Nap Time
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Johnny Cupcakes, Boston
Every time the Red Sox win the World Series (and let me just say how fun it is to know that I can start a sentence that way!) I print off a photo of me with the trophy and bring it to Spring Training the following year to try to get autographs from anyone who was on the team. So I had jumped at the chance to go to Rhode Island earlier in the week and see the latest trophy. Now my mission became getting as many of the ’13 players as possible to sign it, and I had an opportunity right away.
Red Sox fans descended upon Johnny Cupcakes to meet Mike Napoli.
I heard through Facebook about an event at the Johnny Cupcakes t-shirt shop on Newbury St. in Boston. The store was teaming up with Mike Napoli for a new t-shirt design, with a portion of the proceeds going to Boston Children’s Hospital. As part of the promotion, he was doing an in-store signing on Saturday. While the t-shirts were only available online, they were selling posters in the store, and I asked and was told it was OK to bring my photo to have him sign.
An important member of the 2013 World Championship team, and Mike Napoli too!
With the event beginning at 2:00, my friend and I arrived around 12:30. We bought our posters inside and then got in the line outside that stretched down the street. (At one point a guy with a shaggy beard and a hat walked by us and went into the store, and people started to whisper, “Is that him?” But when he came out and walked past us a couple of minutes later, we realized it was just some guy with a beard. “We thought you were him,” said the guy behind me sheepishly. “I’ll be the one to say it. We were all thinking it.”)
The real Mike Napoli showed up just before 2:00, and they let people in from the line in groups of five or six, since the store was so small. I was excited that not only did he sign my trophy picture, but he posed for photos with everyone too. The line moved quickly, and I was busy trying to get the photo out and the camera focused (and retrieving my earring that had fallen out when I took the camera strap off from around my neck) and taking a picture of my friend and then untangling the camera bag strap from around my arm to hand it to her, that I didn’t get to say much to Napoli besides “Could you sign this please?” and “Thank you so much.” I would have liked to tell him that I hoped to see him re-sign with the team for next year and many more, but I’m hoping that the fact that he’s still hanging out in Boston several weeks after everything ended means that he’s thinking along those lines too.
