2015 Dodgers Fan Fest Recap

The yearly Dodger extravaganza known as Fan Fest was this past Saturday and once again I attended and couldn't be happier to be back among my "friends" in blue. Official baseball season is just around the corner and this event starts the countdown to it in earnest.

While there are other things to do and see the main reason I and a lot of people attend Fan Fest is to acquire autographs of current and retired players along with some coaches. As a season ticket holder I had the opportunity to purchase tickets prior to the general public and also the chance to buy during that time as well. My main focus was to get Mark McGwire and to hopefully get more than one ticket as I had a photo and a black ball I wanted signed by big Mac. After all was said and done from the two sale times I ended up with 9 autograph vouchers with each one getting you autographs from two separate players. Unlike last year they were not spread out as I was double dipping in a couple sessions and I was scheduled to be done around 1:30.

I decided to arrive early as I did not want to deal with the massive onslaught of cars entering the parking area. Mark was in the 1st session so I wanted to be near the front of the line. I also had another person that I bought a voucher for but more on that tomorrow as that changed mid last week. Even with me being in the stadium parking area early I still ended up being around 40th in Mark's line. No biggie. First up in the Dodger pairing though was Zach Lee

Zach was probably the nicest and most engaging Dodger of the day. Hopefully he can help the big league club this year as I am sure he will get called up at some point even if it is just in September. He has a "quick" signature which made the autograph streak a little. Little disappointed in that.

... but since I had two vouchers I switched to blue sharpie for the second auto. Came out a tad better but his pen stroke causes streaks either way. Still came out good though.

Big Mac hitting dingers. I couldn't find a good enough picture of Mark in Dodger blue to my likely so I went with one during his glory days with St. Louis. Love this pic as the bat is just "floating" in the air and with his hand gesture it looks like he is commanding it. My favorite picture of the day. No streaking here.

And with the second voucher I got this black ball signed. This was the main focus of the whole event as I wanted Mark on the sweet spot of a black ball. I knew that he signed slow so the odds of streaking would be minimized and the result did not disappointed. Don't have many signed  balls left but this one is a keeper.

While I was acquiring those four autographs my friend Jimmy was in line for Orel Hershiser's autograph who was paired with Chris Withrow. He didn't really want or need Chris's autograph so he was willing to trade it off. Again, I had a ticket for that line but more on that in tomorrow's post. I handed him a photo and a pen and he got this 8x10 for me. Great signature with no issues. Thank you again Jimmy for the autograph.

I had a hour till kill before my next autograph session so I decided to roam around and saw that there were camera lights on near the 1st base dugout. I decided to see what was going on and I'm glad I did. Jerry Hariston was setting up for an interview and he started to engage with the fans and sign autographs. I did not buy a voucher for his session so this was a nice little bonus for the day. Great signature and placement.

Resting time was over and it was time to double dip again as I had two vouchers for Joc Pederson and Mickey Hatcher. Found this great photo of Mickey from an Old Timer's game but when I approached the table I found out that my silver decos (all of them) had run dry. Ugh. Hence why his autograph is on his leg. I only had blue pens left to use for the remainder of the day and a blue autograph on a blue background doesn't look good. Asked him to sign on his leg which was no problem. Odd placement but Mickey was accommodating.

Now for the odd signature of the day. When I approached Joc's part of the table he asked me my name which I found odd and knew right then what he was planning to and did do. He personalized the photo. What? Why did he do that? Didn't notice him do that to anyone else. Why me? You notice though that he also added his old number to the autograph as that is the number he is wearing in the photo. So since I had two vouchers what would he do on the ball?

Well he knew my name but thankfully he did not personalize the ball as well. You notice on this though he put his new number on it. So I ended up with a 65 and a 31. Nice. This was a replacement for a black ball I got signed by Joc last year at Frank and Sons where the signature streaked a little. This time it's much better with minimal "issues"

Down to the last two (4 autographs) sessions of the day. I needed to reacquire Tim's autograph as I sold the signed ball that I had of his but I couldn't find a decent picture of him playing as a Dodger. I decided to go back to his roots and printed out one of him as an Expo. The only issue I have here is the placement of the autograph as he put it right on his uniform which would be fine if the pen wasn't blue !!! Still a nice autograph though.

I acquired Howie's autograph last year when he was an Angel but I wanted to get one of him as a Dodger but since he hasn't played on the field yet there are no photos of him in that situation. So why not print one of him in a Dodger hat and jersey during his press conference? Good enough for me. As always, Howie is one of the nicer players and his signature is one of the best.

Last session and I finally got get Kenley's autograph in person. To me it is still one of the odder ones out there as is looks like a seven but hey, we all have different signatures and this just happens to be his.

What better way to end the week and Fan Fest than to get the Penguin's autograph one more time. I started off the week getting Ron's signature on a photo at Select a Seat and now he was last on my to do list for Fan Fest. Once again, Ron as always was cordial and pleasant.

That finishes up my day at Fan Fest. 13 signatures in under 4 hours. Not too shabby. Thank you again to Jimmy for the trade and it was great seeing friends such as Luis, Bill, Eddie of Harry's Dugout Fame, Franz among others. Thank you again to the Dodgers for hosting another smooth running Fan Fest event and I look forward to next year's when we celebrate the 2015 World Series Championship team.

= )

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.
-Penguin

Autographs of the Day : 2013 Dodger Spring Training @ Camelback

It's that time of the year. Baseball is in the air and it's time to go see the Boys in Blue. For the second year in a row I have made the trip out to Arizona to catch the team and all their new acquisitions from the off season. Hopefully this will become an annual tradition. I am already making plans for next year and hopefully it will be to see the reigning World Series Champs at Camelback.

The first day that I was there it happened to be Saturday and there were a good amount of people which was to be expected as it was the weekend. I had a few things that I really wanted signed, one, a single signed ball of Puig and Ryu, a team signed ball of the 25 man roster and Matt Kemp to sign the 3rd out ball I got back in Washington D.C. last year.

Around 9:45 a.m. the players and coaches started to come out of the main building to go towards the practice fields and though most players were not signing there were some that stopped and signed. I got in front of at least five guys and missed out on each one. The most irritating one was Yansiel Puig who is an up and coming minor leaguer. Got in front of him twice on his way to the field and both times he stopped signing right before me. That became the theme of the weekend for me with him. So on the morning exodus to the field I zeroed out on the autographs and thought this is different from last year as I got 5 in the morning. I was hoping for the best but not holding my breath. Took some pictures of them jogging around and Manny Mota on his famous bike.

Even during ST Uribe looks like he lags behind everyone and is huffing and puffing. Ugh.

Once on the field the pitchers looked on as they took turns doing some drills on the main practice field. Nothing like seeing Kershaw on the field. Should win the Cy Young this year.

Decided to venture over to the bullpen area where new Dodger pitcher Ryu was getting ready to throw a session and the area became crowded as I wasn't the only one interested in watching what he had. Half way through Mattingly stepped in with bat in hand to gauge the newcomer. Came away impressed.

Once that was over I headed back to the main practice field and saw fan favorites Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier with new batting coach Mark McGwire. Andre has been very chatting with fans lately and a group of us have been talking to him about places to eat in the AZ area as he is a foodie. Kemp as always is very nice with fans and willing to engage with them. Love those rare superstars that don't think they are better than us "normal" people.

Practice was ending and this was the time to get as many autographs as I could. As usual a mad rush towards every player as they walked off the field and they now have two different areas to come and go so they do not walk all together through one entry way. You have to time the ones you want as security will rope you off at times. Makes things more interesting to say the least. So with a few balls in hand I started and luckily I was able to end up with 6 total players on my 2013 team ball. Don Mattingly (sweet spot), Andre Ethier, Skip Schumaker, Jerry Hariston Jr., Ronald Bellasario and Brandon League. And guess what, I saw Puig again and walked up and he was signing a few for a few people then stop right before. AGAIN. That was now twice that day. Ugh. Andre worked the line and signed for as many people as he could as did Ronald. The others you had to track down and hope a little as they signed a few and then just moved on. After the last one I noticed Kemp in the corner getting mobbed as usual and I had two options. Do I give him my team ball or my 3rd out ball for him to sign? I chose the 3rd out ball as it means more to me and I assume I can get Kemp on the team ball at the stadium. With the 3rd out ball done I won't have to carry an extra item into the stadium. I got over to his area and found an opening and was able to hand him the ball and he signed it. He side paneled and I noticed he was doing that to a lot of people so maybe this is something new he is doing. Normally that would irk me but I am just ecstatic I got this one finally signed. That was the end of the day for me. So 7 autographs wasn't too bad considering I had zero to start of the day.

Back at the ranch on Sunday I went for day two of my trip and I was hoping for more luck on the autographs this day. So guess which one of the players came out first? Puig once again. He signed again for some people. I was there, again, and he didn't sign for me, again. Three times now. Sigh. This time a I was lucky enough to get two people as they walked out, Chris Capuano, which is a slight risk for the team ball as he might be traded but for some reason I feel he will be on the team and Tim Federowicz which I got lucky as he signed for exactly two people and I was one of them. So unlike the previous day I got 2 start out of my day. I headed over to watch them practice once again and Ned Colletti came out and even though I got his autograph back at fanfest I thought I would take a pic with him. Nice guy. Question some of his trades but appreciate the interaction with fans that he has.

Tommy Lasorda set up shop again to sign for fans again. I already have his signature but I thought I would get a spare one that I can either sell or use as trade. So if anyone wants a Tommy Lasorda sweet spot signed baseball I have one for trade.

Then all hell broke loose. The Immortal Sandy Koufax arrived at camp and he started to walk towards the field and I have never seen such a mob form in the short of time. I have seen Fernando, Lasorda and Kemp mobs form but nothing like this. I was somewhat close but by the time I got to the area where he was I was about 3 deep and the crowd was growing. He stopped for a few signatures then kept moving and the crowd moved with him. It was crazy. I have read on other blogs that people were punching others and hitting and shoving. I love me some autographs and would have loved to get an IP of Koufax but I will not injure someone to get it. Have some manners and morals people.

Practice was coming to a close and the players walked by once again but this time not too many of them stopped and signed. I was fortunate to get Ted Lilly on the team ball but no others. So that was the end of day two so I headed out. I did glance back and noticed Dee Gordon ( who I chose on to put on the ball ) stood there and signed for anyone that asked for his time and signature. Classy. I like the guy personally as I have chatted with him but baseball-wise he needs to work on his game and hopefully he will make it back to the bigs as we could use his speed.

I was planning to just leave and come home Monday morning but I thought I would swing by one last time to see if I could get any more signatures on before heading out. Got there and this time not a single player signed for anyone on their way to the field. A total blank for everyone. I was finally finished for the weekend. 10 signatures total. Not as good as last year but a successful and fun trip nonetheless. Hope to make it out next year and hope to finish the team ball at the stadium.

Pics of the balls :