Think Cure Autographed Game Used Jersey Hyun-Jin Ryu From August 9, 2013

Balls, check
Bats, check
Cards, check
Bobbleheads, check but debating
Jerseys..... Nope

That basically is my collection. I have stuck to my basics for years with cards only coming back into my collection this year. I have been debating the bobblehead part of my collection for awhile and guess I was just waiting for a good reason to quit collecting them. I had already decided to not add more to my collection as I sell them prior to the game they are given out at. I still had signed ones in my collection though.

Well Saturday's game was Hideo Nomo bobblehead giveaway day and I already sold them. Hideo is Asian. During the whole series with Tampa Bay it was the think cure weekend which is dedicated to helping fight cancer. My little brother Michael, God rest his soul, died from cancer 12 years ago in 2001. Right after 9.11. One very shitty month for out country and my family. One of the things that the Dodgers do is auction off jerseys off the players back via silent auction on the club level. They did this on Saturday and Sunday so when I arrived at the stadium I headed up to the level to see what was up for auction. The jerseys that were up for auction were from the previous game when the Dodgers came back in miracous fashion as they were losing 6-0 heading into the 7th inning and ended up winning the game in the bottom of the ninth with 4 runs. One of the best games of the year. So the jerseys were from a winning game and to boot an exciting one. There was a sign that stated that Kershaw, Puig, Gonzalez, etc were going to be up for bid on Sunday so I assumed that most of the auction would be that day and Saturday's jerseys would have less traffic. They had Crim (coach), Capuano, Ellis, etc. The biggest names were Matt Kemp and Hyun-Jin Ryu. Well I as I have plenty of Matt Kemp autographs so I wasn't looking for more and if I wanted a jersey of him I would just do it sometime in the future the IP way. A few of the other jerseys were dirty and didn't really care for them even though some people would prefer them that way as they know it was used during the game. Well I made it to almost the end of the table and I saw one that I wanted. Mr. Hyun-Jin Ryu.

Ryu didn't play in Friday's game as his pitched the day prior. That meant his jersey was clean and free of dirt and was white. Ryu is Korean which is means he also is Asian. So I made that connection between Nomo and Ryu. So two of my favorite Asian Dodgers ( the other being Kuo ) were represented in different ways on the same day. Now I just had to see if I could win it. If I could I knew it would go for a great cause and any little thing I could do to help beat cancer is a plus and getting something Dodger related in return is just icing on the cake.

The jerseys are won via silent auction and me being an eBay whore this was just up my alley. This also gave me the reason to fully quit my bobblehead collection. I rationalized that I can and will sell my bobbleheads for the same amount that I would pay for this jersey if I was lucky enough to win it. Now it was time to win the jersey. 

I put in my first bid and was told good luck and that the auction would end at 2:45. Headed back to my seats and waited until it was roughly 2:40. Ran back to the club level to see the auction to its end. Saw that someone else bidded on the jersey and with at least 10 people milling around I didn't know if that person was around. The gentleman running the auction stated "one minute" to get all your bids in. The catch was that you had to have your name, phone number and bid price finished prior to the end of the auction. If you were still writing it wouldn't count. Well I picked up a pen a few feet away and counted backwards in my head so I knew how much time I had left and made sure I wasn't standing right in front of the jersey to show where my interest was. Once I got down to 30 seconds I went to the paper and started writing my new bid in while counting still in my head and when I hit 10 seconds I was done. No way could someone come up and write all the information needed in 10 seconds to beat me. And nobody did. I had just won my first jersey.





Rookie sensation Ryu certified game used jersey from a great game with his autograph in a nice silver finish. It's great to have this as a collector but more so that I helped cancer research. My bobbleheads up now up for sale ( eBay ID : SKORPNIX if you want to look ) and I can more than say that it is an even swap and more fulfilling knowing where the money went.