Back when I was a sophomore at Sam Houston State University my suite-mate (Paul) asked if I wanted to go meet some Astros. I was a good ol' country boy and hardly ever had the chance to drive down to the city. Houston was nearly 200 miles south of me so it was rare that I had a chance to visit, much less attend games at the 'Dome. When he mentioned something called 'Astrofest' I was more than ready. I grabbed what few Astros cards I had at the time and me, Paul, and our friend Nena drove down to H-town from Huntsville on January 19, 1991.
I met Eric Yelding, Mark Portugal, Larry Dierker, and Carl Nichols that day. I took a picture of Eric Anthony but never got around to meeting him. All that for a $5.00 admission ticket. I have no idea what it costs today to go to the annual Fanfest, but I'm sure it's much more.
And that's the story of how I got my first signed card, a 1990 Topps Eric Yelding.
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I went to Astrosfest this year while I was down there for a wedding. Now, they host it at Minute Maid during their last exhibition game before the season starts. The Fanfest is free with paid admission to the game (I got in for $7). But, they charged for most autographs. It was $20 to get in a line and there was usually three or four players in a line. I ended up just getting alumni autographs for free.
ReplyDeleteI can go for free alumni sigs! Another thing they used to do was spend a few hours at a college campus; it was some kind of tour they did each spring. They would sit up outside in a commons area at a table and give free autographs. I met Luis Gonzalez, Curt Schilling, Kevin Bass, Bob Watson, and several others that way.
ReplyDeleteThe Royals still do something like that called the Royals Caravan. As far as I know, they have been doing it for nearly 20 years. They just send out groups of players and alumni to the bigger towns that have Royals games on the radio. They cover parts of four or five states (Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, and maybe northern Oklahoma)
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