Question about ticket authentication/grading

riccaboni

Hey guys,

As a recovery present, from my little motorcycle mishap, not my addition to baseball cards, my dad took me to a Devils Rays game last name. We got their real early so I could try to snag some autographs. I hardly had to try; I got BJ Upton and Scott Kazmir to sign my ticket, since I didn't have any of their cards with me, and picked up Edwin Jackson, Ben Zubrist, and Carl Crawford on cards. In addition to my David Wright signed ticket I picked up this past April when he parked his car on Easter Sunday outside of Shea, funny story, I'd like to have the Upton/Kazmir ticket encapsulated for protection purposes, just to preserve the ticket. Can I just have them authenticate the signatures and slab it or do they have to grade it? And what will it run me?

Thanks!

-Ian

LWMM

Not answering your question, but how the f*** did you get upton to sign for you??? In two plus years of trying to get him in AAA, I have exactly 3 signed items from him (two cards, one ball).

riccaboni

He signed for about three people then walked in; I think he felt bad because I'm still bandaged up and I'm missing my front teeth from my motorcycle accident. I wish I had brought a ball or a card of him or Kaz; I didn't know BJ was up in the bigs and I didn't think Kaz would be around because he's on the DL.

Funny story about Kazmir, I yelled "Mr. Kazmir, will you sign?" and he looked at me, walked over and said "Yeah, only if you tell me what you did to yourself!" He was really nice, really funny. He was great with the little guys, too. BJ was nice but seemed nervous to be up in the big leagues, like he wasn't sure if it was ok to sign stuff or if he should be in the clubhouse. Kaz nor BJ signed for adults, and BJ wouldn't sweet spot a ball. Luckily, at 19 and a babyface, I guess I qualify as a kid yet. Crawford was nice, but also seemed rushed. Baldelli signed a few items in the half minute between stretching and the National Anthem. I just missed him and I understand completely as to why he only signed a few items.

The nicest guys were Edwin Jackson and Ben Zubrist. Zubrist is a whiz in the field and made a heck of a play on Wednesday and was such a nice guy. Easily the nicest guy on the team that I met. He gave out custom made trading cards of himself to the little guys who didn't have anything for him to sign and signed for litterally 15-20 minutes straight up the line as more kids came down. I was the first guy to recognize Jackson and he laughed that I actually knew he was. He said that was the reason he'd sign for me.

In all, it was a really cool experience. If you can get past the aesthetics of the dome, the stadium itself is actually nice and the players are VERY accessible if you get there in advance. At most, there was 20 people waiting for autographs, myself included, and when I got BJ and Kaz, there were litterally 6 of us there. That's right, only 6 autograph seekers at 5:45pm for a 7:05 pm start. Crazy. The only other place that has been like that was the Skydome when I got Barry Zito's autograph on a ball, and there was probably 13 people maximum. I'll scan the ticket then and post it. I made a mistake, though. I had originally said Edwin Jackson had signed a card, he's actually on the ticket with Upton and Kazmir. It's pretty cool looking, definately a nice addition to my collection.

-Ian