First a picture of the lovely Rachel and me with former Pirate and Indian pitcher Jim "Mudcat" Grant from a while back.
We met the Mudcat at the Buckeye book fair in Wooster, Ohio.
The fair is held each year and feature Ohio authors along with books on Ohio topics.
Mr. Grant was selling his book "the black aces", but since he was charging to sign other items, it was more important to get his cards signed for the collection.
He was very accommodating and chatted for a while about his year in Pittsburgh as a Pirate, along with his coaching years in Durham with the Carolina League Bulls.
The Bulls visited Hagerstown often in the early years of the Suns and Grant asked if the stadium had gotten any better.
I told him the infield was being renovated for the first time soon which brought a loud laugh.
Very nice gentleman and glad to add him to the collection.
I generally don't like paying for autographs, but I never mind paying for the veterans of the game that never made a nibble of what players make today.
Grant signed two cards for 15.00, which sounds high, but compare that to the fee of the Steelers Levon Kirkland.
Kirkland was charging 25 bucks for flat items when he visited Hagerstown.
That is a bit different as Kirkland made plenty of money in his era.
The NHL changed the schedule format for 2008 as we expected yesterday.
The amount of inter-divisional games with each team will drop from 8 to 6 and now each team will play their opposite conference counterparts at least once.
The compromise was that you will play each team at least once, but not home and home.
The Western Conference teams pulled for this hard as they wanted to get one gate when Cindy Crosby and the Penguins come out west.
See how much they love when they also get the Washington Capitals, Florida Panthers, and other dreck.
Lou Lamoriello and the Devils were one of only 4 votes to keep the current schedule template.
The NHL will go back to the current format in a few years.
One cannot expect any consistency from the office as the grass is always greener on the other side with these guys.
Gary Bettman's defense of the vote only showed why it should not have been passed.
This was an attempt to be responsive to the fans," NHL commissioner Bettman said after the meeting. "And we did it notwithstanding that this is likely to be the third year in a row with record attendance and the fact that divisional games are better attended than any others we did want to be responsive to the fans."
SO the divisional game is the best attended, but we will reduce the number of them-"for the fans"
Yeah, right.
The Devils defend the Rock tonight against the visitors from Montreal tonight.
Coverage here tomorrow.
For the seamheads here:
The Giants hired Ed Creech as an "amateur talent advisor".
They have no idea how true that is.....
Looking forward to the Rule V draft for minor leaguers at the winter meetings next week.
Want a sleeper for the Pirates, if they decide to take someone?
How about power-hitting first baseman Matt Whitney?
Whitney had a huge year at Lake County and Kinston, the Pirates lack power hitters and Whitney is a known commodity to GM Neal Huntington.
Is it just me or do the "great" offers that Boston keeps sending for Johan Santana seem a bit light?
I can see a Jacody Ellsbury, Clay Bucholz OR Jon Lester, and another prospect offer being a fine haul for the Twins, but the offers that I am hearing don't measure up.
If I am picking from the offers that are rumored-I like the Yankees offer far better than the Beantowners.
Until tomorrow
Photo Credit
Grant-Cherie Heimberger
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