Tonight was the Hershey Bears' meet the team party for season ticket holders. I'll just say I much prefer the format used in the team's annual autograph night (which is an event everyone in attendance can partake in). For that, every player has their own line and you can choose which ones to enter. It's one on one and allows for more interaction with the players. This was essentially an assembly line with every player at a long table, so while you get the entire team, you're basically only with each player for as long as it takes them to sign your stuff and pass it down (about five seconds).
I had three projects that I divvied up amongst my family to get signed: finishing my jersey, getting some pucks signed, and getting one of my custom cards signed by each player. The first several players all personalized my cards as I requested and some were even impressed by them, but we were really rushed by about the halfway point or so and from that point on I only got them to personalize as I had time to request it. Since I used the pictures I got with the players back in December on these cards, I won't be posting them on here.
Here is the finished jersey, sans Dylan McIlrath, who I didn't get on autograph night (line too long) and is currently up with the Caps.
Pucks: this was my first time getting pucks signed myself and my first time using a paint pen. All things considered these came out pretty well. Some got smudged and unfortunately the one I got signed by Ethen Frank was smudged beyond recognition. By this point I felt pretty rushed and I pretty much had to scramble to get them shoved back in their cases. Top row left to right is Aaron Ness, Vinny Iorio, and Mason Morelli. Bottom left to right is Mike Sgarbossa and Zach Fucale. Ness (Sound Tigers) and Sgarbs (Admirals) signed theirs on the back and I feel they turned out better for it since the backs of the puck aren't as pushed up against the case as the front.
Morelli (who is known by precisely no one here as he's been a career AHL guy) has been particularly friendly both times I've met him. He got a kick out of the Stockton puck and I actually had to help him open the case because he struggled to get it open, lol. I think that interaction is actually when I started to unintentionally back up the line and get the nudge from the nearby employee to speed things up.
All things being equal, I think I'd rather keep going to autograph night in the future and skip the STH event if they're all gonna be like that. (The first one I ever went to in 2005 was a skating party that was a much more enjoyable atmosphere that allowed for one on one time.)
