Saturday, August 28, 2010

2003 Upper Deck, Brandon Duckworth



#476 Brandon Duckworth

Here is another card that I got signed by Brandon Duckworth. The card I posted a couple of days ago was the lone Brandon Duckworth card that I had until I pulled this one out of a re-pack box. After I pulled this card, I was able to get it signed by the Royals parking lot in August of 2008.

That summer, the Royals were in the middle of the their renovation with Kauffman Stadium. One of the many changes that they had included was the players parking lot. It used to be that the players parked where ever they wanted in the small lot behind home plate. But with all of the constuction going on with Kauffman and Arrowhead Stadium, the Royals players got their own parking lot that was fenced in. They would park in there and walk over to an outhouse-looking building that led them to the underground tunnel to the ballpark. All of us autograph seekers ended up by the stairwell building to get autographs.

On the particular day that I got this card signed, Brandon decided that he didn't want to park in the players lot. Instead, he parked right outside of it where we were all trying to get autographs. He got out of his truck talking on his cell phone and that usually means that he wasn't going to sign. The cell phone trick is a great way for the players to ignore you while not being a complete dick about it. I've seen rookies hop out of their car, pull out their phone and put it to their ear and not say a single word while they walk to the tunnel. But that wasn't the case for Brandon. He got out of his truck and just stood there talking on his phone. Eventually, he had a "crowd" of about three of us just hovering around him, waiting for him to get off of the phone. Without missing a beat, he held the phone to his ear with his shoulder and he motioned for us to come to him and he then signed for all of us. It was pretty cool for him to do that since most players use a phone as an excuse for not signing.

Since I posted a card of Brandon earlier in the week, I may post another card tonight after I get off of work.

1 comment:

Play at the Plate said...

That's a great photo. It looks like his foot is disconnected from his body and his expression is crazy.