(If you have never seen the autograph game rules you can read them here The Autograph Game)
Mariners Fan Fest (45 points)
Every last weekend in January my family goes to Safeco Field for Fan Fest, 2013 was our 10th one. In past years we didn’t count Fan Fest for points in our Autograph game but we changed that for 2013. There weren’t any big point guys there but I was able to get Mariners prospects Taijuan Walker, Nick Franklin and Mike Zunino. Some of their regular players I got was Kyle Seager, Michael Saunders, Hisashi Iwakuma, Franklin Gutierrez and a few others. Some of the Mariner Legends I got was Dan Wilson (he signed his Mariners HOF Magazine), Dave Henderson and Julio Cruz.
MLB Season (32 points)
When we go to a MLB game our main reason isn’t to get autographs we always try to get at least 1 and this year my girls did great. The biggest point auto we got was 7 for Jeremy Hellickson who was the 2010 AL Rookie of the Year (5 points) and a Gold Glove (1 point). The biggest surprise auto was Yu Darvish, we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. When he came up and started signing he was right by my oldest daughter Gracie and we got slammed from behind by a ridiculous amount of people. He was super nice, he stayed and signed for probably 20 minutes.
MiLB Season (36 points)
The main reason for going to MiLB game is for autographs especially when we went to Volcanoes Stadium (Home of the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes Single A Short Season for the San Francisco Giants). A couple of the coaches we saw go through there was Bill Buckner (2 points) and Doug Drabek (7 points). We also got 2 autographs from guys that were drafted in the 2013 MLB Draft, D.J. Peterson (12th) and Braden Shipley (15th). Also, Tommy John made an appearance which was pretty awesome. Another lucky auto I got was at a Cowlitz Black Bears game, former MLB All-Star John Jaha, happened to be there throwing out the 1st pitch with his family.
Arizona Fall League (163 points)
I planned this trip for 18 months and the main reason for this trip was to meet and get autographs of some of the biggest up and coming stars. Some of the best autos we got were Albert Almora (Cubs), Jorge Soler (Cubs), Alex Meyer (Twins), Austin Hedges (Padres), Kris Bryant (Cubs), Mason Williams (Yankees), Corey Seager (Dodgers), Andrew Heaney (Marlins) and Jorge Alfaro (Rangers). It was my 1st trip there and I can’t wait to go again. It’s definitely the best kept secret in all of baseball.
Favorite Autograph
So normally my favorite auto would be worth a lot of points but that’s not the case this year, this year’s favorite auto for 2013 was worth 1 point. The reason it was so special was because it was of Nick Vander Tuig who happened to be the winning pitcher for the UCLA Bruins 1st ever National Champion in baseball.
He was drafted by the Giants in the 6th round and I hoped he would be assigned to Salem and he was. I took my UCLA baseball jersey that I had down to Salem. I waited by where the players came out and when he walked out I asked him to sign my jersey and normally I don’t ask for them to sign anything specific but I did this time. He signed it “To Kelly the biggest Bruins fan Nick Vander Tuig 2013 National Champs” to say I was pumped would be an understatement.
OVERALL
2013 was a good year with 276 points and gives me something to beat for 2014 which may be easy with us going to Spring Training for a week.