On the signing front!

Time for a On the signing front segment that will catch us up with the last few teams that we have seen.

The first team since our last update was the Myrtle Beach Pelicans in Frederick against the Keys.
The Pelicans were missing their two most heralded prospects as Jason Heyward and Freddy Freeman had recently been promoted to AA Mississippi,but powerhitting Cody Johnson was still there and signed his Pelican card.
Pitching prospect Cole Rohrbough signed a few cards for us (via Battlin' Bob) and Luis Sumoza,a outfield prospect obtained in the off season from Boston signed his 09 Bowman as well.
Sumoza was returned to Rome after this series,so assuming he stays there,he will be in Hagerstown in August when the Braves visit.
The Battler reports that Rohrbough was kind enough to swap small talk for a bit and thinks highly of the lefthander.
Special kudos go to Pelican bullpenner Mikey Mehlich,who saw that I had cards for him as he carried a plate of food for the pen.
Mehlich stopped and even though I told him I would get him later since he was busy,put his stuff down and signed anyway.

Next into the Muni was the Greenville Drive,who's visit in 2007 still ranks as the worst team in my experience to come through Hagerstown.
I never really expect much other than hassle from Red Sox teams and Salem didn't do very much to improve my opinion of Boston teams in their visit last season.
Greenville was better than expected though and a few players were really nice.
Will Middlebrooks was hard to stop in the field,but was very nice after the game.
Outfielder Pete Hissey might have been the nicest of the Drive and pitcher Brock Huntzinger made a fan of his from me after this exchange as he signed....

Me:"Thanks for signing,Brock".
Brock:"No Problem"
Background Noise:"GOOD EVENING SUNS FANS,,,BLAH BLAH CONTINUED SCREAMING BLAH BLAH"

Brock:"Great,another night with this guy,he sucks"
Me: Sarcastically: "But he's an intern".
Brock:"He still is Bleeping Horseshit"

Other notables were Stolmy Pimentel,Nick Hagadone and Ryan Dent,all of which signed everything that I had and a tip of the cap to the Greenville coaching staff as well.
Manager Kevin Boles and his coaches Bob Kipper and Billy McMillon were all class acts and signed for everyone.
McMillon was a riot in particular when I had him sign his MLB showdown game for Ryan.
Ryan is still attempting to make a set of those and has any player in that set sign their card.
When I told McMillon that his card was the most important to Ryan of all the Drive,he responded with this-"He needs to raise his goals in life" with a laugh.....

Last Thursday brought the Kinston Indians to Frederick and this is always a visit that I look forward to.
However,I had been warned about the K-Tribe's top two prospects that they didn't exactly enjoy signing.
That proved to be the case as Lonnie Chisenhall signed one card for two people and then left.
That didn't work out well for me as I had eight cards (seven different) for the Kinston third sacker.
Chisenhall has a mixed signing reputation though,so hopefully things will be better on Kinston's final visit in early September.
Wish that I could say the same for the NC Wahoo second baseman Cord Phelps,who seems determined to play the heel in his visits.
Phelps signed for no one and in what may have been great for a future in pro wrestling move,stuck up his nose,sniffed and shook his head no when a collector (not me) asked him to sign one card!
Kinston was good otherwise as pitching coach and former White Sox pitcher Greg Hibbard signed after numerous misses over the last few years and a few prospects from the 08 draft were added in pitchers Eric Berger,Bryce Stowell and outfielder Tim Fedroff.
All three were class acts especially Fedroff.

The signing front ended with the Asheville Tourists hitting Hagerstown.
The Tourists visit usually brings out of town collectors as Asheville is the only Rockies affiliate in the Eastern US,so it is get em now or dont get them situation.
However this Rockies club only has three members of the organizations top thirty prospects and all were nice enough to sign in pitcher Parker Frazier along with flychasers Delta Cleary and Tyler Massey.
Frazier was quite witty and is the son of former Indian pitcher and current Rockie TV announcer George Frazier.

A few thanks to my trading partners out there.
Jason Christensen sent me a Binghamton Mets set along with a few extra goodies that included former Yankee setup man Ramiro Mendoza,Tiger prospect Jon Kiebler and Red Sox power arm Justin Masterson.
Tom O'brien was able to add a Bowie BaySox set with some other nice cards for me as well in Jake Arrieta (Just before a AAA promotion) and Beau Mills.
Tom also was able to have Yunel Escobar sign a Gold card (48 of 50) that I pulled out of a pack when the Braves visited Washington.

Battlin Bob and Ryan usually are key to not only driving me to Frederick,but helping me when I get there-thanks to both of my buddies.

A final word of thanks to the local friends that help me all the time in both Hagerstown and Frederick.
Some of you don't always want your name mentioned here,but I did want to acknowledge your help and offer some thanks.

Looks like some downtime as only a game in Frederick against Lynchburg is likely for me to attend until West Virginia hits town here in ten days!!
C'mon Power-Get that team set out!!