Cleveland DFA's Triston McKenzie

     I don't write often about baseball anymore, but one of my favorite people whom I met when traveling to minor league baseball games and autographing was Cleveland pitcher Triston McKenzie.

I never saw McKenzie be rude to anyone, signed when asked, and was very kind to anyone who spoke to him.

I always collected variations and oddball items of McKenzie because he made it so easy to be a fan of his.

Once I tweeted to him that I had a few cards for him to sign and would give him a few unique ones before a game in Harrisburg.

McKenzie saw me that night and grinned, saying, "Oh, you're the guy trying to buy me off" as he took the Sharpie and signed what I had for him.

I bought the low-number Heritage inserts with a nickel and a quarter coin cards from 1968, the season in which that year's Heritage sets were based.

I had Triston sign one of them in person, and he commented that he had never seen one.

A few weeks passed, the other coin card arrived, but Triston's team at the time (Akron Rubber Ducks)
wasn't returning to Harrisburg, so I sent it to Brett Shaw in Altoona, who was hosting Akron before the season concluded.

Brett told me that when Triston signed the card, he said, "I've only ever seen one of these before," with Brett responding, "In Harrisburg".

Triston replied, "Yeah, I think so." Brett's response? "Yep, this is for the same guy!"

That's why I was disappointed to see McKenzie's struggles and the Guardians designating him for assignment.

McKenzie was the team's first-round pick in the 2015 draft and struck out ten batters in his 2020 debut.

McKenzie finished 2022 with an 11-11 record with a 2.91 ERA in thirty starts, striking out 190 batters in 191 innings, and was mentioned by many as a potential top-of-the-rotation star for 2023.

McKenzie would struggle with shoulder and elbow problems in 2023, pitching only sixteen innings as he decided against Tommy John surgery and tried to fix the problems through rest and rehab.

McKenzie struck out seventy-four batters in seventy-five innings last season, but his ERA was over five, and he rarely threw the curveball and slider that helped make him so effective in 2022.

McKenzie's velocity is reported to be improved this season, but he's still reluctant to throw anything else. In four appearances (5.2 innings) from the bullpen this season, he allowed seven runs and walked seven.

The DFA designation means Cleveland has seven days to trade McKenzie, place him on waivers, if a team is willing to pick up McKenzie's contract, and should he clear waivers, Cleveland could then send him to the minors, most likely AAA Columbus, but possibly AA Akron.

Editor's Note: McKenzie did clear waivers after I wrote this piece and was assigned to AAA Columbus.

While I'd rather McKenzie stick with the Guardians and try revitalizing his career, he might be better suited to a new organization that could bring a new philosophy or direction to his game.

No matter how his career plays out, I'll always think fondly of McKenzie. He seems like a person who is more than baseball and one who is more accommodating than most athletes to the fans who help them earn a lucrative livelihood.

Opening Day and Baseball Talk

   Opening Day! or opening day.

Jim Bouton wrote that phrase in Ball Four before the 1969 opener as he played for the Seattle Pilots and it has never been more true for me than this opener.

With a new item to feed my disenchantment with baseball every day for months it seems, it's now time for the game to take the field for what may be a full regular season.

I'm not going to do season previews, because honestly, I just don't feel like doing them, but because I've paid so little attention to the Cactus League (where both the Indians and Giants train), I'm not even sure I'd be satisfied with them.

I've written often of the litany of decisions and changes due to Rob Manfred and his reign of terror, but there's more than Manfred to disappoint me.

The Indians continuing to develop pitchers at a surprisingly stunning rate and their ineptness of doing so with outfielders ( the decision to keep Bradley Zimmer rather than Clint Frazier in the 2016 Andrew Miller with the Yankees could haunt this team), the unwillingness or inability (depending on whom you ask) of the Dolan family to spend any type of money on what could be a contender with a few roster moves, the state of the game that allows a home-grown superstar in Francisco Lindor to walk away because you cannot afford to keep them and if you actually tried you would handicap yourself to put a team around that player, and a stadium lease that expires after 2023 all add up to a storm around the Indians for me that makes it very difficult for baseball enthusiasm.

Add the continual rebuilding of the Giants in a division with the National League version of the "Evil Empire" and the suddenly cash-flush San Diego Padres with has-been's, faded prospects, and never were players has made the proverbial "need of a scorecard to tell the players" often for the Giants.

Even the networks that televise the games have cut their budget as the Giants, who won me over as a fan with late-night games with the best broadcast bunch in the game with Duane Kuiper, Mike Krukow, and Amy Gutierrez, won't have one-third of their unit doing the games as NBC Bay Area decided not to renew Gutierrez's contract and the team will not be using anyone in the reporter role this season.

Fortunately for Giants fans, Gutierrez was quickly hired by the team and will be doing all the types of features for the team website and social media that she had been doing for NBC Bay Area.

That's a smart move to keep someone that is very popular with the fan base in the organization by the team, but it shows the stress that the financial losses from last season aren't limited to the franchises.

Cleveland's broadcast team returns on the newly re-branded Bally Sports Ohio with Matt Underwood, Rick Manning, and Andre Knott.

The Indians bunch isn't awful, but it's not outstanding either.

They aren't top of the line as Kuiper and Krukow are, but they are decent enough and certainly aren't enough to make you reach for the remote button or your bottle of choice as can be the case with Pittsburgh's Greg Brown or Washington's F.P. Santangelo to name two.

I nearly did not order the MLB plan this season with my current feelings, but Cherie thought that I should in order to give me something to do with so little live baseball in store for me this season.

I know I've written often about having a summer without baseball in Hagerstown or Frederick, but for someone that was consumed by going to games for the last decade and a half, the summer looks very bland.

Assuming that things progress to anything close to normal, my season looks like a July visit to Harrisburg to see the Akron Rubber Ducks (Cleveland AA), one visit to Altoona in August for the Richmond Flying Squirrels (San Francisco AA), the usual trip to Eastlake, Ohio for the Lake County Captains (Now Cleveland's High A team) for their annual Cleveland Sports Night, and maybe a late-season trip to Lynchburg, Virginia for the Lynchburg Hillcats (Now Cleveland's Low A team), and that's likely the ballgame, no pun intended.

As far as autographing goes, I'm not sure many players will even sign at all and I'm not sure that I even care all that much.

I have decided that I still want to do the Indians minor league teams that I can and Richmond, as long as they stay with the Giants as Richmond is now the only Giants farm club on the East Coast, but otherwise unless a team has a coach or manager from the "old days" that I may need for a set, I don't think I'll be bothering with more than that.

The netting all over the field now and Covid have created an environment that has melted the hobby and without a team close by, I think I'm finished for the most part and that's saddening.

I've met so many great people during my collecting time, both on the field and in the stands, so I'll miss that, but I see no other choice.

It's a crazy time in baseball as a man and his minions seem bent on twisting a game away from the people that love it most to favor others that aren't likely to care no matter what they change.

Hopefully, I can find something that I can continue to care about as the marketing majors and bean counters take a game I love and pass me by...

Running Uphill

I've been battling a bit of a cold/illness this week and even though I've been working through it, I haven't felt overly motivated to write.

There hasn't been a lot of news other than the damn Coronavirus, and certainly, nothing to carry its own post, so just to keep my writing chops semi-sharp- Here we go with a few thoughts.

The Cleveland Browns are apparently not going to re-sign Joe Schobert and will allow him to leave via free agency.
Schobert's representatives met with the Browns and couldn't come to an agreement with Schobert's wish to be paid around ten million per year more than the Andrew Berry-led front office was willing to pay.
I understand the Browns not wanting to pay that kind of money for Schobert, who is a good, not great linebacker, but if the Browns decide to keep the oft-injured Christian Kirksey at nine million per
year ( and at that price, I hope they release him as well), I would question this move far more than moving on from both players.
The Browns will be opening a hole at linebacker and I can argue that creating a space for a cheaper and lesser player will not help the Browns. but I can see why they could be moving away at the money that he is asking for.

The "Coronavirus" hasn't been around locally and hopefully, it will not find its way here, but it could have an impact on me even if it never shows up.
MLB has sent memos to all of their teams recommending that players refrain from signing autographs and contact with fans, due to the virus.
I understand the nervousness with their investments (although most people don't have the luxury of not being around people at their job.) but being around young players as minor league baseball is populated with, I think I know them a little bit and I'll say this- There will be players refusing to sign/interact long after the hysteria has passed.
It'll be a reason to avoid people that may be legitimate now, but won't be for the entire season.

Another thought on this.
Spring Training is in full swing, and teams in Florida and Arizona have already implemented this policy.
I would imagine that a major chunk of the people that go south for pre-season is going for the interaction with the players.
These visitors are not always autograph seekers, people that want to talk with the players, get a picture, etc. in an atmosphere that even the biggest stars are more relaxed and willing to engage with the ticket-buyers.
Those people that buy tickets, stay in hotels and eat in local restaurants could be less likely to return next season as they could be afraid that there could be another health scare that takes away the fun from the trip and the expense with airfare, hotel, food, etc.
It'll be interesting to see how exhibition attendance declines over the final few weeks of the spring (I don't think it'll be major as these trips are most already paid for), but I'll be really intrigued to watch next season's attendance.

A really interesting show that I watched the first two episodes is "Dispatches from Elsewhere" on AMC.
I've never even watched one episode of AMC's huge hits such as "Breaking Bad", "Mad Men", "The Walking Dead" or "Better Call Saul", but I was watching a movie on AMC, saw a promo for the show and I decided to give the first two episodes a chance.
Jason Segel, of Freaks and Geeks fame, is one of the two actors that I knew along with Sally Field and it's an interesting concept that's hard to explain with only two episodes to figure out the "rules" of the show.
Jump on board and give it a chance to see what you think.

Wrapping up with the new Topps Heritage Baseball card set.
Heritage is the only major league set that I buy each year and this year is the one that I have been waiting for as finally, it is the time for the set to emulate my beloved 1971 set!
If you've been here for a while, you may remember that I finally finished the 1971 set a few years back and it is cemented as a star of my collection.
In other words, short of the type of emergency that would be financially crippling, that set isn't going anywhere for a long time.
This year's Heritage set looks great, although Topps continues its habit of placing too many stars in their "Short Print" portion of the set.
I understand the argument that lesser players as the SP cards might make it less collectible, but there could be a better mix involved.
I usually buy a "base" set of 400 cards and only buy the SP's of the Indians, Giants, and Pirates players, but this year, I'm going to try to collect all the SP's- not just for the value, but because I like them so much!

Ed Loyd

We start our occasional notebook of notable people that have recently passed away and this time we may have a first - someone that I knew personally.

Ed Loyd was a regular in Richmond through the years attending the AAA Braves games at the Diamond and later the AA Flying Squirrels when baseball returned after a one-year hiatus without baseball.
I read an article on Ed by Ben Hill of Ben's Baseball Biz (Hill travels around minor league parks writing about the quirky people, places and things that you find in the minors) over the summer and I didn't know that he was known for ChapStick or that he worked for the company that made it for years.
I was introduced to Ed by a mutual friend as Ed was one of the larger dealers of minor league team sets and I was fairly new to the hobby and was looking to buy from someone reasonable in price and someone that would understand that in this hobby time-sensitive purchases are pretty common.
Ed was very understanding and we hit it off immediately.
I'm not sure how long I dealt with Ed, but it had to be around ten years or so and if I needed a set on a few days notice, Ed would pack it as soon as he heard from me and within an hour or two, I'd get an email that would say "Ed Loyd Here, package sent".

I never had a cross word in my dealings with Ed, who from day one never demanded payment upfront because that would slow things up as far as getting cards to me when I needed things.
I would receive these little white handwritten invoices from him in each package and then I'd send him a check.
Almost always a check, because Ed didn't believe in Paypal and their extra charges.
Cherie used to always joke about certain times of the year being "Ed Loyd" season because, in the digital age, Ed Loyd was the only person that I ever wrote checks to.
I say almost always because the last transaction that I made with Ed this year, he wrote saying "I can take Paypal now, the times are always changing."

Over the last few years, I didn't buy as much from Ed and he understood.
As fast as Ed was, he couldn't compete with the person that I was buying from locally that I could get them even faster at the ballpark and not have the worries with the postal service getting them lost.
I still bought a few things from him though and we wrote back and forth fairly frequently.

Ed always thought of me as a Giants fan and two acts of kindness always stick out to me.
The first was Ed, who knew I was always looking for 1988 and 90 Score cards to be signed, writing to me and asking if I needed Will Clark for those sets.
Clark had just one card in 1988 Score, but three in 1990, as the Giants won the NLCS in 1989 and Clark, was on cards commemorating that series.
Ed wrote and told me to "watch my mailbox" shortly and within a week or so, Ed had sent me all four Will Clark cards signed.

The other was only a year or so ago, early in the season, Ed had a customer that needed three Hagerstown Suns sets ASAP as the Suns were coming to this gentleman's town very soon and Ed asked if I would grab these sets for him and send them straight to the customer with him paying me for them.
I was happy to do so and I wasn't worried about the money as I figured it would even out eventually.
Ed would write to me and end our notes with "I still owe you a big one".
Ed's Flying Squirrels never seem to be early in getting their sets out and when the team set was released, Richmond was finished for the year in Altoona and Harrisburg.
It looked unlikely that I was going to get the set signed for the 2018 season, but Ed remembered my constant asking when that set was coming out and when it did, he asked if I still wanted it.
I replied Yes as a Giants fan, but I wasn't going to have an opportunity to get them signed.
Ed said he would have someone do it for me and what I didn't find out until later was that Ed, who wasn't a grapher, did that set himself for me.

I actually met Ed in person only three times, once at the Chantilly VA. card show (the only time that I have ever attended that show), one at the Diamond in Richmond ( My only visit there thus far) and once in Harrisburg, when Ed traveled there to see the Squirrels on the road.
Harrisburg was the last time that I saw him in that 2018 season and we talked for most of the game about baseball, the minors, and minor league baseball cards as he was getting tired of dealing with more and more teams that were so difficult to work with.

Ed used to always push me to come down to the Richmond Hot Stove dinner as one of his guests and he used to tell me how badly he wanted to introduce me to the Squirrels owner Lou DiBella.
DiBella promotes several champions in boxing and promoted one of my favorites in retired middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, so Ed would tell me that "you gotta come down here and meet Lou, you guys will spend all night talking boxing".
I was never able to make that trip and now I wish I had made the time to do that.

I started this post as a "passings" tribute as usual and now I see I've written so much about Ed Loyd that I think I'm going to leave this as a stand-alone article.
I'm sure others have stories about Ed as well and from people that knew him far better than I, but he'll be missed by me and so many others.
I'm positive that baseball at Richmond's Diamond won't be the same without Ed holding court there and I'm also sure that the Squirrels will come up with something to honor Ed next season.
A bobblehead of Ed with either ChapStick or a pack of baseball cards in his hands would be so fitting to honor his memory at the place that he loved so much.
Rest well, Ed- you'll be greatly missed.

Road Trip: Hickory

The final day of the road trip saw a return to L.P. Frans Stadium for the first time in 12 years.

I don't often get melancholy a lot when I go to ballparks, but I did for a bit going into the home of the Hickory Crawdads.

A lot had changed since that day in 2007, my travel partners had changed, Ryan had moved out of our home as a young man to a married adult and I don't see Battlin' Bob nearly as much as I used to, although it's a rare day that we aren't in touch and Bob, if you are reading this, I hope you'll consider making a trip with us in 2020!
The blog was a mere three months old in 2007 and now it's going to be turning into a teenager before the next baseball season starts.
Only three players from this game are still in the major leagues with Hickory's Jared Hughes (Phillies) and Tony Watson (Giants) along with Columbus pitcher Jeremy Hellickson (Nationals).
Columbus, Georgia no longer has a minor league team and the affiliate of the then-Catfish (Tampa Bay) is no longer in the South Atlantic League.
The technology is different too as the pictures shown in that recap were taken with this funny box looking item then known as a digital camera, where we now take photos with cameras and tablets.
It just made me think and reflect a little as I walked around and that is usually a good thing.

We didn't have nearly as much to do on our final day and decided to start with lunch in Asheville before we would leave for Hickory.
Being that we had only stopped at Rocky's Hot Chicken, we needed to figure out what would be a good stop for lunch.
Needing local advice, that meant another stop in the morning to ask Skylar for her advice and we sifted through the three options that she graciously offered to decide.
Skylar's help was invaluable throughout this trip and hopefully, she'll be at the hotel for our 2020 trip.
She'll likely be running a hotel someday, so she could already be at another job by then!

Our first choice was extremely busy as in a wait of near an hour as told to us by the hostess, so we moved to our second.
Universal Joint had an excellent scouting report from Skylar, but we were warned about it being difficult to find parking, which with me driving again was something to keep tabs on.
It was as difficult as advertised and I parked in the bank parking lot across the street before running into Universal Joint to ask about parking there.
The person I asked said the vehicle would likely be OK but keep an eye on it, so I made sure to sit in a spot that the vehicle was in my sight range.

Universal Joint is located inside what appears to be a very old house from the '30s that has fitted a restaurant into two rooms for an inside eating area and an outdoor patio arrangement for the fresh air lover as well.
I don't mind eating outside, but it's not anything that I have to do, so I was happy to go along with Fred's hatred of alfresco dining!
I ordered their "Firecracker" burger with some tater tots with hot sauce and scallions.
It was very good, but the parking was a concern, I kept worrying about the car and couldn't quite enjoy the meal as much.
I suppose that's part of being a worrier!

The drive to Hickory is pretty uneventful, 75 miles across I-40 and after we found the stadium, we still had time to kill and no one felt like sitting in a hot car, so we drove to a Jack in the Box to sit in the AC.
I had only ever visited Jack in the Box on my other visit to Hickory and if you go back to that trip, all three of us were dealing with what was likely mild food poisoning, so it was not only hard to enjoy then, but hard to even remember!
After a small burger to try and avoid eating at the park (and the rest of the night), we returned to L.P. Frans Stadium to work on the Crawdads (Rangers) and the Charleston River Dogs (Yankees).

The autographing access isn't quite as good as twelve years ago, but it's pretty close and you can try to get players from both teams.
You can stand near the left-field clubhouse by a fence and there is plenty of space for anyone trying to autograph.
I needed very few from the Crawdads after two visits to Hagerstown, so even though I bought the team's update set, I decided to toss that in the bag and save it for next year's Down East (Rangers High A) visit to Frederick in order to concentrate on Charleston, who did not visit Hagerstown this season.
I did make an exception to add the Rangers first-round pick Josh Jung of Texas Tech on a USA card to add to the "Corey White" pile to send to Tennessee, but other than Jung- it was all Riverdogs.
I had the most for Josh Stowers and Josh Breaux, as they all had mainstream cards and I was carrying stuff for others too.
Both players had been named to the SAL all-star game, but due to injuries, neither player traveled to Charleston.
Both Stowers and Breaux signed a few and said they would finish the remainder after the game and both did indeed finish my cards postgame.
It's not always the case when you ask postgame, but I was pleased that both lived up to their word.

Roansey Contreras was the top pitching prospect for the Riverdogs (in record anyway) was a player I had plenty for in Charleston and SAL prospect cards, well I had only one of each and the others were for others.
Contreras signed one and handed the rest back, I asked if he could hit one more (so I had the SAL and Charleston wiped out), he did but seemed less than pleased.
I don't like to do that and rarely do, but the Yankees High A team is in Florida and by the time I'll see them again in AA Trenton, the signing habits are even worse, so I occasionally make an exception.
I added Brandon Lockridge on a few cards and talked to him about the Home Run Derby in Charleston WV that he finished second place to Hickory's Curtis Terry.
Lockridge discussed that the event took so long, yet was cut shorter than expected and still took a physical toll on him after participating.
I still had plenty of team set cards to work on (as well as Stowers and Breaux) as did Lefty, so postgame graphing was an easy sell to make.
Fred was invaluable to Lefty and I post-game as he asked players for their name and we did very well in getting players- except one.
Luis Medina had a Topps Heritage card among others and was the only RiverDog that walked by during pregame without stopping, so he was the main player that I really needed.
Fred asked Medina for his name (It was very dark and hard to see faces) and Medina walked by, said Medina as Fred then asked him to stop.
Medina then pointed somewhere and kept moving- I won't be looking forward to seeing Medina in Trenton.
Oh, well this happens at times.
The drive home was quick and after checking back at the hotel, it didn't take long to hit the bed after packing all my things for the drive home.

The final day was leisurely paced with stops in Bristol Tennessee for lunch at the Mad Greek, where they would redeem themselves with Fred for their problems last year and dessert at Cootie Brown's for their vaunted Key Lime Pie, which was beyond words as always!
We would return to Pulaski on the way home, where with a home game for the Yankees that evening, we were able to buy the team sets that eluded us on the first day.
We didn't stick around for the game because we would be getting home late and with the new setup at Calfee Field, working on the team set would mean staying after the game and that was just too much time to drive after a long day.

What a great trip!
Great company and lots of fun equaled a very successful trip.
Thanks to Fred Landucci and Lefty Koch for going along and helping to make it such a terrific week.
I take these things one year at a time for financial reasons and every year I'm able to do it, I'm grateful for the chances to see different things and do them with my friends.

Only one more road trip left to write about and I'll try to do that soon on a slow day!
Back later with the Buckeyes against Miami Ohio from the Big Horseshoe!

Road Trip: Tennessee

Day three saw our trip move over to Tennessee (Every time, I think of that I keep hearing Jimmy Hart screech "Memphis, Tennessee Babay!) and our almost annual visit to Corey White and the Tennessee Smokies.
Fred, of course, had met Corey a few times in the past, but Lefty had yet to have the pleasure.
I told Corey later that he had met all of my autographing friends, but one (Mike Oravec) and I will have to take Mike to Sevierville soon to finish the set!

When you go over to Tennessee from Asheville (about 90 minutes away), you have to plan how you'll spend your day.
You either stay in Asheville and go closer to game time or spend your day in the Knoxville area to kill the time because doing something in the middle of those choices aren't an option.
The choice made by Fred was to visit Knoxville and check out Neyland Stadium for some Tennessee Volunteer items.
This followed his choice not to last year and he's regretted it ever since, so I knew that this was going to be the outcome!

Fred wanted to go inside Neyland and look around or at least grab some swag.
The problem that there is very little parking around the stadium, even when school isn't in session and after some failed attempts to find the parking lot and a memorable exchange with a passer-by ("you can park here, but if they catch you-they will tow you"), I dropped Fred off and while he looked around in the store, Lefty and I stopped in a space, ever vigilant for the parking czar to avoid a ticket!
After a handful of minutes of this, Lefty began to look for Fred in the store as I waited outside.
Fred and Lefty emerged with a beaming Fred with a new Rocky Top shirt among others and we wove our way out of Knoxville and back towards Kodak, home of the Smokies.
I snapped a picture of the Sunsphere, the symbol of the 1982 World's Fair that was held in Knoxville, as we sat at a traffic light.
I could not tell where any World's Fair has been located since 1982, but if you were alive in 1982, the relentless pounding of constant commercials for that World's Fair was constant and with the Sunsphere being the symbol, I remember that to this day!


With still plenty of time to kill, Smoky Mountain Knife Works obviously sells about every kind of knife that you can imagine among other gimmicks for hunters and fans of various genres like Game of Thrones, but the highlight for me was the Relic Room with tons of collectibles from many many countries.
Now how many of the items are legitimately what they say they are is open to conjecture, but there are lots of interesting display cases that would take a significant amount of time to see everything and even just looking can be fun.
Fred even bought a limited edition Tennessee Volunteers Swiss Army Knife.
I've always been a fan of the multiple-use knives with Swiss Army and other companies and I'm pretty sure that had they had an Ohio State version, it may have been going home with me!

We hadn't eaten lunch yet and we began to process of looking for lunch and riding through the strip of Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge was very similar to riding through that of Myrtle Beach.
The same types of touristy stores (Everything 9.99!), gaudy hotels, things to do, and tons of places to eat in a long traffic line on both sides of the street.
It was kind of fun to see all the stuff and even though I still wonder about a large number of pancake eateries around the area, it was cool just looking around.
Still, I had seen a billboard or two for some interesting places and I just wasn't seeing them, although some of the places did make me consider them, I wanted something different.
Finally, I saw it in Captain Jim's Seafood Buffet.
I pondered and looked at the buffet and reluctantly chose the non-crab leg version over the more expensive with crab legs.
It was very good and Lefty graciously paid for everyone's meal over Fred and I's objections.
Very nice of him to do and I must admit it was fun going to these places and looking them over.
Sure, it was everything cliche' that you can think about "tourist trap', but there is a reason people travel to areas like this- because they are fun.

After our drive back through Pigeon Forge etc to the home of the Smokies after a stop at the beef jerky outlet, where surprisingly I didn't buy anything for me, although I did buy some pepperoni sticks for the ladies at home, my good friend Corey White was waiting for me with the cards that he had worked on me throughout the season.
Lots of great stuff that included several additions to the top 100 sets and a team set of the Mobile Bay Bears (Angels), who are in their last season before moving to a suburb of Huntsville, Alabama and change their name to the Rocket City Trash Pandas among many great cards.
As we sat in the parking lot, I ordered two team sets of the next team to play in Smokieland, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Marlins).
I usually buy one set for me and one for Corey for him working on them.
Not sure how many times I can do that each year due to expense, but I'll certainly try for that for the initial season of the ahem Trash Pandas next year.

We enjoyed the game as I worked on the visiting Biloxi Shuckers, the AA team of the Brewers and
one that even though they didn't have a top 100 card for the set as Corey Ray was promoted a few days before the trip, I still had the team set and some cards from the Carolina Mudcats set that I didn't finish for various reasons.

I was able to get most of them finished, but I did leave a few for Corey to finish up for me and we waited outside for quite a while for rehabbing pitcher Brent Suter, who now is back with the Brewers.
Suter took over an hour, but once he left the locker room, he was very accommodating, signed everything for everyone and talked for a bit as well.
However, I got Suter's cards signed and talked to him, but the conversation that I really enjoyed was with Shuckers batting coach Chuckie Caufield.
Caufield had played for the West Virginia Power back in the early days of my autographing hobby back in 2007 with players that still play in the bigs today such as Michael Brantley and Jeremy Jeffress, and prospects of the time such as Matt LaPorta.
Chuckie and I must have talked for about fifteen minutes about that team, their players, the SAL and of course his memories of Hagerstown.
It was really cool talking about those times and I got the feeling that Chuckie enjoyed being remembered too.

We didn't return to the hotel in Asheville until about one in the morning, but what I carried with me is Lefty telling me that no matter the autographing in Tennessee, the trip still would have been a great one because he met Corey and Corey's other friends Wayne and Delmar.
That's always the fun part of doing anything- being with your friends and the people that you meet on the way.

Next time, we move to Hickory North Carolina and my return after 12 years.

Rollin' down to Memph Err Charleston

Catching up from Fred Landucci and I's trip to Charleston, West Virginia for the South Atlantic League All-Star game from a week plus ago. but before I begin two caveats- one the picture is one used from a previous Appalachian Power Park visit as the ones I took are elsewhere currently!
Apologies for that and for this-this might not be the most exciting recap of a road trip that I've ever written or you have read!

Why was that?
Read on and see.
I've written about Charleston and things that we have been able to see and do in the area in the past, but this wasn't one of those trips.
This trip was pretty one-dimensional as we drove straight to the stadium other than a quickie lunch at Long John Silver's (try not to get too excited here) as the Power were placing on their website all week about long lines etc.

We arrived maybe 30-35 minutes before the five o'clock gate opening and there were maybe 25 people ahead of us.
The line did increase in size as the openings grew closer, but nothing that I would consider a long wait time and it was nowhere near what I would have expected for an event such as this.
The Power did give away a very nice commemorative metal tumbler that will be well used here as I gave it to the lovely Cherie, who didn't have a steel tumbler, but I did (go Bucks!)
While back in Maryland, I've been told near chaos was erupting at the Carolina League all-star matchup, we were among maybe ten people graphing and I was able to have most of my cards signed.
There were a few that I had a sizable amount for that did not arrive for various reasons, Adam Hall of Delmarva (I'll see Adam twice in the second half) and Josh Breaux and Josh Stowers of Charleston (The Riverdogs do not come to Hagerstown this season), so that was disappointing and I missed most of Delmarva's hitters as a Shorebirds fan that made the trip occupied much of their time,, but otherwise I did very well.
Delmarva's Grayson Rodriguez (2018 Orioles 1st rounder) signed everything I had including my top 100 and was very nice, while the other top 100 that I landed on the day was Ronny Mauricio, who is the shortstop for the Columbia Fireflies (Mets).
Mauricio is very quiet and I have a feeling he struggles with the language, the 100 would have been all that I would have reeled in, but later, Fred struck up a conversation with a Columbia fan traveling to the game and that fan knew Mauricio and helped Fred get another card (SAL top prospect, the first card out of the new set that I purchased during downtime) for me.
The other players that I needed were pretty accommodating, although Tristan Casas of Greenville (2018 Boston #1) and Charleston's Canaan Smith were only one per, Casas was nice (Fred nabbed Smith for me while I was getting another player).

There was a home run derby scheduled for six with the game starting around 7;30, but the derby took so long that they cut the second round out of the competition (it was supposed to move from eight to four to two) and moved to a four-hitter final round.
The derby was won by Hickory's Curtis Terry (Rangers and promoted to High A Down East a few days later) and we were able to get a few others as the teams left the field.
However, the derby had left things very short on time and we were walking around at 8;10 and the teams were still be introduced on the field.
This looked to be a very long evening now for a post-game attempt, so Fred and I conversed a bit, looked at what I hadn't gotten signed yet (Most were from Delmarva, who is the next team to come into Hagerstown) and decided to head out for dinner.

A dinner at TGIFridays across the street from our hotel, sleep shortly after and an early morning ride home the next day and the trip was over as I had to work later that night.
Not the most exciting read, but Fred and I always have a good time on these trips and I would bet money on one thing- we had a much better time than we would have had at Frederick!!!

Road Trip: Salem

When planning the trip, we had two options depending on how well we did at Lynchburg.
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).

Many times, places serve some chicken tenders that can be pretty scrawny and I knew that we likely wouldn't be eating for a while, so I asked about the size.
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.

A new memory in Frederick

Baseball is a funny game.
Especially when you see as many games as I do, they tend to run together and if I see just a little bit before I have to leave or an entire game, usually what you see is unremarkable or memorable for other reasons.

Then again, there are those few nights that catch you off guard and leave you with something indelible in the memory banks.
There was the night that Suns manager Darnell Coles threw his own player (Stephen King) off to the side to keep the player from arguing with an umpire so that HE could argue with him and after being ejected, threw a bucket of balls on the field with some bats to boot!
The Suns opening series against big bonus baby Stetson Allie of West Virginia, who then pitched an inning that would have made Nuke LaLoosh blush with wild pitches that would have killed a batboy had one been in their normal spot, 100 MPH radar clockings and a dugout meltdown has stuck with me as has the night that Juan Soto snapped his ankle avoiding the batboy (that somehow missed the media report, yet if you were one of the 100 people there-you saw how it happened) and Cleveland prospect Dylan Baker throwing five perfect innings on a Frederick home opener for Lynchburg and watching him leave the game warming up for the sixth to miss the rest of the year with a torn elbow ligament.
There have been other nights that have been better remembered for off the field incidents than anything that remembered on the field, but I was able to see something Tuesday night in Frederick with Bill Cover that I hadn't seen before and I'm unlikely to ever see again.

I've never attended a no-hitter in person and we almost saw one on Tuesday,
Instead, we may have seen something more memorable.
Frederick's Michael Baumann was unhittable and that word is often used lightly, but in this case, it's true.
Baumann struck out 12 and walked only two without allowing a hit over six and two-thirds innings, but dominance goes beyond the numbers and Baumann never even had balls hit hard or needed to have his fielders make plays behind him.
Baumann was that strong and you had the feeling if the pitch count didn't exist, he could pitch all night and Wilmington wasn't going to hit him!
Baumann was the Orioles third rounder in 2017 and split last season between Delmarva and Frederick, so he is someone to keep an eye on.

Fast forward to the ninth with Frederick holding a 4-0 lead and the no-hitter intact as Travis Seabrooke took the mound after getting the final out of the seventh and the three in the eighth without allowing a hit.
Wilmington manager Scott Thorman clearly was trying to avoid his prospect-laden squad being no-hit and began to send pinch-hitters to the plate, which in A level baseball usually only happens if a player is injured or you see a cow flying over the moon in mid-game against Seabrooke.
Pinch-hitter Marten Gasparini was called out on strikes- two outs away.
Next, former Hagerstown Sun Blake Perkins was the chosen pinch-hitter and drew a walk.
One out, no-hitter still alive.
Nick Pratto was the next pinch-hitter and as a touted prospect that had the evening off, loomed as a dangerous impediment to the no-hitter, and Pratto drew a walk.
Two on, One out, No-hitter intact.
Seabrooke is removed by Frederick for Luis Perez with Perez facing Seuly Matias, who at Low A Lexington hit 31 homers in 2018 and walked only 24 times.
So of course, Matias draws a walk.
Bases Loaded, One out, No-hitter still intact

At this point, this is where I screw up, I turn to Bill and say "this is about the time someone kicks one".
Sebastian Rivero raps a routine hopper to Keys shortstop Yeltsin Gudino-perfect double play ball to end the game.
Gudino kicks it, Perkins scores, the score is 4-1 Frederick with the shutout gone, but the no-hitter still in play with the bases still loaded.
Catching prospect and 2017 second rounder M.J.Melendez strides to the plate with a batting average of.138. Perez walks him.
No-hitter still on the line, the game is 4-2, bases once again loaded.

Infielder Dennicher Carrasco bats next and with Carrasco at the plate, Perez throws the ball past catcher Stuart Levy and Matias scores.
Now the score is 4-3, the tying run is on third and the lead run is at second and Wilmington STILL doesn't have a hit!
Carrasco won't stop that string either as he pops out to first baseman Trevor Craport, who makes a nice catch near the stands for the second out.
Two on Two out- no hits and shortstop Cristian Perez at the plate.
Perez finally drills a hit as he smacks a line drive by the diving third baseman Willy Yahn down the line to score Rivero and Melendez (the ball wound up being called a ground rule double as it was stuck around the fence.
No-hitter ruined and Frederick is actually losing, Perez then fans Angelo Castellano to finally finish this inning from hell.
Frederick did put the tying runner on base, but Wilmington held on for a stunning 5-4 win off one hit with two out in the final inning and under crazy circumstances.

I've still never seen a no-hitter live, but this meltdown will be just as memorable as if the Keys had polished off the Blue Rocks and completed it.
Baseball indeed is a crazy game.

The evening wouldn't be complete, if not for a graphing story.
I wrote yesterday about graphing the Blue Rocks in Lynchburg and the work getting a few of their prospects.
That enabled me to just enjoy the evening for the most part (I did add a few players from last season's Lexington set) and if I was able to finish any of the cards for Brett Shaw, that's an added bonus.
I decided I would forego my card if Brady Singer or Jackson Kowar signed and try to get them for Brett.
Kowar did sign for others after the game as I was getting two other players, so he signed, but I was unable to nab his card for Brett.
Here's the funny story, the few remaining people after the game (a rain shower delayed the start by an hour) waited for players at a spot near the stadium exit, to the left of the locker room exit, a short walk away.
A player opened the door, looked to the right of the door (not the left) towards the stadium, saw no one and audibly said: "Brady, the coast is clear".
Singer and this player quickly left to walk down the concourse and around most of the stadium to reach their bus all to avoid five or six people.
It was a small walk away for us, to be near our cars and exactly where they had to walk by us anyway.
Singer did stop and sign one for everyone, so I was happy to have Brett's card signed, but I wonder is it that hard to do that all the avoiding and the hassle that's done, all of that is easier than signing one card?
I think about that sometimes, what goes through the mind of someone to go to all that trouble to avoid a few people?
I might understand Tom Brady avoiding 300 people in Boston to be worth the problems, but for a minor league player to go through that to dodge five people in Frederick Maryland?
I thought it was funny- "The coast is clear, Brady" like they were casing the joint in an old Western!

A fun and memorable night in Frederick that between on the field and off the field won't be forgotten anytime soon.

I moved my day in Salem back a day to write this story and I still need to write about the Browns final day draft picks so those will be on their way soon.

Road Trip: Lynchburg

After being overwhelmed with draft stuff, I didn't get around to writing the post on our first trip of the year, so I wanted to try to do our second trip quickly even though there still are plenty of topics to write.

This trip saw Fred Landucci, Mike Oravec and myself travel south to Lynchburg and Salem Virginia for a weekend that saw a visit to a memorial, some good food, a return to one of the ballparks that started it all and something that I've never experienced-Ever!

I was tired when we were starting this trip because I decided to stick it out and work the night before, so I only needed to take one night of work off rather than two in order to do this trip.
Two hours down the road, the original choice for breakfast, a selection of Mike's named Jess' lunch was still closed at 10;30 (despite their website saying they opened at ten!), so we started at TRS favorite Cookout.
To the best of my knowledge, the Harrisonburg VA Cookout is the most northern store of the southern-based chain and was where I selected for my birthday meal last year (I'm not hard to please am I?) and after a delicious and cheap "brunch", we were on our way to Bedford VA, home of the National D-Day Memorial.

Here's where the story gets hazy for a bit and goes around a few curves-literally.
I had fallen asleep in the backseat in order to get a few winks before the rest of the day and suddenly I was jolted awake.
Now, how we got here is still a mystery to me, but I suddenly had a stiff neck and very sick to my stomach!
I've never been carsick in my life and my family has always marveled at my ability to read etc in the car without any problems at all, but I awoke to Fred Landucci swerving from curve to bend in the Virginia mountains and my stomach suddenly became very upset.
Not to the point of needing the car to pull over, but definitely in discomfort!

Finally, we reached the memorial and entered the visitors center to pay for admission to the facility.
We walked around for a bit, touring the small exhibits and while Mike stood in line, I went and purged.
After fifty years- I was in the Carsick Club!
I could see that Fred and Mike were wondering how I was going to feel the rest of the day, but what they didn't know about me is what Cherie has been amazed at for years- When I need to be "sick", I almost instantly feel fine and as we watched a video about D-Day, I could feel everything becoming fine and I was great for the rest of the trip.

The memorial was strikingly beautiful and as we walked around the facility, I wondered why I hadn't heard of this before Mike mentioned it.
It deserves much attention than it seems to have and if you are in the area, I highly recommend spending an hour or so wandering around.
I snapped a few photos and before we left, I took my first one ever of my "Buddy" Colby.
Colby has been in the backpack all year, but I often forget to take the picture with him in his travels.
Cherie picked him up from my hometown "Grandpa's Cheese Barn" for Christmas and his gimmick is that Grandpa's puts photos on their Facebook page with Colby in his various travels.
Look for more Colby in the future- When I remember that is!

We then got our tickets for the game and ate at a place that Ryan recommended- the world famous Stadium Inn.
The world-famous Inn served a good sandwich, but was roughly as big as my living room and the dining room!
Filled with locals, the Inn has a huge bar in the middle and enough room for two tables around the various game machines and cramped is putting it mildly.
Still, if you like a local joint- the Stadium Inn was worth a stop, but not if you were offended easily!

I hadn't been to Lynchburg since 2007 with the trip that started my excursions to various minor league parks with Ryan and Battlin' Bob.
The names have changed with my companions on these trips, but the fun hasn't and the trip to Calvin Falwell Field felt pretty similar to my last stop twelve years ago.
With the exception of a "party deck" in left field, I didn't really feel that the home of the Hillcats had changed all that much.
Just a solid older ballpark that had been renovated a time or two and kept maintained well enough to be a nice place to play.

The Wilmington Blue Rocks (Kansas City Royals) are filled with prospects and might have the most on one team that I'll see all season.
Here's the problem, how teams sign generally starts at the top- if the manager (if someone that is asked to sign as a former major leaguer) or the best prospect/team leader likes to sign then their team generally follows and the reverse is true as well- if that person (or persons) isn't friendly about it, the team will walk in place.
Last year, the worst team that I dealt with was the then-Buies Creek Astros and that trailed back to their manager Morgan Ensberg.
I found out in the off-season why Ensberg has issues and I now empathize, but his dislike led to his team doing the same.
Scott Thorman (last year Lexington SAL and now Wilmington) seems to be this year's version of a "Poisoner" as with a few exceptions (I'm not naming them, would hate to have someone say something about their GOOD behavior) Wilmington isn't a good team at all.
Thorman was quite unpleasant in visits to Hagerstown as the pilot of the Lexington Legends and he seems to have passed that on to his new team.
Still, with a lot of time, far more than really should have been needed, I was able to nab the needed players for the new Top 100 in Brady Singer and Jackson Kowar and a few others.

Contrast that with Nolan Jones, an Indians prospect that is in the same Top 100 set.
Jones limits his signing to two at a time, which is more than fine, but he interacts, talks and seems like he enjoys dealing with fans that come to the games.
Nolan came over to me (I had three of my own and two for Brett Shaw of Altoona) and I didn't ask for more than two, just had them if needed.
Nolan looked at the Top 100 and was asking what this was, I explained the concept of the set, the rarity of it, etc and said he had yet to see one.
It was pretty cool seeing how excited some players get when they see certain items for the first time and I had an extra of the 100, so I offered Nolan a deal, sign the other few cards I had and he could have the 100, which he happily agreed to!
I never mind players that limit how much they sign, just be nice about it and Nolan Jones definitely follows through.
I also finally was able to nab the elusive Juan Hillman, who I had seen pitch with Mahoning Valley and Lake County on multiple occasions and Hillman started every game!
Since I don't bother the starters, for the most part, I seemed to have about 80 Hillman cards!
Hillman was super gracious in signing all of Mike and I's cards and I'd like to see the former 3rd round draft pick make it with the Tribe.
As Hillman signed, Royals first rounder Brady Singer slid by.
I needed that 100, but I had so many Hillman's and as an Indian fan, I really wanted to have those finished before he came to Frederick, where all those graphers likely had the same amount of Hillman cards to be signed, so I was more than fine with that

As we waited outside the stadium after the game, with just us (and Kendall Morris, who showed up late in the game to meet us after his trip to Charleston earlier in the day), we finally added the 100' s from Wilmington that I noted earlier in Jackson Kowar and Brady Singer.
Kowar signed my 100 without too much problem, but later Brady Singer didn't seem thrilled to sign at all.
Mike did the asking this time and asked "if he would mind signing one card", Singer seemed to reluctantly stop and signed for Mike, Kendall and a baseball for Fred.
When I handed him the 100, he looked and asked what this was.
When I explained, he seemed to be wondering more if it was a card that was a licensed card than happy about the 100 ranking.
I don't know that, but it seemed that way and I asked if he wanted one, hoping I could get the only other card I had for him (Brett's card) finished, but he replied "Nah, they'll send some to me" and walked away.

We then ate dinner at a Little Caesars across from the hotel (Loved the hotel BTW) that was OK considering its Little Caesars, but when you visit Lynchburg one needs to remember- Lynchburg isn't your typical college town, it rolls up the streets early!

I had only had a small nap in the car for about 30+ hours, so it didn't take me long to fall asleep to end the day after preparing for the following day's trip.
Not sure when I'll have time for the next post, but I'll try to write about the trip to Salem and a very nice player as soon as I can!

The Slam that Sucker Down Tour 2019 begins

Apologies to the late "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, who had the annoying habit (at least to me) of naming every small "tour" with some sort of slogan, for the title of this post.

Rhodes named one of these events the "Slam that Sucker Down" tour and I thought of that recently as I prepared for the season when a memory of a player crossed my mind that didn't enjoy signing very much would take the marker of choice and slam the marker down hard on the books that some collectors use to hold their cards in.
I've never used the book and managed to fight the trend of people moving in that direction (which was not difficult to do, considering the fiasco that occurred on a trip when I tried it on a test run) ,but this particular player seemed to enjoy doing that to see if he could knock the book out of their hands.

So, even though that never happened to me, the 2019 season will unofficially be named as above and I'll try to do a better job documenting the season in graphing as I did in the past.
I've done a decent job in keeping the trips noted here, but the everyday stories along the circuit have been lost along the way, much as I haven't put the last two seasons cards in binders, as usual, instead of having all of them in a 5,000 count box!

This was going to be our fourth visit to Altoona Pa (Again, for some stupid reason hear the Michael Hayes song "Badstreet USA" in my head, when I think Altoona PA) for the Meet the Curve night.


Mike Oravec and I had gone the previous three times with Kendall Morris, but Kendall couldn't make it this time, so Mike's son John and the always chipper Fred Landucci jumped in and passed on his hometown Harrisburg Senators in order to try the Altoona version.
Brett Shaw always takes care of us with tickets to the event and the team and the event host- the Casino at Lakemont does such an excellent job with the food and especially the production of the event.
Everything that is held during this event is coordinated and the first event was almost exactly the same as the last one.
We sat for a few minutes, were welcomed to the casino, told that it was time to eat, moved to the buffet and enjoyed dinner.
After dinner, the 2019 Curve was introduced to the fans and manager Michael Ryan spoke for a few minutes before a door prize drawing for a handful of various Curve items.
John was lucky enough to win one and I believe I remember him choosing a Tony Beasley (Former Curve manager) nesting doll as his prize.
Nesting dolls are basically multiple pieces hollowed out tubes that are painted with a subject and each of the dolls are smaller than the others so that all can fit inside the largest of these.
I have a Hawk Harrelson version that was a White Sox giveaway and they are kind of neat, although I doubt that I would collect them on a large scale.

We usually leave a bit earlier before the other proceedings in order to get a good place in line.
When all of those events are over, the team moves to a second-floor banquet room that they have arranged in order to sign autographs.
This year's Curve isn't loaded with prospects like last year's team that starred Mitch Keller and KeBryan Hayes among a few others, but when teams don't have prospects like last year's team, the crowd is smaller and the players are more likely to sign more items.
I didn't have a lot, most of the players from last season's Bradenton team set with a few hangers on from other team sets.
What was a little different was that I was mildly surprised by the number of players that asked why I didn't have anything for them to sign.
More often than not, the answer to that is that I have gotten their cards signed earlier from that player or that the player in question was not in a team set for a particular year.

We buzzed through the line in about 25 minutes and every card that arrived with me returned signed, so it was a good night all around that was only ruined by a work snafu that saw me arrive at work only to be sent home on a scheduling error, that was discovered to be not mine and was apologized for by my boss, which was nice enough although it didn't put the money back in my pocket, haha!

I always enjoy Altoona and their event as it's a great start to the season, but it also means the end of a long winter with lots of baseball ahead.
Thanks again to Brett Shaw for taking care of us!

If time permits, back later with the Browns addressing the safety position and even a trip to Frederick to try once again add Luis Robert for my top 100 set.

Andrew McCutchen

The final part of the Andrew McCutchen series talks about the loss of the player to the fan base of the Pirates and just how it's yet another hit to a team that seems to be settled in as the third franchise in a three franchise city with fans that are possibly leaving not long after returning...

Andrew McCutchen wasn't just a good player for the Pirates, he was an ambassador for the team in a city that was looking for a representative.
The Steelers had theirs in the Rooneys, Mike Tomlin, Ben Rothlisberger etc and the Penguins had Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and their stars, but where was the face of the Pirates?
For the most part, it was either the deceased Roberto Clemente, Manny Sanguillen sitting out in right field, Steve Blass telling stories in the booth or the beautiful ballpark.
Years of bad baseball had led to even average players with career seasons being pushed as Pirate stars and the awful track record with drafting and trades by general managers Cam Bonifay and Dave Littlefield had left the organization and minor league system filled with less than sterling talent.
Most years in the draft even when the Pirates picked in the top five (remember Bryan Bullington and Daniel Moskos?) the Pirates found a way to draft a low ceiling college player that wouldn't cost as much as a more talented player at the same draft position.

Only once, did Dave Littlefield break with this philosophy with McCutchen in 2005's in tabbing Cutch as a high school prospect out of Florida.
When you look at the 2005 draft, I can see that knowing how Littlefield liked to draft, he had to feel like he was taking a real risk on McCutchen as the only college position player that panned out following the Pirates pick at 11 (Which for the Pirates at the time was a pretty low pick) was Jacoby Ellsbury at 23 to Boston.
The high school choices were not plentiful either as only Jay Bruce, who the Reds took out of a Texas high school with the next pick had anything more than an average big league career, so give Littlefield credit for arguably the only great thing that he managed to do in his entire Pirate career.

Pirates fans could tell from the day he was drafted that McCutchen was different than the usual Littlefield pick and were excited to hear about him as he moved through the minor system.
That's how Cutch became one of the TRS favorites.
Cutch was drafted in 2005 right around the first full year that I started going to minor league games all the times and autographing, so I was excited to hear about this Pirate prospect that was going to be appearing in Hagerstown soon.
In 2006, my nephew Jeff was a Sun's batboy and he worked for the visiting team, so he talked to Cutch throughout the series and I have a few pictures of Jeff getting Cutch to sign a ball after a game for me.
Seems so long ago and I guess 12 years can be both long and short, but Cutch was a good signer and a nice guy even then, a bit quiet, but nice.
The picture above is a picture that Ryan took with a camera of the day (take note of the time stamp) during one day of the series and we had an 8 x 10 made the next morning to have Andrew sign that night.
That process alone shows the difference in twelve years!!

McCutchen skipped the then Pirates High A affiliate in Lynchburg (missing Frederick, the easiest place to graph on the circuit then) and would spend his 20-year-old season with AA Altoona, which is an awful challenging assignment for a high schooler.
Andrew was solid enough,but unspectacular (.258/10/48 in 118 games), but considering his age, a fair season and in two years, he was in Pittsburgh for good at 22.

Andrew McCutchen was the player that helped Pirate fans fall back in love with a franchise that had decayed away with a management that seemed not to care.
I compare those Pirates in some ways to the Browns (although the Browns have a much larger and more rabid base of supporters) in that there are/were people that still care, but were/are just so beaten down by losing, dumb moves, cheapness etc that they've become numb to it all.
Cutch was the start of those people and he was the start of me getting into this crazy hobby and fun business of caring and learning more about minor league prospects.
Andrew McCutchen also backed up on the field and for a small market team, he was what they so often need-a bankable superstar that gives that teams fans someone exciting to watch win or lose to go and see live or on television.

Now, he's gone and he would have likely been gone after the season anyway, but what the Pirates have said is that money is a little more important than winning.
What are the chances the Pirates make a big run this season with McCutchen and Gerrit Cole?
Less than average when you consider that their division is a strong one, but you could make a case that with a signing or two to a one or two year deal, that a playoff contending team wouldn't be out of the question.
Instead, the Pirates moved those players and didn't get one blue-chip prospect in return-not one.
Interesting ones?
Yes, I like Joe Musgrove and Kyle Crick could be a future closer, but none are top of the line, blue chippers and the Pirates chose to punt the season rather than even try.
What does these types of decisions always bring to my mind?
An obscure 80's teen movie called Three O'Clock High.
The premise is that this huge street fighter (Buddy Revell) is going to fight this average guy (Jerry Something) at three o'clock and the film follows the school day leading up to the fight with the hi-jinks that entail of how the fight is tried to be avoided etc before they fight.
This scene below features Buddy Revell asking Jerry how it feels after he pays him off not to fight him.-That's what I feel about the Pirates and especially so after losing Andrew McCutchen...
They didn't even try...

Cleaning out the inbox-Baseball

The inbox is just overflowing, so to get a few things out of there, I'll be taking care of the baseball notes.

Bruce Markusen and his "Card Corner" on the Baseball Hall of Fame website takes a look at the career of the "Toy Cannon" Jimmy Wynn.
The smallish Wynn at 5'9 was the first true power hitter for the Houston Astros in the notoriously power sapping Astrodome.
Markusen selected Wynn as his player to write about since the parameters for the article was a player that played for both World Series teams (Astros and Dodgers).
Wynn's first year with the Dodgers was the last big year of his career and I've always thought that his .271/32/108 line should have been enough to beat out his teammate and eventual winner Steve Garvey for the 1974 National League MVP.

The SABR website has thousands of player profiles and a recent one that caught my eye was that of early 1960's thumping first baseman Jim Gentile.
It was a very intensive profile of Gentile's career and I found his years of being blocked by Gil Hodges in the Brooklyn/Los Angeles system a story that was interesting.
Two Gentile points that were new to me- the first was that it was Gentile, not Hodges that played first base for the final game of the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.
The other was a classy move by the Orioles back in 2010.
In 1961, Gentile had a clause in his contract that would have given him a $5,000 bonus for leading the American League in RBI, but his 141 RBI fell one short of Roger Maris for first place in the league.
Almost 50 years later, a SABR researcher found that Maris had been given an extra RBI in a July game and that it was Gentile and Maris that led the league.
The Orioles brought Gentile to Camden Yards and surprised him with a check for five thousand dollars fulfilling their commitment.
Very classy by Baltimore.

SABR's baseball card blog has two articles of note from the inbox.
The first discusses Luis Tiant in "An ode to El Tiante".
The author connects Tiant to his comeback from arm injuries to explode on the Boston sports scene
in 1972, his lack of an appearance in the 1972 Topps set and the resulting first card with the Red Sox in the 1973 release, which stood out to me as a kid when you didn't exactly see a lot of red gloves around.
I always like when an author explains his interest in the topic and the author (Mark Armour) attaches his Tiant fandom as part of the piece.

SABR also adds an article on Pat Neshek, ace reliever, card collector and autograph hound.
Neshek's the biggest collector that actually plays in the league and his interview discusses all of his memorabilia collections.
Neshek was also in the news for collecting earlier this season when Neshek ripped Zach Greinke for not signing cards for Neshek after allegedly promising that he would do so.

There aren't specifics, but it appears that Wichita Kansas might be bringing affiliated baseball back to their town after a reference to a December Chamber of Commerce meeting there.
Supposedly, it could be AAA ball from the Pacific Coast League, but no teams have been mentioned as possible prospects to make the jump.

Road Trip-Salem

This part of the trip will be shorter because there isn't as much to recap,but still wanted to talk a little about the home of the Salem Red Sox and our stop there on the drive home..

Haley Toyota Field is a very nice High A ballpark and is located in what would be a perfect spot for the local sports fan,fitting snugly in between the Salem Civic Center and the football stadium that hosts the Division III national championship.

I had been here before in 1998 and the field looked pretty much the same as then except for the recent branding of Haley Toyota all over the place.
The stadium really does remind you of a stadium built in the 90's (1995) and has the type of second deck that could play in AA,if Salem ever decided to try for the level,it's that nice.
I love the wide concourse and nice sightlines from the lower bowl as well.
It's not perfect though,the upper deck seats do appear to go away from the field more than they should and it's not the best park that I've ever seen for autographing.

Fred,Mike and I arrived in the sixth inning,so we were able to watch some of the game and the lighting at Salem Memorial (the old name still gets used on the marquee") is very bright,in fact it might be the brightest that I've seen at a High A park.
We settled into very nice seats behind home plate and tried to find the main reason (for me at least) for this stop-Forrest Whitley.
Whitley is one of the Astros top prospects and wasn't around when the Buies Creek Astros made their only trip to Frederick,so I needed his Top 100.
With the Astros AA team being in Corpus Christi,Texas,if I didn't get Whitley in the Carolina League,the odds of getting him vastly decrease.
Fred went down to the charters to ask if any of those were Whitley,which they weren't and after watching the end of the game,we went to the field to try to get players coming off the field.
No dice other than one player coming from the bullpen as the teams hit their clubhouse through a dugout tunnel.

We asked an employee where the bus was located and we walked around the stadium and through a gate to wait for the Astros and hopefully Forrest Whitley.
Fred's quite the talker and he doesn't mind asking players their name when they walk to the bus in streetclothes.
I'm not as comfortable with that part of graphing,so having Fred around was very helpful to Mike and I on this and other nights.
We were able to get some cards signed,but Fred asked the second player out for his name and it was Whitley,who signed my three cards,including the top 100,so the two most important cards that I wanted to nab on this trip,I was able to get finished.

The three plus hour ride home was filled with conversation and it had to be hard on Fred driving,but I think we did Ok in keeping him entertained.
A fun and productive trip with good company,good food and plenty of places to see.
Looking forward to the next trips to finish the baseball season with Fred and Mike,this time a trip with each of them.

I'm going to try to write the promised Glen Campbell post either today or tomorrow...

Road Trip:Bristol

The road trip season continued as we rolled into Bristol Tennessee/Virginia and later Salem Virginia.
I'm going to write about both stops,but with other things to write about (death of Glen Campbell and tonight's Indians trade for Jay Bruce) might delay the Salem part or maybe shorten it a bit...

Fred Landucci drove Mike Oravec and I straight down I-81 to Bristol VA/TN for the visit to Boyce Cox Field and the Bristol Pirates of the Appalachian League.

I had visited Bristol on three occasions and had been inside to take pictures,but never for a game.
This trip would not only move Bristol to the game list,but would complete my ballpark list for the state of Virginia.
Bristol is a town that really is two towns that is one and I know how that sounds.
Bristol is divided right down the middle of town (remember the Geico commercials?) with half in Tennessee and the other in Virginia.
Boyce Cox Field is on the Virginia side and therefore finished Virginia for me rather than being another park in Tennessee.

We got into town early with the intent of returning to the Mad Greek restaurant,which is located on the Tennessee side of the line.
You might remember our Mad Greek stop last year and this was easily the place we wanted to eat in Bristol.
I ordered a small pizza and it was delicious!
I even passed on any sides in order to keep room for a small piece of cheesecake.
I'm not a huge dessert fan normally,but I do like cheesecake every once in a while and the dessert case looked very good.
I'm a big Mad Greek fan and if you are in the area-stop by,you won't regret it!!

We then decided to check out the Bristol Motor Speedway since it was so close.
Bristol was my favorite track to watch a race when I was a follower of NASCAR and I had wanted to see just what it looked like inside.
I was just amazed at the massive size of the structure built around the half mile track!
Words really cannot describe it and that is with the track virtually empty!
I can only imagine the noise when the track is filled with fans!
It still had the lines painted on the field for the setup for last season's game inside the BMS between Tennessee and Virginia Tech on the infield too!
I do have a live NASCAR race on my sports bucket list,but I'd rather do the smaller two circuits with less fans and fewer people though if I was ever going to go to one.
Bristol does have a truck race next Wednesday and I'm off work,but I'd rather add Charlotte to my collection of parks to finish North Carolina off...

After a stop at the Sullivan County Sheriff Department for a picture for Fred's wife Linda (the Sheriff dept,was the backdrop from a reality show that the Landucci's watched) and a stop at a Food City for some Yee Haw beer for the absent Michael and we were on our way to Boyce Cox Field for the Bristol Pirates and the Danville Braves.

I didn't have many cards for Danville,mainly a top 100 for 17 year old Venezuelan Kevin Maitan,who had just been promoted to Danville a few days after Mike and I's visit to Danville last month.
I had a few cards from other people for Maitan and other than a few cards for former Tiger and Danville batting coach Barbaro Garbey,I had nothing for them.
I did the visiting side while Mike did the home Pirates side,which seemed to have a little better access than for the visitors.
We were allowed to enter the park early by the Bristol general manager,who hit it off with Fred last season,so I was at the only place that had marginal access,a small area far down the left field line.
After several attempts to call to Maitan were ignored,I was feeling pretty down as it was right around this time (I was able to find wifi from somewhere in the area) that I heard about Glen Campbell,combined with my lack of luck with the pen-I was feeling pretty low.

Then a fellow came over and began to talk to me.
He seemed like a nice guy,who happened to be dressed as a Pirate,but turned out to be their mascot "Pete the Pirate"
"Pete" (real name Dwayne) talked with me for a few minutes about baseball,graphing et and made me take my mind off things.
Pete asked me who I needed,I told him the number and to my surprise,Pete walked down to the field and asked Maitan to sign my top 100 (and a baseball for the recently arrived Fred)!
I watched from a distance as Maitan signed it and made the Bristol portion of the day a success!
Thanks for everything,Pete and I will remember your kindness and help!
After I snapped a picture of Pete and Fred for the blog,I went over to the Pirates side,where Mike had gotten a few players and Pirates pitching coach (and former closer) Joel Hanrahan as well..
We watched a bit and before leaving town for Salem,we had a quick dinner across the street from the ballpark at Krystal,where I was able to have a great Grape Icee....

We were off to Salem and part two of the day will be coming soon.
I'm just not sure what I want to write about next,but I'll have a post coming tomorrow on either Salem or Glen Campbell and I'll have a post on the Indians addition of Jay Bruce from the Mets....