RBI (217) Brett Hundley….

For those college football fans out there I made a foray in that world of sports at the end of the summer. It's always fun branching out from just getting baseball autographs and adding to my limited football collection of one of the top college quarterbacks in the game right now who has destroyed Pac-10 records is a nice addition for me.

UCLA star quarterback Brett Hundley made it onto the cover of two Sports Illustrated issues over the summer of 2014 and I was fortunate enough to make it out to the UCLA open practices to meet Hundley. He was very down to earth and despite the UCLA staff being very wary of anyone who wanted an autograph Brett himself was great.

I was able to get Hundley's first Sports Illustrated cover autographed and hopefully will see him lead the Bruins to a successful rest of the season and expect him to be drafted somewhere in the first round of the NFL draft at the end of this season.

RBI (147) Texas Tech Running Back...

Recently I was able to have the opportunity to get the autograph of Texas Tech Running Back SaDale Foster. I was happy to add another autograph to my collection, especially my first college football autograph. It made it more gratifying that the Red Raider that I was able to add was another hometown athlete who's doing reasonably well and hopefully can have a breakout season next year in second year as Texas Tech so he can reach the NFL.

In 13 games in his first season with the team he rushed 91 times for 451 yards for a solid 5 yards per carry average to go along with 3 touchdowns. He also caught 18 passes showing the versatility that is really necessary at this point to be a successful offensive player in today's NFL. His added use as a punt returner will hopefully help make teams take a good look at him during next year's season.

SaDale autographed this 8x10 photograph for me and I'll happily add it to my collection of hometown athletes making it to the next stage with me hopefully asking him to sign one again with him in a NFL jersey.

RBI (127) Who dat? An NFL Hall of Famer...

You can probably guess from the title that I was able to get the autograph of a Hall of Famer who shined for the New Orleans Saints. I had the opportunity to meet former offensive lineman Willie Roaf and was able to add him to my collection. I was very excited to add an autograph of a NFL Hall of Fame tackle who will reside in Canton.

Roaf was drafted in the 1993 NFL draft 8th overall by the New Orleans Saints. The rest is history as he went on to play for the Saints from 1993-2001 and then the Kansas City Chiefs from 2002 until his retirement in 2005. Of the 189 games he played in, he started them all earning recognition from his colleagues almost every season. He was a 11-time Pro Bowler, 6 time First team All Pro, 3 time Second Team All Pro, 8 time All-Conference, and named to the All Decade team for 1990 and the 2000's.

He was elected into Canton in his second year of eligibility in 2012.

Willie Roaf autographed this photo of him unveiling his bust to be enshrined in the Hall Of Fame in Canton at his induction, he inscribed "HOF 2012"

The tackle they nicknamed "Nasty" was kind enough to sign this 8x10 of him playing for the Saints against the San Francisco 49'ers about to lay down a block, and he inscribed "N.O. Saints" under his name and number 77.

It was great to add these Willie Roaf autographed photographs to my collection. Now that I've brought him into my collection I've gotten the autograph of a Hall of Famer from the MLB and NFL. I'll need to go out of my normal comfort zone to add an NBA and NHL player to my collection so that I'll have someone from each major U.S. professional sport to display proudly.

Balk 9 - Jose and me...and JJ...Gronk...

The Blue Jays. Oh the Blue Jays.

The Jays were here for a 4 game series and I decided to put some serious effort into trying to collect their autographs. Things didn't start off well when on the first day of the series I arrived to see my stack of Jays cards was not in my bag. All I had was on okay looking ball I had gotten during BP the day before. Not what I wanted, but it had to do. Instead of attempting to get the Angels when a few players signed I tried to get Jose Bautista walking in. He didn't sign and said he would after BP. For the remainder of the day I tried to bounce around the stadium was completely shut out.

As I was sitting around trying to plan out my next move when my friends Eric and Phil suggested I get my first autograph of the day from "JJ." Those of you who don't know, JJ is John Jackson a former NFL receiver and USC star who is a commentator at the stadium.

I didn't have anything for JJ to sign so I was thinking about just using my ticket when Eric reached into his bag of goodies and pulled out this.

That's right a Fox Sports Net piece of cardboard. I'm not sure why he had it or who he had it for, because even he said "I don't know why I have this." I went over to JJ as he was walking in and he was super friendly and autographed the card. He was nice enough to not only sign "John Jackson" but even added the "Fox Sports 1" inscription for me. I've never asked for the announcers to sign anything for me, but it was awesome and him being so nice about it made me really like this card.

Later inside the stadium I saw Bautista take BP. After BP he walked over to the very large group of fans for their "on field" experience and started to sign for them. I moved directly behind the group and was the only one behind the dugout to be there. When he was done signing he started to speak to 3 guys who were standing on the field behind a little chain divider. When one of the guys with them finished taking photos of Bautista talking to them he turned to me and motioned for me to toss him my ball. I was super excited. All day long I had been out of position and now finally for JOSE BAUTISTA I was the lone fan to be by him. It was my time. Or so I thought. Unfortunately he tried to catch my toss left handed with his camera in the other hand. You can guess the rest.

The ball went off his bad hand, and hit one of the guys Jose was talking to in the back. Now it wasn't like he batted it down roughly into him, more like someone tossing you the remote and it falling off your hand onto the couch. He picked up the ball and offered it to Bautista who gave me the worst look I've ever received. I'm pretty sure he thought I was just throwing a ball at him, because he not only shook his head no but stared me down before throwing the ball back to me. And like I said, I was the only fan there. I had succeeded in not only irritating one of my favorite players, but let him memorize my face for his "never sign for, acknowledge, or save from a fire" memory banks. Great.

I got a few Jays autographs throughout the series but my heart just wasn't really in it. For the Saturday game I went to the stadium intending only to autograph and skip the game, but ran into some friends and decided to hang around. While sitting there, a friend Kyle (@addictiveartwrk) thought he recognized a really big muscled guy who talked to Jordan Walden for a few minutes during the game. I didn't know who he was and said I didn't think he was anyone. Boy was I wrong. A few minutes later a dad and his son came down and got the guys autograph. As they were walking away the kid excitedly was talking about how awesome it was to meet Rob Gronkowski. Yup. GRONK.

He started to get mobbed as fans heard the news, but I was lucky enough to have him sign the back of one of my cards. Who would have thought that the best player I get the whole series at Angel Stadium would be a Patriots Tight End.