The Autograph Game

By Josh:

When I tell people that I love to get autographs of baseball players I get a few different reactions.  Most people think its cool and ask me if I sell the autographs, some are jealous and ask me who all I have met and a small few asks me why I waste my time getting the autographs of people who play a game for living.  Well I get autographs for a couple of different reasons.

The first is because I find that getting autographs of baseball players is a fun way for me to stay connected personally to the game that I grew up loving.  Each player who I get an autograph form instantly becomes a player I root for and support even if they aren’t on my favorite teams.

The second reason I get autographs is too make my fantasy baseball teams better.  I only draft players who I have autographs from and my team is only so good when the main group of players I can select are Mariners.  I love my M’s but adding guys like Kemp, Upton, Kershaw, Linecum and other current greats of the game make my teams far more competitive and even dangerous in fantasy baseball.

The third reason I get autographs is because of the autograph game that my brother-in-law and I have kind of pieced together.  The basis of this game is seeing who can get the most points in a day, week, month or year based on the autographs we get and the points each autograph is worth.  So in today’s blog I am going to lay out the point system and the rules that we follow.

Rules

1. Points are not awarded per autograph but instead per person that you get to sign for you.  There are players who will sign a half dozen cards for you but for the points system you only get points for one signing and not for the total number of items at any one time.

2. You can receive points for the same player signing for you if they sign at different times.  For example if I get a player to sign a few cards before a game, and he signs for me again after the game I can count that as two separate signing times.  At spring training we normally separate ‘signings’ by locations and time.  If a player signs on the practice fields, then before the game at the stadium and then after the game at the stadium we count each of those as separate. (This was great for me when I got Justin Upton who signed at each of those three locations in one day for me.)

3. Never are you allowed to cut in front of a child to get an autograph.  If it is a group of adults your next to then its a free for all, but we always help the kids get autographs first, which usually benefits us as well so its a win win situation.

4. We don’t differ between what items you get autographs on for points but we do try and make it an item like a card, ball, bat, photo or magazine.

5. Have fun.

Points System

1 point is awarded for each autograph of a major league player.  You can add minor league players as well to this but what we normally do is say players who are first round picks or top 10 prospects only. In the fall of 2013 I will be attending games for the Arizona Fall League so each player’s autograph will be worth at least one point even if they have not made the major league level.

1 point for each All-Star appearance a player has made.

1 point for each Silver Slugger Award and Gold Glove that they have been awarded.

3 points for a coach of the year award.

1 point if they are currently a Top 10 prospect for their organization according to Baseball America.

2 points if they are a Top 10 prospect in all of baseball according to Baseball America.

5 points for each MVP or Cy Young Award that they have won.

5 points if they were a Rookie of the Year Award winner.

4 points if they were an NLCS or ALCS MVP.

8 points if they were a World Series MVP.

10 points if they are in the Hall of Fame.

*Some point totals have been adjusted for the 2013 Autograph game year.*

Just remember that the whole point of this is to have fun and make getting autographs even more enjoyable for people of all ages.  Baseball is a way for many of us to reconnect with our younger selves and hopefully this will had a little extra excitement into your next trip to the baseball field.