Signed Ball of the Day - Vin Scully PSA Authenticated

Today is Opening Day for the Dodgers as they play the Padres in San Diego and behind the mike and announcing his final Opening Day will be the immortal Vin Scully. While Clayton Kershaw is the "face" of the Dodgers not many would argue that Vin is the voice and soul of the franchise.

I have never been lucky enough to meet Vin face to face. I have been in the general vicinity of the man but never close enough to say thank you for his decades of dedication to his craft. When the 2017 season rolls around we the fans will have to accept a new voice coming through our radio stations as Vin is retiring at the end of this baseball season. I know we all are on a "day to day" basis and we should win one for Clayton before he his loses his stuff but Mr. Kershaw has years ahead for himself while this is the final one for Vin. So I hope the team can win it all this year so Mr. Scully can call one last World Series and hopefully witness the 7th in Dodgers franchise history. So win for Vin Dodgers, win for Vin.

The last time I posted about a signed baseball was 14 months ago and there is good reason for that, I got out of the signed baseball hobby after going through my collection and discovering a handful of balls yellowing. Not old balls mind you but new ones acquired within that past year. I was disappointed and decided to sell the collection and channel the funds from that into autograph cards. All the balls were sold or traded off...except for one....this one.

I have had this ball for almost 2 years but I never found the appropriate time to post about it but since today is the first day of the new baseball season which happens to be Vin's last I think the time is now to show it off. If memory serves me correctly I picked this up after selling off some other items to pay for this. I remember at the time that this was on a traditional eBay auction and I wanted it at all costs and was determined to make sure I won it. I remember that at the time I think I won it at a good price due to Vin's signature runs into the threads of the ball a tad. Made no difference to me then nor does it make a difference to me today. When I sold off the ball collection I just couldn't let this go as unlike players that come and go Vin has been with the organization since its Brooklyn days.

Vin Scully has been a class act his whole career and I am sure his whole life. As a life long fan I share the sorrow with other Dodger fans with the knowledge that this is the last year we will hear and see him calling Dodger games. When we look back on these years at least we can say we were lucky enough to have heard him and I personally can say I am lucky enough to have a certified autograph of the man in my collection. Toning or not this ball is going nowhere.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

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

Player Appearance / Signing Recap - Don Sutton @ Harry's Dugout On Saturday November 8, 2014

This past Saturday Harry's Dugout welcomed in former Dodger and Hall of Fame member Don Sutton for an in store autograph appearance.

Even with baseball season officially over and even though I have an autograph card of Don I wanted to add a black ball to my collection considering Don is in the Hall of Fame that makes him worthy in my eyes to use a black ball. I also planned to meet twitter friend Austin aka buddha_hat for a trade we worked on during the week. More on that tomorrow.

I arrived at Harry's around 12:30 as Don was scheduled to sign for two hours for fans. I didn't think I needed to be there at thee very beginning considering the length of time he was going to be there. When I arrived there were about 10 people in line so it was perfect timing. Went inside to purchase my ticket and saw that Don was chatting with fans and taking pictures. Always nice to see the athletes conversing with fans and not just signing and moving onto the next autograph. Eddie the owner was busy so I didn't get a chance to talk to him too much but there will be a former Dodger appearing in January who just happens to be a former World Series Champion. Can't wait. Headed back outside to the line where I met up with Austin and completed our trade and within 5 minutes we were both back inside to get our autographs.

I did not bring a gold paint pen as Eddie informed me that they would be well stocked with them so I trusted it would not streak and I wasn't disappointed. I think it came out perfect. Another black ball for the collection. PSA was also present so I purchased their COA just in case I ever have to sell the ball. Hope not. After Don signed I asked if he wouldn't mind a picture with me and he happily obliged.

If you notice on his vest it shows his current employer the Braves. Too bad we couldn't have him slip on some Dodger gear. Probably would have gotten him in trouble. Ha Ha.

Another successful day at Harry's Dugout. Thank you again to Eddie and his crew for having Don in and thank you to Don for signing for the fans. I look forward to the next signing at Harry's.

Go Blue!!!

Signed Ball of the Day - Adrian Beltre ( Black ROMLB Sweet Spot )

This is my first reacquired autograph ball since the baseball purge of 2014 and yet another black ball for my now small signed baseball collection.

I originally had Beltre's autograph on a plain white ball but I sold it as that happened to be one of balls that started to show some toning spots. Sold it for more than $50 so I was happy. With those funds I ended up picking up an on card autograph of Adrian from his Dodger days. A great looking card.

I thought I was done but I started up a trade with Alex over at Chavez Ravining and his eye was firmly on that card that I picked up. I really didn't want to give it up but I did as the trade was good for both of us and I knew somewhere down the road I could pick up another Adrian autograph. That search become more difficult than I thought. I couldn't land another on card autograph of his in a timely manner so he ended up on my long term list to reacquire once again.

One day I was looking at black balls ( not a search I do as often as cards ) and found this great looking piece. A great addition if I could land it. I think Adrian will be inducted into the Hall of Fame after his career is over and having a signed ball of his that won't tone ( knock on wood ) would be nice to have.

I expected a slight bidding war on the ball and I was correct and the last minute of the auction saw 5 different bids with mine coming in with exactly one second left and I won it for the exact amount I put in. It was close but I won it. Adrian is back and this time he won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

Player Appearance Signing Recap : Joc Pederson @ Frank and Sons on September 6, 2014

Yesterday I attended the Dodger's super prospect Joc Pederson's first public autograph appearance that was held at Frank and Sons. I expected a decent turn out but wasn't expecting the big crowd that did show. I, smartly, purchased my ticket 2 months ago the day after they went on sale. The first 50 were given VIP status which came in real handy as you can see from this photo.

The promoter (Honabach and Sons) did not expect this turn out as well as I was about 10th in line and he came up and told his handlers there would be no photo ops even though it was advertised. Honabach has had issues with past signings when they become too big for them to handle. If anyone remembers Kemp's in 2011 you know what I mean.

I estimate there were at least 200-250 and with Joc only signing for one hour I know not everyone would get their autograph. Again, thankfully I was in the VIP line which allowed me to jump over almost everyone. Will call is another joke but I won't get into that but again if you have attended these shows before you know what I mean.

Joc showed up on time and proceeded to sit down and sign. There are basically three big prospects in the Dodger system. They are Julio Urias, Corey Seager and Joc Pederson. I have met the other two and now Joc finishes up the tri-fecta. Maybe Joc was overwhelmed by the situation and probably didn't expect to see the sea of people but to me and the ones around me he wasn't that engaging to the fans.

Maybe it's his age (22) but I do appreciate a look in my eyes and hi back if I say hello and welcome to the club. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt this time. Twice is a pattern Joc so don't do it to me again. Ha Ha.

I ended up buying a photo at the show as it was better than the one I brought and ended also buying another ticket to get a black ball signed. Sadly my pen dried up just a tad when he signed the photo so it's a tad off but not too bad.

New signature by Joc as evident if you own any of his on card autographs

Handed him a ball next and thought it came out better.

All in all it was a good experience and it was nice to meet the young budding star.

Even though they need to fix their procedures, thank you to Honabach and Sons for hosting the event and I look forward to the next one.

Attended Game Recap : MAVERICKS 8 @ Quakes 5 On July 26th, 2014

With the Howie signing and movie behind us it was time for the wife and I to meet up with our friends in Ontario for the Quakes game.

Husband and wife Frank and Janet with their son Joey and his better half Kaitlyn were dressed and ready to take in a ballgame. We were celebrating my mother's and Janet's birthday and even though we don't need a reason to get together it is always great to see our friends.

We arrived about a hour prior to the start of the game and I was till in autograph hounding mode. I had 4 autographs I wanted to acquire. More Julio Urias before he is promoted or God forbid traded, James Baldwin, Chris Anderson which I knew became a long shot as I found he was the starting pitcher so that limited the window if and when he would sign and Tom Windle. I headed down to the area above the walkway from the dressing room to the dugout where the players come out and I chose to sit on the dugout side as no other autograph seekers were there as all of them were on the opposite side of the walkway. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Also, I wouldn't be post game graphing which meant I had to acquire all my autographs pre game.

First person that I needed that game out was Chris Anderson and he denied me and everyone else as he kept saying "after" he would sign which I assumed meant after the game. Well there went my chance for him for the day. Next up was James Baldwin and after he set his stuff on the bench in the dugout he came back and starting signing for fans but was doing the other side and not my side. Luckily I got his attention and I was the second to last person he signed for. Thank you for the autograph James.

Next up was Julio Urias. Now I already have his autograph on a few things but I want more. Yeah, I can be greedy. Since I was on my own and I wanted a ball and a photo signed I had to figure out how to do this. Well I was the second person he signed for and I handed him my 8x10 photo first of him in a Loons uniform as I already have him in a Dodgers uniform that he signed for me last month. I had him use this new blue paint marker I bought and I think it came out great. Thank you for the 1st autograph Julio.

Now I wanted a black ball signed by Julio so I stowed my photos away and went on the opposite side of the walkway where everyone else was and got in the back of the line and pulled out a ball I wanted signed along with a gold paint marker. He had some problem with the person next to me and I didn't have enough time to bleed out my pen prior to him grabbing the ball so he signed it with a slightly dry pen. Still a decent autograph and once again thank you Julio for signing for me and all the fans. You might be only 17 but you have been a class act every time I've met you.

After that I stayed around waiting for Tom Windle and he never came out. Don't know what happened but hopefully he and Chris Anderson will be there next year as I don't think we are going to another Quakes game this year. Well I guess 4 autographs for the day is better than no autographs for a day.

Onto the game.

National Anthem

Quakes mascot Tremor

The Quakes and the Mavericks had a dual no hitter going into the 4th inning but that quickly vanished as by the end of the game the teams put up a combined total of 13 runs. A couple of mammoth home runs by Quakes player Chris Jacobs and a Maverick player that I can't remember the name of as I am too lazy to look it up highlighted the scoring. It was an entertaining game even though there were multiple mental and physical errors committed by the Quake players.

The wife and I had a great time but the best part is always the time we get to spend with friends and family. As always it was great to see Janet, Frank, Joey and Kaitlyn and hopefully we can meet up again in the near future.

We are at a baseball game and mom is the only one watching the game

lol

At least someone is doing what you come to the ballpark for

= )

Signed Ball of the Day - Jose Fernandez ( ROMLB Sweet Spot )

Since my re dedication to just on card autographs and photos with the exception of a black ball here and there I have found it hard to find quality signed black balls. I knew it would be an issue but it is more difficult than I thought it would be. I picked up a Paul Goldschmidt and Cal Ripken Jr. signed black balls but once I received them I returned them for a refund as the quality in person was not what it was described or looked like online. The pen used on these has to be a very specific one and it seems a lot of people are using the wrong ones or the signers don't know how to use them. With all that said I finally picked up a decent one for the collection.

I picked up Jose Fernandez's on card autograph a while back as seen HERE . A great silver signature of the young star. I wasn't looking for anymore of his but came across this black ball that looked good in the picture and looks good in person as well. Only reason I ended up with this ball was that the starting asking price was low enough so I put my bid on and for some reason no one bidded on it. Thank you very much fellow eBayers for not making work for it.

Attended Game Recap : QUAKES 9 @ Jethawks 3 On June 14, 2014

My wife's friend informed us a month or so ago that he wanted us to come up and visit him up in Lancaster at some time in the future. Well my baseball mind thought to myself why not couple that with a Quake game. Off to the schedule I went and saw that the Quakes would be in town on this last weekend prior to the Single-A All-Star break. Well, well, well. Bought 4 tickets for the group and went about planning my autograph want list. Since the Jethawks are part of the Astro organization they have 2 top prospects on their team, Mark Appel and Carlos Correia. So on top of the Quakes I wanted I also wanted to get their autographs but with no pictures of them I would be going with the black baseballs for their autographs. 

Rumor has it that this would be Appel's last game with the team as he will be promoted to Double-A which is also the same rumor for the Quakes Corey Seager who is tearing up the league and if not now will soon be shipped to Double-A as well. Two players that I needed before they were gone.

Wife dropped me off at the park as she went to go get her friends and I headed to the line in front of the stadium as it was Altuve bobblehead giveway night. By the time they let people in the line was about 200 deep. Thankfully I was about the 20th in line. 

Not into bobbleheads anymore but that is one cool looking Star Wars Jedi Altuve here. Noticed that people are asking $60 on the bay for him so I will be underselling this bad boy for some pocket change.

View from my actual seats. Front row. See what $8 seats gets you in the minor leagues.

Quakes Dugout

A little less up to date than the screens at Dodger Stadium

Time to acquire some autographs. 

I was prepping my materials when I heard a fellow fan say he walked by Julio Urias. I looked around and saw him and a bunch of fellow Quakes walking through the concourse towards the bullpen/locker area. They were not in their uniforms yet but in T-shirts with their numbers on their back. Easy to spot him and I had my photo ready.

Perfect placement of his signature. My first in person autograph of the young phenom. He was still signing for fans and since their were not too many I pulled out a black ball to see if I could acquire another autograph.

Not as nice as the photo but still love the look of it. Two autographs and I was done with Julio for the day. These are for my personal collection but when I go to Rancho next month I will be acquire an autograph for good friend Janet. I didn't forget about you.

= )

At the same time of Julio signing I ran into Josh aka Dodgerbobble. He also made the trek up for some bobbles and autographs. His partner and crime Franz was also in tow and with the Quakes no longer around we headed to the Jethawk side to acquire some autographs. I wanted my two ( Appel and Correia ) and be done but they had more on their wish list. Appel walked by and said he would be back as he had somewhere to go. More on that later. 

One by one the Jethawks came out to do stretches and warm up and signed for fans. I was still holding out for Carlos. He finally came out and with no more than a handful of us he started to sign.

He was giving his "short" signature today. I didn't care as an autograph is an autograph. This one came out much better than Julio's on the ball. Thank you again Carlos for stopping and signing for us.

I waited for a little to see if Appel would walk back but I decided to head back over to my seats on the Quake side as I saw Seager was out and warming up now. I was able to see his number from 300+ feet away. More on that later as well.

Made my way back there and saw that Appel was there.

He was doing a Q and A with fans. Good speech. I enjoyed listening. Problem was that I wanted his autograph and in the corner of my eye I saw Seager as well. Wanted both but had to play it smart and no leave on area to get one and miss out on the other. To complicate matters I saw Matt Herges down the line and wanted his autograph as well. I risked it and ran down there to see if I could get a quick signature.

Perfect timing as when I approached him he was finishing up with a young fan and promptly signed for me. Thank you Matt for finally signing for me. Also turned down in Rancho.

Interesting "autograph" to say the least.

Back to Appel I went. He was finishing up his speech and as soon as he did a group of us approached him for autographs. Very cordial and nice about it. He did stick to one per person except for Franz as he got a second one once he asked for a personalization.

Nice signature. Would have came out great if he didn't have to shrink signature to add the bible verse. I am not going to complain as I have no problem with players putting those on signatures. Thank you for signing and speaking once again. 

Back to my seats I went and Seager was finishing up his warm ups and he had to walk right by seats to get to the dugout and I asked him for an autograph on a photo.

As in Rancho he signed with a smile on. Thank you for the autograph Corey.

I was actually planning to graph post game but I actually got all the signatures I wanted pre-game. That is a first. That has never happened for me. Man, I love minor league baseball. So much easier to acquire autographs. With that behind me it was time to watch some baseball.

Star Wars characters helping out with the national anthem

R2-D2 car

Darth Maul stalking the fans

Seager after the 3rd out of an inning

I'm blind

Quake dugout

Seager at the plate

Break time.

Time to go get munchies.

The Lancaster mascot and I

The wife and I and some storm troopers

Munchies in hand. Back to the seats.

During the course of the game Franz and I ended up each acquiring a ball from a Quake player. 

During the game a Quake player threw a ball into the stands and it bounced around among fans until it landed into my wife's hands. 

My ball on the left

Her ball on the right

= )

Even though Julio is a starting pitcher I knew he might be called in as a relief pitcher today and thankfully he was as I got to see first hand how he pitchers. Pretty damn good.

Julio warming up

Julio on the mound

Julio delivering a pitch

Quakes game was about over so we took some pictures of the four of us. 

Steph, Josh, Bonita Esposa and me

Just the wife and I.

As stated earlier I picked up all the autographs I needed pre-game. BUT, as we were leaving I noticed that Corey was the last Quake in the dugout and fans were leaving and not bothering him for an autograph. Well I had one last picture of him ( always bring back up ) so I asked him for another autograph. He was more than happy and told him it was nice to watch him play and wished him well in Double-A. He laughed.

Second Seager autograph of the day.

To long time readers of the blog you might have noticed that I am now wearing glasses. I knew I needed them for awhile but I continued to delay the inevitable. When my wife went in to get her eyes checked Dr. Liu checked mine and said I needed to finally get glasses. I knew this day would come. Dr. Liu did a tremendous job on the prescription and I am now able to see player's numbers from far away and balls that are heading in our direction. Protect the wife !!!

If you have any eye issues Dr. Liu can help you out. Tell him Dodger Penguin sent you. Thank you once again Dr. Liu for helping me see the world in 1080i high definition.

= )

He can be contacted HERE

Great time in desert was had by all. Can't wait to make another trip up there.