This Is Harder Than I Thought

Getting back into blogging about the Yankees has been tough since I returned from my hiatus. First game back was on My9. Then a day game. As for the last few games? I missed those because I made my annual trek to Cooperstown for the HOF Induction festivities. Not much access to the games when I'm down there. I might catch a quick glimpse if I meander into a shop that has the game on but for the most part I hear/see very little. I did see Joba almost blow the one game (forget if it was Thursday or Friday). Joba blows.

C'town is always a good time though most people don't experience it quite like I do. I sleep very little and when I do sleep it's in the back of the family mini-van. Showers? Nope. Deodorant and toothpaste is about all I do. Meals are usually pizza and soda. I look at it like a camping trip of sorts.

I spend most of my time while I'm there loitering around trying to pick up some autographs, preferably for free. I'm an avid baseball memorabilia collector. I'm trying to get signed baseballs by every living HOFer. After this trip, I'm down to 6. Lee MacPhail, Tommy Lasorda, Whitey Herzog, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, and Eddie Murray are the ones I'm missing. This year I added Bruce Sutter, Dave Winfield and Rickey Henderson to my collection. I paid for the 3 of those. I also paid to have Whitey Ford sign my Yankee Stadium seatback. All together I dropped about $320 on autos. I did pick up 1 free one and that was from George Brett. I've gotten him before but it was on the side-panel of the ball. This one was on the sweet spot. I could have gotten a few more but since I mainly do just baseballs, I don't get guys more than once. I really do need to find other things to get signed because I do turn a lot down. I'll help other people out though.

There a few things I have for certain people outside of a regular baseballs. I made some bad decisions on strategy and probably ended up costing myself free signatures by Goose Gossage, Reggie Jackson and Tim Raines. I won;t get into details but I moved myself from the right place to the wrong place thinking that the wrong place would become the right place. Lesson learned. Stay put. I'm starting though to go more for the paid signings than fighting the memorabilia dealers for the free ones. They're very cutthroat and love to push and shove and lean over people to try to get stuff signed. Eddie Murray is now the only guy I don't have who goes to C'town yearly who does a paid signing. Unless I think of other things to bring for autos I may bot be doing this much longer. Ah, who am I kidding? I think it's fun even though I take it to extremes. What's 3 days, right? Next year will be tough anyway. I'll be leaving the wife and 3 kids behind. I have an awesome wife who lets me take these trips even though it's an inconvenience to her. Next year might be a little more hard on her with 3 kids 3 and under.

The trip was cut short this year as I had to be back for my niece's baptism. I usually leave around 11am on Sunday (after the HOFers golf). This year I left on Saturday at about 2pm. I missed the Saturday night event which usually yields a lot of free autos.

All things considered it's a pretty fun time. It may not sound like it the way I do it but I wouldn't change anything. I find it to be fun. Maybe I'm weird like that? Who knows?

I should be able to catch tomorrow night's game against the Indians. Knock on wood.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie