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

[gladdyontherise]

Very cool!

and 12-15 is a big crowd? You're lucky, haha.

[Rudickulous]

It's good to hear that Strasburg and other Nats dont let the fame and glitz go to their head. Kudos on the ROMLB auto, very nice.

Also as a side note, your inbox is full. lmk when you've freed up some space.

[cyberer]

Fresh off my suspension- sorry for simulating a curseword. I had posted something about the long island medium screwing up my autographing, and matt harvey being a jerk, if memory served.

[gladdyontherise]

Can we please get a story on Harvey? It's basically your obligation to all of us reading, lol

[cyberer]

Hey guys, sorry for the long delay. I got my account suspended for putting a curseword in one of my posts, and forgot to post it thereafter. Here is the long-awaited mets story. I fear that the leadup to the story may not equal the humor it actually delivers but here goes anyway.

I was graphing the mets, got there really early. Pretty big crowd. The place is locked down with security like the president or something. We are like "what gives?"

Turns out, the long island medium from TV was staying at the hotel. And she had more security than I've ever seen. Guys with earpieces and radios, cars full of production crews, a huge deal. I call over the hotel accounts manager, a younger girl, and was like "Why does she need security, shouldn't the medium be able to sense and predict any danger?" People seemed to like that.

So when David Wright came out, he was coming over to the crowd, but then he got distracted by the medium lady getting in her car. The two talked for 10 minutes, took pictures together, and then the bus was leaving and Wright said he had no time to sign anymore. So that's why I was mad @ her.

Harvey himself was a jerk, called for a cab then ducked back in pretending to be on his cell phone, and had them bring it right up to the door. Though I will say he racked on the field I was told after that. So I don't want to disparage him too much. I graphed the mets for a few hours and wound up with nothing but a bobby parnell graph. Pretty sad.

So that's the story, sorry if it disappointed.

I promise that I have an epic story to post, later today, about my 4th of july weekend, which was spent mostly graphing.

[cyberer]

Here is the story from the July 4th weekend that I promised earlier:

As many of you know, Derek Jeter came to Scranton over the weekend to rehab. He’s still there, in fact. I am from Scranton, and by dumb luck happened to be home at my parents’ house for the holiday from Saturday until Tuesday. I couldn’t believe my luck that I would be able to put in a ton of time for Jeter. What followed was some of the most crazy graphing I’ve ever done in my entire life.

Day 1. Saturday

We arrived a full hour before the gates opened, and were like 8th in line for admission. We sweated in the sun before they let us in the stadium. Fortunately the yankee side is in the shade for night games, so there was some relief from the heat. Getting in at 5 sucks, because the players don't come out and stretch until 6:30. Ton of time to wait.

We got front row spots on the fence. I was about halfway between the dugout and the cutoff of the concourse. My brother was 10 people further down the line, and a friend that we brought was 10 people further down the line. So we figured we had our bets hedged with nearly every spot on the fence covered. We agreed to make room to let the others in if he started signing in our spot.

We start to get nervous when it was 6:40 and still no jeter. The ushers told us we had to clear at 6:55 for a 7:00 game. At 6:45 we see the press camera men start snapping like crazy we know he's in there. Some lady hung her jersey over the bannister down in the dugout wall actually in the dugout such that it covered the lineup card- shocked the ushers let her do it. He walked over and signed for her. Amazing how sometimes the most obnoxious ways get the job done.

He came out and started stretching, then 5 minutes later went back into the dugout. We were all crushed. 2 minutes later he came out and started long tossing. The whole time he was jogging and tossing he kept looking over at the guy next to me, who had a "5 rings" 36" x 48" canvas. He even nodded at it once. I knew I was in the clear because he would come to that guy.

He finishes long tossing, and comes over to sign. He starts towards the canvas guy, towards me, when suddenly he makes a left turn closer to the dugout. He enters the crowd 2 people down from me, and starts going the other way.

Now, I've graphed many times in many tough places, and I've never seen anything like what happened. Immediately hundreds of people descended. A mosh pit ensued. It wasn't a crowd, it was a mob of people- a wall of people. You couldn't move more than an inch or two in any direction. People were clubbing arms, climbing on people, stepping on people. Pandemonium. I couldn't maneuver my way further down the line to get him. My brother and friend, being further down the line, missed him as well. He signed 4 autographs inside that night, quite a pathetic showing. He was clearly annoyed by the crowd pushing and shoving.

The next day, the whole pandemonium crowd was on the front page of the paper, copied below. I’m in the picture, for those of you that know me. I won’t say which guy though. The “rows” of people you see in that picture aren’t rows of people, they are people literally standing on other people to get in, all crammed into the front row of seating.




We graphed postgame. Scranton is actually pretty good outside you have access. We waited for like an hour and a half there. When we arrived there were only like 10 people at the cage. By the end there were over a hundred. Jam packed.

As the game was ending, all of a sudden an escalade pulled up to the street, around the corner from where we were standing. I heard people say OMG it's Jeter's car!
I didn't want to give up my spot though, I figured he'd come out where I was- I had a perfect spot on the fence. Then, previously unknown to me, another set of doors around the corner out of sight opened and people cheered like mad. I ran like hell around the bend. Turns out that the sneaky cops had set up guard rails in the meantime and Jeter was exiting from there instead. I somehow managed to work my way into the front row, through the pandemonium, in line where Jeter was signing.

I had a photo in one hand and a ball in the other. I was watching closely to see if he was running with a sharpie (then I'd use the photo) or switching pens with each item (then I'd use the ball). He was switching. One guy had a photo to the left of me, and another had a photo to the right of me. I held out the ball in between their items. He came by and signed the photo to my right, then, using the same sharpie, scribbled the photo to my left, skipping my ball, then kept moving down the line.
If I had the photo out he probably would have rapid fired all 3 items in a row. He didn't skip any other balls, idk what he was doing. I put the ball in his hand after as he moved past, because I was able to reach, but he wouldn't do it.

At the end of the guardrails where they formed a V shape, people had formed a mob, blocking his exit. The cops tried to get people to disperse. My brother was in that mob, directing traffic, helping the cops. He thought that he might be able to use that help to get prime position when they opened a path and Jeter passed. However, as soon as the cops cleared the guardrails, the 5 cops formed a human shield around him and made a mad dash for the car. He looked REALLY mad at how it played out, because people were hanging all over him. As you will see, this GREATLY changed how the rest of the weekend played out.


Day 2. Sunday

I read online Jeter was DHing 9 innings. I heard from a buddy that DHes usually don't sign on the field, and plus I had a birthday party to attend, so I was not able to go.
I elected to go up to the stadium to scalp my seats instead, since it was a sellout, and since he wouldn't be signing inside.I arrived at 12:10 for a 1:00 game. I was having trouble scalping the tickets after a few minutes, so a voice inside my head said "Erik, go inside and see what's going on," but I had to get to that party at 1:00, so I thought it wasn't fair to my family to be late. So I kept trying to scalp and decided I would leave in a few minutes.

5 minutes after that little voice told me to go in, people start walking past me outside with signed jeter items. I'm like OMG! I ask these kids what happened they said Jeter signed 20-30 sigs inside, while I was like 20-30 yards away outside like a moron scalping my tickets, ignoring my intuition. NO!!!!!

I was REALLY mad about it, like livid, in the parking lot, at how stupid I was. I ultimately gave up selling the tickets, went to the party and had a drink to calm down.
My buddy went down for autographs post game in the parking lot. He went into the spot where Jeter signed the night before, by the guard rails, thinking he had the perfect spot. However, like I said above, Jeter was so mad about how he was treated the first night, he came out to a DIFFERENT spot, a spot where he was protected all around by a fence, and started signing. My friend was in the wrong spot, and by the time he got over the mob had formed. He missed him there. After he was done signing, the car pulled into the stadium fences and he drove out, so people didn’t hang on him at all. He figured out the best way to sign in the park without people getting hurt or putting himself in danger.

Day 3. Monday.
Last chance. I had to leave to come back to Philly after the night game. I had originally read an article saying that he wasn’t playing that day, but fortunately it was a rumor. He was playing shortstop and starting. We got perfect spots on the fence again pregame, being the first ones in line. Jeter didn’t come out until 6:55! For a 7:00 game! Then he complained to people that asked him to sign saying he didn’t have time. Well he didn’t have time because he came out so late intentionally. He almost hit a little girl in a pink hat with a ball off his glove, and didn’t even sign for her. He signed 0 autographs inside. We were pretty defeated and felt like we were done.
Post game:
We went out on the fence, the spot where he was protected and signing the night before. We went out after the 2^nd inning and waited waited waited. We had perfect front row spots on the fence. Jeter was lifted after 5 innings, so we became hopeful that he would leave right away. Not so much.

The game ended, and the huge crowd of people leaving saw what was going on on the fence and packed in. Hundreds of people. The fence was surrounded by a sea of people, 8 people deep on every side, pushing in. We were in front, getting the brunt of the push. Fortunately I let the guy behind me slide his item through the fence, and in exchange he braced off of the fence and pushed people back to keep them off of us. I told him I believe in karma haha.

Shortly thereafter, some Scranton team officials and 3 cops came out, locked and secured all the fences, and surveyed the area. We got really excited because why would they do that if he wasn’t going to sign.

Since he had passed over my ball running with a marker the day before, I wasn’t taking any chances. I scrapped the ball idea and rolled out a sports illustrated. My brother, further up the line, had a ball. Jeter came out shortly after.

The pushing behind us was unbelievable. We were being pressed face first into a wrought iron fence like prison bars by hundreds of people. Jeter was being fair about it. He was only signing for people on the front row, not people reaching in and climbing over. The cops were doing their best to keep order, and my buddy behind me kept the people off me too. Jeter started signing for the first people in line, and he just stood there signing for about 45 seconds. My heart sunk. I thought that he wasn’t moving down the line just camping in the corner. The crowd was so dense there was no chance of getting to him if that’s the case.

Seconds later he started moving down the line. My heart sang. He was taking his time, doing every auto on the front row, all the length of the fence. Probably 15-20 graphs. He got my brother’s ball, he got my sports illustrated.

The hardest part was getting OUT of the crowd after we got it. Some fat ladies were pushing in trying to trample people, then when I was just trying to walk past them to get out she yelled at me “YOU’RE HURTING PEOPLE!” Really?! You’ve been trying to take my head off shoving for the last hour. Get real.

My brother and I felt like bank robbers fleeing a scene when we got out. Everyone was looking at us and the others that got him. I can’t express enough how elating it was to get him after the weekend of letdowns that I had before then.

I think Jeter wanted to sign all along on the rehab, got disgusted with the crowd hanging on him and acting like animals, and instead found a relatively controlled environment with cops and fences where he could sign, and he has been signing there every night. Here are the photos!

[gysot]

Awesome success! Love reading your stories!

[gladdyontherise]

Awesome to get Jeter. You're right though, he doesn't like shoving. At least in Michigan, when he signs, he tells people to line up and that if people are pushing, he'll shut it down right away, otherwise he'll get everyone (of course this isn't as large of a crowd you had to deal with).

[walker066]

You always have interesting, long winded successful IP autographs. I hoped one day I'd get Jeter, but will probably never unless I get him at a card show.

I remember the mob scene in 2007 at Red Sox Spring Training when Manny started to sign. The push from about the 7-8 rows of people was so bad I was more off balance than I had my balance. I never got that close which sucked, but oh well I can live with it.

[cyberer]

thanks guys! this was one of the greatest graphing times I've had in awhile, given the outcome. I'm glad you all enjoy reading- I assume you meant long-winded in a good way, not a bad way!

The crowds can be killer. People rag on dealers, but generally it's the idiots that don't know ™™™ they are doing that push and shove. The dealers usually ahve the good spots up front and don't have to.