Tagged: autographs

March 23, 2009

A Letter to My Father

To my dearest father:

Dad, as you know, the Padres are having their Fan Day on Sunday, April 5, 2009 from noon to 4pm. As you also know, I would really really really like to go. But you have seemed kind of hesitant in making a decision about us going, so I decided to help convince you.

Wasn’t last year so much fun? We got to see the clubhouse, the dugout, and we even got to walk on the field. You don’t get that opportunity every day!

Let me start off by reminding you that last year we had to pay $5 per ticket. This time, there is no fee to get in, as in, it’s free! Of course, you say that it’s not really free, because we have to pay for gas and parking and time. But just think of the $5 you are saving! If we had to pay to get in, it would be a much more expensive trip!

There will be players and coaches signing autographs at this event. The Padres have a lot of young, upcoming players on the team this year. If I’m able to get their autographs, I promise that if this economic situation gets so bad that we’re desperate for money, I will consider giving up the autogrpahs to sell so we can get some food. Hopefully the economic situation won’t get that bad for a few years, so that these young players are famous by then. (Of course, if the economic situation gets that bad, nobody will be wanting to buy any autographs, but moving on…)

And yes, of course the Fan Fest will be trying to wrestle money from us in other ways. We can eat before so we don’t have to buy any food. And we don’t even have to go into the Padres’ Annual Garage Sale with game-used jerseys and batting helmets, even though the proceeds benefit the Padres Foundation for Children. I have enough Padres shirts. So, we can avoid those “tourist traps” at all costs.

This year, we would get to watch a special team workout. The players will be getting in last-minute shape for Opening Day, which will be the next day. I mean, how often do you get a chance to watch the players workout? Hey – maybe you can get some ideas to help condition my brothers better for baseball this year!

How long has it been since I was at the ballpark? Let’s see…about seven months! After that long, hard offseason, I think I need to get out the ballpark, see the new players on this team, and talk with other baseball fans. It’s been so long since I’ve been out to the ballpark, and I think I need to get out there to renew my hope for our Padres. I’ve been sitting here all offseason blogging about these Padres. I think it’s time to go to the scene, to get the scoop live. Plus, I need to interact with other baseball fans. Another Padres blogger here, Hyun Young, is going. It would be really neat to meet her and talk about our Padres!

Of course, all my friends here at the blogosphere would love for me to go, too. We all pull for each other in stuff like this, and they all know how much I suffered in the offseason. I know they would love to see pictures and hear how my Padres are doing. Check out this great support I’ve recieved:

I hope you get to fanfest! – Julia
I hope you get to Fanfest! – Melissa (wow, Julia and Melissa are thinking the same thing!)
I hope you get to go to Fanfest, Kaybee. I bet you will. Then you’ll have great pix and posts to share with us! – Jane
Hope you have fun at the fanfest! – Bob (that’s the spirit, Bob!)
The fanfest sounds delightfully fun. Convince your parents, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the 2009 Padres in person! – Caroline
I’m sure Fan Day would be a lot of fun! – Sue
Hopefully you can get to Fan day, I’m sure you’d have a ton of fun. – Canuck
I hope you can go Kaybee! – Julia
I really hope you can go the Fan Fest! It would be great to meet you in person. – Hyun Young
I hope you get to go. There’s nothing like meeting players and hanging out with baseball fans. – Jen

And Dad, if you say no, I’ll be OK with that. Of course, I will be disappointed, and maybe a little upset, but whatever you say goes. I know the timing is a little inconvenient because it’s a Sunday and the first one of the month at that. I understand if you feel that we should be sticking around at church to help out. Of course, we could get there a little late. We don’t need to be there right at 12. But if you say no, let’s just plan early for next year’s fan fest.

It just seem like a waste of a great opportunity. I mean, autographs, getting close to the players, having fun with other Padres fans, heading out to Petco Park. FREE! It would be so much fun! But as I said, it’s not the end of the world of you say no.

begging girl.jpg Please, Daddy?

Oh, and Dad – the Fan Day is in two weeks. We don’t have much time left to decide!

I love you! Your dear doting darling daughter,

Kaybee

(photo credits: tree hugger.com, istockphoto.com)

March 9, 2009

What a Weekend

It was a really great weekend. Sure, the Padres didn’t do so great, but there was a lot of cool stuff that happened. Hang in there for this long entry, because there’s some pretty cool stuff ahead…

To start, I realized that I needed to make a poster for Trevor. When Jake Peavy won his CY Young award in 2007, I made this really cool poster commemorating that. I also made a poster when Chase Headley was finally called up to the majors last year. So, it made sense that I should make one for Trevor. I worked on this during the game on Saturday:

This is now hanging on my wall. Pretty cool, huh?

My brother’s second game of the season was Saturday afternoon. The boys played pretty well. They lost 5-4, but I thought they did a good job. I really should have brought my scorebook. I wanted to keep track of the game somehow, and the only logical thing to do was keep score of it. But all I had was a pencil and a little notepad. I had to invent my own way of keeping score of the game! It was really interesting because I’m so used to the convienence of a scorebook. Next time I’m definitely bringing my scorebook. That should help me keep better track of what’s going on. For example, I missed some of the scoring of the other team somehow, so at the end of the game I had that my brother’s team had won 4-3. But they had lost 5-4 instead. Hmm.. One of the highlights of the game was when a kid from the other team hit an inside-the-park home run. Even though it was the other team, it was pretty cool to see. The boys’ next game is Tuesday night. Hopefully it won’t get rained out!

Yesterday afternoon, my family went to a local park to practice baseball with my brothers. Unfortunately, there were adult softball games being played on both fields. We found a patch of grass and played some catch, but when we were done, my dad and I went to watch one of the games. It was really interesting. It was very casual, co-ed, just a bunch of people having fun playing softball. It was funny because a guy hit an inside-the-park home run! I mean, how many times do you see two inside-the-park home runs in the space of two days? But some of those players were really good. It looked like so much fun!

I’ve been thinking about the 2009 pocket schedules a little. I have a lot of them, like two from each of the last four years. So, I was wondering when I would find a display of them in a store or somewhere. Yesterday, my dad handed me one. I literally screamed! A guy from our church had found one somewhere and gave it to my dad to give to me. It’s a really cool schedule this year, with the 40th anniversary logo on the front.

And now, the best part of this entry! I think I mentioned that my friend and his family were going to the game in Peoria on Saturday. This family is one of my closest friends, so they definitely know all about my fandom and love of the Padres. They got to watch a terrible game, but they did have a lot of fun. They had some really great seats that were merely a few rows behind the Padres’ first base dugout. Once it was 10-5 Oakland, they left the game. I expected them to bring me something back, since I’m like a really big Padres fan and stuff, but I had no idea what they planned to bring me, and boy was it a shock. One of the things they brought back was this really cool Spring Training cap. I love it!

How cool is that?

My friend showed me a bunch of the pictures they had taken. They got a lot of really great pictures, and maybe I’ll post some once I get them. Anyway, he was telling me about the autographs they got while showing me the really up-close pictures of the players. I was really happy for them, and I remember thinking that I hoped they had brought the autographs so I could see them. Boy, was I in for a surprise!

Later in the day, my friend and his brother came up to me and my sister and presented us with these plastic Padres hats…autographed by seven players! I was so shocked. No way had I expected that they got the autographs for us! That helmet is probably worth a lot. It was signed by Brian Giles, Kevin Kouzmanoff (yay!), Cha Seung Baek, and David Eckstein. The other three…well, we have no idea who they are. I think they were minor league players. I might have been able to recognize them if I was there, but I don’t think my friend studied the rosters at all. I might be able to figure it out when I get the pictures, but for now we have three unknown autographers. If any of you can read Scribble, please let me know.

I had a really hard time getting a good picture of the hat, because it reflects everything. The light, the flash, the surrounding area. So, these are the best I could do, but you’ll get the point. (A note: my friend was able to get the hats at a thrift store for a dollar. I’m telling you, there are some incredible deals at thrift stores!)

This one is really dark, but you can kind of see the autographs.

A sort of better picture 🙂

Brian Giles

Top to bottom: Cha Seung Baek (53) and David Eckstein

Two of the unknown autographs

KOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOZ!!!

So, that pretty much made my day. Sorry I wasn’t able to get that great pictures of it, but maybe I’ll try again later. Now we need to figure out how to display it…Thank you so much to my friends who gave this really cool stuff to me!

What a weekend, huh? It was a really great one, full of fun and blessings. GO PADRES!!

(pictures: all mine)