for me. He was as good in person as I heard he would be.

As I was walking away from Resch, the second free autograph was just showing up. That would be Ron Blomberg, who was the first ever DH in MLB history. Not wanting to wait in another long line, my father and I wanted to explore the show. Before that, I took a selfie with Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, from very far away. From what I heard, he wasn't the friendliest person. He didn't show up until 20 minutes after his signing was scheduled to begin. He even left half an hour before it was scheduled to end.

After seeing almost every type of sports memorabilia that one could imagine, I went back to see how Ron Blomberg's line was. An hour into the two hour signing, there was no line! 

All the people waiting for the free autograph had gotten the signature and left quickly. I walked up to Blomberg with  two cards that I had found in my dad's old collection of cards, and handed his handler the autograph tickets. After telling him how I had to dig into my dad's collection to find the cards, I handed them to him to sign. He quickly signed them in blue as my dad took more photos. He then handed me one of his business cards, which took me to his website. After that, I thanked him, shook his hand, and went back to looking around the show. Here are the two cards that Blomberg signed for me: 

The show itself was very well organized, there were many tables with cards, autographs, and other memorabilia from almost everyone you can imagine. I even saw a photo signed by OJ Simpson and his lawyer, Johnnie Cochran. There were cards from over 100 years ago, balls signed by American Presidents, pucks signed by Ryan Strome, and pretty much everything in between. 

With all of those options, I just bought some display cases, a few Rawlings Official Major League Baseballs that I hope to get signed this season, and a 2014 Mets Yearbook. Overall, the deals were good, the people were nice, and I had a great time at this show. Hopefully I can come back one day if I am home for it. 

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.

Here are all of the autographs I got at the game.

Greg Burke
Dillon Gee

Ricky Bones
Carlos Torres

Tim Teufel

Terry Collins

Matt Harvey

Travis d'Arnaud

Dillon Gee. He threw me this ball.

Thanks for reading! Best of luck graphing!