A mere hours after returning home from the Daniel Murphy appearance I headed over to LaGuardia to catch an early morning flight to Atlanta. I was flying out there for an appearance with Rockies star (and Steiner exclusive) Troy Tulowitzki. Atlanta was the closest city to New York that Colorado would be playing at the remainder of this season so we welcomed the opportunity to do a signing with Tulo down there (much better than going all the way out to Denver). There was a flight delay (as always) but I did make it to the team hotel with about twenty minutes to set up for the mammoth signing. Somehow I did manage to get it all out and ready to go in time..still have no clue how...and was pretty much all set for Tulo when he called. This was actually the first signing I have done with him since right before the World Series last year. I was shocked he even remembered me (I don't consider myself very memorable let alone to someone who meets thousands of people a year). He is definitely an extremely interesting guy to talk to. We got into it about football and NL baseball for most of the signing. Tulo knocked it all out pretty quick despite the bulk of the pieces being jerseys which take a little bit longer to sign. When all was said an done it took about an hour and I was left with a mess to clean up...that is why I hate doing jerseys alone. If you have no one there to help you expedite it you wind up with mounds of jerseys everywhere. I must say though that these Rockies jerseys are an awesome item ... we were able to get four different styles signed including an incredibly stalwart and affordable replica jersey.
So, with a quick pack-up behind I headed back to my least favorite airport (ATL-Hartsfield is awful despite popular opinion) with high hopes of catching an earlier flight back to civilization. After a bit of arguing with some airline workers (They wanted to charge me an exorbitant penalty for the flight change. I ended up pointing out case by case examples of canceled flights due to mechanical and flight crew problems that I have experienced over the past year adn then referenced the extra airport parking I had to pay for over time due to these delays) I did , in fact, get on a earlier flight and arrived back in New York at around 9:00 PM. While, in theory, it seemed like a stout idea to do the Atlanta trip back and forth in one day I do not recommend it and will try my best not to do it again. I was wiped out by the time I got home....and that was only Tuesday. It looks to me like close to a signing a day for the foreseeable future so check back later for more on last week's festivities.