Cardinals Winter Warm Up Recap Day 2

We arrived at the stadium about 30 minutes early before the doors opened Sunday morning.  Not many fans were walking around at the time, but we did run into Cardinals catcher Ivan Herrera as he entered the building.  I was surprised no one else recognized him other than an older couple.  The huge Rolex on his wrist was hard to miss.  After the gates opened at 9:00, we took it easy and grabbed a chair in front of the main stage at Ballpark Village.  Not much was going on until a 10:00 presentation by the Hall of Fame Museum.  This talk was about the bobblehead selection and how they were made.  It was very informative.

Our next stop was across the street to the stadium for our first paid autograph of the day.  

Adam Wainwright was scheduled to sign 300 autographs in a 2 hour time slot.  It took him almost 3 hours.  He would talk to everyone and made sure they left with a great memory.  He would also inscribe almost anything, such as 1st All Star Game on my 2010 ball.  I paid $150 for his auto since this may be the last time he will be at WWU.

Once we were finished in the Wainwright autograph line, we headed to the 3rd level of the stadium.  I paid $10 to have JSA authenticate the ball.  I also spent the $35 I made yesterday selling the Ken Boyer bobblehead on another bobblehead.

Quite a few people do not realize Harry Caray was a Cardinals broadcaster before he worked for the Cubs.  I am not 100% certain why he left, but there is a story that he had an affair with a member of the owner's family.  This bobblehead has a sound chip of Caray calling Stan Musial's 3000th hit.  Very cool.

After grabbing some lunch, we had tickets for 3 free autographs between 2:00 and 3:00.  2 were at Ballpark Village, the other in the stadium.  I headed over to get the 2, while my son stayed in the ballpark for the third.  

Free autograph tickets were available before I knew Gilkey would be at the caravan we attended on Friday.  I managed to find another duplicate for him to sign.    

I have lost track how many times we have gotten Horton's auto, but I know it is a bunch. I am about out of different cards to have him sign.  I view the free autographs as an added benefit of admission.  Why not take advantage of it. 

My son did not get his free autograph of Joe McEwing.  McEwing was signing in the same location where Adam Wainwright was earlier.  Due to Waino running over his time slot, everyone else was pushed back.  It was a little bit of a bummer not to get McEwing because we do not have his autograph, but we were on a tight schedule.  We needed to leave St. Louis by 3:30.  I will let you know why in tomorrow's post.  

My son joined me as we lined up early for our 3:00 autograph.  All autograph tickets are numbered, with 75 of them being called at a time.  We had #47, so we managed to get in the first wave and ended up being 4th in line.  I was worried we would be late as Brendan Donovan was not done with his autograph session, but we had a nice surprise while waiting.  Dylan Carlson was waiting at the front for Donovan to finish.  He took a few minutes to take pictures with those of us in the front.  My son was one of them.

Not long after the picture, Carlson started his session.  I paid $50 to have him sign an oversized Topps card.

I bought this from Topps on Black Friday in 2020.  Thanks to Covid and the lockout, I waited 2 years to have it signed.  It will look great in a frame next to his bobblehead.  

We rushed back to our car and managed to leave St. Louis by 3:10, thus ending our WWU trip for 2023.  A few quick thoughts about the weekend.  I was a little skeptic about the change of location from a hotel to the stadium.  You never know what the weather will be like in January.  This year things worked out with temps close to 40 degrees on Saturday and 50 on Sunday.  I did like not being in a crowded ballroom waiting on autographs.  Even when we waited in the Wainwright line for 45 minutes, I did not feel like people were on top of us.  I also liked the inclusion of the clubhouse tour with the price of admission.  In previous years that cost $15.  One thing I did not like was having our backpacks checked every time we changed locations.  We received a wristband upon entry each morning.  That should have been good enough.  It was a pain wasting 5 minutes numerous times for a bag check.  Overall I was pleased with the change.  As long as the weather holds out, I will be happy going back to Busch next year for the WWU.