Just Met Gerrit Cole! UPDATE in post #3

[bear0555]

I went to a friend's place to work on a project for a short time before going to the ucla game. Since there's only one home series left and I will no longer be a student a year from now, I took advantage of my free admission privilege and got to see gerrit cole pitch for the first time. He looked like he struggled at points but only gave up one run in about 7 innings. I wasn't expecting to get cole to sign since he was pitching but he was cool enough to sign multiples for me. I gave the usa base to kids who were still there and kept the two I really wanted signed for myself. Unfortunately, I didn't see trevor bauer but am really happy to get cole.

This card was really begging for an auto in the empty spot:

And this just came in the mail friday. Love the look of it.

 

[theplasticman]

Awesome stuff! I've got a bunch of his USA stuff

 

[bear0555]

I purchased a huge lot of USA Jersey Autos a while back. I was very happy with it until I realized one of the Cole autos was missing the auto!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280535979974&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:US:1123



They're supposed to look like this (sticker auto):

Next, I realized I could try to get Gerrit to sign it in person sometime before he gets drafted. I lucked out and that day turned out to be today.



It couldn't have looked any nicer. Strange the way it worked out today.

I was going to class when I saw Trevor Bauer going to his class. My class is two hours long so I left in the middle to try to catch Trevor. After not seeing him come out, I realized I was probably too late. I was walking back to class when I saw a bunch of the baseball players talking together and Gerrit Cole was in that group! I told Gerrit I've been collecting his cards and asked him to sign my card. As usual, he was really cool about it and even asked me for my name! So naturally, I haven't been able to concentrate the rest of the day.

 

[aspoe093]

congrats what a great story

 

[mrmopar]

Great story.

I still seems weird to me to be chasing college players for autographs, but they are becoming recognized earlier, even in HS now. These are guys who are often the same age or younger if you are in school with them. I guess I should have had the foresight to have Aaron Sele sign my yearbook when we were in school together!

When I was going to the U of W. Warren Moon was making an appearance to talk about the new football stadium that was being proposed (now Qwest Field). I found out about it the same day, when I saw a flyer on the ground. At lunch, I ran out to get some Moon cards at the local shop and then thought I would try to get his autograph. I was able to get a few, but also during the speech, Warren spotted then starting Husky quarterback Brock Huard in the crowd and singled him out for a comment. After the speech, I thought I would grab Huard's signature on the back of the flyer. Still have it, even though he never panned out. I felt a little funny asking for this kid's autograph (I was a returning student of 27 or 28 after being in the USN and he was probably 20 or 21 at the time).

 

[bear0555]

Great story.

I still seems weird to me to be chasing college players for autographs, but they are becoming recognized earlier, even in HS now. These are guys who are often the same age or younger if you are in school with them. I guess I should have had the foresight to have Aaron Sele sign my yearbook when we were in school together!

When I was going to the U of W. Warren Moon was making an appearance to talk about the new football stadium that was being proposed (now Qwest Field). I found out about it the same day, when I saw a flyer on the ground. At lunch, I ran out to get some Moon cards at the local shop and then thought I would try to get his autograph. I was able to get a few, but also during the speech, Warren spotted then starting Husky quarterback Brock Huard in the crowd and singled him out for a comment. After the speech, I thought I would grab Huard's signature on the back of the flyer. Still have it, even though he never panned out. I felt a little funny asking for this kid's autograph (I was a returning student of 27 or 28 after being in the USN and he was probably 20 or 21 at the time).

The obvious flipside is that getting a major leaguer's autograph is much tougher to do than it was before they went pro. I also find that it provides for a much more exciting story. While Cole is expected to sign for a lot of money next year, he seemed to really appreciate that someone at his university is cares about what he is doing there. Plus, it was just too good of an opportunity to get an ip auto and have ud's certification on it.

Also, I've usually had much more fun going to the AFLAC All-American and UCLA games than major league games. The cost of admission is no more than $5 and I get the opportunity to talk to the players before/after the game, see what kind of people they are, and have them sign some of their earliest cards. However, if I knew some of these guys as friends, I would agree that it would be strange to ask them for their autographs.

Btw, cool story about Moon and Huard. I remember pulling a couple Huard rookies from 99 Absolute SSD, a set I recently finished.