Meeting Joe Beimel

The Joe Beimel Bobblehead

Joe signing my scrapbook

Okay, so it's been almost a week. But my computer at home hasn't been recognizing my camera. And I didn't want to put up a post until I uploaded some pictures. I was only able to take four. Being first in line means you don't get to take as many photos. But it does mean you get to take close ups with no one in front of you. Where did this begin? Well, on Thursday night's game, they announced that Joe Beimel was going to be signing autographs from noon to one at Staples in Burbank. I got super excited. Joe Beimel. Okay, so I'm like the only person besides Troy from West Virginia to get excited over an autograph from Joe Beimel. And if you don't know the story yet, Troy from West Virginia is a huge Joe Beimel fan. He has an EIGHT MINUTE video called "The Legend of Joe Beimel." I'm only going to link the original video, but there are more out there now.

Onto the signing ... Kevin and I get there as soon as Staples opens, which was at seven. There's no one there. There's one guy at the copy center who's setting everything up. He tells everyone about how last year James Loney was signing and it was a madhouse. There was no order to anything. And when it was one, the Dodger representatives were pulling Loney out there door by his shirt, as Loney is madly trying to sign more autographs. He didn't have to worry about the crowd this year. He said last year, there was a line outside of people when the store opened. It was just me and Kevin till about 8:30-8:45. More people started showing around ten, and the majority coming at 11:30. Staples went all out and printed out prints of Joe for sale. They also had laminations and mountings available, but those had to be prepaid and picked up the next day. At one point, Roberto shows up and I pointed him out to Kevin. I told him that Roberto gets around like nobody's business. He's at EVERY autograph signing it seems. And he seems to know when and where to run into the players off the field as well. A little after noon, Joe shows up. The Dodger representative shows him to the counter, hands him a jersey, and sits him on a stool. At first, I waited to for him to say something. Then I finally ask him something and the signing got started. Yup. I was the first person in line. Hopefully I'm just as successful at my next two autograph signings! Why was I the first person? Mainly because I had to be at work at one. Which I made it on time. We had enough time to get Wendy's and get to the Galleria. Funny thing happened while we were eating our food. Someone asked us if there was a Wendy's in the mall. Nope. We brought our food from the outside.