Player Appearance Recap : Drew Butera @ Sports Authority on July 12th, 2014

It has been a long time ( 8 months give or take ) since I attended a free public signing. Its been even longer if I don't count the Dodgers Mall Tour from last year. I used to attend almost all these signings whether they were at a cell phone store, Best Buy, Living Spaces or Sports Authority. Part of the reason is that the last few I would have been interested in were big name players ( Kershaw, Gonzalez ) which meant the lines were excessively long and I didn't stick around for a hour signing when I knew I wouldn't get an autograph. The other reason is that if wasn't a big name player I already had the autograph of whichever player was appearing. With that said it has been a very long time for me when it came to a free signing where I would have to wait hours for an autograph.

Well it was announced a little while back that Drew Butera was going to do an appearance at a local Sports Authority and if this was done last year I wouldn't have gone as I would not have wanted to use a ball for his autograph. No offense to Drew but I was wasting too many baseballs on bench and/or spot start players. If you weren't a starter or a retired player I wasn't going to use a baseball. Well with my ball purge I am now into 8x10's and I knew I was going to go the game on the same day and had baseline seats which ups your chances for autographs. But if I could guarantee an autograph why pass on it? I have this photo of Drew and Beckett from Beckett's no-hitter and want both players to sign so if I could get one half by spending a couple hours in line why not? I also have a picture of Drew pitching so I hoped to get that signed as well. Sometimes you can sneak a second autograph request in when the player is a big name.

Off to Sports Authority I went. I arrived around 8:30 for the scheduled 11 signing. I was about the 7th person in line. Of course when it started I ended up being the 13th. We all know how that happens. Drew showed up right on time and started signing. I still wanted the two items signed and hoped I could get it done. Sometimes the promoters start enforcing their one per person rules. My priority was the 8x10 of Drew and Josh Beckett. A nice 2 subject project for me.Hopefully I can get Josh to sign it as I don't think he will be with the team next year. Till then here is what it looks like without Josh's autograph.

Drew and Josh

My other picture I wanted signed was of Drew when he was called upon in a game early this year to pitch in relief. I think it is a unique picture to get signed as he being a catcher he probably doesn't see many of these to sign. He gladly signed it for me. Woo Hoo. Two autographs for the collection in the span of seconds.

Drew as a pitcher

Drew was cordial and friendly and engaged the fans. Thank you for showing up and signing for us and thank you to Sports Authority for hosting the event.