Autograph Hound's Blah Blah Blog

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Reebok 2011 Heroes of the Game - Frisco

This is a charity baseball event that Mike Modano holds every year at the DR Pepper Park in Frisco, TX.  Mike gets a mixed of football, baseball, and celebrities to play in this event.  The money goes to Mike Modano Foundation which helps kids.
If you know me, football players do nothing for me. I was there for the celebrities.
If you don’t know Mike Modano, he’s the role model for sport stars – good looking, rich, and a very nice guy. He always stops for fans and attends lot of local charity events and you never hear about him getting arrested at 2AM.
When I told my wife about Mike being there, she wanted to attend. Kae, like every other woman in the DFW area, has a big crush on Mikey Mo.  What’s there not to like?
We got to the event early. About 2 hours before the homerun derby.  We waited outside in the 100 degree heat for the players to come in. There was no breeze where we were waiting but at least we were in the shade.
We watched various VIPs drive up and enter the stadium. Some stopped to sign and some didn’t.
One of my autograph collector friends noticed Mike Modano’s car. Kae, who was wilting in the heat perked up. I looked at my friend as asked why he knew what Mike’s car looked like. I didn’t get an answer.
I got the hockey puck out and gave my wife a silver Sharpie.  She doesn’t do autographs. She knows this keeps me out of trouble so she tolerates my hobby but she really doesn’t want to participate. Sometimes she’ll reluctantly attend a function like this or help me carry things but it’s not her thing.  This time she had no problem getting into the crowd surrounding Mike Modano. 
I watched as he signed for everyone.  Kae came back with a signed puck and a content smile.  She was tired and hot but this was exciting for her.
We waited for another 30 minutes or so and decided to go into the stadium.   We figured all of the celebrities we were interested in must have come earlier.
Not seconds after we found our seats I saw Michael Clarke Duncan. He was talking with the other players for the game as some remaining photo ops and interviews were being done.  I made my way to the area behind home plate and asked for an autograph. He smiled and said sure. I had my sharpie and clipboard ready and slipped it under the foul ball netting.  He took his time and gave a great signature.  Before he was finished with my photo a dozen people crowded me asking him for an autograph. He was friendly and signed for most everyone in the Texas heat.

I felt like a stalker with Dave Annable.  He’d walk one way and I’d tried to get his attention and failed and then he’d move the other way. We played cat and mouse for 20 minutes with sweati pouring down my face and into my eyes. 
Since I wasn’t having luck with Dave, when I noticed Geoff Stults I moved over to hm.  He was already signing for some others and I joined the queue.  He liked the photo I had for him and he even called over Dave Annable. He said something about how handsome he looked in the photo.  Dave responded by telling him that didn’t mean he could fly a jet. 
That was when I caught Dave’s eye and just raised an eyebrow to him in question.  He nodded back and continued to sign for some others. Even though it went unspoken, he made his way to me to sign my photo.
He gave a quick signature and I said ‘thanks’. That was it, one word spoken between us.
After that, I have to admit the heat took its toll and we left before getting a few others I had hoped to get.
AH

1 comment:

  1. Twas hot but well worth it in the end, still kicking myself for not knowing about it years ago, esp when Rosario Dawson was here.

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