Down by the river...

A few words on my recent night in Harrisburg in an attempt to see/graph Gerrit Cole,the first pick in last years draft.

We left a bit early with a rare cameo appearance from Ryan,who graciously allowed two young graphers to accompany us on the evening.
Brandon and Terry were both very helpful on the evening and were a pleasure to have along for the ride.

I usually hit Harrisburg with my partner in crime,Bill Cover,but the aforementioned Mr.Cover is in Tennessee,so I was doing my own driving for the second time in two weeks (Bowie with the family and the Battler for Bret Hart).
Harrisburg is a very easy drive and it was not a problem finding the park at all,as Bill gave me the name of the exit and everything was familiar from my trips there with him.

Harrisburg has become a postgame town for graphing as the autograph alley is often taken for parties as it was on this day,but I still was able to get a few cards signed in the pre-game downtime.
The main pickups being Evan Chambers on a few cards and Robbie Grossman on a Florida State League prospect card.
While I worked on a few players for Altoona,Brandon and Terry worked on the home Senators and helped me out with a chunk of my purchased Harrisburg team set as well.

Gerrit Cole was the starter on this night,so we would get to see him pitch,but would have to wait until after the game for him to sign.
So of course,Cole gets line drived TWICE in the first inning,leaves the game after finishing the inning,goes to the hospital and as a result-I miss him.
Cole is a big deal to me as I try to get every Pirate first rounder on a ball and I have been able to do that dating back to Andrew McCutchen.
So,the ten bucks that I paid for an Eastern League ball was out the door for this night and the ball itself?
Well,it is racing to Binghamton New York,where the Curve is headed after this series and hopefully the ball will get there first!

The game was LONG,but the company was great with Brad Adams being with us throughout and my favorite political operative Dan Hartman arriving late in the game.
After the game,I was able to pick off a few more members of the Curve,but I really did not have many cards as the Altoona team set is not released yet and Cole was unavailable.

I left around 11;20 and there were still Harrisburg players that had not left yet,but I was tired and had to drive home.
Thanks to Ryan for coming along and spending some time with his old father and to Brandon and Terry for their help on the evening.
It was a pleasure having both of you along.

Photo Credit:J.Meric-Getty Images...