Day 1 meant 13+ hours of driving to Albuquerque, and in the middle of this, we were met with a massive hailstorm that you would swear shattered our windows if you could listed to how hard we were being hit, but thankfully that wasn't the case. My wife thought a tornado was coming, because the rain and hail were going sideways.
We got to a gas station at night, where someone was walking their horses. I've never seen 3 horses at a shell station before.
Oh yeah, this wasn't a shell station though ....
We all got a little snicker out of that. We made it to our five star hotel which was $500/night (or was it 2 star for $50 a night? I forget...) and were able to sleep pretty well. I'm still concerned that we are now nearly 900 miles away from home, and no word from where, when or how we will be meeting up with Jose. This whole thing still seems like a pipe dream. While we had a bunch of fun things planned, it surely would put a damper on the whole trip if the signing doesn't go through.
After a long first leg of the trip, I emailed his manager and said that I would be booking a las vegas hotel in the morning, and will send him the address so Jose can either meet us there or we can meet him wherever he wants.
At this point, I really just wanted to hear something ... anything from him.
We went to bed, and I woke up - an email from his manager!
"I will let you know where Jose wants to meet."
Talk about a HUGE sigh of relief! This is huge for me. I am still on his radar. At least I had heard something, so it sounded like it was still on. Another level in this video game complete!
We continued driving to a much more doable 570 miles to Las Vegas. This leg of the trip (day 2) was not nearly as scary as day 1, but we did have some very interesting things happen. Small victories continued to be proclaimed each time we crossed a state line, and our son's illustrated map of the United States continued to be checked off with every passing different license plate. (We checked off all but Rhode Island.)
As we went through Arizona, my wife was asleep in the passenger seat. I looked over to the left and saw some white sand .... but it wasn't sand. It was snow! How the heck was snow here when we are a mere few weeks away from Summer? If you are from down south, you can probably imagine our shock. Otherwise, not so much. I woke up my wife and told our son to look out the window - it was only a few patches but this was unfathomable to us all.We expect near-unbearable heat awaits us in Houston within a matter of weeks after we return...and here we are seeing snow.
As we climbed higher and higher in elevation, the snow got thicker and thicker, until it looked like we were driving through a winter wonderland. Years from now, if we looked on these pictures, we may mistake them for Christmas time.
We decided to pull over and throw snowballs at each other & make a small snowman ... in our shorts and flip flops. This all lasted for about 10 minutes, and about 10 minutes after that, our hands & feet thawed out. After a while, it started snowing! That was very cool, because as you drive through the snow, it looks very "matrixey" - it looks like rain is hitting you in slow motion. I was worried we were going to be stuck in some nasty weather, but our trek took us to lower elevation, and the snow had subsided.
My wife had organized a get together with some other mom's and their kids to put together things that are called "blessing bags" - these are bags that are filled with items to give out to homeless people. She decided it was a good idea to bring some on our trip - it was a very good call!
In Arizona, as we were passing a bus stop, we saw a woman who was holding up a sign so we decided to turn around into the parking lot and pull one out for her. Just like that ... our car SHUT DOWN. It was driving fine, and then it just ... stopped. WAS THIS IT? Was this all for the trip? Was the signing not going to happen thanks to our car?
Nope. It cranked right up again (Thank you, Lord!)
After a few more hours of mundane driving (my wife had taken the wheel for a while) I received an email from Jose's manager ... GULP ... was he going to cancel? What was going to happen?Here is basically what it said:
"Jose wants you to come to his house at 12 for the signing. Here is the address..."
!
!!
!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just started laughing. My wife asked me what I was laughing about and I just told her his address.
"NO! THAT'S NOT HIS ADDRESS IS IT????"
"YUP! WE ARE GOING TO CANSECO'S HOUSE TOMORROW!!!"
Together: "AAAHHHH!!!!!"
This trip just got significantly better ... for all of us. My wife and son went from excited for me to excited for all of us.
What the heck is happening here? Did my favorite baseball player ... the person who was previously the FACE of the best sport on the planet ... just invite my family over to his house?!
That one email took this whole trip from a mission to get autographs, to a potential life experience that could far eclipse getting my customs signed. A lottery winning. I had spent this whole past year so focused on getting my customs signed and "finished", I hadn't really thought about how amazing it could be to actually get to hang out with him for a bit.
During the drive, I modified all my fears to match a potential reality. What if this had happened: I meet him in his garage ... shades on ... ear buds in ... sign things quickly and barks get off my lawn!
Either way though, going to his house - regardless of how cranky he may be or how rushed it might feel - is still beyond cool. Needless to say, I don't remember much of driving after that.
After proclaiming that day two was a much, much better drive, (even without that news!)we made it to our hotel.
This one was awful.
The hotel was attached to a casino, so the music was easily heard from inside our room, you could easily hear one of the many ... "professional women" in the area earning her keep from the next room over, and there was a good sized gap from the bottom of our door to the ground.
It was so bad, it was laughable. What idiot decided to pick a hotel attached to a casino anyway? Oh yeah...I better not answer that. (Me. It was me.)
It was such a strange atmosphere - no matter where you were in this area of Vegas, it was like you would breathe in cigarette smoke - whether you were in a hotel room, outside on the sidewalk or, at a gas station or even in a non-smoking area of a restaurant ... there was always a distinct smell & taste of smoke.
I can't begin to say how odd it was that this put me in a bad mood even though I had gotten the best news ever. I knew we had pre-paid for 2 days to stay there, and I just couldn't go through with it. Thankfully, we were able to get a refund for night two. The crazy-loud a/c in our room was a God send, as it drowned out all of the horrendous night life and allowed our sub consciousness to focus on the loud, repetitious droning.
After eating, we decided to drive and look for a place to purchase earplugs from. The lights of Vegas are absolutely beautiful - it is an incredible sight to behold. I would like to think of Vegas, for my taste anyway, to be awesome in the sense of how a Tyrannosaurus Rex is awesome. I love seeing it, but wouldn't want to live in it, though I know I am probably in the minority of people! (About the Vegas thing, not the T-Rex thing.)
I went to bed in a much better mood because I knew the next day, I was going to Jose's house! I woke up staring at the over-sized clock showing 5:00 AM in big red characters. Immediately, my math kicked in. 7 hours. 7 hours until I am at his house! Surely my stomach would be in 1,000 knots and I'll likely not be able to speak English while I'm there, but in 7 hours I'm to be at his house!
We went to eat breakfast, and I told my family that though we are 30 minutes away, I'd like to get an hour start to just make sure that we get there on time. Even if we have to park down the street for 30 minutes like creeps.
About 10:30, an hour and a half from the signing, I got a text.
From the manager.
GULPPPPPPPPPPPP
"Can u make it at 11 instead of 12?"
This really got me all knotted up. Is this an ultimatum? If I couldn't make it then, would it not happen?
I told him we hadn't even checked out yet and are a half hour away (that was being generous as I don't know where to go even ... what if I were to get lost?) I said I think I can make it at 11:30, so he writes back:
"Okay, I'll tell him you are on your way and will be there at 11:30. Please hurry!"
That one text turned my morning from one of fairly peaceful preparation to that of total chaos. We hastily packed up everything, checked out, got directions and started driving.
Was this whole "get there ASAP!!!" text foreshadowing of how hurried/rushed/cranky Jose may be? Head down, shades on, ear buds in, sign, sign, sign, and get out.
After a mere single wrong turn, we finally got there (with a few minutes to spare). It was a beautiful house, but I don't think I was paying much attention. The garage door was ....
CLOSED.
(Just a tiny portion of his house (and color changed) shown below of what we saw when we pulled up - not sure if he'd want an actual picture of his house online!)
This means that I was going to be going to the door of Jose Canseco's house!!!
I brought my huge tub of items to be signed to come inside, and after I rang the doorbell, I heard dogs barking inside. There was a massive elephant tusk piece of art on the porch. It seemed like it took forever for the door to be answered. I looked back at my wife with a "I just rang Jose Canseco's doorbell!"look while she was grinning from ear to ear.
After a while, the door opened.Leila answered the door!
I admit, I had often thought about this scenario would play out. Would Leila be there? How would she act?A lot of times, you can think of models as possibly being rude,cold, self-absorbed, etc. I knew nothing about her, or even if she would be there, and here she is opening the door to let us into their home. I don't know much about her at all, but it was beyond surreal to see her in person, opening the door.
As we walked inside, there he was. The incredible Cuban hulk - the man who I invited to my 9th birthday 26 years ago, and didn't come. The guy who was the best player in baseball when I was growing up just invited me over to his kitchen table.
He cleared off some space on the table and I lugged my huge tote onto the table. I started off by giving him a deck of cards I made for him.
You remember this picture from a recent posting, right? I didn't say anything about it, but here!
"I know you like poker, so I made these for you...here."
I gave them to him and as he shuffled through them.
"Are you serious? Whoa! These are cool! Leila! Come here and take a look at these!"
Leila came over and looked through them. "Wow, these are really cool! They came out very nice!"
Jose told me he has friends come over every week or two to play poker, and they will be using the deck I made for him. Later on, I told him to look at the back of the playing cards.
"Ha! Tanner!"
Yes, folks- he said my name...AND he will be using them with his friends to play poker!
I'm very glad I made these for him because he was incredibly happy with them. As I got out some things to sign, the whole situation was nerve-wracking for a while. I knew that, thanks to the text I got earlier, he was in a BIG hurry, and I did NOT want to put my favorite baseball player in a position where he had to throw me out.
Every piece I had for him to sign had a note stating what type of pen to use, what to say, etc. The first piece I had him sign was a Triple Threads type of card that was to be signed in silver. I gave him the WRONG pen to use and the signature came off horribly.
NOOOOO!!! I asked if I could use his sink to see if I could quickly clear off the bad signature from my poor choice in pens. He said sure, and he went to put on a baseball game to watch while we were doing the signing.
All that time spent making the card, and all that pressure to get done fast, and here I was - at his sink, carefully, yet feverishly rinsing off the card. It ended up coming off and he was able to put a better signature on it. It didn't come out perfect, (as is the case with a few pieces) but that is to be expected - there were about 165 pieces to be signed!
After this, things went more smoothly. My wife and son were talking with Leila the whole time, and she even brought them outside in the back yard to see their tortoises (not to mention their dogs who were already inside.)
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I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by Leila- not that I had any reason to think otherwise, but I always seem to have a "worst case scenario" view of situations like this. She was so sweet to us all, offered us drinks, chatted with my wife the whole time - they hit it off very well, and even fed the tortoises - which, by the way - are awesome!
Some of you already knew I was trying to get a signing with Canseco. What you didn't know though is that I brought over several jerseys, hats, batting gloves, fielding gloves and cleats not to just sign, but to wear. This was half of the excitement for me.
If you know me, you know that the important part of a game used card is that it is worn by the player mentioned - not necessarily that it was in a game.If you have a problem with this, then you probably should not be collecting any card put out by any company with a piece of jersey or relic in it.
As I look at the back of a 2015 Gypsy Queen jersey card of Ian Kinsler on my desk, what I see on the back is this: "The relic contained in this card is not from any specific game, event or season."
Was this even used in a game? Did Kinsler even wear it? Topps never claims it in writing on the back, so we will likely never know. It is still a cool card though, but we have no guarantee it was game used or player worn.
Even with more specific writing, many card companies have been caught saying game used when it was not, as well as not even worn by the player.
- Stories have been told where teams would tell players to put on and take off jerseys then sell to companies as game used.
- Pictures have surfaced where players were putting on tons of jerseys on top of each other in front of what I believe were the card company representatives.
- Worn jerseys from photo shoots / draft events have been routinely used in cards.
The list goes on. If you haven't heard of these sorts of things before, google it and prepare to not believe in santa clause or the easter bunny anymore, either.
As long as card companies are honest, then I'm perfectly fine with the photo shoot or training worn jersey/relic cards. For me, my goal is to be 100% sure that my jersey/relic cards of Canseco were in fact worn by Canseco, and that is truly what made the whole thought of this trip special for me.
To get to how I came up with having him wear items, you have to go back to last year, when I started making custom cards. Let's face it: Canseco patch cards are pricey, and I don't know if any exist outside of A's and Devil Rays patch cards. I know Upper Deck used a Devil Rays jersey for a few cards, (one of them showing him on the White Sox) but the rest are A's patches ... if you can find them. Jose was signed by 7 other teams. The Rangers, Red Sox, White Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays, Angels and Expos. He never played for the last 2, but was signed by them.
When I had thought about doing this, I had a hard time sleeping - when I watched a baseball game, all I could see are players running around wearing all of this beautiful patch material. How unfortunate that my favorite player is no longer playing, and I could not physically witness if a jersey was truly worn by him or not, since the last time he played was 13 years ago. Plus, all you really can find are A's jerseys.
Don't get me wrong! I LOVE the A's - but as a big Canseco fan, the other 8 teams he signed with are very important to me. How can my collection be complete when there are little to no patch cards of the other teams he played for? I'm sure there are some out there...I mean, how can there not? But I have not seen any.
At the end of last year's flip quest, I started researching and hunting down properly sized and branded official jerseys, hats, batting gloves, fielding gloves and cleats.It took a LOT ... and I mean a LOT of work tracking down them all. I was able to get a proper jersey and hat for every single team he signed with - some had multiples just so I could utilize different patches to use as well.
Here is a pic of many of the jerseys:
Jose wearing these items was a very, very big deal to me, because this does 2 things: 1) It legitimately (just as other card companies have done)gives me an amazing amount of player-worn material to work with from all teams he played on, and 2) I would be able to see him wearing these jerseys first hand, so I would know for sure that Canseco wore them.
I had a good bit of anxiety on this part of the deal - what if he said no? What if he didn't want to play dress up? The whole reasoning behind me collecting these jerseys and getting them signed was to be able to create a large amount of custom cards primarily for my collection. I don't want to just cut up a jersey that he merely signed! I want to use jerseys that have been worn by him. Yes, I know that sounds creepy, but if you are a player collector, I'm sure you understand
Relax, people - I did not ask for him to try on any pants, underwear, etc. My wife wouldn't let me.
I first pulled out the fielding gloves. I brought 3 of them - one being a lefty, because I had no idea if his finger was in good enough shape to wear one. The good news was - his finger looks great, so he put on one, and started banging the middle of it with his fist.
"Man, this is a really good glove!"
He kept saying how he liked it, and then the unthinkable happened...
"I might have to trade you one of my game used gloves that I use in baseball games nowadays for this."
WHAT?!?!?!? Jose Canseco just asked if he wanted to trade me MY baseball glove for one of his game used gloves?!?!?!? You have got to be kidding me!!!
I told him I'd love to trade, but if he wanted it, he could just have it ... yet, I added again that I would love to trade! Later on, he mentioned he had hoped that it was a bit bigger in size, so I prepared myself for the deal not happened. But then, he hops up, grabs a glove and trades me, saying he knows he can make it work.
Here we are enjoying our new gloves ...
To make things even better, he asked for a specific marker I had, and laid down the most perfect inscription, inking it up really well. He said he used it to pitch with and play third base as well. I promised him this is one glove I would not be cutting up. He said "Yeah, do not cut this one up!" Are you kidding, Jose? I'm taking this to my grave! (I didn't say that, but that is what I was thinking.)
Contemplating what to inscribe for me ...
Aha! I've got it...
Perfect!
After this, Jose started to educate us all on how to properly break in a glove - he even put his new glove from me in the microwave, talking to us about how to break it in properly, telling me he will probably work on the glove for about an hour, and it will be ready for his next game.
As awesome it is that he traded me, it is also awesome that he will be using my glove to play with in his future games!
He put on his cleats, but they did not fit well at all, but in his chair starting doing a funny tap dance with them on. It was great - we all got a kick out of that! He said his feet have grown, and apparently after looking it up on google - that is a common occurrence! I called my son over and showed Jose his feet.
"Wow, you are going to be tall!" Jose said. My son answered "That or I'm going to be a hobbit!"
LOL! My son.
Later on, I had him sign one of the cleats in a few different spots that were masked off so they would fit in cards. The other, I wanted a special inscription which I will not cut up (especially since Jose insisted to put it in a spot bigger than it could be cut!)
Jose Canseco
Faster Than Rickey
How classic is that? In his book, he mentioned that he could beat Rickey Henderson in a race, and when I asked him again, he confirmed by saying that when they would race for (I don't recall the length) he would win, every time. It might as well say Faster than a Speeding Bullet. I am a big fan of Rickey as well, so it is a cool piece to have. I had actually thought of the "Faster than Rickey" inscription the night before in the hotel. I'm glad I thought of it!
continued on the next reply ....