As for the autographs, it was a bit more quality over quantity. I grabbed Jeff Niemann and Andy Sonnanstine right off the bat, their workouts were done early and they signed for ever. I literally was going to pass up on them because I didn't want to get stuck in a crowd for guys I've already gotten plenty of, but they signed for EVERYONE to the point where the line went from a crowd of about 50 to a single file line of about 5 people. Great guys who always sign up a storm.
After that the going was slow, snagged Andrew Friedman on a franchise history card by Topps, and asked him if it was "buy one Johnny Damon get a Manny Ramirez half off, he said not quite but they did come together. More on Manny later.
As the pitchers finished throwing their BP sessions and bullpens and doing fielding drills they all filtered into the conditioning portion of the workouts, and pretty much all of them signed after they were done running. Heres an action shot of James Shields...
He's always very nice, looks out for the kids, talks up a storm as he is signing, makes getting his autograph fun. I got him to inscribe Big Game on a card, his nickname is Big Game James. Not that that name held up statistically last year, but that doesn't take away from him being a great guy.
David Price did his usual sign for everyone while making sure people don't push and shove. He keeps everyone in check by letting them know he's going to stop signing if everyone doesn't take a step back. He and James Shields were going back and forth with stuff like that. I got Price on his Sports Illustrated cover, he signed right over the bubble. He tends to do that, I don't think I have seen a signed one that wasnt over the bubble to be honest.
After the position players wrapped up, it was a mad scramble. Most guys signed, but it was in about a 15 foot section of fence and most guys signed for 10-15 people and ran in, names like Longo Damon Upton etc. I did manage Zobrist on an 8x10 in the scramble, and got it inscribed with his nickname ZORILLA.
After that, about 150 fans were left watching 4 guys shag balls, as they were the last people left on any of the 4 fields. Odd that many people would stay for 4 guys, except one of them was Manny. I lucked out, I stood next to a Dominican guy who had been yelling back and forth with Manny all throughout the practice day. The series of events that followed was one of my more akward autographing experiences, but hey I will take it. Here is the run down....
Manny finishes the workout, heads over to his bag along the foul line and puts his stuff away.
Dominican guy next to me yells in spanish, Manny looks up and nods.
Manny walks in our general direction.
I am annihilated by seemingly all 150 people who are still on the complex fields.
Manny takes the gold paint pen from the Dominican man, signs his black bat. It looks pretty nice.
Manny signs a red seat, presumably a Red Sox world series project someone was working on, in gold.
Manny signs about 5 balls, in gold, all side panel.
Manny takes a ball from the original Dominican man, and goes to sign it in gold.
The man rips the gold paint pen from Manny's hand and replaces it with a blue bic.
Manny puts the gold pen in his mouth, signs that one ball in blue bic, drops the bic.
Mind you, through out this whole ordeal the Dominican man and Manny are yelling at eachother in spanish.
He grabs the gold paint pen from his mouth and I'm the first signature after that ball, he signs my photofile from the press conference in gold paint pen. It took me two minutes to work my way out of the crowd.
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