If things went poorly, we would return to Lynchburg for another chance, but conversely, should things go well enough, we would drive the little over an hour to the home of the Salem Red Sox.
After doing decently after Saturday's game, we decided to take our victory and see what we could in Salem.
I usually send Fred a handful of restaurant suggestions and then he'll pick what he thinks looks best.
I sent a few after being in the hotel that night, but Mike and I then decided to let this be Fred's day and see what he wanted, whether those few or one of his own finds.
Fred selected a place called Mac and Bob's, which turned out to be a Red Sox sponsor.
It's always nice when it suits to reward the businesses that sponsor a local team and although we found that out in hindsight, it still was a pleasure.
Mac and Bob's was a place with plenty of seating and they said they were serving brunch.
Fred visibly winced and audibly groaned as he still talks a few years later about a place in Charleston WV serving a "Betwixt" menu.
Still, we decided to check their brunch menu out and if that is a reduced version, I wonder about their offerings on their regular card!
I thought about one of the burgers, but I had been eating a decent amount of those, so I asked about the chicken tenders appetizer (fries added for one dollar).
Our waitress said there were five "hefty" tenders and that it would be no problem holding me for a while.
Sure enough, they were huge and took multiple bites to finish one-plus they were delicious with the buffalo sauce that I mixed with bleu' cheese.
I'm almost positive that should we ever return to Salem, Mac and Bob's will be a must stop.
My problem is chicken or burger???
I had been to Salem a few times, so I had a general idea of the layout and how best to position ourselves for the day.
I had gotten most of the home Red Sox earlier in the month when Salem visited Frederick, but the visiting Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Chicago Cubs) would not make their first visit to Maryland until late in May, so they were the target, mainly due to the presence of the top prospect of the Cubs- Panamanian catcher Miguel Amaya.
Amaya was the biggest catch with his entry into this years Top 100 set and after we nabbed a few pitchers from various team sets, Amaya moved out for warmups. If you look straight down at the picture shown, the other two graphers were located there, where Amaya signed for them.
We called for Amaya and he started to walk down, when he was called by other players to warm up, he stopped and told us "I have to go, but I'll be right back".
You hear that a lot from players and only occasionally do they come through and even rarer than that are they friendly, so we were wondering just what he would do.
Sure enough, as soon as warmups concluded, Amaya jogged right over and said "Sorry about that, I had to warm up".
Amaya spoke with us and signed all four of my cards, a ball for Fred and whatever cards Mike had before saying thanks guys and trotting to the dugout.
The player that I needed most had signed and that was all four Top 100's for the trip!
The two other players that I wanted most were returning Pelicans from last season.
I had gotten a few Alex Lange's since I last saw Myrtle Beach last season, but Lange was the starter, so I didn't bother him.
Lange's April might have placed him in a bad mood anyway as after this outing- Lange had pitched only nine innings over four starts with a season ERA of TWENTY ONE!
Twenty-year-old shortstop Aramis Ademan played last season for the Pelicans as a heavily hyped prospect but struggled in hitting only .207 in 114 games, so returning Ademan to Myrtle Beach made plenty of sense for both the shortstop and the Cubs.
Last year, Ademan was one per and not always that, so I didn't count on my two cards (Eugene Emeralds and Bowman) getting signed.
Fred asked him to sign and he said "after the game", which is a refrain often heard of late, but Fred was digging in "We won't be here, we have a four-hour drive home, so we are only staying a bit".
I was more than surprised to see Ademan smile, walk over, ask how we were and where we were going back to as he signed both.
Great job-Fred!
We watched a little bit and started moving towards home, stopping this at Jess' Lunch, which is the place that Mike wanted to stop on the way down but was closed.
I wasn't starved, but I had what Mike had- two hot dogs and a side of fries.
It was about as basic as one could get and since they cater to the students at local James Madison University, it's exactly how to build a local icon.
After that, it was straight home and we were at the end of the weekend trip.
I'd make this trip again in the future, should the schedules align.
Lynchburg is a bit better than Salem for graphing since postgame at Salem is dependent on being allowed into a certain area, which from what we have been told isn't always the case there.
Still, Salem isn't awful and you can get some things done there.
Another successful trip and I had a great time with Fred and Mike.
May looks light other than the usual circuit, but June is looking fun and I'll be looking forward to the next road trip.
I'm going to try to work on day three of the Browns draft in the next post unless breaking news shoves that down the road.
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