Who? - Rocco Baldelli, the current manager of the Minnesota Twins and former outfielder for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays and Boston Red Sox from Woonsocket, RI, is currently in his second year at the helm in Minnesota. He earned the post after a playing career that lasted through parts of seven seasons in the majors. Baldelli's playing career stats can be found here, and his managerial stats can be found here.
How did you obtain this? - This autograph was obtained in person at the hotel for the Minnesota Twins before a game with the Phillies in Philadelphia, PA on April 7, 2019. Rocco was the manager of the Twins at the time. The Twins fell to the Phils by a score of 2-1 that afternoon. The box score for that game can be found here.
Any interesting stories/facts about this? - Rocco was quiet but signed 1 autograph each for all of the graphers gathered at the Twins' hotel that Sunday morning, giving me my only signature of his in my collection. His battle with Mitochondrial Channelopathy & a complicating run with Lyme disease makes signing tough for him, so it is very considerate of him to do so at all. I remember this graphing outing as one that went very well and I even attended the game afterwards, trying to procure Bryce Harper's autograph at the Phillies side pregame but striking out. It was no matter, though, as during the game, I discovered my new favorite seating location at Citizens Bank Park - the stools along the visitors' bullpen in center field.
Any thoughts on the item? - 2006 Bowman Heritage is one of my favorite sets of the 2000s. The green Devil Rays color scheme plays well with the blue background, and the cardboard-like card stock takes a sharpie extremely well. I wish Topps still used this stock for its Heritage sets, and that the Bowman Heritage revival of 2019 was a mainstream set and not an online-exclusive mess.
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