We heard the announcer in the fifth inning of the White Sox at Mariners baseball game. He said, "Tomorrow there will be an autograph signing at the Bon Marche. Carlos Guillen and Arthur Rhodes will be signing one item per person."

I knew right away that I had to go to this. The year before I had gotten an autograph from rookie-of-the-year Kazuhiro Sasaki. This was better though, because it was two autographs.

The next day my mom, sister, cousin, aunt, and I all headed down to the Bon Marche in downtown Seattle. It was a traffic jam on all the streets, and it was even worse when we got inside. I had never been to a signing before, so I didn't know it would be so crowded. We were in the back end of the line so we waited the longest.

After about ten minutes we hadn't moved at all, so I went to see if Carlos Guillen was there. It turned out he wasn't. He was coming down the hall as I walked back to our spot, and I walked right by him. The funny thing was he was dressed in jeans and a Hawaiian shirt. He looked like a fan ready to get his autograph.

So finally the lines started to move, and it was probably about forty-five minutes until we got a signature. We walked up to Guillen and got a book, two balls, and a poster signed. Then they said, "All right, you have to go to the back of the line and wait for Mr. Rhodes to get here."

"Nooooo," I said. As we waited for Arthur Rhodes to get there, my aunt came back with food. The people behind us started talking with us, and they said they've been to signings before with other Mariners like Jamie Moyer and Russ Davis.

We then had to get back to waiting for Arthur, who is one of my favorite ball players. We waited about fifty-five minutes to get there, and Arthur Rhodes had a huge earring in, a hat, Harley Davidson shirt, and about three security guards! Poor Guillen had no bodyguards. We got the same items signed by Rhodes, and then we started home.

When we got back to my uncle's house, I bolted upstairs and gently placed the signed ball in my suitcase for safekeeping. It is now in a case, along with the hat I got signed by Kazuhiro Sasaki.

Edited for content.