Robin Yount 2011 TriStar Houston

More Mr. Peabody and the WABAC trips…

This was a quick day trip to Houston and back. Robin Yount was at the TriStar Houston show.

AH

Dick Williams TriStar Houston 2009

More Mr. Peabody and the WABAC trips…

I don’t remember anything about this signing other I drove to Houston. I just know I was happy to add Dick Williams to my collection

AH

Frank Thomas TriStar Houston 2012

More Mr. Peabody and the WABAC trips…

I can’t believe this was 8 years ago.  As is often the case, I drove down to Houston early in the morning. Frank Thomas was friendly an all smiles.  

AH

Bruce Sutter TriStar Houston 2008

More Mr. Peabody and the WABAC trips…

Again, I don’t remember much about Bruce Sutter’s signing.

As is often the case, I drove down to Houston early in the morning. Got a few autographs. Then rushed back to Dallas to try to beat the traffic.

AH

Cal Ripken Jr TriStar Houston 2009

More Mr. Peabody and the WABAC trips…

For me this was an expensive autograph. The price as high but there was an additional charge for each inscription. The thing that stands out was that Cal Ripken Jr fans were having 2 or 3 inscriptions added to each item. And I saw sever Jerseys with many ore than that added to them.

Cal seemed very friendly and engaging with his fans.

AH

Tony Perez TriStar Houston 2005

More Mr. Peabody and the WABAC trips…

More Big Red Machine. Again, at a TriStar how in Houston. Tony Perez signed my baseball

AH

Eddie Murray Houston Tristar 2009

More Mr. Peabody and the WABAC trips…

Also at TriStar in 2009 Eddie Murray signed my baseball.

AH

Joe Morgan Houston Tristar 2005

More Mr. Peabody and the WABAC trips…

Did the Reds have an awesome team in the 70’s?  so many Hall of Famers.

This was another TriSar show in Houston. Joe Morgan is another nice addition to the collection.

AH

Paul Molitor Houston TriStar 2009

More Mr. Peabody and the WABAC trips…

This time I have the autograph in my retentive spreadsheet.  It was 2009 in Houston at a TriStar show. While I rarely got see Paul Molitor play, I was happy to add him to the collection.

AH

Dallas Keuchel and Billy Wagner TriStar Houston 2016

The trip to the Houston TriStar show was rounded out by picking up Billy Wagner and Dallas Keuchel.

Both were pleasant and the fans were excited to see them.  Both being home town heroes, they drew large lines.

I was just looking forward to the 4 ½ hour drive home.  Although, these trips are so much easier now that the speed limit is 70 MPH most of the way, these surgical strike trips to Houston (driving down in the morning and driving back in the afternoon) get old over the years. 20 years ago, the max speed was 55 and the trip was easily 6 hours.

Please don’t do the math on ‘miles’ x ‘posted speed limited’ = ‘duration of trip’.  The math doesn’t work.  Let’s just say, at times, the car suffers a mechanical issue and exceeds the speed limit. 

AH

Curt Schilling – we never talk TriStar Houston 2016

I’m a somewhat apologetic Phillies fan. I love my Phils. I don’t watch often enough and I don’t check their standings as close as I should, but I love them.

I watched them in 72 (I was a little kid) and they only won 59 games. Of that, 27 were won by Carlton.

I watched in 80 and their Series win. I watched in 81 and their series loss.  I watched then 08 and 09 when they went to the series back to back.

I also watched them in 93 and nearly cried when Joe Carter drove one out of the park.  I watched them over the next few years.  My buddy and I would drive to Houston for the weekend and we would catch the Phillies as they playe

d the Astros.

I would bring a few baseballs and hang out during batting practice and get the various players to sign. Those were team balls. The once clean white covers slowly became littered with blue ink.  The balls have no value except as memories.  I was just excited to say ‘Hey, Dutch, sign my ball?’, ‘Eisie – got a second?’, ‘Krucker can you come over for a second?’, ‘Nails! Do me a favor and sign!’  And they did. I got the big names and the journeymen.  I got starters and benchwarmers. 

However, I did not get Curt Schilling. My friend and I went 3 years in a row.  Curt never signed for me. Granted, he signed for kids. He signed for adults that showed cleavage. But I didn’t fit either of those categories.  No hard feeling.

Then for some strange quirk of fate, Curt Schilling was going to be at ComicCon. Yeah, the same ComicCon I go to in San Diego.  How strange is that?

I brought a ball. I was in line to get a poster signed by him. I didn’t care about the poster promoting a video game. I just wanted to get him to finally sign my ball. When I was about 15 people back in line, I dug into my bag and fished out a ball.  Schilling saw me do this.  He leaned over to his handler and said something.  The handler got up and walked the crowd and said that Schilling was only signing the poster.

When I got to the front of the line, I mentioned I brought a ball. I was fan. I had everyone else from the 93 team.  I asked he would sign it. He signed my poster and I left.

On the plus side, I did meet a guy later that day and he said Schilling signed a ball for his 4 year old.

Then in 2016, TriStar brought Schilling to Houston. I bought a ticket.  While in line, I wondered what I’d say. I thought about the 93 season. I thought about the ‘bloody sock’. Tickets left in the box office for his Dad. I thought about SDCC and the video game poster.

When I handed over my ball, Schilling just looked at me. Even though he was chatting with others the vibe was: don’t talk to me. So I didn’t say a word. I gave him the ball. I looked at him. He handed it back and we made eye contact.  He hadn’t said hello. So I didn’t.  I just nodded and left.

Maybe one day, we’ll share moment and chat and catch up on all of the things that a long time fan has to say.

AH

Rudy Ruettiger TriStar Houston 2016

I did a quick trip to Houston for the TriStar Show.  While the shows have shrunk over the years, they still provide a good opportunity for autographs.  At this show Rudy Ruettiger was there. We have all seen the movie Rudy.  Well, this was the ‘Rudy’ that inspired the movie.

He was nice. He was friendly.  This movie has influenced a lot of people. Because of that, people had a lot to tell him. They all had a story to tell. I’m sure he has heard it all before.  He was patient and listened to it all. It seemed he really listened.  He chatted back.  He interacted.

A good guy.

AH

Jenny who...?

Being an admittedly poor alumni I can still feel sheepish about not knowing who Jenny Finch is; especially when everyone else in the world does.

In 2008, I was at another card show in Houston. I was there to get Cal Ripkin Jr’s and Paul Moliter’s autographs. Both were Hall of Famers and would be great additions to my collection.

I got to the show early and while hanging out I saw that Jenny Finch was signing also. To put it bluntly, I never heard of her. There was some buzz around the convention floor about her being there and I found out she went to the UofA. Since I had some extra time I figured I would pick up her autograph too.  I was going to get a couple of extra balls signed thinking it would be a Christmas present for some fellow alumni. At the time I doubted they would know who she was so I would have to send a note to explain the how’s and why’s I sent them a softball.

I was standing in line and in she came. The crowd was applauding.  Question marks went up over my head but maybe she was a hometown hero or something.  Since I’m tall I could see over most of the crowd all I saw was a very beautiful tall blond come in.  I figured the blond was the handler as softball players are usually shorter and heftier and not nearly so stunning.  No, I was wrong, that was Jenny.  

Wow, I was really off my game and feeling embarrassed for not knowing her.  So while waiting in line, I was trying to pick up on something that the people near me were saying that I could use when I got to the front of the line. Nothing that anyone was saying was intriguing enough to use. Not only was I unprepared -I DIDN’T even wear a UofA shirt.

This is a disclaimer – my wife would say I wanted something to say because I wanted to flirt with her. Jenny is SO not in my league. I just wanted something to say to create a nice ambiance because I’m a polite guy and I don’t want her to think I’m just a rude jerk that was going to sell the autographs on eBay later that day. I just wanted to show some politeness and people skills.

The people around me talked about gold and silver medals from the Olympics. While I knew we had an Olympic team I didn’t know we won. So besides being a bad alumni, I’m a bad American too.

When I got to the front of the line I did the typical: Thanks for coming here today. It’s a no brainer but polite. Then I asked before I even thought – How many people have sang the UofA fight song for you?   She stopped and laughed. She told me no one.  I told I went to the UofA also. Still smiling, she then told me to sing it for her. Well, I don’t sing but it’s very hard to turn down a beautiful woman when they ask you to do something. I got out the first 2 lines and quit. She laughed and I was happy I had my 15 seconds of fame with Jenny.

The next work day I‘m telling an old boss about this encounter.  She got very excited and started telling me about Jenny’s career and how her daughter worships her. They had to paint the daughter’s bedroom in blue and red (UofA colors) and the daughter had a huge poster of Jenny on her wall.  Well, that made it easy to know where one of the extra balls I got signed was going.

When I brought the ball to the old boss, she held like it was the Holy Grail.  I really laughed out loud.

I emailed one of my baseball card collecting buddies about my adventure. We grew up together in Jersey and he later moved to Seattle.  I figured there was no reason he would know about her. He didn’t go to the UofA and he loves baseball and not softball.  His reply email came quickly telling me I’m an idiot for not knowing Jenny. He knew all about her. When I asked why, he was quick to point out 2 Olympic medals. Plus a card collecting magazine had done a cover story on her recently. Then he told me I should read the magazine once in a while. 

The other emails from my old college friends were also full of surprise that I was so clueless. They told me how she was PAC 10 player of the year and that her number was retired at the UofA and then they rolled on endlessly about her accomplishments. Of course they had to ask how pretty she really was.

Even my wife and sister knew her - from The Apprentice no less. And yes, they too had to ask if she was as pretty in person as on TV.

It became a joke that I was the only guy in America who didn’t know her.  I would bring up getting her autograph in some random conversation and the other person would instantly know her and wonder how I tied my shoes in the morning because I was so clueless.

So Jenny, let me apologize for not knowing you.  I’m very glad I got the chance to get your signature and to sing to you.

AH