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

[cyberer]

As always thanks for the feedback, my friends. Let me respond to some of you.

-about neshek I made sure that in my letter I didn't ask him for other players autos. I asked him if he thought the other relievers would sign it through mail or if there was anything he could do to help. Also, I gave him that gift of an auto from my collection so he knew I wasn't being a total selfish jerk. I didn't want to be the guy in the link above.

-yeah I dunno why i keep having good luck with yogi- I usually don't send to a guy multiple times but this is my 3rd. This one is for my brother. I got that gut feeling and couldn't ignore. 6th-sense-like feeling.

-cey was a good player and I agree he is underappreciated. I asked him to inscribe either "the penguin" or with his all star years. Too bad he didn't.

I'm at the phils game right now, it's raining and Kendrick laid an egg so it's pretty miserable right now. I'll add the graphing info later with pics.

[cyberer]

As I sit here typing I am not fuming like I was earlier, but I am indeed a bit bummed out.

I will preface this piece by saying that I had one of the most agonizing failures in my graphing career tonight.

Here's how it went down. As soon as the gates opened I RAN to the phils side of foul territory where pitchers sometimes run sprints (they usually time it so they are gone when the gates open but sometimes they forget).

Sure enough, Cliff Lee is running sprints right in front of me. It was only me and one other guy with a Cliff Lee jersey in the entire section. My heart started pounding.

I am usually very polite and wait until the guy finishes his sprints before I ask for an auto, the guy with me didn't share my reservations. He called out "Hey cliff we love you! Can you sign me jersey?" He held it up.

Cliff turned, nodded and held up 1 finger and motioned to his sprints. He said he was going to sign after his sprints! I almost wanted to dance I was so excited- I was going to get him on my SI cover.

Cliff set out to do his last sprint, still just me and the guy in the section. I knew it was going to happen. Then he saw a rockies pitcher in the outfield that he recognized (not sure who it was). The 2 of them stood in the outfield and chatted for literally 2-3 minutes.

In the meantime, the section became more crowded, as a dozen or more people came to the section around us. Cliff finished talking and came back towards us. But instead of signing for the 2 people that asked him, he started about 10 feet down the line at the end of the line of people. He had a big smile on his face so I thought "no biggie, he'll come up the line."

Even so, I walked over towards him so I wouldn't miss him. Just then he said "Hey guys I have to hurry I'm only signing (he thought for an instant) 3 autographs so here we go. I was in position to be the 4th, and I didn't push or jockey my way in front (I could have been the 3rd one if I really asserted myself and was a jerk).

He finished signing the 3rd autograph, and I pleaded with him "Cliff please sign my sports illustrated. I put it right in front of his hands. He looked at it for a split second, and my heart jumped.

Then, the dagger to the heart- he took the pen in his hand, capped it and laid the pen on my SI cover and ran away.

He touched my SI cover with a pen in his hand and didn't sign it!!!!!

UGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was devastated. There were no other Phillies out in the pregame (they cancelled BP), so I went to the other side where the Rockies pitchers were. I talked to some Rockies fans who, when I asked who was running sprints, were surprisingly coy about it.

I soon found out why- Ubaldo Jiminez was running sprints with Jorge De La Rosa. When they finished, they both came over and started signing. They both signed about 20 autographs, but were pretty adamant about only 1 each.

I got De La Rosa:



Ubaldo even stopped to pose with some people. While he was signing, someone asked him if he ever found his personalized license plate (referencing the MLB network commercial where he can't find one of those name license plates for "Ubaldo"). He laughed. Seemed like a pretty friendly guy.

I got him on a card. He has a cool looking signature.



I also got a pic of him signing:




Then I went back to the Phillies side for the pregame. As has become the norm at these games, not a single player stopped to sign.

I befriended a security guard on the subway who worked down on the field in the section where the phils usually sign. I found him once I was inside and talked to him. He told me that aside from Victorino stopping a few times this year, by and large no Phillies player is signing. Really disappointing stuff.

Still, the sting of the Cliff Lee failure was soothed by Ubaldo being so cool... all in all a success I guess.

[metsmagic18]

Ugh! That happened to me with Ryan Howard!! He capped the pen and handed it back and then left. That kills!!! (Not nearly as bad as when my pen broke in the middle of an autograph)

[jyosi]

You should try sending your ticket stub TTM to Jason Giambi. Pretty cool feat for him last night.

[cyberer]

good idea on that, never tried something like that. now if i could just find it... things got pretty disoriented when the rain started falling in sheets.

[cyberer]

Empty mail day today. Graphing the Rangers tonight (not going to the game though).

That sucks, mets! How did the pen break?! Who was the auto? You seem to share my pain about ry how as well. You know with this hobby you take the good with the bad, and I did get Ubaldo, so it's all good I guess.

On another note, I finally finished framing my ticket signed by Bautista and Arrencibia from Spring Training in Person- I found a photo of them standing together. Here is the final product:

[phillykid15]

Cliff Lee is not easy to get under any circumstances, the fact that you got so close is impressive in itself and you should be proud of yourself for that.

Besides man, you got one of the best pitchers in baseball, the guy had like a sub 1.50 ERA going into the all-star break last year.

I'm really surprised that no phils really sign, maybe it's because none of them can hit right now and they're taking their anger out on the fans. Phillies pitchers have always been hard to get at CBP unless you dedicate your pregame to only getting pitchers.

Good luck at the Rangers game tonight! Not many Phillies sign coming in, but you probably will get some rangers coming out of their cabs and after the game.

[lambeauleap87]

That really has to sting about Lee...not much you can do though. Wouldn't it have been easier for him to sign it, and then not cap the pen? Whatever...I actually picked up a certified auto of his a few years back (pre-Cy Young) for about $10.

Awesome Jimenez, though! Must've been free hat night, as I can't imagine why else so many people would be having a Rockies player sign a Phillies hat...

[cyberer]

Yeah, definitely stings. It was hat night LOL when I took the picture I knew someone would catch on to that, because it's a distinctive throwback hat.

I too have a Lee that I bought on ebay it was a Topps I believe certified issue that I got on ebay for 11 bucks when the Phils first traded for him.

Still, it's totally different to get someone in person as I'm sure you know.

[metsmagic18]

Empty mail day today. Graphing the Rangers tonight (not going to the game though).

That sucks, mets! How did the pen break?! Who was the auto? You seem to share my pain about ry how as well. You know with this hobby you take the good with the bad, and I did get Ubaldo, so it's all good I guess.

On another note, I finally finished framing my ticket signed by Bautista and Arrencibia from Spring Training in Person- I found a photo of them standing together. Here is the final product:

Like you with Ubaldo, the day Howard skipped me I still got J-Roll.

About the broken pen, Carlos Gomez came over to me and started to sign my ST program, he looked down to see it was out of ink, he scribbled on the page for a second, shrugged, and walked away. I ended up getting Kubel and Delmon Young that day...