2000-01 was my platinum hounding
season. I doubt that I can outdo this season, in which I amassed over 1200
autographs in only 34 outings (an average of 36 autos per outing). I
hounded 21 different NHL teams as they came through San Jose this season, and I
also got the opportunity to hound outside of San Jose for the first time, as I
racked up just short of 50 autographs of the IHL's Chicago Wolves and Milwaukee
Admirals (now of the AHL). In terms of high points and low points, the
high point of this season was definitely on December 28, 2000, when I broke the
100-autograph barrier for one day of hounding, getting a total of 103 Sharks and
Oilers autographs. The low point would probably be a few weeks after that,
trying to hound the Detroit Red Wings at a practice, which was a frustrating
experience. This is probably the most expansive season of hounding I'll
ever have, so I hope you'll like reading an excessive amount of detail.
Enjoy!
 Paul Buxton
|
 Alexei Yashin
|
|
4/21/01: Wolves vs. Admirals - My first-ever minor-league outing is a major success!
Over spring break, I took a weeklong
college visiting trip to the Midwest... more specifically, St. Louis, Chicago,
Milwaukee, and Lafayette (Purdue). Unfortunately, the Blues-Sharks playoff
schedule contradicted completely with my itinerary. That sucked! But
I was reassured that I would do some hounding on this trip. I found out
that the Chicago Wolves would have a playoff game at their home rink, Allstate
Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. The cool thing about Rosemont is its convenient
location: Right next to O'Hare International. So the first thing my dad
and I did after picking up our luggage at the airport was obvious: we went
straight to the Allstate Arena ticket office and purchased two cheap
tickets. The cool thing was, the second hotel we stayed at in Chicago
was just across the parking lot from the arena! This was really
convenient! I had brought cards for both the Wolves and Admirals. I
had cards of about half of the Milwaukee team, while I had most of the Wolves.
The "cheap tickets" were cheap compared to the Sharks. The seats
cost $23 each, and were right on center ice behind the penalty box. in SJ,
$23 will buy you a seat up in the rafters (or two hot dogs). Anyway, I had
no idea how to hound there, so after we entered the arena we sat down at our
seats. This woman with a team-signed Wolves jersey was very nice, and told
us where to get autographs after the game. It was a great game, the Wolves
won 5-1. It was a very exciting atmosphere: a small arena, lots of loud
fans, lots of foghorns (those are banned in the Tank), and the SJ-like
chanting of "You suck!" to players in the penalty box. After the
game, we went over to the west entrance and waited outside. This was cool
because both teams came out the same exit. There were tons of people
outside, but most of them were Wolves fans. There were about 8 regular
hounds there, and a few had even seen this website! We waited for players
to come out. Milwaukee was first. In no particular order, I got
Bubba Berenzweig, Matt Eldred, Jayme Filipowicz, Sean Haggerty, Jan Lasak, Mark
Mowers, Bert Robertsson, Daniel Riva, Petr Sachl, John Tripp, and two
unidentified Milwaukee autographs on index cards. I also got some Admirals
on cards... Jonas Andersson, Greg Classen, Marc Moro, John Namestnikov (2),
Alexei Vasiliev, and Mike Watt (3). About the time the last few Admirals
trickled out of the exit, then the Wolves came out. They were easy to
catch because the Wolves fans would descend onto the players like...
wolves. After they had signed for the fans, we would get them. By
then, I would know who it is. It gave me plenty of time to get cards
out. Here's who all I got from Chicago: Niklas Andersson (2), Aris
Brimanis (2), Rob Brown, Kevin Dahl (2), Paul Kruse (2), Bob Nardella, Dan
Plante (2), Rob Tallas (2), and Wendell Young (2), and ECHLer / former cup of
latte NHLer Lonnie Loach. Also, for some odd reason, former NHLer Rick
Vaive was at the game! I got him on an index card, but if I knew he would
be there I would've had tons more for him. I noticed a whole ton of
differences between here and San Jose. Not only were all of the players
more than happy to sign, they also enjoyed chatting with their fans. The
most exemplary kindness toward fans was Milwaukee's John Tripp. While Mike
Watt was signing three cards for me, John asked me how much I paid for the
cards! Mike immediately said, "For free!" I said I had
gotten them in packs. After I told John I was visiting from San Jose, we
got into a conversation that was much unlike a typical player-hound chat in San
Jose. Usually, the hound asks questions and the player answers. Well
this time it was the other way around. I think there should be more
players as friendly as John Tripp! Aris Brimanis, Niklas Andersson, and
Dan Plante were also really cool. After I said I was visiting from SJ, Dan
informed me that the Sharks were out of it. Aris signed three of his cards
and said "You've got the whole collection here!" because those are his
only three NHL cards! Overall, what an outing! My dad and I walked
the one minute across the parking lot and back to the hotel. This was the
first time I'd gone on an autograph outing outside of San Jose. This outing was surely
unexpected. Upon entering Allstate Arena, I had no idea where to stand for
autographs! A great hockey autograph season finale for me. This one
goes down in my book as one of my five most memorable autograph outings ever!
Total: 24 Wolves, 21 Admirals, 1 Neutral, 1 Unidentified autographs.
4/07/01: Sharks vs. Stars - The final outing of the regular season
Damn... the last outing of the
season, already! The Stars were staying at the De Anza, so that was a
plus. I didn't have all that much left for the Stars. I hadn't
gotten Marty Turco or Shaun Van Allen. Plus, I had photos of Kirk Muller
and Mike Keane, so those were some primary goals. This was a noon game, so
David and I went up to the De Anza at a very early time (8:30). About 15
minutes later, players started to come out. Brett Hull and coach Ken
Hitchcock were the first ones out. I got Hitchcock on the Stars Stanley
Cup team 8x10, and Hull on two cards. Then, Mike Keane and Richard
Matvichuk came back from Starbucks and signed. I got Brendan Morrow,
Joe Nieuwendyk, Jamie Langenbrunner, and Shaun Van Allen. Jere Lehtinen
and Sami Helenius signed for everyone while chatting with each other in
Finnish. However, Modano managed to slip past everyone! Belfour was
nowhere to be seen, that figured. Marty Turco and Grant Ledyard were the
last to come out. I only had time to get Turco, that's who I needed an
autograph of more. Overall, that part of the outing was very
average. David and I got to go to the game! Some good luck... right
after I was finished getting the Stars, it started to rain like a bastard!
I'm glad the rain didn't kick in earlier, or I would've missed a few more
players! Before the game, I got ESPN color analyst Darren Pang to sign a
cool 8x10 photo that I printed off my computer. The personalization reads
"To Paul, Nice Meeting You!" That's the best personalization
I've seen in awhile. Then, Darren pointed out where Daryl Reaugh was... in
one of the luxury boxes on the concourse level. We went over there and got
him to sign two cards! The game itself was a real nail biter!
Everyone in attendance got a free Sharks 10th Anniversary logo baseball
cap! These proved to be useful, because Mike Ricci would end up scoring a
hat trick! His third goal came with 0:03 left in regulation and was the
game-tying goal for the Sharks. Thousands of hats littered the ice, and it
took 10 minutes to clean all of them up! The Sharks would end up losing in
OT on Mike Modano's goal. After the game, I went outside just for the hell
of it, to see what sort of crowd would be outside. All I could say was,
"Holy Sh**!" It had stopped raining, and there was a whole crapload of
people outside, around 100 waiting for autographs. I got a few players,
but after that I didn't really bother. But overall, an average end to a
spectacular regular season of autographs for me!
Total: 4 Sharks, 26 Stars, 4 Neutral autographs.
4/05/01: Sharks vs. Coyotes - The Great One that got away
This was another memorable outing for
me, in a good and bad way. The hotel of choice this time was the Hilton,
so I went up there to get autographs. Fellow collector Dave Larson came to
me bearing news. He pulled out a puck signed by none other than Wayne
Gretzky! He said Gretzky had signed one for everyone that morning.
Wayne was in town because the Coyotes were on an important road trip that would
determine whether or not they make the playoffs. First, though, we had to
get the current Coyotes. Mike Sullivan came out and signed three cards for
me. He's always been really cool about signing. This guy that we
call "Stickboy" (because he always asks for sticks from players at
practices/games) offered to help me get some cards signed since he was waiting
for Roenick. Sean Burke came out and signed a photo and a card for
me. Too bad that the photo signature was just like the card signature: a
sorry bunch of swirls. But he's really good about giving that one
out. Right after Burke cabbed out, then JR came out. Roenick signed
up a friggin' storm for everyone. I got three cards signed, then came back
to get the remaining two I had. I ended up with five JR autographed cards
that were all excellent cards (00/01 SPx, Ice, Vintage, Memorabilia, and 99/00
SP Authentic). Stickboy pissed him off though, by asking for sticks.
JR said "I don't like the way you ask me," since Stickboy was being
rude. I guess he got what he deserved. The players started to come
out after that. Travis Green signed two, with his trademark TG39.
Joe Juneau signed two for me (one at a time; Stickboy got the other one), and
then the former Tampa Bay players came out: Mike Johnson and Paul Mara.
They both signed two for me and were really cool. Teppo Numminen and Ossi
Vaananen signed two each. Todd Simpson was probably one of the coolest
players on the team. He signed two cards for me and then commented on my
sheet. "You're ahead of the game with those pictures, eh?"
(Other players who have commented on my sheet this season include Chris Tamer,
Jim Campbell, and Terry Crisp.) Michal Handzus (2) and Claude Lemieux (1)
signed, then I got some former NHLers. Rick Bowness and Jim Johnson signed
one each since that was all I had for them. I saw Cliff Fletcher but
didn't ask. Gretzky didn't come out, so that meant he would leave later
that evening with the scratches. I decided, what the hell, I'll
wait. It was a long wait, that's for sure. Darren Pang came out at
about 5:30 and signed index cards for everyone. On his signature, if it's
a generic item like an index card, the number he signs on his autograph is
"ESPN". That's pretty cool. It was getting very cold
outside. The atrium of the Hilton is like a big wind tunnel, so stuff was
blowing everywhere. I even tested out how far a card would fly by holding
up a Sharks pocket schedule and releasing it. It flew a good twenty feet
down to the outside of the atrium! Damn, we never get wind like
that. Only seven hounds stayed for Gretzky, and we would take turns going
into the hotel to see if Wayne was in the lobby anywhere. Then, at about
6:00, we got big news: Gretzky had gone into the hotel bar and sat down at the
counter. We moved our stuff into the San Jose Convention Center, next to
the doors to the Hilton. From this spot, we could see Gretzky sitting in
the bar. One of the hounds decided to try something a bit lame. He
went into the bar, ordered a Heineken, and sat down next to Gretzky. Then,
he whipped out a Studio 8x10 and asked him for an autograph. Gretzky
politely declined, saying he would sign outside. Then security kicked the
guy out of the hotel. D'oh! Well, that didn't work. But at
least he said something about signing. I was watching this go on from
outside the bar, but in the hotel. While this was happening, a few players
were checking out. Radoslav Suchy and Mika Alatalo, among others. I
went back to our spot in the Convention Center. Then, we saw Gretzky leave
the bar, going the opposite direction from us. We took our stuff and
quickly got ourselves back to the front of the hotel. This was about
6:45. By then, we saw five players head onto the bus. I only managed
to get Briere on one card that I pulled out at random. He said that
Gretzky would be coming out in about 20 minutes. The other four (Alatalo,
Nagy, Bouchard, Suchy) were already on the bus. However, we found a way to
get them. Joel Bouchard was sitting at the front of the bus. I
pulled out two cards, and politely asked Joel to sign. I handed him my two
cards and he signed them! That was cool. Then, Dave asked Ladislav
Nagy to sign by holding up a card. He came out and signed for all of
us! Same thing happened for Alatalo and Suchy. They didn't seem to
be all that disturbed about coming out to sign. Then, of course, out came
Gretzky. He said he was in a hurry, and didn't sign for anyone.
Dammit! As I went home on the Light Rail, I didn't know what to make of
it. I was lucky at all to have seen the Great One, but he didn't
sign. I guess that's to be expected. It was an interesting outing
nonetheless. Despite this disappointment I still managed to break the
record I set three days ago with Minnesota.
Total: 44 Coyotes, 1 Neutral autographs.
4/02/01: Sharks vs. Wild - Quantity, not quality
I finally found time to go get the
Minnesota Wild! I was there a bit early. At 3:40, Matt Johnson came
out and signed three for me and another collector. He then went back
inside. After that, nobody came out for awhile, until 4:05 or so.
That's when Johnson came back out with Aaron Gavey. After he got off his
cell phone, he signed three (not very quality signatures, though). Then,
Sergei Krivokrasov came out and signed two cards for me. His signature was
great on the first card but not as good on the second. The coaches and
team staff came out after that. Jacques Lemaire was awesome. I only
had him sign one item, a cool picture I printed to 8x10 size. He signed
his name, then added "Best Wishes Paul." Now that's a cool item
I purchased for $0.00! Mario Tremblay was equally nice. I had him
sign one of two cards, since he informed me that the player pictured on his
rookie card was actually Gord McTavish! I then told him, "Wow, nice
rookie card, eh?" and he chuckled a bit. That would suck to have your
rookie card messed up like that. I saw Mike Ramsey signing for hounds back
at the bus, so I got two cards signed. He personalizes everything.
He signed one card with "Best Wishes" and another with "All the
Best." Fellow hound Dave Larson didn't have a card for Ramsey, so I
gave him one. Unfortunately, Ramsey saw me hand it to him! When Dave
tried to get the signature, Mike said something like "That's Paul's
card!" He thought that I was trying to sneak in an extra! Oh
well, sorry Dave. Then I got announcer Tom Reid, an ex-North Star from the
70s. I only had two copies of his 75-76 Topps issue. When he saw the
cards, the first three words he said were "Oh my God...!" He signed
them while fielding questions from his friends about the cards. That was
fun. Amazingly, while I was getting the old-timers, no current players
came out. After I got Reid, then some more exited. Jamie McLennan
(3), Brad Bombardir (2), and Brian Bonin (1/1) all signed for me.
Bombardir's signature is cool, but don't even try to read McLennan's... it's
impossible to read. I saw him draw a "JMcL" or "JML"
of some sort on there. And Brian Bonin's autograph is always
"BB--". Bummer. Filip Kuba (3) and Antti Laaksonen (2)
were really cool about signing. This was a really fun outing as we nabbed
Willie Mitchell (2), Jeff Nielsen (3), Darby Hendrickson (only 1 each), and one
of the nicest players on the team, Ladislav Benysek (2). A couple of
bloopers occurred. First, an unidentified player came out, and we had a
helluva time trying to figure out who he was. He looked at my sheet and
didn't see his picture there. Then he signed a hound's stick and got on
the bus. We looked at the signature. The number was 11. We
asked one of the team officials and they didn't even know who it was! Andy
Sutton signed a card and 8x10 for me, but somehow the 8x10 got smudged.
Damn! I kindly asked Andy to sign the photo again, and he did just
that! (I later removed the botched autograph with hair spray). Then,
it was 5:10 and they were still waiting on three players. Finally, those
three came out, but were really in a hurry. They were Pavel Patera (3),
Marian Gaborik (1), and Lubomir Sekeras. I got Patera on three cards, then
got Gaborik on an 8x10, and missed Sekeras. Patera's signatures were all
really cool, while Gaborik's was slop... looked like G/l10 and that's
how he signs everything! I wasn't worried about missing Sekeras.
When I watched the game on the tube after hounding, I learned that mysterious
#11 on the Wild was Pascal Dupuis. He had been called up that
morning! Pascal ended up scoring his first NHL goal on his first NHL shot
to put the Wild ahead by two (before the Sharks pulled their heads out and
scored four unanswered). Overall, my best afternoon-only outing ever in
terms of numbers. The quality of the signatures probably rated a 6/10
today. Up next, Phoenix! If Gretzky comes to SJ and signs for us, it
must be the sign of the apocalypse because chances are very slim!
Total: 44 Wild autographs.
4/01/01: Sharks Practice - This time, it's a success!
The last few times I've gone to
Sharks practices, I haven't really had much interesting to say. They're
just, um, normal... you go up to the Ice Centre at 10:30 and watch practice,
then go outside and get autographs. The only difference? A whole
different group of fans than the visiting team hounds. These fans are
Sharks fans, not other team fans. That's great to see so many Sharks fans,
but there were 20 this time. A couple of young autograph seekers I met for
the first time were Sarah and Kellen O'Leary. They were cool to get
autographs with, and had lots of interesting Sharks items, some of which I
hadn't seen before. Anyway, on to the autographs. Again, nothing
really special, the autographs speak for themselves. The Wild didn't practice at
the Ice Centre, that would've been nice. But I did get a lot of
Sharks! Hannan, Heins, Kiprusoff, Korolyuk, Marleau, Matteau, Nabby,
Norton, Rathje, Ricci, Selanne, Smitty, Stuart, Sturm, Thornton, and all three
coaches (Darryl Sutter, Rich Preston, Cap Raeder). Selanne was a great
success, he was very talkative with the fans. Another Ice Centre outing
goes well. Tomorrow, the wild Wild come to town, that's another afternoon
outing at the Fairmont!
Total: 34 Sharks autographs.
3/29/01: Sharks vs. Mighty Ducks - Cleanup outing II is a lot more successful
Them again? Weren't they just
here? Well, the NHL may not have the AHL style of scheduling (where teams
play each other in baseball-like two or three-game series), but as of late I'm
playing the janitor here, cleaning up on some cards and things that I never got
signed the first or second time. Before I went to this after-school
Thursday outing, I must tell you that I was bored sh**less during class
today. I had three different substitute teachers, and one free
period. I used this time to draw! This time, I drew Oleg Tverdovsky
from his 99-00 Upper Deck card. It's probably one of my better works (the
Brad Lukowich drawing still ranks as my best ever.) I hoped to get this
signed this afternoon, since I put a lot of work into it. I arrived
at the De Anza quite early and killed off some time by drawing ads on the boards
behind Oleg in my drawing. Surprisingly, there were more hounds here than
last time (18 to be exact). Most were after Kariya specifically, but David
and I were looking to get everyone (as usual). I only had 30 cards left
for the Ducks (very low compared to other outings). I decided to get lots
of players on the sheet today. The first few out were Dan Bylsma, Pascal
"Looks like Yzerman with bleached hair" Trepanier, and Oleg Tverdovsky!
Bylsma and Trepanier walked the opposite direction to get some coffee from
Starbucks. Oleg dropped his bags on the bus and signed. He did
compliment me on my drawing which was really cool, and signed his best signature
on it. What a thrill! I also got another card signed from him.
Bylsma and Trepanier returned with their hands full, they were carrying cups of
coffee in each hand. They said they would come out as soon as they
finished their coffee inside. Then they came out and both signed my
sheet. The Europeans were the next wave out. A.J. Niemi, Vitali
Vishnevski, Petr Tenkrat, Sami Pahlsson, and Jonas Ronnqvist all signed the
sheet and the latter two signed an additional card for me also. Backup
goalie Gregg Naumenko and Marty McInnis came out afterwards. I went for
Naumenko first and then got McInnis. After Mike Crowley, Marc Chouinard,
and Jim Cummins signed two each, the final two Europeans came out. They
were German Titov and Pavel Trnka. Titov did two cards plus the sheet
(without me asking!), and Trnka just did the sheet since I had nothing left for
him. Then, it was time for the superstar. Paul Kariya and J.S.
Giguere came out. I opted for Giguere while the mob descended on Kariya.
Giggy signed three for me, and then I got Kariya on my final Score 97-98 set
card! Finally done with those three set cards! Overall, a very
successful cleanup outing! I didn't miss anybody that made the trip, and I
ended up with 16 autographs on the sheet! Plus two set cards (Kariya for
97-98 Score, Titov for 99-00 MVP) and a great drawing. Also of note but a
little disappointing was the fact that we never saw former Shark Jeff Friesen at
the hotel, he was probably chillin' with his former teammates, or at his house
in SJ. Shields wasn't here due to his injury. I'm definitely looking
forward to next Monday, which is Minnesota. That's not a cleanup outing by
any means! My target is to get Gaborik and, uh, everybody else.
Lemaire would be cool too. Anyway, that's it for now. Peace, I'm
outta here!
Total: 33 Mighty Ducks autographs.
3/27/01: Sharks vs. Kings - Just doing a little cleanup
I didn't really have all that much
for the Kings this time, since I had gotten tons of stuff two weeks ago.
But I took this opportunity to do some cleanup. The first player out of
the Hilton in the afternoon was Ian Laperriere. Unfortunately, he left ten
minutes before I got there at 3:40. Then, nobody came out for a long time,
until around 4:20 when baldy Mattias Norstrom and call-up Rich Brennan came
out. I made my first bonehead mistake by mistaking him for Jere Karalahti
(the other bald guy on the Kings). I did get him though, once he signed
the sheet! Rich Brennan was a great signer, if only we had more for him to
sign... The players started to trickle out of the hotel a few minutes
later. Buchberger, a normal early bird leaving the hotel, signed two for
me. Felix Potvin did his usual one-per. His autograph isn't
fantastic, but it sure beats his autograph from his days in Toronto! Luc
Robitaille was awesome as usual, he signed two for me (I could've given him
more, but I gave him a break :-) After getting Phillippe Boucher on the
sheet, I missed Adam Mair as he went onto the bus and sat down. He didn't
come out, which I knew would happen since I heard he was a real attitude case in
the AHL. The bus driver who drives the Kings is really cool, and when I
told him that I missed Mair, he offered to get my card signed for me. Of
course, I wouldn't pass up this opportunity, so I let him take a card and a pen
onto the bus. We watched from outside as Mair took the card and signed
from his seat on the bus! The driver handed me back a great-looking Adam
Mair signature! I thanked him very much for the autograph.
That doesn't happen everyday (especially when Danish is driving!). After
finally getting Karalahti on 3/3, then Adam Deadmarsh came out. One per,
and not too happy about it at all. The signature came out great
though! Nelson Emerson was extremely nice about signing, he sat there for
ten minutes signing and chatting with some Kings fans. Bryan Smolinski
signed two for me, and Mathieu Schneider graciously signed two cards, and then
signed the sheet without me asking! Very cool, Matt! Unfortunately,
this outing ended with me missing Palffy. I had decided to go for Glen
Murray while Palffy was being held up by the others. Well, I got Glen
Murray, but couldn't catch Palffy as he got on the bus just as I finished
getting Murray. I also needed Aaron Miller, who I never saw come
out. Jozef Stumpel and Stephane Fiset were the last ones out, and
what a surprise to see them (they weren't here last time). Stumpel did an
8x10 and Fiset signed a card. Overall, great cleanup outing other than the
Palffy miss and the confusion of the two bald-headed LA players. Next up
is yet another cleanup outing for which I have very few items
left... it's Anaheim, the day after tomorrow!
Total: 26 Kings autographs
3/22/01: Sharks vs. Senators - (Hockey Team + Fairmont) - De Anza = Quality - Quantity
As shown in that simple formula, when
a hockey team stays at the Fairmont and not at the De Anza, you get more
quality, but less quantity. So that's how it went. In this case,
when I mean quantity, I mean that a significant amount of players eluded us
hounds at the Fairmont this afternoon. If you've read my first-ever hockey
experience, I hounded Ottawa by waiting at the arena. They were staying at
the De Anza however, and players were just signin' it up there. Here it
was different. Take a nice team and add annoying hotel
"security." They don't really serve a purpose besides being a
royal pain in the ass! Anyway, it was quite crowded this time. The
Sens only visit SJ once a year. The last time they were here, I was out on
my first-ever outing! Wow. But I digress (again)... nobody came out
of the hotel until 4:30! This was unbelievably late. The first
one out was Curtis Leschyshyn, whose autograph is not very good at all
(especially on cards!). Then, a group of three more players came
out. They were Marian Hossa, Eric LaCroix, and Sami Salo. They were
all very nice signers! Hossa signed three, his autograph is quite odd, to
say the least. Then, things took a turn for the worse. A group of
about 8 players came out. Alfredsson was called over to sign, but by the
time I was done getting Alfredsson, the other seven players had gotten into a
hotel van inside the atrium! The only players I recognized for sure in
that group were Hnidy and Zamuner. Drat! That sucked. To make
matters worse, after we asked Radek Bonk to sign, he nodded his head and
immediately got into a taxi and left! The rest of the outing was OK,
though. Alexei Yashin came out alone. There was a parked car in his
path, with groups of hounds on either side. Both groups were calling for
him. He confusedly pointed to both groups and said "Which way?"
Finally, he went over to the other group (the one I wasn't in). This
turned out to be a good thing for me. 14 of the 17 hounds went over to
wait for Yashin. While he was being mobbed, other players came out and
signed! They included Patrick Lalime, Karel Rachunek, Andre Roy, Jason
York, Magnus Arvedson, and Martin Havlat. I got Yashin after I got most of
those guys. I also got my picture taken with him too! My final
autograph of the day was famous coach Roger Neilson. I was slightly
disappointed with the results of this outing since I needed Dackell and
McEachern.. They were among the players who got into the van. But I can't
complain about the players I did get! The only players who signed one each
were Alfredsson and Rachunek (of course, Rachunek would've signed more, but
nobody had more than one thing for him to sign!) Everybody else signed two
or three. Dammit, if only they had stayed at the De Anza, things would've
been very different! Also, I can't be too disappointed compared to
the absolute crap of the Detroit outing!
Total: 28 Senators autographs.
3/17/01; 3/18/01: Sharks vs. Red Wings - A low point during high times
Boy, oh boy. Talk about change
in momentum. The Red Wings are in town, so I can forget about
quantity. And take away quality because there's too many damn autograph
hounds at this outing. But, what do you expect, it's Detroit. I
expected slim pickins' and that's what I ended up with.
Saturday: St. Patrick's Day evening just adds to
the chaos
I heard from Danish that the bus would arrive
at the Fairmont at around 6:30 PM. The Wings had just played an early game
in Colorado, so they would fly straight over here. David, a few regulars,
and myself were waiting in front. The bus finally did show up at around
7:00. We thought Danish would pull the bus into the atrium and we didn't
want that, so we actually hid behind the big pillars until it pulled up on the
sidewalk! Then, the whole stream of players filed out of the bus.
Not very many seemed happy to sign, since they were tired and a bit ornery
coming off their loss in Denver. Larry Murphy signed one for me, and it
was by far the worst autograph I've ever obtained in person. It
looks nothing like his name. It's basically a big circle, a line, and
another big circle. I take it he didn't want to sign. David managed
to get Chris Osgood, lucky for him! Shanahan, Yzerman, Chelios, and
Fedorov flat out refused us. After that, we headed to the back entrance of
the hotel.. Now, you'd think that some players would want to go out and party on
St. Patrick's Day. There was a bar across the street that was busy, so we
expected at least a few players to come out. We saw Brent Gilchrist and
Todd Gill leave, so we got their autographs after using the ATM. About a
half hour later, we saw Larionov and Kozlov exit the hotel. Larionov was nice
and signed for everyone, while Kozlov flat out refused! We saw Jiri
Fischer and Tomas Holmstrom coming back from their walk through downtown.
Holmstrom did one, while Jiri Fischer was very nice and signed multiples.
Overall, a bit disappointing since the scene outside was what a normal Saturday
evening was. (plus the fact that it was National Alcohol Day... or, St.
Patrick's Day.)
Sunday: Speaking of chaos...
I expected this outing to suck. And suck
it did! But for a moment, we thought it wasn't going to suck all that
much. Danish didn't pull the bus under the atrium! So we had a
slightly better chance at autographs, or so we thought. There were tons of
people at this one, at least 20. Boyd Devereaux was our first success, he
was nice about signing. Then, Doug Brown and Steve Duchesne came
out. Brown signed, but for some reason Duchesne didn't. Jiri Fischer
and Todd Gill signed for everyone. I had already gotten them, but I did
have stuff left over for them. Aaron Ward signed two, giving probably the
cleanest signature on the Red Wings. Then, after Maltby signed two for me,
the stars came out. Fedorov and McCarty signed, but practically everyone
else didn't. That included Shanahan, Chelios, Lidstrom, Holmstrom, Osgood,
and Yzerman (although Stevie Y did sign for one hound that wasn't me.),
they all filed onto the bus. The butt-pirate Fairmont workers were up to
their usual tricks again, making us wait behind the bus door. This made it
very tough. I was right by the bus door though, so my chances were a
little better. Overall, not too good. I got Fedorov again though...
at least this outing wasn't a complete waste. But I would've liked to get
some others, so I was disappointed.
Total: 19 Red Wings autographs (7 on Saturday, 12 on Sunday)
3/14/01: Sharks vs. Kings - Just another typical Kings outing
My first after-school outing since...
Dallas on December 6. I hoped that Adam Deadmarsh would make the trip
after hearing about his injury. I also had a few 8x10 photos to get
signed: Murray, Schneider, Smolinski. This time at the Hilton, there were
eight hounds waiting for autographs, not too bad. The first one out of the
lobby was Kelly Buchberger. He signed two cards for me. Felix Potvin
did one for me, his signature has improved since his Toronto years. Then,
a few minutes later, Lucky Luc Robitaille exited from the hotel. He was
his usual awesome self, signing two for me and multiples for all seven other
hounds. A trio of players trickled out of the hotel immediately after
that... they were Lubomir Visnovsky, Eric Belanger, and Ziggy Palffy. I
got autographs of all three of them. Eric Belanger was especially nice,
doing three cards for me. We had also remembered that the newcomers to the
Sharks (Kiprusoff, Lindsay, Norton, Selanne) were also staying at the
Hilton. We saw Norton, who signed for everyone. We saw Selanne's
tight Ferrari, that car is su-weeet! But we never saw any of the other
Sharks. The players started to file out a little more rapidly. Marko
Tuomainen and an unknown player both exited at the same time. I got
Tuomainen and then asked a Kings trainer who the unknown player was. Scott
Thomas. Scott was nice, he signed two cards for me... it seemed that he
hadn't seen these cards in a long time! They were both from the 1992-93
Classic Pro Prospects set. Tuomainen took one look at the cards and
started laughing. They both read the backs of the cards for a few minutes
and then gave 'em back. Unfortunately, by the time they were done reading
the cards, I couldn't catch Aaron Miller as he signed for a few others before
hopping on the bus. Oh well. I did get Phillippe Boucher to sign
three (including a card for Andre Andrijiw's nearly-complete set), and Bryan
Smolinski on a card and 8x10. The signature on the photo is very cool, he
signed the long version of his autograph! I missed Jamie Storr while
getting Smolinski, but I definitely preferred a cool Smolinski signature to a
tiny flowery Jamie Storr autograph (plus, I only had two leftover cards for him
anyway). After getting Glen Murray and Mathieu Schneider on 8x10s (both
great signatures), Adam Deadmarsh came out. I heard he was tough to get on
Colorado but he did one for everyone. Not too enthused, I might add.
Overall, not a numbers outing, but I think it was a worthwhile 90 minutes since
I got three great photos signed, and didn't miss any key players. Next
up... so much for order. Detroit will be here this weekend, and it will be
a friggin' madhouse in terms of # of hounds. I hope I have more luck than
I did last time Detroit was here...
Total: 02 Sharks, 27 Kings autographs.
3/12/01: Sharks vs. Canadiens - Very productive outing with set cards and new items!
This outing was one of the most
important of the season for me, since I had tons of set cards to get
signed. I was also fortunate that today (Monday) I didn't have to go to
school because of a teacher in-service. I was disappointed that Hackett
would not make the trip, I had cards from both of my sets for him to sign.
I looked at the player head shots and thought to myself, "Damn, I've never
seen any of these guys in person!" I then thought it would be
very hard to recognize these guys. Nevertheless, I expected a decent
outing today. Lake Tahoe collector Roland Kasper was hounding today, as
were some regulars. Trevor Linden signed for me first (2), and was really
cool about it (contrary to some other reports). Nobody could recognize the
next three players that came out, so I had all three of them sign the
sheet. They turned out to be Patrick Traverse, Johan Witehall, and Eric
Landry. I then had Traverse sign the photo of him in SI with Stephane
Robidas and Mario Lemieux. Then, we saw Benoit Brunet and Patrice
Brisebois leave and start walking towards the arena. I caught up to them
and got two from each. Sheldon Souray and Guy Carbonneau both signed one
for me (I only had Souray sign the sheet since I didn't have anything else for
him). A whole group of players came out. Since the bus hadn't
arrived yet, they took advantage of some great California weather to just hang
out on the sidewalk. Martin Rucinsky signed one, although it was a really
bad signature. Arron Asham signed two for me, Saku Koivu did two, Oleg
Petrov three, and Dainius Zubrus did two. Then, it was up to the Shark
Tank for some more Sharks. This time wasn't horrible, but wasn't excellent
either, it was somewhere in between. I managed to get Bradley, Dollas,
Lindsay, Matteau, Nabokov, Ragnarsson, Ricci, Smith, Sturm, Sundstrom, and
Thornton. A few notes: Billy Lindsay signed five for me: I gave him two to
sign, then took out three more since I saw him signing five for another
hound. Also of note is the complete degeneration of Evgeni Nabokov's
signature. It's absolutely horrible... it used to be a nice neat Cyrillic
autograph, but now it's just a bunch of wavy lines followed by 35. Oh
well, stardom catches up to even the nicest sometimes... I went back to the
Fairmont to grab a few extras as the team came back. I wanted Jose
Theodore to come out, but I didn't see him as the rest of the team got off the
bus. However, I did get Saku Koivu on a great Stadium Club card.
After heading down to the card store and a great lunch at Taxi's, it was back to
hounding. David showed up, and I let him know how the morning went and who
signed what. I still had lots of players to get autographs of. Brian
Savage and Jose Theodore were my main targets. I had also bought a cool
Dainius Zubrus 8x10 from the cardshop. The first player to come out was
Brian Savage! He signed two for me, both of them for my sets! Then,
Jim Campbell and Craig Darby came out. They were both very nice! Jim
Campbell also commented on the sheet: "Is that so you can tell who we
are?" Then the players started to file out. I got everyone that
came out, including: Francis Boullion (2), Xavier Delisle (2), Karl Dykhuis (2),
Mathieu Garon (4), Saku Koivu (2), Christian Laflamme (2), Juha Lind (1/2),
Stephane Robidas (3 including the SI photo!), Dainius Zubrus (1 photo), and finally, Jose Theodore
(2). Some notes: Xavier Delisle gave me what I consider to be the nicest
in-person autograph I've ever gotten. Every letter is legible, and it looks
perfect... Juha Lind was in a real hurry for some odd reason, so he only signed
one... contrary to reports in Toronto, Karl Dykhuis signed multiples and was
really nice... Mathieu Garon was really nice; he took a look at his new Premier
Plus card and asked if I had an extra. I said I didn't but he could have
it anyway (like I normally do when a player hasn't seen a new card yet), but he
declined politely and signed it. Overall, a great outing and a pretty
solid follow-up to the last outing's rack-a-thon. All the cards for my Score set
were signed (Koivu, Rucinsky, Savage, Theodore, Zubrus) except for Hackett who
didn't make the trip. Next up is the Kings, a team I've hounded a few
times. I do have a lot of stuff for them still.
Total: 18 Sharks, 53 Canadiens autographs.
3/10/01:
Sharks vs. Predators – A beautiful day for hounding!
It was an absolutely amazing day
for autographs today, weather-wise, anyway.
The Nashville Predators were in town.
Sounds like a combo for racking up large quantities and great qualities
of autographs! David and I got to
the Fairmont extra early (9:00 AM), but that still wasn’t early enough, as we
saw Walker and Kjellberg walking. By
the time David found a parking spot, the two were already a few blocks away.
Oh, well. But the day only
went uphill from there. We arrived at the front of the Fairmont.
Dave Larson, a regular in the morning, had already gotten the two who
walked. Also there this morning was
14-year-old Erik Gurley from Phoenix. He
was in town visiting relatives; his site is listed on my links page.
Anyway, I showed Erik how it works here in San Jose.
Ronning was the first player to sign this morning… he did multiples for
everyone. Then, the coaches (Paul
Gardner, Brent Peterson, Barry Trotz) signed a bunch of cards for me, then a
group of four Predleys came out. They
were Scott Hartnell, Cale Hulse, Kimmo Timonen, and Karlis Skrastins.
I only missed Skrastins, who left with the others in a cab before I could
get to him. Marian Cisar and Robert
Valicevic signed great autographs… Valicevic’s signature is really cool.
The morning went along fast, as I got multiples signed of Dunham (3),
Houlder (3), Legwand (2), Lintner (2), and Yachmenev (1, only because it was an
8x10 and I barely caught him going on the bus.), not too bad!
Then it was up to the Tank to get Sharks. It was considerably more crowded this time, there were 12
hounds out there waiting for Sharks. Verneice
the arena biznawch saw how many were there,
cranked the bitch-stereo up to full volume (so to speak), and put one
barricade up. We stood next to it,
wasn’t such a big deal. David and
I watched from the other side of the driveway (we would tell the hounds on the
other side that a player was coming so they could be ready to stop him).
Despite Verneice and the barricades, we still did really well.
We missed Nolan, Rathje, and Stuart, but that was expected.
Everyone else stopped. Sorry
for listing ‘em off, but here goes: Bradley, Damphousse, Granato, Hannan,
Harvey, Marchment, Matteau, Nabokov, Ragnarsson, Ricci, Sturm, Sundstrom, Suter,
and Thornton. Selanne and Lindsay
were nowhere in sight, unfortunately. It
was time for lunch, or so we thought. David
left to go park the car in long term parking, so I walked to Togo’s.
As I just reached the part of Santa Clara St. under the freeway, David
honked the horn and waved me over. I
hopped in… he informed me that Selanne was with the media in the front of the
arena! We got back there in time to
get two from him. His autograph was excellent.
That was it until the afternoon. We
got there expecting a few more hounds than in the morning… but nobody else
showed up! (Erik couldn’t make it to the afternoon.)
This was an excellent opportunity to clean up on players I missed.
This happened to be a complete success. I hate to just list them out, but
I have to since this particular part of the outing is a blur of players walking
around. I can tell ya, though, in the afternoon I got Arkhipov, Cisar,
Dunham (3), Eaton (2), Fitzgerald (3), Hartnell, Houlder, Hulse (2), G. Johnson
(2), Kjellberg (2), Legwand (3), Lintner (2), R. Robitaille (3), Ronning (2),
Skrastins (4), Timonen (2/3), Vokoun (3), Walker (3), and Yachmenev (2).
Overall, a huge day for me, I didn't miss anyone. I've finally returned to
the hounding form that I was in during November and December. I'm also
looking forward to the Montreal Canadiens, hopefully I can rack up on them
too. Lastly, thanks to Erik Gurley for coming out to hound, it's always
cool to see an autograph webmaster from out of town in person!
Total: 24 Sharks, 74 Predators autographs.
2/23/01: Sharks vs. Mighty Ducks - I'm back on track, rackin' up 'graphs of the Quacks!
After what I thought was a halfhearted effort against
the Blue Jackets (sure, I got lots of signatures, but I was very rusty
recognizing players.), I went up to the Hotel De Anza to get some Ducks
autographs. This outing had a few twists. First of all, as I
approached the hotel from about half a block away, I saw a stretch limo outside
the hotel. Then, the V.I.P. got into the limo and left the hotel. I
waited around the hotel for five minutes, and then fellow autograph hound Rich
Nieto arrived. He told me that the V.I.P. in the limo was Kevin Costner!
He was in town for a sneak preview screening of his movie "3,000 Miles to
Graceland," and his brother lives in SJ. Rich also threw around a
rumor that Spike Lee was in town for the San Jose Film Festival. Well,
damn, I missed Kevin Costner. That sucked. About twenty minutes
later, a bunch of players left, and went in the opposite direction from us.
They were going to Starbucks. We waited, and two players came back a few
minutes later. They were Marty McInnis and German Titov. They were
both gracious signers, especially McInnis, who reminded us that Kariya usually
catches a cab. Titov's autograph was amazing because he signed the long
version on two horizontal cards. Then, a few more players came back.
Tony Hrkac signed three, Matt Cullen did two, and Jason Marshall did two.
They were all class acts! Then, an unidentified player came out. He
took a look at the sheet and said he wasn't on there. I then knew that he
was Mike Crowley (I couldn't find a head shot of him on the Internet!). He
signed one card and got on the bus. Then, the newbie Europeans came out at
once (Niemi, Pahlsson, Ronnqvist). I went with who I immediately
recognized, and got Sami Pahlsson to sign two cards. Oleg Tverdovsky came
out right after them, and signed two "sideways" cards for me.
His signature turned out perfect on both cards! Pavel Trnka and Petr
Tenkrat came out and both signed for me. Then, the "Kariya Buffer
Zone" came out. This was a group of seven players, including Selanne
and Kariya. They all came out just so it would be harder to get Kariya.
But he took someone's pen and signed for everyone, including one of my set
cards! There was one big problem. He had taken a pen that was used
only on jerseys. Therefore, the pen was horribly thick, and the signature
was horrible! We had all missed Temmu Selanne, but he was sitting in the
first row of the bus near the exit. The bus driver let us hand items up to
Selanne to sign. We made sure he was OK with it, and she was. (Ha,
I'd like to see Danish try that!) After Temmu started signing, Kariya went
to the back of the bus! Selanne signed one 8x10 for me, and it was a great
signature! Now that shows you how cool he is to his fans. After
that, Guy Hebert came out and signed two cards for me. He was really nice
to everyone, but he signed on the dark spots on the cards. The bus left,
and then I went up to the Tank to get Sharks autographs. When we arrived,
Vinny Damphousse was on a cell phone. He hung up and signed for us.
My main goal for the Sharks today was to get a particular photo signed.
This 8x10 had a Sharks logo on it. I wanted to get the main stars of the
team on the photo. I already had Vinny, which was a good start.
Then, Bryan Marchment blew past us in his SUV. Damn... but this day turned
productive. Every single player afterwards stopped! I ended up
getting Nolan, Nabokov, Stuart, and Friesen on the photo, plus autographs of
Sundstrom, Thornton, Harvey, Rathje, Ricci, Hannan, Bradley, Smith, Heins, and
Dollas. I didn't see Shields, Granato, Montgomery, or Andrusak. I
didn't bother Stephane Matteau. During this particular wait, I was hooked
up with two free nosebleed tickets for the game that night! This was
awesome. In the afternoon, I came back and got some more autographs,
mainly wanting to make progress with my two remaining Kariya set cards.
The afternoon's signatures I got, in no particular order, were Dan Bylsma (2),
Guy Charron (2), Matt Cullen (2), Brian Hayward (2 8x10s!), Jason Marshall (1),
Kelly Miller (3), Antti-Jussi Niemi (2), Sami Pahlsson (1), German Titov (2),
Pascal Trepanier (4), Pavel Trnka (2), and Vitali Vishnevski (2). Of
course, I also got Paul Kariya to sign another set card for me (a much better
autograph than this morning!) and Temmu Selanne for my 99-00 MVP set (in black,
since he signed for everyone with one pen!). Overall, a great outing...
I'm back in my prime for autograph hounding, which is good. My next
endeavor will be March 10 against Nashville, hopefully I can rack up a lot of
quality signatures.
Total: 22 Sharks, 60 Mighty Ducks autographs.
2/20/01: Sharks vs. Blue Jackets - My comeback outing is a partial success
After the Detroit outing, I had retired as an autograph
hound until after wrestling season was over. Well, February 10 came and
went, and now I'm back! My first outing since "retirement" was
this one, the expansion Blue Jackets. Expansion teams normally stay at the
nice hotels, so the BJ's were at the Fairmont. I had no school today,
which was cool since everyone else did! I got there in the morning, and I
was the only one out there! It was pouring down rain all morning.
There were pros and cons about this... with only one hound, Saddam the chief
valet was easier about me going into the atrium, also because of the rain.
But the cons were that I couldn't stop absolutely everybody! The first
player I got was Marc Denis (2). I got him just before he hopped in a cab
with another player I couldn't really recognize. Then, Robert Kron
came out and went over to the side of the hotel. He chatted on his phone
for about 30 minutes! I only bothered him once for autographs (2).
After about ten minutes, Ron Tugnutt came out and signed two for me (one for my
set!). He was very polite! A few minutes later, the bus pulled up.
Then, out came Serge Aubin (2), who was really talkative. Coach Gerard
Gallant (4) came out and waited for a cab. I went into the atrium to get
him, and as he signed four cards, I noticed that Ron Tugnutt was chatting on a
cell phone... every other word was "F---!" Interesting to see that
he's nice to autograph seekers, but rude on the phone, must be a hockey player
thing. After Jamie Pushor signed two for me, then Alex Selivanov came out.
This was one of the players I needed most, since I had an 8x10 for him. He
signed it, and then showed it to the coaches. It's an old photo from 1996,
of him in a Tampa Bay uniform. Selly was oogling at the photo for a good
minute, while a few players (Heinze, Sanderson, Odelein) walked right by.
I missed them. But I did catch Frank Kucera (3), and Kevyn Adams (2) after
he got off his phone. After a few minutes, Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre (1) and
Jamie Heward (2) came out. I agree completely with Dave Sleipka's opinion
of Jamie Heward as the nicest player in the NHL. First, he signed a card,
then asked if I wanted the sheet signed too. After that, he asked
if I had anything else for him. My conclusion is that he loves to sign!
Espen Knutsen then came out, but I had misplaced my cards of him! I
settled for the sheet for him. That was the morning, as Danish fat-ass
closed the bus door and the team roared off. I had gotten a great start,
but I felt like I had missed a ton of players. I was also rusty at
recognizing them, it was probably the most embarrassing hour in awhile. I
confused Kron with Selivanov, for example. I usually botch one up, but not
on multiple occasions! Boy, that sucked. Anyway, it was raining like
hell, so I skipped getting Sharks today. To kill some time I went down to
the main library and got some homework done. I also started reading Game
Misconduct, it's a very interesting book about Alan the Asswipe Eagleson.
Afternoon rolled around, and I was back at the hotel. This time, only five
other hounds showed up. Jamie Pushor was the first out, he signed the last
two cards I had of him. Then, nobody came out for twenty minutes. We
hoped they wouldn't rush the bus at once. Finally, Danish pulled the bus
up at around 4:30. Odelein (2/3) and Heinze (4) then came out and signed
for everyone. Kucera (2) and Kron (2) were also willing signers. We
didn't recognize David Vyborny until after I got him on the sheet. He was
right next to the bus door, so he went right in and didn't come out. Serge
Aubin (1) and Kevyn Adams (2) were really cool about signing. Then, a few
players came out. In the flurry, I was able to get Sanderson (1), Gardiner
(2), and Denis (2), but missed Tugnutt and Maneluk. Now, this is where
luck came in. If you look at the pictures of Mattias Timander and Petteri
Nummelin side by side, they look almost exactly alike. But I knew that
Timander was five inches taller than Petteri. They both came out of the
hotel at the same time! This was easy pickings, as Timander (2) signed,
Nummelin (4) actually waited until I was done getting Timander, then waited
while I got my cards out. I apologized for the delay, and he signed three
cards plus the sheet. Now that's a class act! Heward and
Grand-Pierre came out and JLGP signed the sheet. Heward asked if anyone
had anything of him. Nobody did! He then looked at me and I said
"Sorry Jamie, I'm maxed out..." He said, "I know, from this
morning, right?" Then, I saw that I had a BJ's pocket schedule!
"Never mind, I'm not all out yet!" He graciously signed it, and
thanked me. Now how many NHL players actually do that? The
bus left at 5:15, and that was it. I had officially made my comeback to
autograph hounding after a one-month hiatus! It wasn't a big outing
numbers-wise, I got 58 total. Eleven of these signatures were on the
sheet. That's a new record, the previous high of signatures on the sheet
was 8 with Edmonton last December. All in all, a great outing! I'm
happy to be back in the chase!
Total: 58 Blue Jackets autographs.
1/15/01: Sharks vs. Red Wings - At least I got one of the Red Wing greats...
After what happened yesterday, I doubted that this
would be a productive outing. I gathered my cards anyway, and headed up to
the Fairmont. The game was a 5:00 start, so morning skate was out of the
question. I got there early anyway, and waited around hoping to see some
players. Martin Lapointe came out to use his cell phone, and after he was
done he signed one for me. Brent Gilchrist came out and signed two for me.
Then, at 1:00, the players started to come out. Doug Brown signed three
cards for me and kept another one. Steve Duchesne signed two for me, and
Boyd Deveraux signed two cards for me. He was fascinated by his new
Stadium Club card; he flipped it over and examined the back. "Man,
they have every stat... home, away, pre-All-Star..." I had an extra which I
gave to him. Then, the bus pulled up. But the Danish fat-ass did
what I hadn't seen done in over one year: He pulled the bus under the atrium!
We were shocked. The good thing was, the hotel people allowed us under the
atrium. Danish parked the bus so that the door was about 5 feet away from
the wall, so only a few could get signatures. This sucked; but I made the
best of a bad situation. I was in the back of the crowd and couldn't get
in front, so I spotted Manny Legace on the sidewalk, and got him to sign two
cards. Then, a whole mess of people saw me getting him and the majority of
them went over to get him! I rushed back over to the bus and there I was,
in front! After that was over, the crowd came back to the bus, and were
behind me and a couple of others. Darren McCarty and Pat Verbeek signed
for me then. A whole bunch of others went on without signing. I
moved over to the primo spot: Next to the bus door. Now, here's where my
one major success came into play. I had heard horror stories of Sergei
Fedorov not signing in other cities, and I expected the same as he came out of
the hotel. However, a miracle from heaven happened: He walked up to me,
signed one card for me, and hopped on the bus! He didn't sign for
anyone else! This was a major slam dunk for me. It made up for the
rest of the outing, which sucked. But I got Fedorov!
Total: 14 Red Wings, 1 Sergei Fedorov autograph!
1/14/01: San Jose / Detroit Practices - Two practice facilities; one a success, one not.
I wanted to get the Red Wings because I knew they'd be
tough on game day. J.C. Parks informed me that Detroit would be practicing
at the Fremont Iceoplex at 4:00 PM. That was cool because I could get
Sharks at their practice in the morning at the San Jose Ice Centre. I
brought my brother Matt to this outing. His goal was to get his Sharks
jersey signed. My main goal at the Sharks practice was to make progress on
my pocket schedule and 8x10s. I also had a game program that already had a
few signatures inside, so I worked on that too. This was pretty
uneventful, so I'll just list out who I got. Sorry for the lack of detail,
but this summary is being written a month after it happened, and it's hard to
remember details... Bobby Dollas (3 cards), Granato (2 cards), Hannan (1 card),
Heins (1 card, 1 inside program), Korolyuk (2 cards), Marleau (1 card, 1 program
insert), Nabokov (inside program), Nolan (pocket sked), Ragnarsson (1 inside
program, 1 card), Rathje (program insert), Ricci (1 card), Stuart (1 8x10, 1
card), and Thornton (1 8x10). I was in for the only real surprise of this
practice... former assistant coach and LA Kings player Bob Berry came out of the
practice and signed a card for me! Overall, not bad. I did teach my
brother the basics about getting autographs, and he got all of the players I
got, except Dollas. Of course, I had to tell him who a few of the lesser
known players were, but everyone's gotta start somewhere. Afterwards, we
picked up David and we headed up to Fremont. For those of you who don't
live in the Bay Area, Fremont is a big Silicon Valley suburb on the East Bay,
about 18 miles north of the Ice Centre. We arrived at the Iceoplex and
checked out the place. It's a small place, with one rink, and a small
lobby, a pro shop, and snack bar. The Detroit bus pulled into the parking
lot and went to the back, where we were. The players all came out and
filed into the facility without signing. This big fat ass worker blocked
us off. Then, we went in to see if any players were hanging around.
Aaron Ward was at the snack bar eating a corn dog. We waited until he was
finished, and then he signed three cards. We then watched the practice.
It was amazing to see a top-level NHL team practicing in such a small locale!
There were a lot of people there though, and this would prove tough. After
the practice, nearly everyone watching the practice flocked outside to get
autographs. The Danish Fat-ass parked the bus in a diagonal way, cutting
off the autograph seekers almost completely. I did manage to get Igor
Larionov, Mathieu Dandenault, and Todd Gill. The same fat-ass worker was
hassling everyone. That was a failure worth reporting. Overall, a
day that had its ups and downs. I know that it will be crazy tomorrow!
22 Sharks, 7 Red Wings autographs.
1/11/01: Sharks vs. Blues - Not much of an outing
This was disappointing, even for a Blues outing.
It was raining heavily as my friend William Zurbrick drove me up to the
Fairmont. Soon after, it stopped raining. Right after David arrived
at the hotel, the main characters all took cabs and ignored us. That
sucked. MacInnis, Turgeon, Turek, and Pronger were gone. What was
the point of sticking around then? I wanted to get Brent Johnson, the
phenomenal rookie goalie for the Blues. I managed to get Conroy (3), Drake
(2), Finley (2), Handzus (2), Nagy (2), Young (1), and coach Quenneville (1).
Then, Johnson and fellow rookie Bryce Salvador came out. Both were
surprised to see new cards! Johnson (2) took a look at his Be a Player
Update card and exclaimed "What the heck?!" in surprise. He also
said that again when I handed him his new Stadium Club card. He asked when
they were released, and was very curious. David and I had extras that we
gave him. Bryce Salvador (1) hadn't seen his Update card either, David
game him that also. I didn't have anything for Bryce, so I had him sign
the sheet. That last part made up for the heinously crap-assed outing.
Total: 19 Blues autographs.
1/03/01: Sharks vs. Flames - Transportation a key factor, sort of...
Being the lazy 16-year old that I am, I still haven't
gotten my drivers license. Now that's sad. I had wrestling practice
in the morning, which got out at noon. I immediately strapped on
rollerblades and literally flew down the downtown streets to the Hilton.
(The killer thing was that Coach had us run bleachers after practice, now that
sucks.) David was already at the hotel, and he said that nobody had come
back yet. Valeri Bure, Igor Kravchuk, and Oleg Saprykin were the first to
come back. Valeri signed an 8x10 and two cards for me, Igor did three
cards, and Saprykin did two cards (I let him have his new Stadium Club card).
Then the bus came back. All the players filed out, and I managed to catch
Wade Belak and Dave Lowry. After that, I found out in the paper that Chris
Clark had been recalled. I went home on the Light Rail and retrieved my
cards of him. (Heck, it's something to do to kill the few hours in between
outings.) After lunch, we went back to the Hilton. I still needed to
get lots of stuff signed. As usual, the coaches came out the earliest
(around 3:45). Greg Gilbert and Brad McCrimmon signed four each, and they
seemed happy to do so. Then, out came Lowry and Saprykin again.
Nobody else was coming out, so I got them again. After that, a whole mess
of players came out. The good thing was, I only missed Bill Lindsay in
that pack. The other players included Toni Lydman (1), Igor Kravchuk (3),
Morris (2), and Jeff Cowan (3). I had Jeff sign the cover of the Calgary
Sun sports pullout (the one with my picture inside!). He seemed
interested, and Clarke Wilm, Tommy Albelin (4), and a few others I had already
gotten peered at it curiously. Then, Daniel Tkaczuk came out. He's
really cool, he signed three for me, and I asked if this autograph stuff was any
different in NHL cities. He said it was, and he could tell which people
were selling. In our conversation, I mentioned how Chris McCluskey was his
#1 fan. He responded by saying "Yeah, he's a good guy." I
hope you're happy, Chris! After that was over, the starring cast for the
Flames came out. Brathwaite (3) signed an 8x10 and two cards; Jarome
Iginla (4) was a class act as usual, and Mike Vernon (1) signed a puck for me
beautifully! Then, the bus left, that was the end, or so we thought.
David realized that Bure had somehow slipped away. But fellow hound Dave
Larson had gotten him; he walked out a side entrance and took a nice walk to the
arena. We could still catch him! We ran to Dave's car, and he drove
(like a maniac!) to the Tank. On the way, we saw Valeri (he had just
passed the De Anza hotel). We made it up to the Sharks player entrance.
A few seconds later, the Calgary bus pulled in. We thanked Dave for the
lift, and Valeri Bure walked up five minutes later, signed three cards for me,
and went in. The amazing thing was, he signed with his own pen!
That's the first NHLer I've seen actually carry one around with him! True,
I had gotten Val that morning, but I had some sick cards to get signed. I
went to this game, and found out that Craig Simpson was Calgary's colorman for
this game! He had switched places with John Garrett. He signed an
index card, and I thought to myself, "This was completely random, there's
no way to predict that." I had tons of cards of him at home.
Anyway, the Sharks lost this one 1-0, which sucked ass. The Sharks had a
game in Colorado, so post-game hounding was very tough. They all roared
out of the arena, but we all understood that they had a plane to catch.
Vinny Damphousse did stop though. The signature was very rushed and
slopped. That was it... not the best outing possible because the Flames
stayed at the Hilton and not the De Anza. Oh well, I still got most of
what I wanted signed.
Total: 1 Shark, 52 Flames autographs.
12/30/00: Sharks vs. Canucks - The last outing of the millennium
Well, this was not exactly a great outing for me
compared to two days ago, but I did manage to get the three players I came to
get: Andrew Cassels, Henrik Sedin, and Daniel Sedin. I had wrestling
practice in the morning, so that pretty much ruled out any morning skate
success, or so I thought. After practice got out, I went down to the
arena, around 11:30. All the Sharks had already left. I heard that
the game would be broadcast on Hockey Night in Canada, so I brought two Kelly
Hrudey cards on a hunch that I might see him around. I had to do some
stuff at home so I couldn't stay long. Just as I was about to leave,
Hrudey walks out of the arena. I got him to sign those two cards,
including one for my set! That was it, until the afternoon when the
players left for the game. Before any players came out, David and I were
waiting outside the hotel, when all of a sudden this scary-looking guy with
glasses came up to us. "Hey, man, do you see those cameras?" He
asked. "Umm, cameras?" "You know, the ones on that train
there." He pointed across the street to the Christmas in the Park displays,
one of the models was of a choo-choo train. "I don't see any
cameras," I said. "Exactly, man. You may think you don't
see any cameras, man, but they're all over the place, they're watching
you!" Then he looked back at the train in a paranoid sort of way and left
the scene cautiously. Now that's what I call a nutcase! With that
aside, this time it was a little tricky since the players came out in bunches.
Peter Schaefer was the first one out. Contrary to how he signed in Calgary
the night before (according to Tim), he signed three for me and was the least
elusive of all the Canucks. Felix Potvin also came out around that time,
he signed one for me and walked to the arena with Schaefer. Then, out came
everyone else. In that flurry, I was able to get Cassels, Essensa,
Jovanovski, Klatt, Morrison, and the Sedins. I had Cassels sign a card for
my set plus one 8x10. The Sedins signed one each, and I was able to tell
who it was by their signatures. After that, they all left on the bus.
I did miss Naslund and Ohlund, but I wasn't too worried about that since I had
gotten them in previous outings. Then, as David and I were about to leave
the hotel, the team bus came back, and Bryan Helmer hopped off the bus and ran
into the hotel. He had forgotten something, and after five minutes he was
back. He signed for me and two others before leaving. Overall, in
terms of numbers today it was pretty tepid, but at least I got the three players
I wanted the most.
Total: 14 Canucks, 2 Neutral autographs.
12/28/00: Sharks vs. Oilers: Passing the century mark in one day of hounding!
The day started off as normal. David and I went
down to the Hotel De Anza to get autographs of Oilers. They had just flown
in early that morning, so we were doubtful that there would be a morning skate.
We saw Charlie Huddy, and after signing for us he said there wouldn't be a
skate. Oh well, we thought, maybe it's optional and some will walk.
We went up to the arena and waited for Sharks to come in. Vincent
Damphousse stopped and beautifully signed my 8x10. His signature is waaay
better on larger items! Friesen stopped as usual and signed two. But
instead of his normal "JF39" signature, we were treated to "JFr,.39"
on both cards! That was his signature on everything back in 98-99.
He's in a scoring slump right now, so maybe when he's not doing so well he gives
out the fuller signature. That doesn't make sense, but after getting
Stephane Matteau, we saw a couple of players walking through Arena Green (the
park next to the arena). Anson Carter and Ryan Smyth signed for me as they
went into the arena. Anson's signature wasn't all that great, but Ryan
Smyth signed two 8x10 items (one of them was a personalized Donruss Studio
8x10!) and was really nice about signing. Then, Doug Weight and Tommy Salo
walked in with Sean Brown and a group of about 4 other players. I got Weight to
sign my MVP card, and Salo signed his new Stadium Club card. I also saw
Craig MacTavish, who signed two cards, and Tom Poti, who signed two also.
I was surprised that the players had a morning skate! We went over to the
other side of the driveway to wait for the Sharks to drive out. Verniece was not
giving us any crap, which was good. Nothing really special happened as the
players drove out after the morning skate, but I did manage to get Damphousse,
Friesen, Hannan, Marchment, Marleau, Matteau, Nolan, Nabokov, Ragnarsson, and
Ricci. Then it was time to get the Oilers coming back out. Mike
Grier came out and signed my 8x10 perfectly; even though most of the photo was
dark, he found the small ice space to sign on. Anson Carter signed for us again,
but it was just "A 22." Dan LaCouture and Joaquin Gage signed
for me too, they were both more than happy to sign. Oilers rookie Brian
Swanson was the same way. Some other Oilers I got as they walked back to
the hotel included Doug Weight, Georges Laraque, Todd Marchant, Ethan Moreau,
Domenic Pittis, Tom Poti, Igor Ulanov, and Tommy Salo! What a day so far!
As David and I had lunch at Togo's, we counted up our autographs, and by midday
I had already gotten 58 autographs. We also discussed what to do in
between outings, since the Arena Showcase card store was going out of business.
We went over there and they were already loading up the vans and the whole place
was practically stripped down. R.I.P. Anyway... 3:30 rolled
around pretty quickly, and we went back to the De Anza. It was time to
clean up shop on the Oilers, I had not gotten Eric Brewer, Sean Brown, Daniel
Cleary, Shawn Horcoff, Frantisek Musil, Jason Smith, Sergei Zholtok, and
assistant Mark Lamb yet. Sean Brown was the first out, and he signed three
cards for me. Then the coaches came out. I had an old away jersey of
Edmonton (orange and blue), so I had MacTavish and Huddy sign it. Then the
bus came and a few players went to drop off stuff. Laraque, Horcoff, Salo,
and Cleary signed for me; they came out at about the same time. Then Rem
Murray, Frank Musil, and Mike Grier signed for me. This afternoon was
turning into yet another success! Doug Weight came out and signed my
Edmonton Oilers jersey right on the logo, on the white spot to the left of the
drip. He sure took his time to make it good, you can read almost every
letter. That was amazing considering he was chatting on a cell phone.
Brewer, Zholtok, and Smith then signed for me. After picking up a few
extra signatures of people I'd gotten this morning (Niinimaa, Marchant, et al.),
then it was off to the game! David had gotten ahold of some great tickets,
and for the first time since 1994 I had a ticket that was in the lower bowl!
We watched a wild, fight-filled game that ended in a 2-2 tie. Doug Weight
slashed the crap out of Marchment after the whistle, and he was kicked out of
the game. As he left, he swung his stick into the boards in anger.
As he walked into the tunnel he had a verbal exchange with a fan. Wow, off
the ice he seemed to be a nice guy, but something changed. The Sharks had
a 2-1 lead but gave up a goal to Dan Cleary in the final two minutes.
After the game, I got a few different autographs of Sharks players. When I
got Brad Stuart to sign a 99-00 SP Authentic card, it hit me that I had reached
100 autographs total in one day! I got a few more then went home.
After recounting (and recounting the recount) I ended up with a total of 103!
And not one autograph was smeared or screwed up. I thought it was
impossible to get 100 autographs in one day, but now I know that it can be done!
Total: 25 Sharks, 78 Oilers autographs.
12/06/00: Sharks vs. Stars - Sneaking one in during wrestling season
It's wrestling season here at high school, so my
outings have been limited. However, there was a JV wrestling tournament in
our gym today, so varsity practice only went until 4:00; I was also scheduled to
work the tournament as a scorekeeper at 5:30. This was a great thing for
me, that 90-minute break made it possible for me to go get Dallas Stars
autographs! I did not have much time to prepare for this outing. I
got to the Fairmont from school in only five minutes; only the coaches and
announcers had left the hotel at that time. My goal was to get a few
notable players on the composite 8x10 with the Dallas Stars' 1999 Stanley Cup
celebration. Prior to this outing, I had only gotten Hull, Modano, and
Keane on that 8x10. This outing was pretty boring, except for a few
things. Brad Lukowich signed a drawing I doodled of him last season.
"That's some nice work," Brad said after I told him that I had drawn
it. Also, those idiot hotel workers that bothered us the last time Dallas
was here... well, they were back, and made us stand off to the side of the door
to the bus. But we were all ignoring their "orders." I
went out to get Jon Sim, and their version of orders went something like
"Uh, sir... you can't... uh... um... sir..." I got Nieuwendyk and
Zubov on my team 8x10. Nieuwendyk's signature wasn't all that good, he
smushed it at the top of the photo. Zubov, on the other hand, signed
cleanly. Brett Hull was signing multiples for some people, but still no
St. Louis items. Among the others I got... Tyler Bouck, Derian Hatcher,
Sami Helenius, Mike Keane, Jamie Langenbrunner, Jere Lehtinen, Roman Lyashenko,
Grant Marshall, Richard Matvichuk, Mike Modano, Brendan Morrow, Kirk Muller, and
Darryl Sydor (on an 8x10). Belfour was his usual prickish self. He
stormed past all of us and onto the bus to drop off his bags, then came back out
and walked past all of us and back into the hotel before returning and doing the
same thing entering the bus for the final time. Horrible.
Congratulations Eddie, welcome to the Messier Club. Sorry to list out who
I got like that, but I'm writing this outing almost a month after it happened,
so I don't remember everything.
Total: 25 Stars autographs.
11/24/00; 11/25/00: Sharks vs. Devils - The most unusual outing EVER
Friday: My first non-gameday attempt at visiting
team autographs
I've been to nearly 40 outings, and I can never remember any as unusual or
bizarre as this one. First though, I'll start off with what happened the
day before the game. Jon and I went over to the Fairmont to get the Devils
as they arrived from the airport. However, they had already arrived.
We waited out front and got Patrik Elias and Jay Pandolfo. Jason Arnott
and Petr Sykora went directly into the cab and went off to lunch. Oh well.
We walked around to the back of the hotel. There's a bunch of shops along
First Street back there, and there's also Johnny Rocket's, Casa Castillo, and
Starbucks for food. We caught Scott Stevens as he walked over to
Starbucks. He signed a card for my set. Then just as I finished
putting my Stevens autograph away, I looked into the window of Casa Castillo and
saw Gomez and Daneyko getting ready to leave. I got Daneyko on a Devils
program, and Gomez on an 8x10! I also managed to catch Larry Robinson
walking into the hotel. However, I missed Slava Fetisov, because he blew
off everyone. He was being picked up from the hotel by another Russian hero and
former Sharks hero, Sergei Makarov! Neither signed, but it was a surprise
to see Makarov. That was it for Friday.
Saturday: Game-day rolls around, and it's certainly
not the usual all-day outing!
That wasn't so unusual... but on game day, there were tons of surprises.
Jon, David, and I all went up to the Fairmont, it was pretty foggy outside. The
first players to come out were Arnott, Stevens, McKenzie, and Stevenson.
They went out in a cab without signing for anyone. After they had left, a
man with white hair, sunglasses, and an old ball cap came out of the front
entrance. Someone said, "Hey, look, it's Steve Martin!" I
said, "Aw, Bull Sh#*, it's not really him." Then, after someone
yelled out "STEVE!", the man turned around and waved. It was
him, the real comedian/actor Steve Martin! Turns out, he was in town for a
book signing. He signed index cards for everyone and posed for pictures
with many, including me! What a pleasant surprise! After that, it
was back to hounding. Ken Sutton and Colin White signed for everyone.
So did Steve Kelly, who was holding a copy of the new Maxim Swimsuit Issue!
Nice magazine! But I missed Brian Rafalski, who signed for just a few.
Then, a turn for the worse... in a Scotty Bowman-like fashion, a pack of about
12 players came out at once. Larry Robinson was in the front of the line,
and they marched almost single-file onto the bus. I was able to get
Brodeur and Niedermayer in the flurry, as there was a huge crowd of about 25
autograph seekers there. Most went after Brodeur, and some went after
Niedermayer. I also got Daneyko to sign one, it was a very crappy
autograph since he lifted the pen a lot. As we walked up to the arena to
get Sharks coming out of morning skate, I thought, "OK, I know I missed a
whole crapload of players, but at least I got a couple more important
ones." For awhile, the best we got was that Steve Martin autograph,
and it wasn't even hockey related! Sheesh. Anyway, this time at the
Tank, Verniece was not her bitchy self, and therefore we had a bit more success.
Matteau, Friesen, Granato, Harvey, Marleau, Ragnarsson, and Sundstrom stopped to
sign for the ten people waiting. During this little 90-minute sub-outing,
two unexpected incidents occurred. First of all, when the Devils bus
pulled into the Sharks underground parking area, it dented Mike Ricci's car!
Whoops... Reech was pretty pissed, but he didn't cuss out the driver or
anything, he was really polite about it. Second of all, Sergei Makarov
drove into where the Sharks parked. I had brought a few Makarov items just
on a hunch that he might be around, and there he was! But Verniece would
not let him park underground! What an ignorant slut, she doesn't know who
Sergei Makarov is, what a beotch! Sergei parked on St. John Street right
next to the other autograph hounds' cars, and walked towards the parking
entrance. There he signed for all of us, and was really nice. He
penned three items for me, and posed for pictures for a couple of people.
He was the complete opposite of yesterday since Fetisov wasn't around, and he
had his kids with him. After that, Bobby Dollas and Mark Smith signed, and
then it was back to the hotel to catch the Devils coming back. Not a
success at all, I was looking to get Terreri, and when he came off the bus, he
shot me and another hound down completely. Damn, he's the backup goalie,
for crying out loud. (Can anyone say Kirk McLean?) Then, I saw that
people were getting Martin Brodeur. I rushed to get him, but I was hassled
by the Nazi Fairmont hotel worker bastards and they screwed me out of getting an
autograph. What a bunch of butt-pirates! Well, that was it, and
after rapidly consuming burgers at Johnny Rockets, David and I stopped off at
the Arena Showcase to pick up a few more cards, and then it was back to getting
autographs at the Fairmont at 3:45. Now if you thought this outing was
full of twists and turns, this was even more than that. What happened this
afternoon forced us to strategize and try to focus strictly on autographs.
We arrived at the hotel, but there was a pickup truck with a horse trailer
parked where the bus usually parks. There was some lady riding a white
pony around the sidewalk. The collectors there had to move to let this
horse pass through. Okay... whatever, we thought, as we caught Turner
Stevenson walking out. He signed three cards and took his time to make
each one perfect, what a cool signature! After that, we looked back
to where the horse trailer was. Now, there was this Indian guy decked out
in the traditional Hindu clothing, banging loudly on a drum. This drumming
was annoying, and we thought, "OK, what is really going on here?" We
thought the loud banging noises would make it hard for players to hear us when
we called for them. The bus pulled up, but a good 30 feet away from where
it should be. Most of the 30 of us collectors moved down there, but me and
a few others stayed put to keep an eye on the entrances. Then, after Jim
McKenzie came out and signed three for me, a whole ton of people came out of the
main entrance, except they weren't players! These 50 to 60 people were all
Hindu, and as it turns out, there was a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony at
the hotel! There were now over 100 total people outside (wedding
congregation plus autograph hounds plus pedestrian bystanders). They were
all singing some hymn in Hindi, and they paraded around the sidewalk and atrium.
Then, they stopped and started dancing in the middle of the atrium. We all
grumbled because they were making a huge commotion, but we also thought that
this was the best thing that could happen to us, since the taxis could NOT pull
into the atrium to pick up the players! This scene cannot be fully
described in words; the only way to really know how chaotic it was... well, you
shoulda been there. The players had to leave through the front entrance
and go around the celebration. Daneyko stopped in the atrium and talked on
a cell phone while he watched the festivities. Brylin would not sign
anything, he refused every single request. He must have a superstition
similar to Vanbiesbrouck. He was watching the dancing for about 15
minutes. Jay Pandolfo, Randy McKay, and Petr Sykora signed for me while
this went on. Poor Sykora, he left out of the opposite exit to where the
bus was; David and I spotted him and got him to sign. Then the rest of the
mob caught up with him and he had to sign his way out! After that, it was
about 5:00, and the celebration ended. All of those people went back into
the hotel. Then, at that moment, Larry Robinson and the big stars on the
Devils roster (Arnott, Brodeur, Gomez, Holik, Mogilny, Niedermayer, Rafalski,
Stevens, Terreri) all came out at the same time... again! This proved to
be tough, as they were all mobbed. It was crazy. Arnott did not sign
for me, but Rafalski did. He personalized all requests. I also got
Niedermayer, but just barely... he was standing inside the bus and signed on the
steps! Again, the Fairmont butt-pirate bastard hotel workers blocked me
off from getting Gomez, and I actually swore at one of the hotel people, as did
a few others. They also blocked me from getting Brodeur, but it wasn't
just them. There were just way too damn many people there. Well,
that was not really a very happy ending. I went to this game, which the
Sharks lost. They got out to a two goal lead early, but squandered it as
the defending Cup champs took advantage of sloppy play to score three unanswered
goals to win. Brodeur almost scored on the empty net at the end, but the
shot sailed three feet wide of the net! After the game, I rushed down to
the lower bowl, grabbed a few programs that were lying around, and then went up
to the press box. I got former NHLers Chico Resch and Randy Velischek to
sign four cards each, and I also got Mike Emrick on a ticket stub
("Doc" is one of the best play by play announcers in the business).
After the game, I had to be picked up early, but I still managed to get Steve
Shields to sign two items. Overall, this outing was big on autographs, and
big on fun. Although I didn't get everything I wanted, there was enough
bizarre events and surprise appearances to make this culturally diverse hounding
outing worth it. I can honestly say it will be almost impossible to see
this type of weird outing again.
Total: 18 Sharks, 42 Devils, 1 Celebrity, 4 Neutral autographs.
11/22/00 - Sharks vs. Blackhawks - More fun at the De Anza!
I originally thought that Chicago would stay at the
Fairmont. I didn't know much about this team's signing habits.
However, after calling the hotels I found that it was the Hotel De Anza, not the
Fairmont. What a relief! I had heard that Tony Amonte was tough to
get in person because he always used alternate exits to evade hounds.
David and I went down there after school. I lucked out because school got out at 11:30, and wrestling practice went until 2:00, so I had ample time
to get my cards rubbed. Arthur Chan was already there, and he had been
there all day since he had no school. He showed us autographs of Amonte,
Daze, Mironov, and Thibault, among others that he got that morning. After
waiting around for 15 minutes, the first players came out, and they were Kevin
Dean and Blair Atcheynum. I only had one card for each, and they were
happy to sign. Chris McAlpine signed two cards, and then guess who came
out early... Tony Amonte! He went on the bus to drop off his stuff.
We hoped he would come back out, which he did. He signed one for
everybody, he signed one for my Score 97-98 card set featuring him in a San Jose
Western All-Star jersey, what a cool new item for my collection! Bob
Probert and Mark Janssens were good signers, and Stephane Quintal signed for me
also. All three had great signatures. By far the nicest signer was
Kris King. He signed everything, and I think he's the only player to say
"My pleasure" when asked for an autograph. What a class act!
On the other hand, the Europeans came out around the same time. Zhamnov
was nice, and signed two, but Nylander was grumpy, and signed one per.
Zelepukin and Mironov signed for me (Mironov did three for me in his awesome
looking signature), but we almost missed Karpovtsev. He turned around on
the bus and signed for David and I. It was really slop, nobody else got
him. Newbie Chris Herperger and tough guy Ryan VandenBussche were both
thrilled to sign! Assistant coach and new HOFer Denis Savard signed one
for everyone. But the other big names on this team were gracious signers.
Steve Sullivan signed two, Jocelyn Thibault signed two, Dean McAmmond signed two
(great signature Dean!) and Eric Daze signed two. What a day! This
reminds me of the famous Edmonton outing in which I got pretty much the whole
team. This time around, I only missed Allison, Leroux (on the IR),
McCarthy, and Tallas. Keep in mind that this is only over a span of 90
minutes! The next team in town is a big one. It's the defending
Stanley Cup champions, the New Jersey Devils. Good Lord, from what I've
heard, it's gonna be a big zoo in front of the hotels...
Total: 39 Sharks autographs.
11/19/00 - Sharks Practice: Just gettin' a few extras
This outing is not much to write home about. I
didn't really expect anything coming into this. The actual practice was
canceled, but some players were still skating around. I did manage to get
a few players outside the building, such as Bradley, Granato, Matteau, Nabokov,
Rathje, Sundstrom, Thornton, and coach Darryl Sutter. Now you'd think this
is a pretty boring outing since yesterday's outing was my biggest ever in terms
of quantity. Well, there was one really bizarre little incident. As
Evgeni Nabokov was signing for David and me, two little kids came out with their
mom. The mom told the kids that the Sharks goalie was signing, and sent
the kid with the Sharks jersey over. By that time, David and I had gotten
our signatures. Nabby was ready to sign, but the kid walked up to me
thinking I was the goalie for the Sharks! I said, "Um, not me, it's
that guy over there," pointing to Nabby. "Come on kid, I'm only
5 foot 5," I said. Nabokov seemed to think it was funny. Oh
well, aside from that, it was a small 90-minute quickie outing. Next up on
the agenda are the Blackhawks, the league's shining example of how established
teams are sometimes suckier than expansion teams. 75 years, and a whopping three
Stanley Cups. Always an original.
Total: 14 Sharks autographs.
11/18/00 - Sharks vs. Islanders: This left my Flames outing in the dust!
On a cool March teacher in-service day last season, the
Calgary Flames were in town. I had the most memorable day of my hockey
autograph career, forever enshrined in a Sunday edition of the Calgary Sun.
The number: 79. I never thought I would get more. Never. I
expected to get 65 this time as David Gettelman and I went up to the Hilton this
morning. The first players to come out were Chara, Hamrlik, Lapointe,
Lindgren, Stapleton, and Toms. They all signed for me. I also got a
picture taken with Zdeno Chara, and in the picture he's looking at the camera
but I'm looking up at him as if to say "You're how tall?" These
six players practiced their golf swings while waiting for a cab. Hmm, that
sure is appropriate for this team after the regular season's done.
Flaherty and Scatchard went straight to a cab, but Scatchard signed for me.
Tim Connolly, Kevin Haller, Mariusz Czerkawski, and coach Butch Goring signed
for me that morning. We also helped Butch with directions to the Arena. Callups
Mathieu Biron and Branislav Mezei were also very happy to sign. Of course,
the Beez didn't sign for any of us, since it was game day! Then it was off to
the Arena. Apparently, Verniece did not take the day off today. It
didn't matter much, though. She only bitched at us once, and we gave her a
"screw you" look to her and she ended up leaving early. The more
people there were, the less control she had. We ended up getting
about half of the Sharks. As usual, no Nolan or Shields. But I did
manage to get new Shark Bobby Dollas to sign four items. He's now
officially taken over for Jeff Norton as the nicest signer on the Sharks.
After racking up the Sharks, it was back to the hotel to wait for the Isles to
return from their morning skate. I managed to catch Jonsson and GM Mike
Milbury as they walked back from the arena. Then, the bus came back and a
whole surge of players rushed out. I focused on finding a player or two
who I hadn't gotten yet, and I spotted Brad Isbister and got him on two cards.
The bus went back for more players, and the second time around I got Wade
Flaherty. By the time the morning was over, I had accumulated 65
signatures! This was unbelievable, and even more mind-blowing was that
there was still one more chance to get some more autographs! After a usual
#3 combo at Togo's to nourish my feverish hunger, and also after hanging out at
the Arena Showcase until 3:40, it was once again time to whip out my Sharpie and
go back to the hotel. This time, my main focus was, again, to get players
I hadn't gotten yet, since I had pretty much finished up my set cards for that
day. Steve Webb was the first signer of the afternoon, he inked three
cards. Chara, Czerkawski, Flaherty, Haller, Hamrlik, Isbister, Jonsson,
Kvasha, Lapointe, Mezei, Milbury, Pyatt, and Scatchard signed for me this time,
as did former NHLers and current Isle coaches Lorne Henning and Butch Goring.
Most of these guys signed multiple cards, except Kvasha and Czerkawski.
What a day! I brought a 100-count plastic card container to put my
autographed cards and pocket schedules into. I thought it would be half
filled, but it was almost completely filled. Un-f***-ing-believable.
I pretty much took a long piss on my previous record, which was 79 total
autographs with Calgary on March 19, 2000. The cooler thing is, my
Thanksgiving weekend will be filled with autograph seeking. A busy
week is ahead, and I need to take pride in this 90-autograph outing, and have
someone slap me so I can put this behind me and focus on other stuff.
Total: 27 Sharks, 63 Islanders autographs.
11/04/00 - Sharks vs. Hurricanes: The Hilton, the De Anza... what's the difference?
Before, it seemed that my success in getting autographs
hinged on where the visiting team would stay. The De Anza usually meant
tons of autographs, the Hilton meant a moderate amount, and the Fairmont meant
small results. But this season, that seems to be changing. Last
year, when the Canes were in town staying at the De Anza, I got 65 total
autographs. This time, at the Hilton, I got even more! The day
started off with an optional morning skate for Carolina. The first players
Jon and I got were Jeff O'Neill and Darren Langdon and coaches Randy Ladouceur
and Kevin McCarthy. After Tyler Moss signed two cards, collector Alan
Viarengo saw a familiar face walking up Almaden Boulevard away from the hotel...
it was Sandis Ozolinsh! He had exited out the back. We caught up to him
two blocks away, and he signed an 8x10 and two cards for me, all while talking
on a cell phone. We ran back to the hotel, where Arturs Irbe had come out.
He signed an 8x10 for me, and also signed the Beckett article! He said
that he remembered me from last year! That was the definite highlight of
the day right there. With that done, we headed up to the Arena to get some
Sharks. We breathed a sigh of relief to find out that Verniece was one
again taking the day off. This was a very good thing. The arena
worker was actually telling us when players were coming out, so we didn't have
to do all that much work. Since I had tons of cards signed by Sharks, I
decided to try something different and get a pocket schedule signed for each
Shark. The skeds look very good when signed, and a complete set would be
cool. I started off really well, with autographs of Bradley, Damphousse,
Friesen, Granato, Hannan, Harvey, Matteau, Nabokov, Ricci, Sturm, Sundstrom,
Suter, and Thornton. The item that Bradley signed was a photo I had taken
during warmups at the Boston game. Also, I got Shark call-up Greg Andrusak.
I got pocket schedules signed for most of these players, plus a few other items,
like a Sharks program cover signed by Friesen. Later, after a Togo's
lunch, it was back to the Hilton for some more Hurricanes! Jon had to go to a
hockey game, but David Gettelman replaced him this outing. Dave Karpa and
Marek Malik were the first ones out. Brind'Amour signed one of two cards.
Glen Wesley quickly signed one card, and Martin Gelinas penned two items.
Then the team did what I call "pulling a Phoenix" and coming out in a
group of 10. They used Ron Francis as a way to divert attention to them.
I went for Battaglia, O'Neill, and Tanabe, and still had time to get an
autograph of Francis. Later, Sami Kapanen came out and signed three cards
for me, what a great signature! Then, after the bus had left, we waited
for Irbe. After fifteen minutes of waiting, Irbe came out, but there was a taxi
waiting for him! Thankfully, he told the cabbie to wait, and signed a 1994
All-Star Game puck for me! Overall, this outing was just as great as the
last one. I got all the stars I came for!
Total: 41 Hurricanes, 25 Sharks.
10/28/00 - Sharks vs. Thrashers: It was raining autographs!
The day began very cloudy, but rain did not fall as
David Gettelman and I went up to the Fairmont. The Thrashers had played a
game in Vancouver the night before, so their morning skate was cancelled, dammit!
That sucked. We did not know this, and waited outside the Fairmont for
awhile. The only Thrasher autograph that morning was Jeff Odgers, who came
out and signed an 8x10 and a card for me! After that, it was up to the
corner of Autumn and St. John for Sharks autographs! This time, we got
tons. The reason why was simple: VERNIECE THE ARENA BEOTCH WAS TAKING THE
DAY OFF! That meant that we could stand in the driveway, and players knew
we were ready to get autographs. This resulted in great success, some of
the harder-to-get players stopped this morning, including Nolan, Shields, and
Sundstrom. The only players we missed were Damphousse (different parking
lot), Heins, Korolyuk, Matteau, Rathje, and Sturm (left as we were getting other
players.) What a great success, the best at the arena in recent memory.
After a stop at Togo's for some sandwiches, it was off to see the Thrashers.
The afternoon was greeted with rain, it poured and poured, but we remained
optimistic as we reached the Fairmont. First out was former Shark Jarrod
Skalde, got him on two cards. Then after getting coach Curt Fraser, Adam
Burt left in a cab, he was talking on a cell phone. That wasn't good
because I had oodles of his cards! It wasn't looking very good, I thought
they would do what I call "pulling a Phoenix," or coming out of the
hotel in droves of ten players. But the most that came out at a time was
three, which made it a lot easier. Patrik Stefan signed an official puck
and a great new Upper Deck 00-01 card for me. Steve Guolla signed an old
1996-97 program insert from his days on the Sharks, and another ex-Shark, Shean
Donovan, signed two cards, and seemed to enjoy being back in San Jose despite
the lousy weather. The rain narrowed our area of autograph-seeking to
covered areas, and it was hectic as hell. I missed Per Svartvadet while I
was getting Chris Tamer, so David and I chased him down in the rain. He
signed three for us, and didn't mind it one bit, I told him that they had picked
the wrong day to come to San Jose because of the gloominess in the sky.
Andrew Brunette and Hnat Domenichelli signed for me, and so did tough guy Denny
Lambert. The outing ended after Sergei Vyshedkevich signed his new BAP
Memorabilia card for me. This whole outing was a definite surprise: the
rain was coming down in droves, the Thrashers were at the Fairmont, and no
morning skate... yet I still matched my personal second-best in
one day with 65 total autographs... un-F***ing-believable! I'm looking
forward to Carolina next Saturday, since the record I matched today was
originally set with them 'Canes!
Total: 30 Sharks, 35 Thrashers autographs.
10/14/00 - Sharks vs. Bruins: A surprise cameo appearance in San Jose!
Today was a great day for autographs. It was
quality day, not quantity day. I only got Coffey, Henderson, Mann, and
McLaren in the morning, since it was an optional morning skate. But I
learned that Boston Bruin legend Johnny Bucyk was in town! I decided I
would try to get him in the press box at the game. Jon and I then went up
to the arena. Of course, Verniece was there, in full force. She
immediately started to yell at us! "Get away from that wall!"
She bitched. She told us that somebody had tagged the "Arena Event
Loading" sign and blamed it all on us! I told her that tons of people
walk by that sign, even drunken bums and gangbangers. "Take a look
around, Verneice," I said. The neighborhood the arena is in isn't the
best place to be after midnight. "If I ever see any more marks on
that sign, I will never let you wait here for autographs again, that's how
narrow-minded I'm going to be." Going to be? "Narrow
minded, ha, what's new," I muttered, hoping that fat ass would hear me say
it. What a power tripper, that's the only way she feels good about her
$3.75 an hour. Despite her ugly mirror-shattering presence, I was able to
get Harvey, Marleau, Sturm, Ragnarsson, and Stuart. Then it was off to
lunch. Usually Togo's, but this time they were having some kids' Halloween
festival at Arena Green (the park across the street from the Tank). There
were food booths, and thanks to the Tony & Alba's pizza booth, there was no
need to walk downtown to get Togo's. Jon could not make it before the
game, since he had to go play roller hockey (we're not on the same team
anymore.) So I hung out at the Arena Showcase, and picked up two Johnny
Bucyk cards. They came in handy later. So, 4:00 rolled around and I
was at the Fairmont. Bucyk came out and signed one for me (I handed him
two, he only signed the top one.) Then, out came Paul Coffey again.
He signed perfectly on a Donruss Priority card. Then Joe Thornton came
out. Time for the 8x10! He signed it nicely, although I didn't ask
for a personalization. A few marginal players and rookies came out, but
they were all willing to sign, why wouldn't they. Peter Popovic, Jarno
Kultanen, and Sami Pahlsson signed my paper with the printed pictures on them.
Peter also signed a card, he's not hard to miss, being 6 foot 5. After Don
Sweeney signed, out came Sergei Samsonov, with Lord Byron! I got Samsonov
to sign first, after he scribbled his normal quarter-assed signature (it's
usually half-assed), I caught Dafoe as he was about to get on the bus.
Both of them signed cards for my 97-98 Score set! Brian Rolston signed two
cards, although I missed Jason Allison while I was getting Brian. Oh well,
I already have autographs from Allison, so it's no big deal. The game was
awesome! Boston jumped out to a 2-1 lead, but the Sharks scored three
unanswered goals. Marco Sturm scored on the beanpot move (he crashed the
net afterwards and the puck got knocked in.) Scott Thornton completed a
great passing sequence to score and put the Sharks out in front 4-2. Sturm
scored his second goal into the empty net. Also of note, Vinny Damphousse
assisted on Sturm's goal, it was his 1,000th point. After the game, tons
of fans waited outside. The program insert that night was Vinny, how
timely! Vinny signed for everyone. That program insert is now
special because it was signed by Damphousse after the game he scored point 1000!
This day was excellent, I'm definitely looking forward to Atlanta and Carolina!
Total: 18 Sharks, 23 Bruins autographs.
10/12/00 - Sharks vs. Coyotes: Cleaning up on the 'Yotes, except Tkachuk
I was hoping to get Tkachuk, but he didn't even play
tonight! I went to the Hilton Hotel and waited with only seven others.
JR signed an 8x10 for me, and was really nice about it. Unfortunately, he
was being rushed by the taxi cab and I only had time to get one item by him.
Travis Green and Joe Juneau then came out, Joe signed one for everyone, while
Travis gave two samples of his infamously crappy TG39 signature. Then
General Manager Bobby Smith came out and complained about how old his cards
were! The day was a successful one. Among the new players added to
my collection were Robert Esche, Radoslav Suchy, Landon Wilson, and draft pick
Ossi Vaananen. Mike Sullivan also signed a few early 90s Sharks cards for
me and told me how those Cow Palace games seemed "just like
yesterday." Overall, not a bad day. Too bad Tkachuk did not
come out.
Total: 30 Coyotes autographs.
10/6/00 - Sharks vs. Blues - Turek and Turgeon good, Pronger and MacInnis bad.
The regular season started off with a 4-1 loss to the Blues. I didn't go to the game, but I did get 14 autographs! The first player to come out of the Fairmont was Lurch, a.k.a. Chris Pronger. He signed for one kid, taking the card, walking with it to the car, signing it at the door, and then leaving without signing for anyone else. Well, that's an improvement from last season when he didn't sign for anyone! An SUV pulled
