RBI (146) Ervin Santana...

Recently I was able to get starting pitcher Ervin Santana's autograph. It was nice to get Ervin's autograph since it was only the second time he had signed for me despite him being on the Angels for so many years. Either through bad timing or positioning I seemed to miss out on Ervin when he was an Angel, so it was nice to get him to sign as a member of the Royals.

Ervin was signed as an amateur free agent in 2000 by the then Anaheim Angels. He debuted for the Angels in 2005 as a starter and never turned back holding onto a spot in the rotation for 8 seasons with the team. He ran into struggles though and the Angels traded Santana to the Kansas City Royals after he led the league in Home Runs allowed. So far the move has been good for Ervin as he has revamped his pitching and is having a successful first half. Ervin is one win from crossing the 100 mark, has 1200 Strikeouts, has been an All Star, and most notably threw a no-hitter during the 2011 season against the Indians.

I was able to get Ervin to autograph this 8x10 photo of him celebrating his no-hitter when the Royals played the Angels during the 2013 season.

RBI (144) Moose...

Moustakas. Mike Moustakas. A name that definitely lends itself to being a ball player, let alone a popular fan friendly one. I have written about getting Moustaskas' autograph before in a general sense since I included an autographed 8x10 I took during the Opening Series for the 2012 season. I've left out some pretty sweet items that I finally was able to complete this past series.

Moustakas debuted during the 2011 season at Angel Stadium. It was nice for his debut to come in Anaheim since Mike was a graduate of Chatsworth High School and owned several California high school baseball records. Since he's a local boy he had plenty of family on hand to watch him debut in the MLB. His debut game was on and I was actually about to get a ball Moose hit during his BP. Not only was I able to snag a ball from his BP but I was able to get Moustakas to autograph the ball before the game on the sweetspot.

I posted previously about how nice and down to earth Moose is when he signed this 8x10 of him from 2012 Opening Day. He's a consistent signer when he's in Anaheim and I was able to get this Mike Moustakas autograph on my ticket from his MLB debut game.

Hopefully Moose will develop a more consistent bat, 2012 looked to be a breakthrough year for him and he even was nominated for a Gold Glove award, but he's had a bit of a regression year in the first half of 2013. Seeing as he was the 2nd pick of the 2007 draft I'm sure the Royals hope he can put it all together and will give him everything he needs to reach his fully potential. I think he's got the strength and tools to develop into a solid career 3rd baseman.

RBI (143) Jeff Francoeur...

Previously I wrote about how I was able to get a Jeff Francoeur autographed baseball, and how "Frenchy" is one of the nicest MLB players I've ever been able to meet. The outfielder is a definite fan favorite where ever he's playing and it's easy to understand why once you have the opportunity to see him interact with fans around the park.

Francoeur was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 2002 MLB draft with the 23rd pick in the first round. He debuted 3 years later in 2005 and has carved out a solid career with his bat and especially his arm. He's crossed the 1,100 Hit and 125 Home Run plateaus while earning a Gold Glove in 2007 for his work in the outfield. He is ranked 3rd for outfield assists among all active players for gunning down opposing runners.

I took this photograph of him during the Opening Series when the Royals and Angels played against each other in Anaheim. Frenchy was nice enough to autograph this 8x10 photo and inscribe "GG 07" on it for me. Even though he consistently is amongst the league leaders for outfield assists I'm not sure if he'll be earning many more Gold Gloves, but if he does I'm sure he'll be kind enough to inscribe any other award he wins.

Jeff Francoeur autographed this 8x10 for me when the Royals played the Angels during the 2013 season in Anaheim.

RBI (142) Some Country Breakfast...

Or I guess I should say a country feast was recently had by Kansas City Royals star Billy Butler when he was playing in Anaheim.

Billy Butler was drafted by the Royals with the 14th pick of the 1st round in the 2004 MLB draft. He debuted in 2007 against the Angels and has proven to be a capable slugger for the Royals. He's crossed the 100 Home Run mark while cruising to more than 200 doubles so far in his career with a batting average hovering around the .300 mark.

Butler was in a pretty good mood after going 5-5 while playing against the Angels in Anaheim. He saw my 8x10 photo and asked when I took the shot. I told him I had taken it on the Opening Day the Royals spent in Anaheim and he said he thought it was last year and signed it for me. After he signed it I asked if he'd inscribe All Star for me since he was named to the team that year and he said yes. He signed for a few other people then took the photo again to inscribe "2012 All Star" under his autograph.

He was still signing after I put the photo away so I asked if he'd sign a ball also. He said no problem so I was able to get this Billy Butler autographed baseball.

He also knocked out this 2012 Topps Heritage card for me a on separate occasion during the series.

I was able to get these autographed during the 2013 Royals at Angels series at Angel Stadium, and I'm pretty happy with how they all came out and very appreciative Billy signed all three items for me.

RBI (129) A Kansas City Star...

Sometimes it's interesting to see how different teams and fan bases take in certain personalities. Former pitcher Mark "Gubi" Gubicza is an example of that.

Gubicza was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 2nd round of the 1981 draft. He worked his way through the minors and at age 21was debuting for the Royals in 1984. He was a stalwart piece of the Royals rotation and for 13 seasons was a consistent starter for the team. He was named to the All Star team 2 times and was part of the Royals' 1985 World Series Championship team. He left the Royals to go on to the Angels for only 2 starts in 1997 before his career came to a close.

When he retired his record stood at 132-136 with a 3.96 ERA and 1371 Strikeouts. He threw 42 Complete Games, 16 of which were Shut Outs out of his 329 Games Started. I'm always amazed at the number of Complete Games the studs of the 80's and 90's have compared to the starters who play now. Even the current workhorses are pretty outmatched when looking at going the distance with 8 year veteran James Shields having 20 career completes so far.

Gubi is a pretty popular broadcaster with the Angels, but he's not as consistently mobbed for an autograph after his broadcast as home grown Angel on air talent Tim Salmon is. If they worked for the Royals though I have the feeling the 2006 Kansas City Royals Team Hall of Fame inductee would be the one who had to worry about crowds of fans wanting his signature.

I was able to get Mr. Gubicza to sign this 1990 Fleer card for me at Angel Stadium.

RPS (4) 2012 Angel Stadium Opening Weekend

The 2012 baseball season has officially begun at Angel Stadium and the autograph hunting is in full swing. Since it was Opening Day I decided to spend the whole day at the stadium 'graphing. Zack Hample may have his streak of 793 (as of 4/8/12) consecutive games with getting at least 1 ball, but I've got a decent streak of my own going.  If you read my 2011 summary post then you know I went to 74 games last year and got at least one autograph each game of a former or current player, I felt the pressure to continue the streak as Opening Day began.

The closer I got to the stadium, the more pressure I felt until I got out of my car and saw some familiar faces. Needless to say the streak lives on and I had a pretty good weekend. However I'm not sure how long the streak will survive due to what I call the "Pujols Effect" which essentially means an obscene amount of people trying to get autographs every day. It's definitely going to take some serious effort to make sure I keep it alive.

Anyways, on to the summary. Unfortunately I wasn't able to photos of the graphing before and after the game, because I don't keep my Canon Rebel T3 on me while collecting since I don't want it damaged.

Going back to the "Pujols Effect" one of the biggest impacts Albert brings to the Big A, is the big ESPN deciding to cover more games than in years before. On hand to cover Opening Day, was Hall of Famer Barry Larkin who was very nice to the fans and signed during breaks from the broadcast. I was able to get him on this Rawlings Gold Glove Baseball, but he signed it with a black pen from the ESPN table.

On his way into the stadium, I asked if he wouldn't mind helping me work on the 1987 Topps set, and he signed one of those while he was walking. It was pretty cool getting to walk alongside Mr. Larkin with security escorting "us" and the rest of the ESPN crew toward the gate. I felt pretty important. You can see the "B" and "L" are consistent with the ball he signed sitting down, but as a Hall of Famer I wouldn't have minded him just scribbling an "x" let alone a decently consistent signature.

I present to you, your 2012 Kansas City Royals Opening Day roster down the first base line.

I couldn't get as nice a shot, but here is your 2012 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Opening Day roster down the third base line.

It's official, Erick Aybar now has the coolest friend in Anaheim. Oh and his friend Albert Pujols is now officially an Angel who has played in a MLB game.

First up some shots from Opening Day, Alex Gordon led off the night against Jered Weaver.

Howie Kendrick was up second for the Angels and is definitely going to have a big year seeing fastballs batting in front of Pujols.

Between all 3 games, I was able to get a pretty nice collection for my first weekend back into the season.  On Opening Day besides Barry Larkin, I got Rich Thompson to sign this 2011 Topps.

Mark Trumbo autographed this 8x10 of him against the Dodgers.

Angels owner Arte Moreno signed this 8x10 of him speaking at the Pujols press conference.

After the game I was able to get local product Royals 3rd baseman Mike Moustakas to sign his 2011 Topps Rookie Card. I told him how I had gotten a really nice shot of him fielding during the game and he said he'd sign it for me if I brought it.

On Saturday I didn't spend the whole day at the stadium, but I was able to get my first ball of the season from batting practice. Moustakas was nice enough to autograph this 8x10 I took of him on Opening Day.

I forgot to ask him to sign this 8x10 I printed out of the entire Royals team. But I was able to get center fielder Lorenzo Cain, All-Star reliever Aaron Crow, and Opening Day starter Bruce Chen to sign it.

On Sunday I was forgetful and left the team photo at home, but luckily remembered my cards. I had Gold Glover Jeff Francoeur sign my first ball from the day before on the sweet spot and my 2011 Topps.

The last autograph I was able to get for the series was future superstar Eric Hosmer on his 2011 Topps rookie card.

To summarize...awesome. It's nice to be back and have the streak extended.