Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Cardinals Winter Warm Up Day 2

Day 2 of the WWU as similar to day 1, but with a lot more free time to wander around.  We arrived about 9:30 and cruised around the vendor area.  I did not notice the Louisville Slugger Museum booth the day before.  We were able to hold game used bats from Stan Musial, Albert Pujols, and Ozzie Smith.  We also received 4 free passes to the Museum to be used in 2019.  I can see a trip to Louisville this summer to do the tour and also take in a Louisville Bats game.  From there we walked through the silent auctions items.  Lots of ball and photos, but nothing I could not live without.  From there we got our first autograph of the day.

Horton is one of the free signers almost every year.  I had this card before, but sent it to William over at  Foul Bunt to help with his 1987 Topps project.

Our next stop was another Museum presentation at 1:00.  Bobbleheads were still given out to the first 50 people, but the process changed.  People were allowed to line up an 12:00.  We were numbers 25 and 26.  Unlike day 1, you were not allowed to get out of line.  We waited the hour and watched a great presentation highlighting some player interviews at the Museum from 2018.  At the end, we received a sweet Ted Simmons bobblehead.

 
The baby blue uniform really stands out with the red catcher's gear.  This is my favorite of the HOF bobbleheads.  This presentation let about about 12:50, but there was already 70 plus people in line for the 2:00 talk, so we headed upstairs to get our last two autographs of the day.

Dakota Hudson pitched a perfect inning in the 2018 Futures Games.  He was the Cardinals Minor League pitcher of the year.  Although a starter in the minors, he pitched out of the bullpen after being called up in July.  I should have gotten another autograph tickets for him because I have a ticket stub from his MLB debut, but I forgot I had it until after he sold out.  Maybe next year.

Gomber is the only auto I got on day 2, the others I will cover on day 3.  We finished up about 2:45, so we headed back down to the presentation room in hopes of trading one of our Simmons bobbleheads for the one given out at 2:00  I was able to trade with a grandfather and his son and got Jim Edmonds this time.

That wrapped up day 2.  I had to drive my daughter back home for a birthday party on Sunday evening and a church retreat on Monday.  It was nice to have her with me for a couple of days.  Although she is not the baseball fan she was a few years ago, she still follows the game and seemed to have a ok time.  I would not say she greatly enjoyed the 2 days, but she more than tolerated it.  I think the birthday supper at IHOP and the trip to the mall after day 1 helped quite a bit.  Day 3 coming tomorrow.

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