Girlfriends birthday with the Freeway Series

Well my girlfriend is turning 21 this week and as a present she wanted to go to the Dodger vs. Angel game. She is a big Dodger fan and goes to games quite often. I typically join up with her, but since I work at Dodger stadium, that typically happens in the fourth or fifth inning. This was a great opportunity for us to take in a game with her favorite team, and my employer (that sounds weird). Anyway, I almost got kicked to the curb because she had been telling me for weeks that she wanted to go to the game, but I didn't look for tickets until two days before the game. To my surprise tickets were going through the roof. I had to bit the bullet and overpay for some seats. Frankly, I was shocked that tickets were that much, but I do know some Dodger fans that still don't feel comfortable going to Dodger Stadium, which could be one reason, another reason is the fact that the Angels are playing like the best team in baseball and they seem to be a pretty hot ticket on their own, even without the rivalry. Whatever theory contributed most to the popularity of the games, the two teams set a attendance record for a three game series at Angels stadium. Anyway back to the good stuff. She wanted to get autographs of her favorite team, and ironically enough she has a boyfriend that knows the best spots to make that happen. She is a huge Andre Ethier fan so the main goal was to get her and Ethier in a picture together. My girlfriend brought her Micky Mouse ears from when the all-star game was at Angels Stadium, and they had Micky Ears for both the Angels and the Dodgers. I had her bring along her bobble heads as well, but this is what she wanted to get signed, so that is what I was going to help her do. There were a ton of graphers out here for the Dodgers, which made it particularly difficult, this picture was taken when a good number of graphers had already left so you could see why it wasn't the easiest of days.

 The first guy that came out was Juan Rivera, my girlfriend and I both got him.

This is the only picture I got of people actually signing. My mind was just all over the place. The next player was Matt Kemp, guess what my girlfriend got him and I didn't. I don't think he wanted to sign my 16x20. It just seemed like it was just too big with that many people around and there were mothers crying everywhere that there kids were getting trampled. Honestly, it wasn't that bad of an autograph scramble, but there were a lot of people trying to beg and scream to get him which made matters worse, and to complicate everything Kemp stayed in one spot making it impossible for anyone to get in the scrum and nearly impossible for anyone that got his signature to get out of the scrum. Anyway, my girlfriend was beyond happy to get her 'ears' signed.

After that a number of players came in that didn't fit her screening process and she didn't want them to sign her mickey ears, later on she lifted that screening process, but for the time being it was my opportunity to graph. Besides these signatures Nathan Eovaldi, Shawn Tolleson, Ted Lilly, Matt Treanor, Elian Herrera, Trey Hillman all signed, but I was unable to get them. Just too many people to be able to get everyone. Chris Capuano, Aaron Harang, Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsly, Todd Coffey, all rejected the people trying to get signatures. Adam Kennedy and Fernando Valenzuela reportedly came in the front entrance and signed for fans. James Loney signed a bobble head for one kid and that was all he did all day. 

My girlfriend was getting really distraught because there was no sign of Andre Ethier, who normally comes in the back entrance. I promised her he would sign inside, I was hoping Ethier would not disappoint me, I know he is normally I good signer, but it would be my luck he doesn't sign on the day I need him to. 

When we got inside we got to see Matt Kemp taking batting practice for the first time since his second hamstring injury and was really goofing around. The guy was hitting home runs without even striding. Dude was hitting the ball off the rocks at Angels stadium using only his arms. Kemp was goofing around, dancing and signing. Here's a video of him singing Neyo

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Finally, right before the game Ethier came over and signed for my girlfriend. I, of course could have used another Ethier autograph as well, but I put my selfish ambitions behind and took her picture with him, because it was her birthday. To say she was excited would be a ridiculous understatement. The other autographs that she got once she removed her strict enforcements on who she wanted autographs from were Mark Ellis, Justin Sellers, and Josh Lindbloom. 

From there we just enjoyed the game. The Dodgers lost, but it was another good game between the two teams and it was big bang friday night at the Big A

Sorry to have bored any of you that don't collect autograph items from Disney characters, but its my blog and I'll do whatever I want with it :)