This meant checkout and lots of liquor store parking lots in Asheville, Bristol and other stops around those towns.
Really, a lot of liquor stores.
It's a good thing that I always carry things to read with me on the road- electronic or otherwise.
It does help to pass the time and it's not like I started this now, I have carried a book or a magazine everywhere for as long as I can remember.
That lifelong habit of mine made what could have been a long and tedious day and made it not so bad.
Michael wanted to see the Bristol Speedway as Fred and I did in 2017, so that was an easy stop.
The track still saw the football lines painted very visibly on the infield from the 2016 Tennessee-Virginia Tech football game held in Bristol.
Fred waited in the car since there is a lot of climbing to get to the actual track and we were fairly quick inside to take a picture and then move along.
As neat as it is to look around inside, there really isn't a lot to see once you make that first look around as it is a circular, contained facility that if I had to compare Bristol to a baseball stadium, it would bring to mind those "lovely" concrete doughnuts such as Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh and Riverfront in Cincinnati.
We drove to the opposite side of the track to snap the above picture of David Pearson, whose name I nicknamed Michael with a few years back for his excellent driving and the nickname stuck when Miguelito is behind the wheel.
We then moved to Fred's favorite restaurant in Bristol, the Mad Greek.
I like the pizza and Fred likes it for the food and it is the one place that he hit a home run of his picks for food stops on all our trips!
My pizza was fine, but the waiter and Fred had a miscommunication and Fred didn't receive the past with his veal.
Michael and I exchanged looks that we knew what was coming and we heard what we expected when Fred mumbled: "last time we'll be here".
Too bad, Mad Greek- it was fun.
A few more liquor store stops and eventually we wound our way to Pulaski, where Fred and I had been a few weeks before.
As a Tampa Rays fan (They apparently do exist), Michael was looking forward to the visiting Princeton Rays almost as much as going to 34 liquor stores and especially for their 17-year-old slugging prospect Wander Franco (one of about five Wander Franco's in baseball).
Considering that the Rays are our only chance to pick up Tampa prospects (Tampa is also in the New York-Penn League with Short-Season Hudson Valley).
Franco does not have any baseball cards as of now (I'm sure that will be rectified before the 2019 season), so I bought the Princeton team set just to have something for him to sign.
An aside on the Princeton Rays- they went above and beyond to get those sets to me and they even tossed in a logo baseball for my collection for free.
Princeton might not be at the top of the Appy League as far as my favorite facilities go, but I'm a big fan of their front office- Thanks to Danny in the Princeton office for the help!
Speaking of front offices, Pulaski's is another favorite because I love the way that they run things.
It's always a good time there, the top of the front office hustles all over the park just as the interns do and you can tell that such attention to detail helps the fan base to have a great time as Pulaski set an Appy League record this season for attendance.That gives me an idea for an off-season column since the Appalachian League is now the first league that I have seen every stadium (I've been to every Carolina League stadium, but I wasn't able to watch a game at Myrtle Beach), so maybe I'll rank them in a few categories.
Pulaski is a pretty easy place to autograph for the visiting team, but not so easy for the home team (although I've noted in the past, their policy and access is postgame is terrific) before the game, so we moved to left field to hopefully add Franco before the game to save some pressure afterward.
I kept forgetting that Princeton had obtained Shane Baz in the Chris Archer trade, but Baz was the starting pitcher.
I make it a general policy not to bother the starting pitcher unless someone else calls a starter over and he doesn't mind signing.
I had missed Baz, when he was with Bristol on Dale Murphy Night when the rain rolled overhead and now with him being with Tampa, I really needed him on his Top 100 (I had a green one as well) ,so it was important to add him to the set now- while I had the chance.
I managed to get a few Rays before the game and Wander Franco walked right over to sign my two cards (Mine and Mike Oravec's) and Fred along with Michael each had some baseball's signed, so Franco was quickly finished.
Franco's season-ending stats were phenomenal for a player of his age finishing with a .351 average and 11 homers in a 61 game season, but the stat that stood out for me was that he struck out just 19 times in 242 at bats.
It's very early in a career, but that type of plate discipline is a very good sign for eventual success at higher levels,
However, the few were what I would get because the Rays position players warmed up and all said after the game when Fred and Michael asked them to sign cards along the side of the field, while I worked on the Rays relievers, which I did manage to get a few finished.
The game was interesting to watch Baz, who has a plus arm, but does has some command problems with his fastball ( four walks in four innings) and as a very raw product may very well take time and patience to develop properly.
Baz allowed three runs, two of them earned but made the play of the game in the second inning.
A base hit scored two Pulaski runs and the throw home eluded the Princeton catcher on a bounce, but Baz was backing up the play as the pitcher should.
The ball bounced to the left of Baz (who is righthanded), yet Baz reached across his body to pluck the ball in the air before it hit the ground and fired the ball to second in one fluid motion to nail the Yankee runner attempting to move from first to second on the throw home.
It's the type of play that you expect to see from an agile third baseman, not from a pitcher backing up a throw and it was a play that I filed away in my mind for future reference.
I'm not sure what type of hitter that Shane Baz may have been in high school, but he might have the type of athletic ability to give another position a try if he doesn't develop as a pitcher.
Michael was tired and had the remaining drive time home, so he rested in his car for some of the game, so Fred and I watched a 3-2 Pulaski win, talked shop (baseball and life) and generally had a good time on a surprisingly chilly Pulaski night.
Good thing that I brought my Giants hoodie to knock the chill down a bit!
I wanted to try to get a Yankee or two off the field, but the area is small and I just wasn't going to squeeze into a small area.
Meanwhile, Fred and Michael went to the Rays side and attempted to stop a few players coming off the field, which was no dice as they all said later.I really needed two Yankees in particular, 2018 first rounder Anthony Seigler on his Pulaski update card and outfielder Evan Alexander, for whom I had maybe the ugliest jersey that I had ever seen to be signed for Mike Oravec.
It was a Pulaski 2017 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles jersey worn by Alexander and it barely nosed out Fred's Paw Patrol jersey that he bought in Kannapolis for the ugly jersey crown.
Fred returned to meet me and said "Michael has your Princeton cards", go meet him by the Princeton bus and I'll do the Yankees until you are finished.
I didn't have the heart or the time to give Fred the rest of my Pulaski teams set (I think there were 8 guys), but I did give him the two Seigler cards and Mike's Alexander jersey in case they came out while I was working on the Rays.
I raced (or my best facsimile thereof) to the far side of the stadium where I expected to find Michael and the Shane Baz cards easily.
No dice, so I walked outside (the team doesn't mind if you come and go) and looked for him by the Princeton bus, which I could see from the inside.
Again, no dice as there was one person by the bus and it wasn't Michael Landucci.
I asked the one person waiting there if he saw a guy that looked like Miguelito Loveless and his response was that he had not.
Now I'm beginning to get a little nervous as I'm on the side of the stadium, I don't know as well, cannot find what I need to be signed most and this fellow is looking at me as in "don't you recognize me"?
I asked him if I knew him and he laughed and said yes, we met last night in Winston-Salem.
It turned out he was the man that asked me last night when the usher moved us out of the area and I apologized for not remembering.
I do that sometimes on these late season runs because you meet so many people and I can get a little punchy!
As I talked to Morgan as he introduced himself, Michael walked around the corner and gave us a little bit of the lowdown.
Princeton came to the park in uniform, so they were going to leave the way or worse with sweatshirts over the uniforms, leaving it very hard to tell who is who and without a lot of light in the area, this looked like a tougher chore than I had expected.
Wander Franco came out with a big smile and looked to sign, but we were all finished with him.
A sidebar, it is always so sad to see these guys as young, personable and ready to sign and then have so many just take advantage of them to the point that they are jaded within a few years.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr was so nice and accommodating in 2016 at Bluefield (I had one card) and the difference in him in just two years would be shocking, had I not seen it before with so many players.
I understand how it happens and even why the players feel that way, but it doesn't change the sadness in what should be a joyful part of living their dream and becomes a burden.
Michael told me Shane Baz was coming soon and Matthew Liberatore was with him as he had arrived that day.
Liberatore was the Rays most recent first-round draft pick and teams occasionally has pitchers that are high picks travel with teams but don't allow them to pitch.
I didn't have any cards for him, but I did have him sign a blank (Mine all say Cleveland, but I'll never see him so it's something) card and Baz was very nice in signing his green Top 100, a regular 100 and his 2017 Bowman.
It was dark and I couldn't see as well with players wearing jackets, so I said goodbye to Morgan and left to go to the Yankees side, where Fred had gotten the Seigler cards and Mike's jersey signed.
That was good enough for me with a four hour (five and change from Fred and Michael) and we were on our way home.
A good trip and a decent graphing haul although far from perfect to end the traveling year.
I would have two more short trips (Harrisburg for the Erie SeaWolves with Bill Cover and Altoona with the family) which I may write about on a slow day.
A good year-I enjoyed it throughly and now off to the season for the fall and winter sports with the working season to pay for 2019.
