CyberErik's Success Thread- just starting out, feedback and help welcome!

[gojacks]

Very cool stuff! Love the Maeda and Kasich stories.

[CYmarlins]

That's awesome.

Yeah I am subscribed to this thread so I get notified of new replies. Always enjoy reading it.

[cyberer]

I'm glad you guys liked the stories- the last few days have been a lot of fun and a lot of laughs and a lot of graphs. Today was more of the same.

I worked until around noon then decided to graph the dodgers pregame given I am still staying in the hotel.

Justin Turner went out and signed a few but I missed him. Joc Pederson didn't sign outside. Many of these guys ended up taking the internal skybridge ultimately, no access.

Kershaw came out and greeted us, we asked him. He said no he wouldn't sign but he would try to sign inside. The SD graphers said he typically does sign inside over the dugout game 2 of the series.

Utley and Wil Myers snuck out and into the stadium, Nomar and Hershizer came out but said they wouldn't do it on the way to lunch. I didn't see them come back though my guess is they went right to the stadium.

Puig took the skybridge, no access. A grapher who knew Puig was taking consignments from 2 guys graphing there. I tried to work a deal out but they wanted 40 and wouldn't even let me be there when it got done. I turned them down. They said "good luck getting him inside" sarcastically.

Long story short, we put in a few hours (from about 12-3) graphing and didn't get a single signature.

We got to the game when the gates opened and made our way to the visitors dugout. We were in the 2nd row behind the guys who had been graphing outside- the puig guys. The one guy was being really passive aggressive and jerkish to me, probably bc I turned down his cash offer.

We had a good feeling though bc apparently ZERO dodgers signed on opening day, so law of averages on our side.

Kershaw came over and started signing. He signed 20-30 over the dugout, taking balls thrown at him. He was only doing it for women and kids, so we didn't get him. 2 girls in front of us did... and promptly gave them to their clearly dealer father. Ugh oh well. I have kershaw already NBD.

No one else signed after BP.

My buddy went to our seat and left me alone to graph the pregame warmups. The lineup was pretty stacked- Seager, Utley, Crawford, Puig, Joc, etc. They all came out and jogged.

I was watching warmups trying to plan my move. I could only get into the 2nd or 3rd row, so it was pretty grim. As the guys stretched some random 30-something women started hitting on me talking to me about getting autographs and such, but then I saw Utley walk towards the stands. Like a lightning bolt I was in line near him. He signed about 15-20 autographs- I was the 2nd one to get him.

As said above- I had words with him the other night. He looked right at me before he took my ball, so I was very skeptical if he was going to take it (in case he remembered we had words). But he took my ball and gave me the nicest Utley I've ever gotten. Maybe he did remember, and took care of me; or maybe he saw my Phillies jersey I was wearing. Who knows.



But then pandemonium broke loose- Seager, Joc and Crawford all came over and started signing at the same time. A wall of people instantly formed. I couldn't get over to them in the crowd. But then I looked back onto the field and saw that Puig was right in front of me, not on the other side of the wall of people where the others were signing. Sure enough, he finishes his stretches and comes over and signs as well!

Since he started signing closer to me than the others, I was able to get over to him but was still 3 or 4 people back. AND HE STARTED MOVING THE OTHER DIRECTION. I moved through the crowd like a ninja, and waited for some kids to get him and get out of the crowd and somehow managed to get into their spot as they left the crowd. Even still, he was a full arm extension away and moving in the opposite direction. I had no hope I would get him.

And then, suddenly, he changed directions back towards me. He did a ball for the little kid to my left, then the little kid to my right. I reached over and put my magazine right in his bread basket, it was an oversized ESPN magazine so that literally, at that point, there was nothing in his arm reach to sign. I had it positioned perfectly. And... he signed it.



For those of you who read my thread, you know that Puig is a white whale. The year he got signed in 2013 I was in dodger camp and he signed all over the place- I could have gotten him 5-6 times easy. But since I didn't want to "waste" a ROMLB on an unproven player I didn't get him. Obviously I kicked myself for that one. 10 tries for him in Philly didn't go any better.

But now, I got him! So pumped.

Nit picking- He did hook the mailing label, and he did put a dot on his nose when he put my marker down, but what did I say above about beggars and choosers? Especially in the mob scene.

Although anything is possible (I am here 2 more days and may run into people) I am done formally graphing for this trip now, but for a trip that was mostly work and not graphing, I really had some epic successes and some of the funniest and most memorable stories from graphing that I had ever had. Hope you all enjoyed this wrapup!

[djauwerda]

Always great to get a white whale. Congrats!

[lizard-jd]

Obviously, a successfully attended conference by you with some nice side benefits. Too bad players like Utley, in their last few moments in the limelight. seem to act like he does towards fans . The ego works in strange ways and perhaps some day when no one recognizes him he will wish that someone would ask for his graph - naw, he's made way too much money lol.

[CYmarlins]

Obviously, a successfully attended conference by you with some nice side benefits. Too bad players like Utley, in their last few moments in the limelight. seem to act like he does towards fans . The ego works in strange ways and perhaps some day when no one recognizes him he will wish that someone would ask for his graph - naw, he's made way too much money lol.

With his steady decline the past couple of years, I wouldn't be picky either lol.

[cyberer]

I had the same thought re: chase- it's one thing to be a jerk when you are the world champions and the best 2B in baseball. It's another to be that way when you are a 3rd string player on the dodgers. Ultimately it worked out ok, but I didn't like that he was so rude to me.

Finally home from the trip! On the way home I got an interesting PM from someone on these forums who found a pic of kershaw signing over the dugout from the dodger blog. Lo and behold there I am. I didn't get his auto this night but it's still a cool photo




Also, got home to some surprises.

First and foremost, my fathead of Kemba Walker arrived so I was able to finish mounting up my custom hardwood project that I got signed last week.



Also, my wife had some surprises for me. She went to the thrift store and spent 10 bucks on some items for me. And while the haul wasn't as sick as the Lee Roy Selmon/Steve Young thrift store ball that she got for $8, still a great haul.

She got a brand new with tags on it NFL auto ball in the box of a guy that the store and her could not identify. It took me all of 2 seconds to realize it was Mychal Kendricks



And she also found an unsigned item that I really love- a super bowl XLIV commemorative football from saints v colts superbowl. I might have to try to get this done by brees or peyton someday.






I just saw that the padres of all teams come into town on Sunday. I may have to go try for kemp to finish my pieces that need him that I didn't finish in san diego.

[CYmarlins]

Great finds by your wife!

[cyberer]

Got out to graph the Padres a lot this week- I needed kemp on 2 different items (one SI with magic johnson on it already and one 8x10 with kershaw and etheir already on it).

Turns out, Kemp didn't sign any of the days I went (3 out of the 4 days of the series). Turned us down every single time.

I did pretty well otherwise though.

David Wells was randomly at the hotel for another purpose, and he signed for us and couldn't have been nicer



I got 2 mcgwires over the course of the week (one for myself, one to help someone else- mine shown here). This is probably for sale if anyone wants it as this is my second mcgwire ROMLB



I also had an upton brothers piece signed by justin already. Melvin came out one day and said no. I told him his brother already signed it. He said "that ain't my problem I ain't signing that [crap]." He used the curseword though. Class act alright...

Over the course of the week, I also added to the team ball that I already started the week I was in san diego. I ended up with tons of guys on it. As best I can tell I ended up with:

Drew Pomeranz, Robbie Erlin, Brandon Maurer, Brad Hand, Luis Perdomo, Colin Rea, Fernando Rodney, Derek Norris, Solarte, Alexei Ramirez, Brett Wallace, Jabari Blash, Travis Jankowski, Jon Jay, Dick Enberg, Andy Green, a radio broadcaster (former player- not sure name, and a few others that I could use help IDing.







All in all did ok but kinda sucks to get 0 kemps for all that time in.

We will see if I get out to do the Nats or Mets this weekend/coming week

[cyberer]

As alluded to in my last post I got out and did the Nationals today.

I got there early, but it was a good thing because they were out early.

Shortly after I got there, Davy Lopes came out. I have wanted Davy Lopes for years but had never gotten him.

No one asked him, and I didn't have anything for him- but then I remembered I had a 2008 phillies magazine already signed by Howard that I had brought for Werth. Lopes was coaching that team. I ran after him and asked. He told me off a little bit but he did it. Good to get on the board early.



Harper came out shortly thereafter and ignored. He had gotten into a verbal argument with some of the graphers over the weekend so no surprises that he didn't want to sign.

Waited for a long while then with no action. Lots of guys came out and said no. Bad signing team.

Scherzer has never signed a single autograph except for at the park in Philly, according to the group consensus.

On Friday, he told a group of graphers that he would sign in the park. They went for him there and he didn't sign, so Saturday when he came out they were razzing him for being a liar. He did something very unexpected- he started freaking out and cursing saying he wasn't a liar, and to leave him alone- then grabbed his head and screamed the F bomb, like a nervous breakdown. I wasn't there for any of this (I had plans on Saturday).

So, needless to say, he wasn't going to be signing for those guys on Sunday. So he comes out with Ben Revere to get a car. Revere starts signing. Scherzer says "I'm with Ben so I'll follow his lead." He starts signing.

He looks at the crowd to see what faces he recognized. I was front and center, and I had never met the guy before. He signs my magazine then caps the marker and says "That's it, guys!"

Clearly, he just wanted to troll the guys who had taken him to the limit the day before, but I reaped all the benefits.

He wrote his number twice, which is kind of weird (once after the personalization and once after the graph), but I'm not about to complain!



I was pumped, the other graphers were saying I should thank them for giving him so much crap into doing it.

Minutes later Murphy came out and said no bc he was running late. Me and 2 others followed him to the car. When he got to the passenger door, he was locked out, and the driver wasn't there to let him in.

So the "I'm late" excuse no longer was flying, because he was just standing there. The other guy called him on it, and he complained a bit but signed the guys jersey (in black sharpie). Since he was in a bad mood I wasn't about to ask him to change pens, so I just asked him to sign the SI in the same pen. He did.

It doesn't really pop in black sharpie, but it's done at least!



Stephen Drew came out shortly thereafter and I got him




Last, but not least, Dusty came out. He had signed the previous two days, so he said no when asked to sign. But he did agree to take a selfie with me before he got in the car. I have gotten him before so no worries on the graph but the selfie came out great!



Obviously, went WAY better than expected with Scherzer (he was literally the last person I expected to get on the entire team), so pretty epic haul!