Winter Warm Up 2011–Day 2 (Afternoon)

We paid for the Adam Wainwright autograph and asked him to sign a jersey card we found over the Christmas break. It matches my Chris Carpenter jersey card autograph from last year’s warm up. I think it looks great! A guy in the Tom Henke line saw it and told me it was a nice card. I saw my friend in the Tom Henke line. His dad is a Blue Jays and Joe Carter fan. I was the last person in line for Hard Hittin’ Mark Whiten! The Matt Carpenter card is from a Springfield Cardinals team set my dad bought on Day 1. Too bad they didn’t’ have a team set for Memphis.

Winter Warm Up 2011– Day 2: Wally Moon

Forgot to include the Wally Moon auto’s in this morning’s post. He was at the Warm Up promoting his upcoming book. In addition to signing in the autograph room, he was also in the vendor room at his own booth signing cards depicting the book cover.

Winter Warm Up 2011–Day 2 (Morning)

The Shelby Miller line was really, really long. I got lucky and met someone who saved a spot for me at the front of the line. Bill Virdon and Wally Moon are my first Rookie of the Year autographs. I got three Adam Reifer autographs so I can give one to my friend who’s dad is going to Afghanistan next month. Hopefully Zack Cox ends up better than Brett Wallace – his line was long too.




Dad – I highly recommend that folks going to next year’s Winter Warm Up to book the package through the Hyatt and not through the Cardinals. Guests who book rooms and passes through the hotel have priority access each morning which means no waiting in the miles long line just to get into the Warm Up (or even inside the building). Guests have assigned line spots on the second floor and are allowed upstairs to the autograph areas before general admission. For us, that meant getting in and out of one autograph line and into a second before most fans ever make it into their first.

Winter Warm Up 2011–Day 1 (The Packs)

During our morning break we went to the vendor room and bought some cards for autographs and 8 packs to open while waiting in line. I got some Cardinals and lots of cool cards. Here are the cool cards.

Winter Warm Up 2011–Day 1 (Afternoon)

We had a break in the morning and bought 8 packs of cards. I got lots of good stuff! I think I passed my mom as the best pack opener in the family. More on the packs later. These were all free autographs. The Danny Cox cards are minis.



Dad – During the morning break, we headed to the vendors to pick up cards for Jason Simontacchi. Isaac picked a fancy X-fractor numbered to 150 and a Fleer throwback-like card. Simontacchi signed the X-fractor but would not sign the Fleer. He was very gracious and apologetic when explaining why. Here’s the story:
Simontacchi had a close friend and neighbor who takes care of his baseball card, memorabilia, and appearance arrangements. This friend stood by him even as his minor league career looked like it would not end with a stop in the majors. When he finally made it to the majors as a 28 year old rookie, he eventually autographed the Fleer Tradition card for his friend and, as a token of his friendship and loyalty, vowed never to sign that card for anyone else, regardless of circumstance. A promise he keeps to this day. Great story eh?

Winter Warm Up 2011–Day 1 (Morning)

My dad took me to the Cardinals Winter Warm Up again this year. It is the fourth year in a row that I have gone. I got lots of cool autographs of new and old players. I even got three Rookies of The Year autographs. I got five pay autographs and the rest were free players. I got 33 players altogether.
We paid for Mike Matheny, Kyle Loshe, and The Secret Weapon. The rest of the players were free. Mike Matheny was very nice. We talked about how we both knew the same person – a teacher at the school where my mom teaches.

Winter Warm Up 2011–Friday Night!!!

We stayed at the Winter Warm Up hotel again this year. My dad surprised me with some baseball card packs and a some cheap boxes he bought on ebay. My dad bought me a box of 2006 Ovation for Christmas. I liked them so much that he bought two more cheap boxes on ebay. Here’s the cool stuff I got. It was awesome.

Numbered Cards


Jersey Cards


The first autograph was of Miguel Cabrera!


The second autograph was KEN GRIFFEY JR.!!!!!!!!! It was awesome. I high fived my dad for five minutes (Dad: At least five minutes of continuous high fiving followed by random shouts of “Yes!!!!” “Whooohooo!!!” and “Ken Griffey Jr!!!” the rest of the night.).

Ovation is awesome!!!