A couple weeks ago I made my first Spring Training trip down to Glendale, Arizona to watch my Dodgers get ready for the upcoming season. I hopped on the Allegiant Air flight from Ogden to Phoenix for $100 round trip! I was all loaded up with 7 pearl Official Major League Baseballs, a few game balls from various leagues that were in good shape, a few cards from my collection and a few cards from RS’s
collection. I would like to apologize to RS again for only getting one of your cards
signed, but I’ll have better luck next time! Believe me, I learned a few things on my
first Spring Training trip that lasted 4 days. I got to see the Dodgers practice 3 times
and I caught three games, Mariners/White Sox, Cubs/Dodgers and Angels/Dodgers.
On day 1 I wanted to soak up as much as I could about Spring Training. I wandered around Camelback Ranch checking out all the practice fields and the recently added Dodgers features. First off was the giant Tommy Lasorda bobblehead that sits in front of the ticket office, I had to get a picture of me standing
next to Tommy. They also have giant baseballs that include Dodger greats such as Clayton Kershaw, Kirk Gibson, Ron Cey and Tommy Lasorda to name a few. I made sure to get a close view of all the players and got to see Adrian Gonzalez teaching young prospect Kyle Jensen the art of fielding first base. It was incredibly fun to listen to him interact with the youngster. Adrian makes it look easy! Then I watched Adrian, Justin Turner, Howie Kendrick and Kyle Jensen take BP. It’s
impressive seeing those guys up close and hearing the pop off their bats. No autographs on day 1 of practice as I was walking around in awe all morning. I made my way over to the stadium after practice to get a good spot on the third baseline in hopes of getting a few Seattle Mariners autographs prior to the Mariners/White Sox .
I found a good spot on the baseline where the Mariners were going to walk
by on their way to the dugout. I was standing next to a gentleman who said he
played high school baseball with Mariners Manager Lloyd McClendon. Not only is
Lloyd in the 89 Topps set he is also in the 89 Topps Traded set so I was excited at
the opportunity to get both cards signed. Sure enough the guy standing next to me
hollered at Lloyd and he walked right over and started talking to him. As he was
finishing up his conversation, I asked Lloyd to sign my card and he did. He only
signed the one card, but I’m not going to complain! I also got Mariners minor league hitting coach Cory Snyder on an 89 Topps card. Then Brad Miller stopped to sign for a few fans and I was lucky enough to get a Top 100 card signed for RS. I thought I was going to get two signed for RS right out of the gate, but DJ Peterson stopped signing just before he got to me! Turns out that’s all the luck I would have getting autographs for RS! Snyder will be easy to get later this year in Salt Lake...
No comments:
Post a Comment