Last weekend I attended another local card show, and this one had plenty of current Cardinals players and 1 coach/former player. Originally there were to be 7 total signers, and I bought a ticket for each. Tony Cruz was added after I purchased my tickets, so I was going to buy an autograph ticket for him on the day of the show. Right around the time
Xavier Scruggs was designated for assignment a few weeks ago, I also saw a note on the website saying he would not be at this show, so I figured I could swap his ticket for a Cruz, which I did.
If you did the math up there, you can see I still should have had 7 autographs. Well, as it passed 11am, when all the signers were supposed to start at 9:30, 10, or 10:30, an announcement came over the PA that
Pete Kozma would not be coming. The announcer wasn't very diplomatic about it either, and placed the blame squarely on Kozma's agent.
I've run out of plastic cubes for my autographed balls, so these are still in half of the box of a dozen I purchased. I'm probably going to try to get a bunch that are identical so they stack nicely, or maybe even some multi-ball cases.
The show itself was one of the most crowded I've been to. Part of that is because there were 7 autograph tables set up in close proximity, and the lines of people were all crossing each other. It was pretty cool to meet 5 different players all in one day. Tommy Pham had the longest line by far, because his price was set back when he was called up, and he's been playing really well lately. Kolten Wong had a bit of the opposite issue, with a price set when he was really doing well, but he's been struggling a bit lately. People asked for some pretty funny inscriptions from Tommy Pham, including "Phamtastic" and "Phambino". He looked almost embarrassed to write it, but he obliged. Another interested moment came at Jose Oquendo's table. Apparently he won't sign "The Secret Weapon", I assume due to some exclusivity deal he's got. The guy in front of me purchased Jose's full uniform from the 1985 throwback game against Kansas City earlier this year, and had him sign the jersey, pants, and cap. He asked Jose to write "1985 NL Champs" on one of the items, but Jose quickly reminded him he didn't get here until 1987. He wasn't really declining, he just said "I don't want to mess up your jersey, you know?". But the collector agreed that probably didn't make sense, and had him write something else.
All in all, it was a fun morning, and I got to meet 6 Cardinals. There should be some more opportunities to track down Pete Kozma for an autograph, if nothing else perhaps at the annual Winter Warmup run by the Cardinals.
