On the signing front!

As we continue to work on tidying the backlog up,the Pirates are (as of this writing) leading the Reds in the eighth inning.
Post on that later and hopefully before tomorrow evening,we can have either the Browns or Seahawks preview ready to go.

On the signing front..............

This will be a big one as we wrap the 2008 season up.
I know that I have never done a wrap on my trip to Wilmington,but bear with me!

At Wilmington,the park gives the feel of a refurbished older park,but it isn't as it was built in the early 90's.
The ushers were very helpful in telling us where to set up at for the maximum exposure.
Wilmington is similar to most newer parks where you have to pick one team or another and we picked the visiting Myrtle Beach Pelicans as a friend of mine (Thanks Corey) had picked a set up for me during a recent vacation to the beach city.
The players come down a tarp covered chute and they are on the field very quickly.
From where Battlin Bob and I were,it did not take long for them to pass us by.
We did not get everyone,but we were able to get the players that we wanted the most.
Pitcher Cole Rohrbough signed what we had for us and another trader had sent for him and was very accommodating and talkative about what must have been a lovely (Yeah right) bus ride from Myrtle Beach to Wilmington.
Outfield prospect Gorkys Hernandez came with a good reputation and lived up to it as he signed four cards for me as well.
I was able to get three quarters of the Pelican infield as Brandon Hicks and Ernesto Mejia each signed their MB card along with their Carolina League top prospect card along with Travis Jones signing his Pelican card.
The fourth Pelican infielder?
Eric Campbell-another miss.
Third time that I have tried to get his 2007 CL Prospect card signed- three strikes and I am out as Campbell should move to AA Mississippi next season.
Biggest disappointment?
That came when Jason Heyward was promoted to the Pelicans two days later!
Heyward was my top pick in my minor league fantasy league,so I really want to get him to sign.
All and all,not bad on signatures,but it may be a long time before a Wilmington return!!

The Delmarva Shorebirds were the next to last team to travel to Hagerstown and I only had a team set and a few past team set cards to get signed.
The biggest Shorebirds that we reeled in were pitching prospects Zach Britton,Sean Gleason,Cliff Flagello and injured tosser Tony Butler.
Flagello talked as always and we look forward to seeing the hard throwing lefty in Frederick next season.
Third baseman Tyler Henson and outfielder Matt Angle (a former Ohio State alum) were the main catches from the position players,but my favorite was a 2007 Aberdeen card signed by Jedidah Stephen(another former Buckeye),who chatted with me about the Buckeyes and graciously added a "Go Bucks" to his card.
Great stuff!

We finished off our season in Frederick with the Winston-Salem Warthogs in town to wrap their season up.
I had purchased a Warthog set in Wilmington as the Blue Rock store "The Quarry" had every team set in the Carolina League in stock.
I love this and I wish the Hagerstown Suns would adopt the idea.
I would rather buy the sets from the Suns than going through the effort of contacting the visitors and dealing with the wondering if they will arrive.
Bill Cover recently had this nightmare with Delmarva and as a result was unable to get them signed when the Shorebirds visited.
Here is hoping that the idea gets picked up at the Muni!
Frederick used to have the various sets there in the past,but a change in management occured and since then,I suppose no one thought of it.

The Warthogs varied from excellent as John Ely and Salvador Sanchez signed all we had and talked a bit to good -Francisco Hernandez signed and smiled but didn't say much to OK-John Shelby "didn't have time" at first,but came back to sign later to bad-manager Tim Blackwell "Had to put his junk down and would be right back".
That never happened.
Hitting coach Rob Sasser was very nice as he signed,but the memorable guy of the evening was pitching coach Brian Drahman.
Drahman went out of his way to avoid the steps that players descend down to the field in and it seemed like he didn't want to sign for the TWO collectors there.
I asked Drahman if he would sign and asked "how many you got"?
I replied "One",he walked over signed the card and grumpily spoke "Last time I was in this town,some guy gave me 30 cards to sign".
After he moved away,I related the story to the other collector that was there and he laughed and said "that was me"!
Good laugh had by all!

The Lake County Captains finished the Suns season off over the Labor Day weekend.
I had just a few things for myself,but I did have the Lake County set for reader Jason Christensen and Jason,I did OK as I was able to get every Captain that was in the set except for shortstop Mark Thompson,who didn't seem terribly interested in signing for anyone.
I was able to have more for me than I thought with a few late purchases as a collector friend offered me the 2008 Mahoning Valley and Vermont sets for his cost and I was able to get a Tom Milone card from his college days at USC get here in time as well.
Those enabled me to have 3 Scrappers signed and 4 Lake Monsters included as well.
Three Captains that had been demoted signed their Kinston cards in converted catcher Adam Davis,Paolo Espino and Todd Martin.
The story from this series was Lake County pitching coach Ruben Niebla.
Niebla had often been a difficult sign in the past,but this night he was downright hilarious as he signed,talked about the hotel,the air quality of Hagerstown and the city in general.
This stuff was so funny,but I will not write about it as some of the Hub City denizens could get upset,but those of us there will never forget it!
Great routine,Ruben!
The next night,Nuebla jogged to the outfield and hollered "hey,guys,we good today" and I replied "Yeah,we are,but you had to stay in the crummy hotel-you probably aren't!".

Ebay produced a certified (and after a long time) card of Devils scorer Zach Parise.

And finally some thanks.
Thanks to Mike Oravec for a massive amount of schedules for my collection.
Thanks to another collector (name withheld by request) for schedules and help with the Kinston Indians.
His help landed Kelvin DeLaCruz on his SAL top prospect card and the elusive Niuman Romero among others.
Bill Cover helped with some Harrisburg Senators,most notably,our guy Cory VanAllen,former Hagerstown Sun Bill Rhinehart and Jordan Zimmerman,who is getting a reputation as difficult.
I had no problems with Jordan at Frederick earlier this season,but that was just my experience.
Thanks again to all of you.

Back later with more sweeping up and the Pirates game in the Ohio River city.