Dodgers vs Mets Series Recap

Game 1 (6/28/12):

It had been 10 days since the Dodgers had a game at Dodger Stadium, after a terrible road trip (1 win & 8 losses) the team was back home.

I might be moving from LA, so my goal was to get my jerseys signed, specifically my Kershaw, Kemp and Magic ones. I’d been lucky with Kershaw a couple of times by the third base line, so I stayed there during BP.

My friend Alex from Dodgers Adventures got his team ball signed by Todd Coffey, who is a hard autograph to get.

Andre Ethier got injured on the Wednesday game at SF, so he wouldn’t participate that day at BP & only tossed the ball for a couple of minutes with Matt Kemp. Dre’ has been such an awesome guy with the fans and has signed almost every day, Thursday wasn’t the exception and he autographed items for many fans, I ran over to him and got my hat signed.

I noticed that Kershaw went over to sign for a couple of kids by the bullpen, but I didn’t rush to him because I knew he wouldn’t be there too much. But a couple of minutes later he went by the box seats, I usually don’t go there but that day I did and got my jersey signed. I asked him to personalize it because I saw that a fan that went to get his jersey signed was asked by Clay for his his name, and how I’m not going to sale it I asked him to do it. Freakin’ silver Sharpie didn’t work as I expected it:

It was Eric Karros bobblehead night, so the Dodgers all time HR leader was there. He had a lot of little league players there with him.

While waiting for Eric, Maury Wills walked by us an signed for many fans, I didn’t remember I had my Dodgers magazine cover that features him, Davey Lopez & Dee Gordon. I only asked him what was his opinion on the Cuban kid the Dodgers signed (Yaenis Puig), he told me he didn’t know about it. It was cool that he asked me how much the Dodgers had paid for him, I answered 42 for 7 years, he said “42 what?” and I said “42 million”. He got surprised and said “That’s too much money”, I hope the kid responds because the team surely paid a lot for him.

I didn’t stay after the game, even though Eric Karros was featured at Dodger Vision sitting at a suite. But some fellow graphers did stay and told me that Mr. Karros was kind enough to sign autos (multis) and take pictures with the fans that were waiting for him.

Game 2 (6/29/12)

I knew that Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park would be there to throw out the first pitch, I’m a huge Linkin’ Park fan so I took my Hybrid Theory CD with me to get autographed, that was my main goal for the day.

But I also had my usual items with me, I did “aisle 27” because I heard that Matt Kemp signed there on Thursday and I was hoping to get it autographed. Unfortunately Kemp didn’t stop by, but Loney did and I got my picture with him signed.

Afterwards I headed to the seats where the guests that are there to throw out the first pitch walk by. I waited for a good 15 minutes until Mike Shinoda came out, but also “Phoenix” Ferrell and Mr. Hahn (whom I didn’t know would be there). The 3 of them were cool enough to go over with me to sign my CD cover & CD, I also took pictures with them. It was awesome to have a little chit chat with Mike & “Phoenix”, actually Alex told me that the conversation with Shinoda was pretty long & awesome.

I found these pictures online where you can see me and the members of Linkin Park.

After the game we tried to graph’ the Mets, of course I took my team logo with me to get any of the players but also had some baseballs available in case any of the big names went to sign. As we were waiting we saw that a Giants fan was there, well Andres Torres walked out and went straight at him and signed a SF Giants WS Champs wine bottle & a game used bat. Torres was cool enough to sign my team logo.

Then Ike Davis stopped for some Mets fans and I blended in to get my logo signed, that was actually my last auto of the night.

David Wright walked out but didn’t sign because he was in a “hurry”, sure he was . . . . the bus still stayed there for another 15 minutes.

Game 3 (6/30/12)

On-Field photo day at Dodger Stadium! Check out my recap on it on the following link ---- > CLICKHERE

Well, there wasn’t Dodgers or Mets BP @ Dodger Stadium because of the On-Field photo day activities …. so I went straight to my seat upstairs, but I remembered that Eric Karros was in town because the game was aired on FOX and he was calling the game with Joe Buck. So I hanged around by the Press Box, but no luck. The good thing was that Alex was able to get one of his DS 50^th Anniversary balls signed by Tommy Davis.

I left my seat on the 5^th inning because my Dodgers were getting their a**sses kicked by the Mets, so I hanged around the press box with high hopes of getting a baseball signed by Mr. Karros, the wait was long . . . . we saw Fernando sign, Joe Buck (from FOX) taking pictures with fans, but no Karros . . . we saw some Dodgers employees go into the press box with this cart packed of Eric Karros bobbleheads & baseballs, they were probably going to get them signed for the Dodger Dream Foundation silent auctions.

We were told that we needed to leave after one of the security guards discovered that we were waiting for Eric, sometimes I feel that they’re kind of (a word I can’t write here) . . . . but when I think about it, it’s their jobs.

So we headed over to try and get some autographs from Mets players, how some of them are from the So Cal area they leave on their own cars every once in a while. I noticed a big crowd was still in the Stadium, I remembered that AJ Ellis, Josh Lindblom & Clayton Kershaw were going to host “Faith & Family Night” where they shared gospel with the fan . . . I’m glad they had a great response!

That day we got pretty lucky with the Mets players, I certainly think that they signed because they were happy:

Justin Turner

Mike Nickeas

Lucas Duda

Cool story, a group of 3 little kids that are Mets fans were hanging around and got so excited when they saw the players. They recognized each one of them so quickly, their dad told me that they were huge NYM fans and that they know each one of the players. That actually helped me out because, even though I had my cheat sheet, I had a hard time recognizing some of them. Here’s a picture of them with Chris Young:

Here’s one of them with Bobby Parnell:

And the one that everybody wanted and only the kids got: R.A. Dickey. Dickey signed their hats, but didn’t sign any more autographs, I wished him luck towards the All Star Game and told him he deserved to be the starter for the National League.

Game 4 (7/1/12)

I love 5 pm games, STH are able to go into the Stadium early and after the game I’m usually at home before 9pm.

My day started off good; I thanked Dodgers RP Scott Elbert for taking a picture with me on Saturday on the On-Field Photo Event, a couple of minutes later he threw a BP ball to me.

I didn’t get any Dodgers autographs, probably because I was too concentrated in getting my Kemp jersey signed. But well, I walked over to the Mets bullpen when the rest of the Stadium was opened and was rejected by Mets relief pitchers Miguel Batista and Ramon Martinez.

I noticed that a kid got smacked in the face by a BP baseball by the first base line box seats, a couple of Mets players went over to sign for him . . . . including “El Gocho”!! Johan Santana!! I kept calling him, but he never turned over to me and Dodger Stadium staff doesn’t let you go into that section if you don’t have seats there or if the player doesn’t call you to go down. No Johan autograph for me.

So I went over to the left field foul pole with Alex, which ended up being a great choice because Mets manager Terry Collins went over with some NY fans to sign autographs and I was able to get my logo signed by him.

After the game I knew the spot where the ESPN crew would walk out thru, so I was with my fingers crossed to get a baseball signed by Terry Francona and a picture by Orel Hershiser. “Tito” used his usual “I’m busy, I’m running late” line and ran right by us . . . . once a person tells me no I decide not to go and try to force an autograph out of him, so I chilled far from him (I later heard that a couple of fans got him to sign baseballs). FYI, he was rockin’ one of his Boston Red Sox World Series Championship rings.

A little bit later Orel Hershiser walked out and told fans that he would sign, but that they had to walk with him to the area where the ESPN trucks were at. As we were walking there I told him that he should come to Dodger Stadium more often, when he’s been there to call games for ESPN the Dodgers have won. He responded with a “Just like in my playing days, when I was here we always won”, I loved that reply! Orel signed away for over 10 fans that were there, a couple asked for inscriptions and he said that he was only doing autographs . . . . I asked him if he could personalize mine and he went ahead, the only problem is that the freakin’ silver Sharpie bailed on me again.

No doubt this was a great series, we might’ve lost it but it’s always great to be at Dodger Stadium cheering on my team.