I was forturnate enough to be able to make it to the first day of Texas Rangers Fan Fest this year. I've had a hard time getting there in recent years due to work or birthday parties, since my son was born right around the weekend they always have this event. This year I asked off from work and Joshua's birthday party wasn't until 4:00, so I was able to go.
During my high school years, my mom and I would go to this event each year. We would split up and get as many player autographs as possible, which played a large part in my collection of signed Rangers baseball cards covering the majority of the 1996-1999 teams.
This year I was excited because the list of people signing included Nolan Ryan, Nelson Cruz, Adrian Beltre, Ron Washington, David Murphy, Matt Harrison, Taylor Teagarden, Matt Treanor, Michael Kirkman, and a handful of minor leaguers. CJ Wilson, Colby Lewis, and Fergie Jenkins were also signing, but I already had baseball cards with their signatures, so I was focusing on the others.
My goal going into the event was to get a jersey signed by Nolan Ryan and a card signed by Nelson Cruz. The event started at 9am, and Nolan was scheduled to sign at 11am, with Nellie signing at 2pm. All publications about the event said that wristbands would be given out to claim your place in line two hours prior to the scheduled signing time.
I knew if I wanted a shot at Nolan, I'd have to get there early. You never know how early is early enough in these situations, so I just decided to get up when my normal work alarm went off at 6am, and get there at 7am. That's what I did, and when I pulled into the parking lot, the line already extended the length of the south side of the Arlington Convention Center. I knew right then that my chances to get a Ryan autograph were slim to none.
As I waited in line, I stood in the 26 degree parking lot and watched the line massively coil up behind me. I'm not good at estimating large groups of people, but there were a whole lot more people behind me by 8:30 than were in front of me. Team employees made trips up and down the line making sure we all had tickets to get in, and gave out programs with details of the layout of the event and autograph information. Later they came down the line and made everyone sign a waiver, due to the various physical activities set up at Fan Fest this year. Finally a group came down the line with wristbands to claim spots in autograph lines. They were handing out wristbands for the first two hours of autographs, which covered Nolan Ryan, CJ Wilson, Adrian Beltre, and Ron Washington. As I expected, the Ryan wristbands were the first ones gone. It turns out if I had gotten there at 6am instead of 7am, I probably would have gotten one. (Dang it.) So my choice was to get either Beltre, Wash, or CJ. I already had a CJ autograph at home, so I decided to go for the player over the manager and went with Beltre.
When the doors finally opened and let us in, I went straight to the Beltre signing area and got in line there. I was about the 45th person back in that line, which meant I should be out of it not long after 11am, when he was scheduled to sign. I was hoping to get in line for a wristband for Cruz between 11 and 12, but we noticed that while we were in the Beltre line, the hoard of people that was behind us had already lined up for wristbands and began to circle the large exhibition hall. They missed out on the first four autograph sessions, so they were ready to pounce on whoever was next they could get. Sadly, after I got out of the Beltre line, I went to get a Cruz wristband, only to find out they had given his out at least an hour early, so I was out of luck. I was bummed that I missed out on both of my top two targets.
Oh well, back to the Beltre line for a minute. While I was waiting, somebody from our line got out and came back, saying that Hall of Famers Fergie Jenkins and Gaylord Perry were signing at their charity both not far from where we were. Like I said, I already had Jenkins in my collection, but I had nothing at all for Perry, so I was interested. I asked some guys I had been talking with to watch my stuff in the Beltre line, and I went over to see about getting a Perry autograph. I stood in line for about 10 minutes and was able to get Perry to personally sign an 8 x 10 color photo of himself on the mound in a Rangers uniform, but the catch was it cost me $20 towards their charity, which I gladly accepted. He even signed it "HOF '91" under his name, to designate the year he went into the Hall of Fame, which some Hall of Famers charge extra to do.
I went back to my stuff and Beltre actually showed up about 10 minutes early to sign for us, which was nice. I didn't have a Rangers card for him yet, since he just signed a few weeks ago, but they had some team pictures of him in a Rangers uniform on the table, just a bit larger than a normal baseball card. I decided to get one of those signed instead of the Dodgers card I brought with me.
After I found out I missed out on Cruz, I checked to see who was left that I would have time to get, and Michael Kirkman was the best I could do. He's a young, unestablished pitcher, but he was also the team's Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2010, so it's good to get those guys early if you can. I got my wristband at noon, but I'd have to wait until 2pm for him to sign, so I had some time to kill.
I noticed CJ Wilson was at his charity table now and he was signing, even after having signed for an hour at the team table. I got in his line and was able to snag his autograph on a card I brought just before he decided to stop for the day. I already had his autograph at home, but since I had nothing better to do at the time, I felt it was worth it.
When I got out of the CJ line, I met up with a buddy from work and his brother, and we went over to the other side of the building. There they had a huge concert stage set up to do Q&A sessions, as well as a small team shop and other areas selling game used Rangers uniforms and equipment. I checked those out, since I'd scored big and cheap on things there in previous years, but nothing caught my eye this time. I sat down with Jesse and his brother at the Q&A stage and listened to Eric Nadel and Chuck Greenberg talk for about an hour. I could listen to Chuck all day; love that guy. When they were done, the emcee came out and gave away some prizes for fans who correctly answered trivia questions. I won a youth large Michael Young jersey for knowing that Kenny Rogers won a Gold Glove for the Rangers in 2004. Not bad.
About that time I had to go back to the exhibition hall, and I got in the Kirkman line just in time to get my team photo card of his signed. Lastly, I stopped and talked to Jamey Newberg at his booth for five or ten minutes, then I was out the door so I could get home in time for the birthday party.
Overall, it was amazing what they were able to put together at this year's Fan Fest. The fact they have it for two days makes it even better. The turnout was unbelievable. I was disappointed I didn't make it in time for Nolan to sign my jersey, and that the people handing out wristbands did not follow their own written procedures which cost me a shot at Nellie's autograph, but I still did pretty good. After talking to a few guys in line, I've got some new ideas that I might use to add to my collection this year, which won't involve fighting thousands of other Rangers fans for position on cold January days.
These are fun times to be a Rangers fan. I hope you realize how good we've got it these days.
No comments:
Post a Comment