Kyle - Game Used All Star Room Keys

[allstarsplus]

I kept my room key but gotta love the pinstriped room key that the players were given!!! I am the high bidder!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=260263802169

[Vintagedeputy]

Andrew, Andrew, Andrew, my friend......

you should never actually bid on an auction........'tis better to snipe!

[allstarsplus]

Andrew, Andrew, Andrew, my friend......

you should never actually bid on an auction........'tis better to snipe!

Jim - Can you believe I don't use a snipe program! I still get outbid the old fashioned way!

[frikativ54]

Jim - Can you believe I don't use a snipe program! I still get outbid the old fashioned way!

Me neither. I am of the bid early, bid often philosophy. If I want an item badly enough, I'm going to have to fork over the cash. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a last minute snipe go wrong.

[Vintagedeputy]

I used to bid early and often too but now I cant understand why people constantly will bid an item up and keep raising the price. I use a snipe program that never fails. The only problem now is that people keep bidding the price up over what I set my snipe at so at least I know by then that I'm not sinking too much money into it.

[kylehess10]

ahhhhh the players were staying on 42nd street?? I should've known! I still have 2 unsigned OMLB's which I couldn't get signed at the fanfest. Did anybody try to get autos from the hotel?

[allstarsplus]

ahhhhh the players were staying on 42nd street?? I should've known! I still have 2 unsigned OMLB's which I couldn't get signed at the fanfest. Did anybody try to get autos from the hotel?

I stayed there at the Grand Hyatt and the hotel has an upper sky ramp where the team bus came so the players rarely came in the front entrance. My friend valet'd his car there which is the only reason we knew about the parking ramp.

I saw some guys during the day use the front door like Kevin Youkilis and Lou Pinella did and they signed for people.

At night you had to show a room key to hang out in the lobby.

After the ESPN Home Derby pre-game press conference on Monday, I had lunch next to Josh Hamilton's table and I don't think anyone knew who he was as nobody bothered him and he sat there in the open (I think after the HR Derby everyone in the world knows who he is).

I brought some game used bats to my room and Cristian Guzman knows my buddy so he came to my room to sign them so those were the only sigs I collected.

Ichiro was staying on the 34th floor where I was staying and he had security with him so he wasn't approachable.

When the players did the individual interviews they did them in the 3rd floor ballroom which I tried to infiltrate and was stopped by security. The MLB security staff had these lapel pins with what looked like a fancy T. They were dressed in suits and looked very serious about their jobs and wouldn't let me in so later in the day when they were gone I sat in ARod's seat and took a picture.

I walked my way into the HR Derby Press Conference and there was no security at the door at the time which was very cool. That ballroom was on the Lobby level and when that was over dozens of people in the lobby swarmed over Lance Berkman and Ryan Braun who walked and signed autographs.

Next year the All Star game is in St. Louis and my suggestion is to stay at the official hotel which may be the Marriott up the street from the Stadium.

I know 2 years ago in Pittsburgh, the official hotel was the Westin and the players seemed much more in the open and when I ate in the seafood restaurant there were several players there.

The Grand Hyatt has all the secluded entrances and exits so these guys were not out and around as much coupled with the fact that so many of the "big" All Stars like Jeter, ARod, and David Wright didn't even stay in the hotel.