Some readers may remember my ongoing search for Twins’ bobbleheads years ago. However, my wife and I have gotten older and as a result, our striving for bobbleheads, Twins’ fishing lures and bronze statues has slowed down. We are no longer willing to get up at 5 a.m., drive 125 miles, stand in line for two hours, wait two hours for the game to start, watch the game and then drive 125 miles home. The spirit was willing but the flesh has gotten weaker.

However, because I had gotten Ron Gardenhire’s Twins’ season jacket years ago and planned to hand it down to my son, we did go up for Gardy’s bobblehead day last year.  So I had his jacket, two bobbleheads and his autograph on a couple of columns I had written about him and thought it would be great to add to the collection.

The Twins have a traditional autograph party in June held for charity when both past and present Twins are available for signings. Here was a chance to get the bobbleheads signed. What a nice grouping I would have of one of the most successful managers in the majors, especially for a strong Twins fan. It would be an even better collection if Gardenhires’ Twins would win a World Series.But beyond that, Gardy seems to be a nice guy. I know he has been very nice to me in the two limited times I have talked to him. It would be a special collection for my son one day.

It seemed we didn’t even have to get up early, for the autograph party didn’t start until 12:30 p.m.  So after a leisurely breakfast we started north, a little before 10 a.m.  We enjoyed the ride, stopped at McDonalds in Cannon Falls for an early lunch and arrived at the Metrodome before 12:30 p.m.

I started struggling with the parking lot machines. Tried Mr. Spit for awhile with no success.  Walked over to his partner and went eyeball to eyeball with Mr. Chew. He wouldn’t take my money or my credit card.  There was a number to call. So we tried that and got nowhere. They wanted your car license number, etc.  All of which you had to punch in. I was expecting them to ask for our SS numbers and credit report. The call was dropped, I guess because we weren’t punching in the numbers fast enough. While my wife was calling them again, I walked over to Mr. Chew and tried my credit card for the third time. He took it. I probably wasn’t leaving it in the slot long enough. In any case, he was finally willing to take my 10 dollars.

We put on sun block and headed for the autograph plaza. There was hardly a soul around and I thought, “This won’t take very long.” We arrived at the  plaza and was I wrong. There must have been 5,000 people in lines ending at little white tents where signers were seated in the only shade on the plaza. There were so many people  you couldn’t tell where one line began and the other ended. After a 15 minute search we found the line with Ron Gardenhire at the end of it. We were making progress but were already hot and sweaty.

I got to talking with the gentleman behind me in line and it turned out he was from Spring Valley. A true fan, he had gotten there early in the morning. He was able to secure Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau’s  autograph on a bat he was holding.  A really nice acquisition for it looks like both will be in the Hall of Fame and Mauer has a shot at hitting over .400 this season. The first person to do it since Ted Williams in 1941 hit .406.

Next week: What did Gardy have to say; other autographs including an exchange of pleasantries with Matt Guerrier. Francisco Liriano was grumpy and TC wasn’t.