Rangers Fan Fest

[just-for-cards]

My wife and I went to the Texas Rangers FanFest again last weekend. Of course there were lots of new bandwagon fans there this year. Quite a few of them brought their new babies in their strollers. That’s something I’ll never understand even though the temperature did hit 50 later in the day. It was nice to see the regular fans that I bump into at the games.
We got there at 6:30 for the 9:00 opening and didn’t get there early enough to get Nolan Ryans Auto, or Adrian Beltre. We ended up getting C.J. Wilson on a couple balls after waiting in line for a couple more hours.
We then walked around and picked up some freebies like team pictures, antlers, pens, schedules, mouse pads and other stuff before getting these autos.
Engel Beltre – 2 baseballs
Jose Felix – card and hat
Cody Eppley – card and hat

We came back on Sunday for more standing in line and picked up Kinsler on a ball and hat. We then walked around and bought some Media Guides for $1, and a nice Ranger Tapestry blanket for the bed and then waited forever for the Hamilton auto lottery ticket numbers to be announced. We didn’t win one. So went home to watch the Packer game.
This was clearly not our best year scoring autos but it was fun. We did miss the scavenger hunt that they had for several years where you could get free tickets to the games. That was my free tickets to games for friends of ours as well as family.

 

[dbarbos1]

Well, congrats on the successes you did get.
Seems like you all had a great time!

 

[SLNoble13]

Congrats on ones you did get

 

[CW13]

Thanks for sharing...From what I read, this was the common experience at this year's Fan Fest unless you got there at 3 am or so Saturday. I believe there were 11,000 people for the 2 day event(3x that of last year)...And while there were more things to do inside(mainly for the kids), the autograph lines were pretty much crazy. Here are just a couple of snippets to illustrate it...

"Arrived at 4:15 Am.It was cold ,saw about 20 cut in front of me and others,Its wrong do do that to other people standing in line But have noticed men who have little respect for themselves will not have it for others.I was able to get Nolan and all the way to the 4:00 end with David Murphy and lucky to get Chuck Greenberg in the middle for a total of 3.I thought the organization was there but the very large crowd did not allow for many autographs.
and
Gotta love getting here at 6 and then falling less than 10 spots away from a nolan Ryan ticket because cars kept dropping off people to jump line."

At least Gaylord and Fergie had booths set up and were signing all day long(for an additional $20 each).That's still a nice deal for those HOFs...I think they need to go back to more alumni and prospects like in years past..those would have more tolerable lines and at least, you can more players' sigs..Most people got 2 maybe 3 tops each day..And they still arrived 4 hours early...The bandwagon is in full effect in Texas

Congrats on what you got, I hope Engel develops into the toolsy OF he can be and Eppley become O'Day 2.0..and Kins and CJ are great ones, too!!

 

[stlcardtrader]

Wow.. glad the Cardinals Winter Warm Up event isn't like that..

 

[tglg]

No, but I wonder if Nolan Ryan was free or how much it was. Pujols was what, $175? And Yadier was $90. And there were pretty long lines, even at those prices. I waited 2 hours to get Shelby Miller, and then another 2 hours for Zack Cox. It was an ok experience, being my first time to the Cardinals. But I am glad I got my tickets for half price. I was a little disappointed that the card/memorabilia area didn't have more cards and/or dealers.

Wow.. glad the Cardinals Winter Warm Up event isn't like that..

 

[CW13]

No, but I wonder if Nolan Ryan was free or how much it was. Pujols was what, $175? And Yadier was $90. And there were pretty long lines, even at those prices. I waited 2 hours to get Shelby Miller, and then another 2 hours for Zack Cox. It was an ok experience, being my first time to the Cardinals. But I am glad I got my tickets for half price. I was a little disappointed that the card/memorabilia area didn't have more cards and/or dealers.

Nolan was free(he signed at 11 am on Sat), the only additional money was for Fergie and Gaylord..They also had a free session but if you missed out on them, you could get them at their booth all day.....And 2 day tickets were $25..That's what brought them out in droves...Josh Hamilton ended up being a lottery type system on Sunday for 250-300 people I think

 

[tglg]

Yeah, with Nolan being free, that would create a mad house. That is my point with the Cardinals, if Pujols was free vs $175, people would be lining up 2 days in advance. And Pujols was limited to baseballs and/or flats, no bats, helmets, or anything other than the two items mentioned.

 

[stlcardtrader]

I hear you.. I don't go to the Cardinals event for the high priced autos.. fortunately I have 2 pujols signed balls I got at spring training in 2002 so I feel set there and have most of the other high end Cardinals dudes too from similar experiences. I was able to get 200+ cards signed at the Cardinals event over the 3 days. All from the free signers. I agree there were some crazy lines, but similar to the Rangers event the Cardinals ran a special for $20 tickets. I do agree with the memorabilia area being a bit less than expected. My point is I didn't have to wait outside the event for hours on end in hopes of getting a few autographs and maybe not getting the people I was really hoping too. The Cardinals do a good job in making sure fans are able to get a lot of opportunities at autographs and what not.

No, but I wonder if Nolan Ryan was free or how much it was. Pujols was what, $175? And Yadier was $90. And there were pretty long lines, even at those prices. I waited 2 hours to get Shelby Miller, and then another 2 hours for Zack Cox. It was an ok experience, being my first time to the Cardinals. But I am glad I got my tickets for half price. I was a little disappointed that the card/memorabilia area didn't have more cards and/or dealers.

 

[expos94]

at least you guys have events like this, long lineups or not.... the Blue Jays do nothing like this for us in Toronto.

 

[CW13]

Yeah, with Nolan being free, that would create a mad house. That is my point with the Cardinals, if Pujols was free vs $175, people would be lining up 2 days in advance. And Pujols was limited to baseballs and/or flats, no bats, helmets, or anything other than the two items mentioned.

$175....that's hilarious Actually $90 for Yadier is even more hilarious...

 

[tglg]

Yeah, it was cool. I didn't have anything of Tom Lawless, although I told him I remember his 87 World Series HR against the Twins. The whole bat flick and all. But we went down the Lawless line, and snapped pics of the kids being a whole 5 foot away from Pujols. We were just as close as those who paid $175, except we didn't walk away with a Pujols auto. But wow, 200 cards you got signed????? Wow. We should have maybe tried to meet. I didn't even go on Monday, as the only person I really wanted was Whitey, and I have several of his autos already. So didn't even venture down there that day. I had 2 extra passes that could have been used as well.

I hear you.. I don't go to the Cardinals event for the high priced autos.. fortunately I have 2 pujols signed balls I got at spring training in 2002 so I feel set there and have most of the other high end Cardinals dudes too from similar experiences. I was able to get 200+ cards signed at the Cardinals event over the 3 days. All from the free signers. I agree there were some crazy lines, but similar to the Rangers event the Cardinals ran a special for $20 tickets. I do agree with the memorabilia area being a bit less than expected. My point is I didn't have to wait outside the event for hours on end in hopes of getting a few autographs and maybe not getting the people I was really hoping too. The Cardinals do a good job in making sure fans are able to get a lot of opportunities at autographs and what not.

 

[CW13]

at least you guys have events like this, long lineups or not.... the Blue Jays do nothing like this for us in Toronto.

You are absolutely right. It is what it is. It's an opportunity that many others do not have. You just have to figure out how committed you are to arriving early and standing in lines all day. At least this year was inside(last year was very windy and cold outside)..For many people here in Texas, this is their only chance to have that kind of access to players like Ryan, Young, Kinsler, Beltre, Hamilton, etc...And while you would not get them all, you would probably get at least one and maybe 2 or 3 of those.

 

[tglg]

Hilarious - quite possible. But both of them sold out. And signed for 2 hours each.

$175....that's hilarious Actually $90 for Yadier is even more hilarious...

 

[CW13]

I hear you.. I don't go to the Cardinals event for the high priced autos.. fortunately I have 2 pujols signed balls I got at spring training in 2002 so I feel set there and have most of the other high end Cardinals dudes too from similar experiences. I was able to get 200+ cards signed at the Cardinals event over the 3 days. All from the free signers. I agree there were some crazy lines, but similar to the Rangers event the Cardinals ran a special for $20 tickets. I do agree with the memorabilia area being a bit less than expected. My point is I didn't have to wait outside the event for hours on end in hopes of getting a few autographs and maybe not getting the people I was really hoping too. The Cardinals do a good job in making sure fans are able to get a lot of opportunities at autographs and what not.

That's exactly how the Rangers had it the last few years. And what I was doing. There would be 10-12 prospects and at least 15 alumni signing throughout the day and you could rack up multiples easily with those guys while the rest of the fan base stood in line for their one opportunity to meet Hamilton or Salty or Elvis, etc..You could go get 2 prospects and 3 alumni guys in that same time frame...I wish they would go back to this next year.

 

[David K.]

These fan fest sound like a fun thing to do! Next year....might go to the Giants fan fest! Best regards David

 

[just-for-cards]

That's exactly how the Rangers had it the last few years. And what I was doing. There would be 10-12 prospects and at least 15 alumni signing throughout the day and you could rack up multiples easily with those guys while the rest of the fan base stood in line for their one opportunity to meet Hamilton or Salty or Elvis, etc..You could go get 2 prospects and 3 alumni guys in that same time frame...I wish they would go back to this next year.

Exactly what my wife and I did for years. We'd stock up on the prospects each year so we didn't have to stand in the long lines to get the same players 2 years down the road. It wasn't uncommon to walk out with over 30 autos of top prospects. And, years ago, they'd even have a card show with the FanFest. It was double fun.
Anyway, it's well worth the price of admission instead of paying for each player that you might want.
I would like to think that players that make millions of bucks per year would be able to sign for free at an event like this. Maybe it's just the cost of living in St. Louis. A lottery system of some sort is easy enough to do.