the twins autograph party results - or - dave goltz is keyser soze

i spent last saturday with my son at the twins autograph party. unlike previous years, the twins didn't publish a list of which players would be at which stations ahead of time, so we went in blind. they did post a list of alumni that were going to be signing, and i was disappointed not to see dave goltz on the list. goltz won 20 games for the twinkies in 1977 and later joined the dodgers for a few years. he was at the autograph party last year, when i got him to sign this 1978 o-pee-chee beauty. i had brought a stack of cards this year, including a couple more goltz cards just in case, but had resigned myself (as far as ex-dodgers are concerned) to trying to get ron coomer to sign my 2003 topps traded card showing him with the blue.

for most of the autographs, however, my son has a couple of twins yearbooks (2006 and 2008) that we have been getting signed whenever we can, along with a helmet. we also have a 2007 yearbook that no one had signed to date. both joe mauer and justin morneau have signed the 2006 yearbook, but not (yet) the 2008 one. even so, we chose to sleep in and not bother with the mauer or morneau lines. we still got there a little early, though.

the active players/coaches were first, and we took up residence in the francisco liriano/scott ullger/matt guerrier line. an hour and a half later, not too many people had joined us. two years ago, this line would have been blocks long, but now that liriano is struggling, it was pretty short. we had never got liriano's autograph, but we got ullger last year, and guerrier a few times. this year, liriano signed both main yearbooks, guerrier signed the third yearbook and a 2009 topps, and ullger signed the third yearbook and a 2009 topps twins team hhh metrodome card.
this is actually a pretty nice card for people to sign. i wish i could buy it in bulk rather than one per team set at target.

next, it was off to the jason kubel/brian buscher/steve liddle station. we had never got any of these guys to sign before, so it was a good station. short line, too. kubel signed both main yearbooks as did liddle, and buscher signed the 2008 book (he wasn't in the others) and the helmet.

then, matt tolbert/glen perkins/brendan harris. we had harris sign the only yearbook he was in (2008) at an event last year, so he signed the helmet and a 2009 topps. perkins signed the two main yearbooks, and tolbert signed the 2008 yearbook and a 2008 upper deck card.
these guys had a good laugh at harris' 2009 upper deck card which shows him lying on his back.

finally, michael cuddyer/rick stelmaszek. cuddyer is awesome. he signs a lot, and signs well. he signed the 2006 yearbook and the helmet (he had signed the 2008 yearbook last year). i had a 1975 topps stelmaszek, but we had him sign the two main yearbooks instead.

for the retired guys, we got in the rod carew/tom kelly line. as we snaked towards the tent, i noticed a third guy at the table - good lord, it's dave goltz! i was really excited. i got my 1978 topps and blurry 1982 fleer cards out in anticipation. now, it took us about 30 minutes to switchback in line back to the tent. that's when i noticed that goltz had left. i asked the security guy what happened and he simply said that goltz was gone. i wonder if he concocted a story based in skokie, illinois concerning a mr. kobiyashi. i was bummed, primarily because i knew that the line was moving too slowly to have a chance at coomer, so goltz was my only dodger hope. maybe i'll try ttm with him instead.

still, carew and kelly isn't bad. i got carew to sign the 2006 yearbook (on his twins hall of fame page) at twinsfest earlier this year, so we went with the helmet and a 1978 topps league leader card. kelly also had already signed the 2006 yearbook on his twins hall of fame page, so we asked him to sign the helmet and a 1987 topps card. both carew and kelly were really nice and personable, so it was a good way to end the party.

we went to the game (it was twins cowboy hat night), too. good, exciting game. the twins bullpen stinks. brendan harris was a triple short of the cycle; harris, mauer, young, and kubel each homered; berkman and bourn homered for houston - in fact, bourn hit his homerun so hard, two balls fell out of the folded up vikings seats in right.

after the game, the metrodome staff opened the emergency exits due to the large crowd. usually you have to use the revolving doors when leaving the metrodome due to the air pressure. with the normal doors, you essentially get sucked out of the building. i failed to keep a firm grasp on my twins cowboy hats, and they went flying into the plaza. my son was able to retrieve one, but the other was scooped up by someone else. dave goltz, perhaps?