With the turn of the calendar to January, a lot of MLB teams start to hold their fanfests before leaving for Spring Training. The Cardinals hold their Winter Warm Up during Martin Luther King weekend. This is year 23 for the event. I have attended the last 9. The last 3 years this has been a father and son trip, but my son came down with the flu on Thursday. I already had a child's ticket, so my daughter tagged along. Not her first choice of things to do since Saturday was her 14th birthday, but she did not put up too much of a fight. It was either a weekend in St. Louis with me, or a weekend at home trying to stay away from her sick brother.
We left Saturday morning around 6:00 a.m. in order to get there before the doors opened at 9 and also to beat the incoming weather. We did not receive much snow, but the layer of ice before made travel very tricky Saturday afternoon. Once the doors opened, our first stop was the Cardinals Care store.
This sign is from the 2018 WWU. Every year the autograph guests sign 2 of these that are sold the next year. I had my doubts I would be able to find this as the store opens early for some guests who stay at the hotel where the WWU is held. We were able to walk right in and find both signs still there. One is enough for me as these things are fairly big, about 1 foot tall by 3 feet wide. I bought this for $25.
Our next stop was the Fox Sports Midwest booth. I will spare you the picture we took as broadcasters and show the cards and pocket schedule were picked up. We also received a rally towel.
They had mountains of these cards and schedules. I grabbed a few extra if anyone would like one.
Next we decided to attended 2 presentations. Normally I only attend the talk given by the minor league coordinator, but this year the Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum was giving away bobbleheads to the first 50 people at their presentations. This was not advertised too well, so the first one we attended at 11:00 only had about 60 people there. We were handed our bobbleheads on the way into the speech about a new exhibit highlighting how baseball equipment has changed through the years.
These bobbleheads were only available by signing up to be a Museum member which cost $50 per person or $80 for a family. I believe this Dizzy Dean was given out during the 2015 season. These are very nice and a lot better quality than some of the stadium give aways. This talk lasted about 40 minutes. We headed over to the 12:00 presentation to find out they handed out line tickets for the bobbleheads. We were very lucky and got #49 and 50. This talk was about the evolution of batting helmets. After the talk was over, we redeemed our ticket for a Willie McGee bobblehead.
I think this one was given out during the 2016 season. Our next stop was our first autograph of the day.
I had Luke Weaver sign this last year, so it was nice to have Reyes finish it this year. I am a fan of these oversized Topps cards. They look great framed. Reyes looks to have lost some weight. I hope he can stay healthy this year.
We had a little bit of time before our next autograph, so we walked around the vendor area. I can remember when I first attended WWU there were a lot of card vendors. In the last few years it has become more memorabilia with only a handful of dealers with cards. The Cardinals minor league teams usually have booths set up with various cards, jerseys, and past stadium give aways for sale.
This was the last Peoria Chiefs bobblehead I needed from last year. Glad I did not spend the $20-25 on EBAY to get one. This one cost me $10.
I also grabbed a Springfield Cardinals team set for $5. Great buy for a 43 card set. Springfield puts out 2 sets each year. The first is available in the team store, the second is a stadium giveaway. This is the stadium giveaway set.
We had 3 more autographs after leaving the vendor area.
John Mozeliak signed this 2011 World Series ball. The Dewitts signed this last year.
This is the first time I have gotten Ryan Franklin. He works as an assistant to Mozeliak.
My last autograph of the day was my most disappointing. I should have know from past experience to use my own sharpie, but I did not for Paul DeJong. If you compare it to the Reyes auto, you can see how faded it is. I would bet the same sharpies are used starting at 9:00 in the morning. I got this autograph a little after 3. Lesson learned and I will not let this happen again.
Other than the DeJong auto I cannot complain about the first day. The weather held off, we received 4 free bobbleheads, and it was not overly crowded. Great start to a long weekend. Day 2 recap tomorrow.
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