Winter Warm Up Recap: Day 1

[RealBrianD]

The loudest ovation was for YADIER Molina, and Adam Wainwright. A lot of cool vendors and distractions. ALOT of people in attendance, I'm guessing around 5,000 or so. It was beyond crazy but with Yadi being there I imagine that has a lot to do with it. I got Descalso and Kozma, both on desperate balls, with minimal issue. The line for Descalso was so unorganized so it took forever but we flew through the Kozma line. I was able to go thru Greg Garcias line twice, I got him on an 8x10 for a trade and then on a ball for myself. I also got Randal Grichuk whose line was unexplainably long. I also got Ken Dayley, Jason Simontacchi. I left early to take my son to the Caravan in Rolla, where we were informed that Kolten Wong had "missed the bus". Yeah, sure he did!. There was a question and answer session with Kelly, Miller, Cox and Lawless. Funniest moment was when someone asked Joe Kelly "What does Yadi say to you when he comes out to the mound"? Joe replied, in a very cheesy Hispanic accent, "Hey man just calm down and throw strikes aye". The crowd ate it up! While there I got autographs, again all on desperate balls, of: Joe Kelly (ROMLB), Shelby Miller (ROMLB), Tom Lawless and Mike Claiborne(CROLB) and Danny Cox(CROLB)...Overall it was an amazing day. Met a lot of cool people in line and wandering etc. Day 2 is tomorrow, but I don't have any "great" tickets. I have Tony Cruz and Tyler Lyons. I'm gonna also get Stephen Piscottty (twice if allowed haha)... I might make it an early day tomorrow too and get home in time to watch the football games with my son. Thanks for reading guys. If any of you were there, I'd love to hear how your day went.

[RealBrianD]

That should say SEPERATE balls, NOT "Desperate"...Stupid auto correct!

[griffyes]

I wasn't in attendance but had someone get me this

[dsolzman]

I got Joe, Wong, Wacha 2x, and Piscotty TTM this past year.

[RealBrianD]

That Yadi catchers helmet is an amazing piece bro, congrats! When I was in line for Descalso, I seen someone have Yadi autograph a 3 foot tall bobblehead lol. Yadi had a dumbfounded look on his face haha..Someone else at the Caravan had Joe Kelly sign a copy of Call of Duty:Ghosts. I wonder what goes through these peoples heads when they have stars sign odd stuff lol..I kept it simple, pics or baseballs (mainly balls).
Dsolz- I was supposed to get Wong at the Caravan but he no showed. They claim he "missed the bus", but he didn't attend ANY Caravan sessions. Whatever lol. I wanted Wacha, but I can't justify paying $70 for a relatively unproven rookie. He's gotta come down to Earth at some point, I'll wait. I'm gonna try to get Wacha n Wong during ST.
Overall, I'm glad I went to both events. It's really fun and a laid back event. At games it's like a crapshoot, but at these events you KNOW you're getting what you want. Kinda makes me wanna go to like RedsFest, Cubs Fest etc. a few teams have them. After this weekends festivities, I'm gonna set my sights to Spring Training. I'm super excited for that too. It's been a good few weeks for me for graphing and it'll continue into ST. I'm beyond excited!

[dsolzman]

Wacha's not even in his prime yet!

I hope Kolten starts signing fan mail during ST. He stopped signing once he was promoted to the Cards according to here and SCN.

I really wish I could go to Jupiter but it might be a few years before that happens.

I got Wainwright and the rest of the 2006 bullpen during finals week when STL was playing Cincy. It rained that morning and no batting practice but the bullpen was out signing. I got 7 autographs that day--a personal best at the time, which would be broken the next month when I got 9 autographs at a Cincy-Royals game.

[RealBrianD]

Lmao I know Wacha isn't "even in his prime" yet! The kid was at Texas A&M 18 months ago haha...I just think his perceived "value" is being over estimated GREATLY right now based on his performance in October. He really only has a half dozen starts or so under his belt, so it's a tad premature to be carving his bust already. For him to get Molina/Wainwright money at Winter Warm Up was mind blowing. He was FIVE BUCKS last year, SEVENTY this year! Luckily for me I live in St Louis and I'll be at quite a few games this season, so I'll just get him then. For free lmao

[lizard-jd]

The boys are putting in a lot of frequent flyer miles. Yadi was with Tony Cruz at the Jupiter ballpark complex until 3:30pm on Thur. (1/16/14). I'm sure they only fly using a private jet.

[MrBelvedere]

For what it's worth, I attended Reds Fest this year. I thought it was kind of a cluster. I didn't even try to get autographs there. Sounds like the Cardinals thing is better.

[gysot]

The boys are putting in a lot of frequent flyer miles. Yadi was with Tony Cruz at the Jupiter ballpark complex until 3:30pm on Thur. (1/16/14). I'm sure they only fly using a private jet.

I also read that Yadier did a big private signing while in Jupiter last week. He's probably sick of signing his name his week!