The Day I Met Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee

...And met Placido Polanco, Don Larsen, and saw Charlie Manuel and Jim Bunning and Domonic Brown.  This was this past Sunday, at a show being put on by MAB Celebrity Services up near Philadelphia.  Here was the line up for the day:

Notice Roy started at 2pm, and he was the only one signing at that time. That is because he sold 750 autographs.  Cliff Lee was a late addition and he also sold several hundred (but not near 750).  Charlie Manuel and Jim Bunning's lines were pretty long too.  But none compared to Roy.

I got there around 11 and the place was already packed. I wasn't sure if there would be any vendors selling cards, but I was happy to see that there were.  After waiting in line to get my pre-paid ticket, I went into the signing room and browsed the card and memorabilia tables.  There weren't too many vendors there, but surprisingly I was able to knock not one, but two cards off of my most wanted list.  Here they are:



Yup, that would be the Halladay Bowman rookie and the Dunedin Blue Jays minor league card, numbered to /5000.  The sticker on the case of the Bowman read $12, but I was able to get the vendor to give me that for $10, the minor league card for $5, and this card for $3:

A total steal, in my opinion.  For $18 bucks I got all of these cards, and made some nice additions to my player collections. I was quite happy with that. 

So yeah, I mentioned that I met Cliff Lee, Polanco, Halladay, etc.  The signing was very laid back.  The athletes were up front at tables, but fans were allowed to get very close to them, even though they didn't have autograph tickets. This was really surprising to me, but whatever. I took full advantage. I managed to make my way right up front to where Cliff Lee was signing.  This is how close I was:

At one point Cliff and I made eye contact, I said hi, and he smiled and said hi back. He was a really nice guy, great with the fans, and seemed really happy to be there.  I mean, what's not to be happy about when you just signed a multi-million dollar seven year deal with the team you wanted to join?

Placido Polanco was a great guy, too. I got a picture with him and also with Don Larsen, even though I didn't get them to sign anything. 

Polanco on the left, his brother (and handler?) on the right. Both joked around with the fans and each other.  Always good when athletes seem humble.

So then just before two they announced that Halladay was early and would start signing in a few minutes.  I didn't think there was any way they'd let fans get too close to him, but again I was wrong. I went right up front, and was directly across from him while he signed and I waited for my number to be called to get in line.  I talked to him a bit, he was cordial, smiled a lot, and also seemed happy to be there.  One cool thing that happened was before he started signing, he posed for a picture with Don Larsen.  Here are a few shots of Roy:

And this is what I had him sign:

It really was a dream come true type of day, totally worth the drive and the time I spent there. 

I have so many cards to post about, things have been so busy lately though I just haven't had time. Hopefully in the days ahead I'll be able to highlight some of my recent pick-ups, including a dual-relic of two of my favorite players, numbered to 99.  Thanks for reading everyone!