I just returned home from Milwaukee where I was quite busy doing signings yesterday afternoon and last night. I landed at about noon and headed straight to my hotel to begin setting up for the signings. The first signing was to be with the Brewers All-Star reliever Francisco Cordero at 3:00. Cordero showed up right on time and we knocked it out in less than a half-hour. Francisco and I spoke about the All-Star Game. He was pretty excited about the whole experience (especially meeting Willie Mays). Once Cordero left I started packing up his finished product and awaited a phone call from Jeff Suppan. I have done (as you all know) many signings with Soup since the Cardinals won the World Series. He is one of the coolest athletes I have ever worked with. If you didn't know who he is was you would never know that he is an ace pitcher and CS MVP. He is that down to earth. Anyway, Soup has become a really fast signer. He finished in less than an hour. That gave me plenty of time to box up and prep the Suppan and Cordero product to ship back to New York. So far the whole day was timed perfectly as I was more than ready when Prince Fielder arrived at 6:00. Prince has become one of the elite players in the National League. Earlier in the week he started his first All-Star Game and is leading the National League in homeruns. From the minute you start talking to him you realize that none of that has gone to his head as he is extremely nice and respectful. While his teammates strictly signed MLB baseballs we had quite a strong product mix for Fielder. He signed three incredible images (in both 8x10 and 16x20), 2007 All-Star baseballs, MLB baseballs as well as authentic home Brewers jerseys. All these items are sure to become staples in our fast-growing Steiner Sports Milwaukee Brewers collection. This team is on it's way to the playoffs and, with their solid pitching and young core, can really do some damage once they get there.
Yesterday was an off-day for Milwaukee. The Rockies flew in last night for a three game set which begins today. With that in mind we made a phone call and were able to secure a private signing with Colorado All-Star Matt Holliday. Holliday is one of the front-runners for the NL Batting Title. He is currently batting an amazing .341. He has kept the Rockies in wild-card contention all season and, unfortunately, he and his teammates ruined the Mets last road trip. Anyway, I finally received a phone call at about 9:45 last night that the team plane has landed and that they were on their way to the hotel. I then grabbed my supplies and a few cases of baseballs and took a cab downtown (It was not easy moving around with all those balls but , as always, I got it done). I had to hang out in the lobby for a little while as the players were all checking in. We finally got to do the signing at about 10:30. Holliday signed MLB baseballs as well as a few black-leather balls (which is a Steiner Sports web-exclusive). Thankfully I was able to ship the balls back from the team hotel (I did not want to load them back in a taxi again). I finally made it back to my hotel at midnight and set my alarm for 4:30 AM. Upon waking up I headed straight back to the airport, boarded my flight and here I am- back in New York preparing for tomorrow's Sean Avery appearance at Hall of Heroes. That was the busiest 24 hours I have had in quite some time (by far not the busiest signing day ever but probably in the top 20)
Check back tomorrow for a recap of the Avery signing. Have a great weekend! Let's Go Mets! Tell 'em to run Rickey!