Road Trip: Day Three- Taking Home Vince

    We got up early for what was scheduled to be the busiest day of the trip.

I've written about Jungle Jim's International Market several times here, but it's not a trip to the Cincinnati area without a stop at Jungle Jim's.

I admit that I love taking my travel companions to Jungle Jim's because I enjoy telling them about the store, listening, and watching them think It's just a grocery store, like Wegman's, right?"

And then to see them be amazed when they first walk through and take in what there is to see, I get quite a chuckle out of it.

Fred was just as amazed as everyone else and, as in the past, walked away wanting to show someone else Jungle Jim's someday.

Down the road a bit from the Jungle is the Ohio Valley Antique Mall, where I had some luck in the past, most notably a Cincinnati Royals program for the collection.

I found a 1979 Street and Smith's baseball preview with a J.R.Richard cover and a 1973 program from the Cincinnati Reds, but the big find was near the end of the facility tour.

Inside a glass case rested the trophy above.

In 1971, an award featuring a bronze cast of Vince Lombardi was presented to a former NBA All-Star and basketball Hall of Famer Jack Twyman.

Twyman is the namesake of the NBA's Twyman-Stokes award for best teammate and is named for the two for the care that Twyman provided Stokes after an accident that ended Stokes's career.

Sidebar- I can't believe with all the remakes and reboots in Hollywood, no one has made a film about the Twyman-Stokes saga since the 1973 film "Maurie" starring former NFL star Bernie Casey and Bo Svenson of Walking Tall fame.

The trophy was presented by Mack Trucks CEO, Zenon Hansen, to Twyman and was available for purchase.

I have been unable to find anything further about the trophy (If anyone knows anything further, please contact me!). Although I suspect it came from the family (Jack Twyman passed away in 2012) or perhaps one other owner.

The case's consignor had a note of twenty percent off, which made it still expensive but feasible, and the light bulb went off on where this trophy belonged.

Only one person I know combines the love of Vince Lombardi and basketball history, and I began to try to figure out how to land this big fish.

After I purchased my items, Fred bought his and said goodbye to an employee he had been talking with while I looked around, we drove down the road to eat lunch at Roosters.

While we waited for our food, I called Omaha, explained what it is to Ryan, and sent a few photos.

After hearing the price, even after the discount, Ryan wanted it, but money is always tight around the Christmas season, and he reluctantly had to pass.

Then I asked him this: If I were to provide some of the money as his Christmas gift, would he be interested in obtaining it?

Ryan liked that idea, and after lunch, Fred and I returned to Ohio Valley to see if perhaps a deal could be made.

I walked in and found the guy Fred had talked with to ask if he could call the seller with an offer, as I wanted to try to save Ryan and myself a few dollars.

He said that he couldn't do that, which I found odd.

Usually, at antique malls, the management will call a seller, but only if the item is over a specified number, which I understand because sellers don't want to be bothered by someone wanting to pay 2.50 for a five-dollar item.

So, I countered by asking to see the manager, whom he said was eating lunch.

I thought she would want to be consulted on this, so I asked him if a call could be made.

He wasn't thrilled but asked her, and he came back saying that the call would be made and apologized to me for being incorrect earlier about not being allowed to call.

He then asked for my offer and if I wanted to add anything else, which I did- I wanted him to tell the seller that I was traveling through from Maryland and that there wouldn't be a second chance tomorrow.

That happened to me once on an item, and the seller (who was in the store) said, "Oh, you'll be back tomorrow, you know you want it." So I wanted to be sure that the seller knew that this was the only opportunity.

The offer was accepted, so we saved some money, but I was happier to land a unique item for Ryan and his collection.

It's a good feeling to do something for someone you love and care for.

Fred and I drove to Columbus to spend the night before going home the next day.

When I brought Vince home, Cherie looked at him and, with the weight of the award, thought that he would be residing in our dining room for a long time.

However, Ryan visited in January and took Vince with him.

Vince is now exactly where he belongs- Omaha with Ryan and Archie. 

Road Trip: Day Two

       Day two started with us heading to Springfield, Ohio, and the Springfield Antique Center.

I've had luck there in the past, and I would again this time as I grabbed the pictured Sesame Street clubhouse from 1977 for Archie.

It came with a few figures, but it gives me a project to work on for when he visits.

I found a few programs, most notably a 1971 Ohio State vs Michigan State and an Arkansas vs Navy game from 1982, but the big find was for Archie.

Fred found a silver dollar for his collection, so both of us were pleased leaving Springfield.

We drove to another place in Dayton, Antiques Village, but I didn't make a purchase there.

We grabbed a light lunch at a combined A&W Root Beer/Long John Silvers which was up the street from Antiques Village.

I've always liked LJS, but in recent years, all of the local stores, with one exception (Martinsburg, WV), had been closed, so this was a nice treat.

We then drove to the Cincinnati area for our evening stay at the Fairfield Hampton Inn.

Located next to the former Cincinnati Mills Mall, which was in the midst of demolition during our visit, the Hampton was a little different, as many of the lights weren't functioning!

The front desk person was helpful and gave me some bulbs, but the issue must have been with the lights or wiring, as none of the new bulbs worked either!

I gave Fred the choice of our dinner location and, befitting the name Landucci, Fred chose an Italian chain, "The Old Spaghetti Factory." 

It wasn't very good, and the service was slow.

It was actually so bad that Fred gave me a future "Chip" to cash in on a place that Fred might not select, but I'd like to try!

We returned to the hotel to watch the Browns 31-29 loss to the Tennessee Titans from earlier in the day and rested for the third day, which would see one of the favorite items that I've ever found, and it wouldn't even be mine!

Road Trip: Landucci Hits Ohio

    In December, I was able to do something that I've wanted to do for a while.

I've written about Fred Landucci many times through the years, and in recent times, Fred has had his share of physical issues, but he's always wanted to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and I wanted to be able to deliver that for him.

Fred's always been there for me, and I wanted to do this for him.

Originally, the trip was planned for Mike Oravec to join us, but his mom had been in poor health, and he needed to stay home in case he was required, which is more than understandable.

Fred and I left in the morning with one early stop planned in Steubenville, Ohio, at the Naples Spaghetti House.

Noted as the favorite restaurant of the late Dean Martin, Mike Oravec, and I had stopped there in 2024 and enjoyed it so much that Fred wanted to eat there as well.

However, there was one problem- there were no parking areas near Naples due to a town parade/event!

Fred was disappointed, as was I, but with Fred's limited movement, it would have been just too difficult for him to navigate.

Leaving Steubenville with regrets, we traveled to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

I've been to the Hall many times (and this is my third visit this year!), so I'm not getting too deep into the Hall, other than Fred had a great time, and I was happy to help him see something he has always wanted to see.

We traveled to Ashland to spend the night, and bought a few things from the store, along with me buying some items for someone from work.

We ordered some pizza from Donna D's before watching the Big Ten title game with Ohio State losing a disappointing 13-10 decision to Indiana.

We got up early for a big day on day two, with a gas stop where I was able to buy Fred his Christmas present- an old school football from Ohio State with a neat look of worn leather.

The photo above is a small hint of one of the hits from day two, which I'll write about at a future date!

Late thoughts on a Lost Weekend

   A few thoughts on the lost football weekend.

I was away on a trip with our buddy Fred Landucci, so I watched both games with Fred in the hotel, and with the trip, I didn't have the time to write about the games, so here is a quick synopsis.

The Ohio State 13-10 loss to Indiana was one of the better games played all season in the sport, but Ohio State had a few distractions leading up to the game that wouldn't happen in a possible rematch.

Brian Hartline's announced departure for the head coaching job at South Florida, the need to re-recruit the Buckeyes' top-rated recruit, wide receiver Chris Henry Jr., and Penn State's push to interview defensive coordinator Matt Patricia for the head coaching job in State College, all were factors in a lack of focus on a good Hoosiers team.

I don't think those will be a factor in the playoffs, although I am concerned about Brian Hartline, who called a less-than-glittering offensive game against Indiana.

Even with those issues, it took a slip on a fourth and short by Julian Sayin inside the Indiana five and a missed chip shot by Jayden Fielding to lose 13-10.

The Buckeyes still could have won, and I feel good about a prospective rematch.

The referees weren't great; constantly missed holding calls for both teams in the passing game.

I wouldn't say it cost Ohio State the game, but it might have.

As for the Browns, it's all about the Stefanski as the Browns lost to the even worse Tennessee Titans at home 31-29.

I really hate the going for two down 8 thing, and the Browns did just that and then had to go for two to tie when the Browns scored late in the game.

Maybe I'm an old guy, but I'd rather kick the extra point, be down seven, and then have the decision to tie or win with a two-point conversion if needed.

I know that's cutting against the new wave, but that's my thinking.

I did like some of what I saw from Shedeur Sanders, and I'm glad that he'll be starting the rest of the year.

However, before anointing him for the future, remember his good games have come against the Raiders and Titans, who have combined for four wins this season.

I'm very interested to see how he plays in his next three games against teams fighting for playoff position in the Bears, Bills, and Steelers.

Road Trip: Binghamton

 On the final day of our trip, we decided to do our driving after the Tri-City game to be in Binghamton, New York, and do some hunting for collection items before the Binghamton Rumble Ponies game enabling us to start our travel home faster in the afternoon.

We started on the outskirts of Binghamton for an outside flea market that was huge with long and multiple rows and at Jimay's Outdoor Flea Market, you pay a dollar on arrival, which is either a parking or attendance fee but was well worth it considering the number of tables to check out.

I wound up adding a few items that I bought to give to Ryan with autographed photos of former Binghamton and later Ottawa Senators Ray Emery and Jason Spezza and I found a small Philadelphia 76ers ball and a souvenir cup from the Spectrum picturing Moses Malone and Charles Barkley along with a program from the 1970s between Oneonta and Niagara Falls.

It was lots of walking and the terrain was only sometimes friendly to Fred but he found lots of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars for his grandson, so it was a success.

Before the game, we had time for one more stop, and in a well past its prime, former strip mall, P&J's flea market was found, despite its flaws, I found a few items that made it worth its time.

P&J's is located in two former department stores and the pair must have been the anchors of the mall as both were expansive and seemed like that was their original use.

I found a serving container with a base piece and then multi-colored portion parts for Cherie ( it can be seen above the Phoenix Suns pennant on the right side) that is definitely from the sixties or seventies and the pictured pennant of the Phoenix Suns and Kansas City Kings.

Although it was the Kansas City version of the Kings and not the version that I always look for, the coveted Kansas City-Omaha pennant, I was happy to grab both and while both aren't mint, they were more than acceptable at four dollars apiece.

There also were pennants from the same era for the Atlanta Hawks and Detroit Pistons but both were in much worse condition and I reluctantly passed.

I am always a sucker for items from the seventies and early eighties from the NBA/ABA and the NHL/WHA because there are so few items that are available to collect.

If you didn't attend a game, it took a lot of work to find souvenirs from those leagues as mainstream stores rarely carried items from the local teams, let alone anything from other ones.

It was a bit musty and if you are allergic to many things, you might want to pass on this one but the best finds often come in strange places.

After we left the flea market, it was over to the field for a return visit to the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, who were the Mets when I last visited, and more importantly a chance to see my friend Jason Christensen for the first time since the pandemic.

Binghamton was a surprise survivor of the MLB purge, mainly due to the intervention of New York Senator Chuck Schumer, and they have made some improvements to the facility although honestly, I didn't see a lot of difference in the fan experience.

I visited Jason Christensen for the first time since Covid and enjoyed catching up with him.

Jason and I have talked occasionally since the pandemic but not as much of late since my change in work schedule and spending time talking was a trip highlight for me.

After leaving the stadium, Jason accompanied us to Bingham's which is a restaurant that is located just along the New York/Pennsylvania line, for a meal before the final four hours of driving.

It was a great trip and we've already started a trip plan for next year that would include Portland, Maine, Manchester New Hampshire, and other stops on the way.

I've been taking my time and writing less of late as I know that I'll be ramping up with the looming start of football season but I do have another road trip post or two that I hope to finish soon before the pigskin kickoff! 

Road Trip: Springfield & Troy

  Day two of our trip would see another state that I had never visited as part of our plans, another new state that was unplanned, and a place that I had never visited before that was always on my list to see.

When I was planning the trip for things to build around baseball stops, I was surprised to see just how close Springfield, Massachusetts was to Hartford and that would mean my first visit to the basketball hall of fame.

The basketball Hall of Fame isn't like its football counterpart in Canton or Cooperstown's baseball hall which is devoted to only inductees for their professional careers.

Rather, the basketball hall honors success from college and professional levels along with the greats of the men's and women's games.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the basketball HOF after Bill Simmons skewered it in his terrific book "The Book of Basketball" but I was still anxious to see it.

And I was surprised because, in some ways, it might have been better than either of the two more established Halls.

The basketball Hall is connected to what seems to be a defunct mall and with its high ceilings upon entering, it did feel like walking into a mall!

The hall has a few exhibits that passersby can see for free (such as the Pete Maravich shown above) and once you pay, you move into an elevator that takes you to the top of the building and you wind your way through three floors of basketball history.

When you look down through the center of each floor, you are able to see the ground floor with several baskets that you can shoot at and although all you can do is shoot (and my few shots later were missed), it's a very nice touch that the other halls lack.

Fred was having a good time for a casual basketball fan as he zoomed through with his scooter up and down the floors and looked at the items on display.

It was cool seeing a few ABA items including a championship ring, an empty bottle of RC Cola celebrating the 1975 ABA champion Kentucky Colonels, and that was beside a full bottle of Coke for the 1983 N.C. State Cardiac Pack which was cool seeing there since I own that same bottle.

The gift shop didn't have many items from schools and pro teams and specialized in Hall of Fame items, so I only purchased a magnet as a souvenir.

I thought the basketball Hall was better than expected and if you are ever in the area, I'd recommend stopping by, it's right off an interstate so it's easy to reach and leave as well.

Fred had mentioned earlier in the trip that Rhode Island was only an hour away and I considered going there to add another state to my list but Rhode Island was in the opposite direction of New York and it didn't make sense to add two hours to our trip.

Instead after looking at the route, if we drove a little out of the way, I could catch another state instead-Vermont.

It was some beautiful country and that's about all we saw because in Vermont there was very little else to see and after miles and miles, we reached Burlington.

It appeared that some sort of festival was going on and when we looked around the streets of Burlington,, we found another pizza place.

I find that I eat a lot of pizza away from home and rarely when I am home, which I suppose says it all about local pizza!

This choice was Benner's Pizza and Bagels, which had outside seating and we used that to add a bit more of the excitement of the area as there were many people walking to different events etc.

I enjoyed my pizza but I thought a scale model of a moose painted red and orange that stood at the pavilion was the big star!

Two pizza places in two days with both rating well with me!

The next stop was Joseph Bruno Stadium in Troy New York, home of the Tri-City ValleyCats.

I visited Tri-City once about ten years ago with Rachel and Cherie on a trip that included my stop at Cooperstown.

Back then, the Valley Cats were a thriving member of the New York/Penn League, an affiliate of the Houston Astros, and doing well at the box office.

Now, the Cats are a member of the independent Frontier League, not doing so well at the gate and some rumors have them as having a questionable future.

I only had cards for one player, former Phillies outfielder Aaron Altherr and manager Pete Incaviglia.

Upon arriving, we discovered that Incavaglia had been suspended by the league for the game for an outburst the previous night and wouldn't be leaving the clubhouse.

That's a disappointment as I had some cool cards from his college days at Oklahoma State that I had hoped to get signed.

Aaron Altherr had always been very nice in his days coming through Hagerstown and Harrisburg and he signed both cards I had for him.

We had two hours or so to get to our hotel in Binghamton, so we stopped in a former minor league town for dinner but there were not many open places, so we settled for a Buffalo Wild Wings, which was fine.

Remember when I wrote about the Roku problems in Hartford?

Here is the other issue from the trip- I could hook the Roku up fine but no internet service.

I tried different tactics, called the front desk, and went down to the lobby, and just as I neared the lobby, it turned on.

So I returned to the room and ZIp. nothing.

It turns out that the hotel was built before the wifi age and the thickness of the walls keeps the wifi from doing its job unless you are near the center of the building!

Oh, the bed was comfortable and after the controversial decision given to George Kambosos over Maxi Hughes was announced, it was off to bed.

Next time that I can, I'll write about day three as I visited an old friend, found some items for the collection, and saw the Binghamton Rumble Ponies to conclude the trip. 

Road Trip: Hartford

      I'm not able to take as many road trips as I used to.

My work schedule is different and even my time away from work has been changed, so when you consider that with the takeover of minor league baseball by MLB, they have eliminated Monday games (one of my off-days), it would have made it difficult to attend games even if I wished.

But this trip was planned well before my job changes and this is the biggest trip of the season, so while there were a few disappointments, there were some great times and as always great memories made with Fred Landucci on the trip.

I've never been to Connecticut or Massachusetts before so it was a chance to not only add a ballpark to my list but also a chance to add two states to the states that I have been to as well.

The drive up was uneventual, we stopped in Connecticut for lunch at a place called John's, which was pretty good.

I ordered the daily special a fish sandwich, which was good but had far too much bread for my tastes.

I left a lot of bread on the table, which I feel bad about because I hate waste, but it was too much.

The legendary Northeast traffic did arrive as we neared Connecticut and Hartford, so it did take quite a bit of patience as we approached the ballpark.

Dunkin Donuts Park is a downtown stadium with its both positive and negative aspects. Still, it is almost directly off an exit into the city and that does make it a bit easier for visitors to find and park easily with a massive parking lot across the street from the field.

With Fred along, we were able to use handicapped parking, which caused one of the funnier moments of the trip in the parking lot

As we were moved along the parking lot by one person, another one followed us yelling "Where's their stickers, where's their stickers"?

Maryland vehicles have a handicapped symbol on the license plate but since this was a rental and non-handicapped plate, we only had Fred's Pennsylvania placard, which the first person had seen but the second one had not.

This lady chases all around the lot, only to see the placard and say "It's ok" in between huffs from running.

The main reason we picked this weekend was for the Hartford Yard Goats' "Whalers reunion weekend" with many former stars of the Hartford Whalers returning and we picked Friday so we could do other things over the next two days.

Unfortunately, not all of the players were there for the first night (which wasn't noted beforehand) but I still was able to meet and talk to a handful of former stars including Andre LaCroix, who was the all-time leading scorer in the defunct-World Hockey Association, and defenseman Gordie Roberts.

I didn't get as many as I hoped but I was able to get everyone that was there which was enough to please me.

Dunkin Donuts Park is a nice stadium and I really liked the wide concourses that despite the large crowd felt plenty roomy as we moved around.

We also were lucky enough to have someone sing the National Anthem (I wish I remembered her name) that sang it well yet not in a look-at-me way and it was very cool to see the home team run onto the field with the Whalers fight song "Brass Bonanza" playing in the background.

I liked the Dunkin Donuts cup on top of the scoreboard and on the right field roof, there was a large Deer (or Stag or Buck whatever) looking towards the outside of the park that I'm going to say is from "The Hartford" insurance company as that only makes sense considering the location.

It looked very statuesque from the distance and I bet it might look better had I seen it from the streets of Hartford.

We stayed at a Doubletree Hilton near the Hartford airport and when we checked in, we asked for a good pizza place.

There was a place literally a crosswalk away which would have been convenient to visit but when I asked the two ladies behind the desk about it, they both looked up sadly and nodded their heads no as in we didn't want to do that!

They recommended a place about a mile or two down the road but it was straight down the road so not hard to find our destination- a place called Tunxis Grill and Pizzeria 

Tunxis was busy (it was Friday night) and the pair of couples beside us were very loud but the wait was worth it for our pizza, which was "The Works" off their menu and might have won my favorite meal of the trip.

We returned to the hotel, which started my issues with the outside world on both nights.

I travel with a Roku stick, so I can stream and watch what I wish, even when away from home but Doubletree used what is called a "Clean Remote", which is reputed to be anti-germ and anti-bacteria and targeted toward hotels, hospitals, and nursing homes.

The Clean Remote worked fine but you need to be able to change the input on televisions to use Roku, Playstations, etc and if you go to the link, you can see they have omitted a button to access the input channels.

So if you replace all the television remotes with the Clean Remote, you would have no way to change the input and essentially render the object of choice useless and that meant no Roku and the streaming channels that it provides for this night.

I did have internet, so I used my Ipad for the night, so it could have been worse but my adventures with these issues weren't over as night two would prove.

I enjoyed day one and I liked Hartford, although I wish they had been clearer with their notes that most of the Whalers would be there on Saturday only.

I'd go back under certain circumstances and I had a nice time traveling to a new state.

I'll be back with day two of the trip sometime soon when I have time to write.

Fred's Day

We start something different for the next few days and with the Covid-19 pandemic, there certainly is plenty of time available to do something different.

I reached out to my family and friends and asked them to come up with something from each of them that they would like me to write about for Friends and Family week.
I haven't heard back from all of them, but I do have a few requests returned and I'm looking forward to working on these this week.

We'll start Friends and Family week with Fred Landucci.
Fred's been a great friend and fan of both the blog and the defunct podcast, so it was an easy choice for Fred to participate in this week.
Fred decided to ask five questions of me to answer and hopefully you'll find my answers as interesting in his questions!

Fred: What is your favorite sitcom since 1980?

TRS; This is difficult as I'm sure there will be a few shows that when Cherie reads this that she'll say "I can't believe you forgot X, you love that show'!
And we delete a bunch of shows that I love from the 60s that I grew up watching in reruns and some 70s shows that I grew up with but are outside Fred's timeline
But when I looked at the lists by decade, I was surprised to see that I didn't like a lot of these shows!
I'm also not a huge fan of what many consider classic sitcoms from the period.
I like Cheers, especially the Shelley Long years, but Seinfeld has always been a meh show and I cannot stand either of two Nielsen giants in Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond.
Before I go with my choice, which narrowly nipped their toughest opponent, here are a few that make me laugh.
ALF is just one of those silly 60s style sitcoms that just makes me howl, Coach is very funny with the Craig T.Nelson-Jerry Van Dyke pairing and they have longtime TRS favorite, Shelley Fabares, as well, I love King of the Hill via animation and two shows that didn't have a long run and are seldom remembered that I really like are Buffalo Bill and Unhappily Ever After.
Wings and Newsradio were terrific shows that should have been bigger hits than they were, but the winner is The Office in a photo finish over Parks and Recreation.
The Office put together seven great years, a lousy eighth, and finished well in the ninth and final year.
Parks is very close, but despite my love for the show, I'm not a huge Amy Poehler fan.
That makes the difference.


Fred: Who do you consider the best pound for pound fighter in boxing history?

TRS: This is a lot easier- it's the welterweight Sugar Ray Robinson.
If Robinson had never moved to middleweight, where he won the championship several times and was an all-time middleweight but not the greatest ever, and spent his entire career at welterweight, I think he would have rolled up a record that would be talked about to this day.
The welterweight Robinson had explosive power and dazzling speed that as a complete fighter cannot be matched.
As a boxer, Robinson couldn't be surpassed even by greats like Ray Leonard or Floyd Mayweather and while as a pure puncher he wouldn't be ranked at the top of punchers at 147 such as Thomas Hearns, Pipino Cuevas, or Felix Trinidad, he would fit comfortably in the group of well above average bangers such as Sugar Ray Leonard.
In many sports, you watch old films and ask questions like would Willie Mays be as great against the stars of today, would Jerry West be an all-time great guarding the athletes in today's NBA and would Jim Brown be the best running back ever?  (Answers: Leaning towards yes, would be very good, but maybe not all-time great, and definitely)
Some of the great boxers of all-time would suffer under the same glass- Rocky Marciano would have little chance against Tyson Fury or Anthony Joshua, but there are a few that clearly would have been great against anyone of any time.
Sugar Ray Robinson is that fighter.


Fred: Do you believe the "cheaters" belong in the baseball Hall of Fame?
This includes the game-fixers, gamblers, and the steroid players, both accused and confirmed.

TRS: This subject comes up a lot and I really don't have a firm opinion, but I suppose I'm OK with Joe Jackson and Pete Rose being voted in- as long as the HOF makes sure that the scandals involved with the two are mentioned on their plaque and as part of anything involving the two in the facility.
I give Jackson a break because if he took money in the Black Sox scandal, it didn't seem to affect his play and for Rose, his gambling as a manager shouldn't outweigh his play as a player.
The steroid players are a different matter as some of those players wouldn't have posted the statistics
needed to get to Cooperstown without them, so my stance on this is as follows- Take the line of when the use was suspected and/or confirmed.
Was the player in question a Hall of Fame level player before that timeline?
If so, I'm Ok with induction-if the steroid links are notated as with the foibles of Jackson and Rose above.
Under this rule- Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens would receive my vote while Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Rafael Palmeiro would not.

Fred: What is your favorite book?

TRS: Almost all of my reading is non-fiction and most of the reading is either sports, history, or political history, but the winner is clear- Jim Bouton's 1970 Ball Four.
From childhood to the present day. I've read that book well into three digits.
I have my original battered copy somewhere, I have the book in its final edition with updates on Bouton's life, have the ebook, the book on CD, and I have it on Audible with Jim Bouton reading it.
One of the most fun things that I do with Ryan is swap lines from the book and we each know just where it is in the book and who said various quotes.
I'm not sure you can be a true baseball fan and reader without reading Ball Four as a snapshot of the game just before the free agency period's arrival, but as players were beginning to challenge authority.
Honorable mention to Terry Pluto's "Loose Balls" a hilarious oral history of the ABA and outside the world of sports, I'm a big fan of the Robert Caro written series on the life of Lyndon Johnson.


Fred: Who is the best "heel" in the history of Pro Wrestling?

TRS: I'm not quite sure how to answer this one.
The best heel could be who consistently put on the best matches, who drew the most money to see them wrestle or it could be just who my favorite heel could be.
I'm going to answer it as my favorite heel and there are a few that I'm a huge fan of.
Very few could anger a crowd like Roddy Piper, but as time passed too many fans started liking Piper and the promotion felt that they were forced to turn him "babyface".
Piper wasn't nearly as effective or likable in that role but remained a huge star.
I always was a fan of Ken Patera as an arrogant heel that due to his world-class strength looked down on the inferior fans in a role that didn't seem to take very much acting!
Tully Blanchard was a tremendous heel that not only was excellent in the ring but his ability to express disdain as the 'Chicken' heel that kept the Four Horsemen as a hated group despite fans wanting to cheer Ric Flair and to a lesser extent, Arn Anderson.
However, there is one that ranks as my favorite above all, the Magnificent Muraco.
I've written before about Muraco as a major influence growing up and when Muraco was motivated as he was in his two WWF runs with the Inter-Continental title- he ranked with the top wrestlers in the world as an all-around performer both in the ring and verbally.
Muraco's promo work could be tremendous and his work in the first half of the 1980s made him the best wrestler in the WWF and arguably (especially in 82-84) the best in the country.


I hope these answers for Fred were interesting enough and I'll be back next time with the next installment of Friends and Family Week.

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.

Road Trip; Lake County

Before we begin, this trip was taken before the Carolina run.
For some reason, this post never was posted through either Blogger's mistake or my own error.

The traveling roadshow rolled through Ohio as Fred Landucci visited Lake County on a Friday and Saturday that saw the Captains host two teams and as usual Cleveland Sports History night.

Friday was the first day for Fred Landucci and I as we went straight to Eastlake for the Captains night game against the Cedar Rapids Kernels, the low A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.
Straight to Eastlake didn't mean straight to Classic Park though, as Fred and I enjoyed Pickle Bill's before the game for Walleye and Perch.
I've been there a few times before as I've written, but Fred seemed to really love the place.
I love seafood and don't eat it as much as I'd prefer, so this is always a great stop for me.

Keep in mind that this was the weekend that set all sorts of heat index records all over the country and even though we were near Lake Erie and farther north than in Maryland, it was oppressively hot!
Fred looked like someone threw a bucket of water on him after about 20 minutes and even though I had the Cedar Rapids team set and the two Kernels from the Midwest League prospect set, none of them were going to make or break the day.
I got as many Kernels and Captains ( Captain Kernel?) as I could, collected my Skipper (mascot) Moon Landing bobblehead, took a visibly drained Fred Landucci and trucked on down the road to Ashland, where we were staying for the two days.

Ashland, besides being the only other place I've lived other than Maryland, has another advantage for trips for baseball- Centrally located.
It didn't play into this trip, but Mike Oravec and I have talked about a three-day trip that could include any of these within 90 minutes of Ashland: Mahoning Valley (short season), Lake County (low A). Akron (AA) and Columbus (AAA) and if you want to stretch a bit, you could add Dayton or Toledo as well.
It's the same plan that sees us stay in Asheville, yet only see one game there- it's not especially far to any one place and keeps many places in play to see.

After checking into the hotel and Fred wanted one of my bragged about Donna D's pizzas before the end of the day, we still had the next afternoon to kill before Lake County's game with the Peoria Chiefs (Cardinals).
That was easy enough as I took Fred around town a bit and then met my Aunt Becky and Uncle Terry for lunch along with my cousin Missy at my honorary Aunt Gayle's place of business, the Ashland Elks.
I always love seeing all of them and Fred enjoyed meeting my family as well, especially when I got out of the back seat and introducing Fred as "My Driver"!
Terry picked up the tab as he did last year when Derreck came out with me.
One of these days, I'll beat him to this!
A great time with a big sweep of all of my favorites (aunt, uncle, cousin and unofficial aunt) all in one place!
After lunch, I took Fred to the Ashland University bookstore, where Fred bought a hat and shirt and I bought Cherie and Rachel AU shirts and took a few pictures of the Big Eagle ( he has a name, but I can't remember it now) before moving to Lake County.

The heat was even more brutal on Saturday than it had been on Friday and the heat index had to be close to 110 degrees for the Peoria Chiefs.
I had cards for them, but again, I wasn't going to go nuts, if I didn't get anyone in particular- especially in this heat!
I decided to make sure Fred stayed healthy and gave Fred my stuff for the Cleveland Sports Night guests.
The guests were under the shaded concourse and I thought that the shade would help Fred stay in good shape.
That decision worked out well as Fred stayed as about as cool as you could be in the situation and Fred nabbed all of my stuff, most notable former Brown Josh Cribbs on an 8 x 10, former Iowa and Kansas City Chief quarterback Ricky Stanzi on a card and the biggest get- Ted Ginn Jr on a 16 x 20 picture and an Ohio State helmet.
Ginn was a late replacement for former Ohio State (and Cardinals) running back Beanie Wells. who had a tragedy in his family a few days before the game as his brother was murdered.
Very gracious of Ginn to replace Wells on short notice under the circumstances and good work by the Captains to add a top-notch
substitute at the very last minute.

The one thing that I made a mistake on was this- I knew the gates opened at 4:45 and assumed the game started at six.
I was wrong because the game started at seven and the weather was draining me fast.
I did manage to nab some Chiefs, but I was tiring and sweat was pouring off my face in a torrent.
Finally, with the players trying to stay in the cool clubhouse for as long as possible (and who could blame them for that?) and considering everything, I decided to throw in the towel (Had I possessed a real towel, I wouldn't have tossed it, I would have put it on my head) and decided to make the prudent choice- leave and graph another day.
I hated to do it, yet I had more than enough.

The final day, Fred wanted to see Columbus and we went home using a different route.
Fred wanted to see the Ohio State reformatory in Mansfield, known for its distinctive look and as the site of filming for the film The Shawshank Redemption.
Derreck and I had taken the tour last year and I know with Fred's mobility issues that the tour was not going to be easy for him, so we just walked around the outside for pictures and Fred bought some Shawshank items at the gift shop before we left.
In Columbus, we hit some Buckeye stores, where we each bought gifts for family and ourselves, I snapped some pictures of Ohio Stadium (they weren't great because of the angle) and the old Buckeye basketball home St.John Arena (these were really good and I even used one for my basketball game as St.John Arena) before heading home.

This was another great weekend and even though the weather could have been cooler for sure, it was still fun showing Fred some of the places that I've told him so much about.

Editor's Note: As noted, this was written almost a month ago, so my apologies for taking so long.
I still have posts to go up and if I have time a Buckeye preview before Saturday, so the remainder of the southern trip with stops in Tennessee, Hickory and then the ride home will be posted in the future.

Road Trip: Kannapolis/Asheville

Since my original plans for today (A trip to Mahoning Valley) have gone awry (Fred Landucci's having vehicle issues, best wishes there, my friend), I have some extra time to write and decided to work on another road trip installment.

Tuesday would be the only two-game day of the trip and it started with me meeting Skylar at the desk.
Skylar had been so helpful on the phone in getting us an extra day at the hotel without having to switch rooms and I wanted to thank her for her helpfulness.
After a few minutes of chatting with her, which I would wind up repeating each day after this during our stay, Our day would begin and it would start with an early morning goodbye to the hottest ballpark that I've ever visited.

A trip to the "Gates of Hell" in Kannapolis for the last time to Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium and an 11;00 start time gave me a chance to work on the Intimidators team set.
Kannapolis is in the process of building a new stadium for the 2020 season, so this is the last time I can have the privilege of setting my rear on fire and having my sandals melt.
Usually, I'm sad to see a stadium go and I'm also usually not a huge fan of downtown stadiums, but I'll make an exception in this particular case!

Kannapolis had not released a 2018 team set in a befuddling decision, so I was pleased to see the team decide to have one for this season.
Kannapolis had already visited Hagerstown before the set came out, so everyone on the team was a need.
I decided to do Kannapolis rather than visiting Lexington (at Kannapolis, you have to pick one side or the other) mainly due to the Carolina League schedule for 2020 (Both team's affiliates have their High A teams there) which could repeat the 2019 one, which saw the White Sox team in Winston-Salem open in Frederick and never return, while the Royals team in Wilmington come to Frederick throughout the season.

And it was one of those typical draining hot days that seem to be 10 degrees hotter on concrete without shade.
Because of the heat and its effect on Fred, Lefty and I made sure Fred was in the area of some shade, which shrinks rapidly as the morning moves on, and descended to the field to start working on Kannapolis, who made the strange decision to wear their black jerseys on a day like this.
I did pretty well, only missing the starting catcher and a coach or two.
However, the two highlights had nothing to do with autographs.
The first was when we walked along a grassy berm that you need to traverse to reach the Kannapolis bullpen and walking down we saw a drainage pipe that leaked water and made a small area quite muddy.
I managed to see this on my way over, but the klutz that I am, slaps both feet into it as I chase a player to sign.
I had mud all over my legs and sandals, so a restroom stop to get as much as I could off of me was a must, and a shower before the second game in the evening was as well.
As for my sandals? Well, I always try to buy the type that is worn by fishermen and beachgoers that are made to deal with water, mainly because in this hobby, you can be caught in thunderstorms and downpours very quickly, so that was as easy as rinsing them out in the shower to be as good as new.

The other was encountering a local nicknamed "Radar Rock".
This guy had something to say about everything.
"Where are you from"?
"Maryland"
"Why are you wearing a Mets hat?"
"It's not a Mets hat, it's a New York Giants hat"
"It's not the Giants, they are blue and white"
"New York BASEBALL Giants"
"Why not the Brooklyn Dodgers"
"I don't like the Dodgers, I like the Giants"
"Why do you root for them, they aren't from where you are".
FAR FAR too much time listening to this guy, while I am trying to work on players to sign.
The guy never shut up and I just couldn't get away from him fast enough!
Maybe it was trying to get away from him that caused me to hit the mud! Ha Ha!

It was getting hot and Fred was beginning to wear out, but before we left, Fred ran into Blair Jewell, a former employee of the Harrisburg Senators and now with the Intimidators.
While Fred talked to Blair, Lefty and I went down to field level and added the two pitchers that were charting.
Fred reports that the Intimidators' upcoming name change will be a "more normal name than the goofier names" that have been more prevalent in minor league baseball over the last few years.
The day after our visit, the team announced that their new stadium will have netting that will run the entire length of the grandstand.
The addition of more and more netting to stadiums will not only affect my hobby, but it could also affect how other fans decide to spend their dollars.
It will be very interesting to follow over the next few seasons how the new netting at the parks that implement netting affects attendance either positively or negatively.

We returned to Asheville from Kannapolis for lunch and some downtime at the hotel before a trip to McCormick Field for the evening.
The food was a return to Rocky's Hot Chicken after a successful debut during Fred and I's trip in 2018.
I ordered a chicken sandwich this time and even though I still don't think Rocky's has the heat that they advertise, it's still top-notch chicken.

After some hotel time, we went to McCormick Field for the Tourists and the visiting Lakewood Blue Claws.
Since Lakewood comes to Hagerstown fifty times a season, Lefty and I concentrated on the Tourists.
I was surprised to see a very big crowd on a Tuesday without a strong promotion.
The crowd was so strong that every time (Three in fact) that Lefty and I got into a bit of a roll getting players to sign, we would have to move because someone needed their seats.
I didn't mind moving because the seats were paid for and the crowd was large.

The only time that moving bugs me is in this situation that occasionally happens in Hagerstown- no one in the entire three-row area and here comes a dude with seat 1,2,3,4 who wants to show his wife/girlfriend/kids how he made these guys move because he paid for these seats.
Of course, you move for them, but there are only 75 other seats with no one in them (if there were said people, you wouldn't be able to walk up and buy front row, seats 1-4 would you?) would it kill you to sit in row two for 15 minutes until the game starts?
It really wasn't a problem though under these conditions and the usher was very nice each time, so other than not getting a lot of cards signed, it wasn't so bad.
I did get the often-injured and not-expected-to-be-in-town Riley Pint to sign his SAL top prospect card, so a disappointing total, but not a complete defeat.

The post-game didn't bring a lot of success either as there was an absence of local graphers and being that Asheville made one visit to Hagerstown and the one game that I managed to see was rained out, I just didn't know many of the players facially.
I'm not sure that I added more than two or three players tops.
All and all, the Asheville trip was the most disappointing trip from a graphing perspective although it was fun being in a crowd that was excited about baseball rather than Paw Patrol, bobbleheads, or fireworks!

Road Trip: Johnson City

The biggest road trip of the year began in the morning as Fred Landucci and Lefty Koch picked me up from my house to start a five day, four-night and numerous ballpark trip.

Our first stop was in Johnson City, Tennessee for an Appalachian League encounter between the Burlington Royals and the hometown Cardinals.
However, you have to eat and on the way, we stopped at a favorite from earlier this season- Mac and Bob's in Salem, Virginia.

We loved our stop in Salem for lunch at Mac and Bob's in April so much that when our lunchtime arrived and with Salem the nearest town available, it was the easiest selection of the entire trip.
I decided on a Buffalo chicken hoagie and as par for the course, it was tremendous!
Mac and Bob's might rank at the top of my favorite places all season and if I'm ever around Salem for various reasons, it's going to take a lot of doing to talk me out of a different food establishment than Mac and Bob's.

After Mac and Bob's, we stopped by Pulaski, Virginia and the Yankees as Lefty and I each needed to grab a Pulaski team set.
The Yankees were on the road, so we figured this should have been an easy stop, especially with the gates to the stadium being wide open.
It wasn't as no member of the front office was available, although I did speak to the grounds crew about Calfee Park, which is barely distinguishable from the place that Ryan, Battlin' Bob and I visited all those years ago.
The parent Yankees have spent a lot of money on Calfee Park and visually it has been a huge upgrade, but it looks to be a far more difficult place to autograph with more netting, new seating and lesser access.
Pulaski has consistently been my favorite place to go in the Appy League with great management through the years, a charming older park and Calfee always had the small town "baseball like it used to be" feel to the stadium.
For all the upgrades and they are upgrades, I'll miss the old Calfee Park.
I'll have some pictures later in the road trip series for our return to Pulaski.

And onto the new kingpin of the TRS Appy League standings, Johnson City, where they have taken a stadium that was horrible for autographing twelve years ago and made it an excellent place today, but
it's more than that makes TVA Credit Union Park the new champ as they retained their covered grandstand, added more space to move around the stadium, renovated their clubhouse area and added more concessions, plus they sell Dr. Enuf!
Enuf said and pun intended!

Our trip twelve years ago to the then-named Howard Johnson Field didn't see us watch a game there, but we did walk inside and look around and I'm glad we did or I wouldn't remember the infamous right field hill, which made the Hagerstown Municipal left field area look like a small speed bump.
The picture from that day shows the hill in its glory and although I'm a big fan of quirky features in stadiums, I can understand why the parent club insisted that the hill be removed as the stadium was improved.
If you didn't know it had been there previously, I'd bet you could look to the outfield and be unable to tell what once was a key part of the alignment.

As far as graphing goes, the access is far easier than in the past as now the first base side has an area for fans to buy beer, mill around and not be closed in and since that area was created, lots of space opened up.
I worked on the Burlington Royals team set (Sadly Johnson City still doesn't make one), while Fred took the few cards that I had from players that had Peoria and State College, including Malcom Nunez, an 18-year-old Cuban third baseman, who was in the Midwest League's top prospect set and was a player drafted in our fantasy league by someone.
Fred was able to quickly knock those out with the help of a child that Fred reports all the players know and regard as a superfan/team mascot.
I managed to add most of the Royals except for some of the relievers that didn't need to come all the way to where we were with the bullpen close to the clubhouse.
Lefty is a beer connoisseur and would order beer from the various parks that we visited, but this one was interesting as the beer server was from Hagerstown and worked for the Suns for a few years before moving to Johnson City!
She was involved with the Suns food operations, which is likely why I don't remember her, she was very nice and we enjoyed talking to her at various points in the game.
 

The game was nothing special with the Royals crushing the Cardinals 13-0, but we slogged through because we needed Daniel Lynch, a top Royals prospect that spent most of the year at High A Wilmington and made the Carolina League all-star team before a minor injury.
Lynch was making a rehab start for Burlington in the series and I thought he'd be more likely to sign in the more laid-back locale of Johnson City.
Lynch was very nice as he signed all three of my cards-Wilmington, Carolina League prospect, and all-star and chatted about the graphing experience in Frederick.

We then drove back to our hotel in Asheville to check-in and where we would be stationed at for the next four nights.
It was a good first day in Johnson City and elsewhere to start the trip and we still had three days of baseball to go.
I'll be working on the second day soon, but likely next week after the football previews for the opening of the college season this weekend.

Road Trip: Lakewood and Trenton

The road trip schedule continued with two ballparks and one of which seems likely to be my only new ballpark for 2019.

I was able to get out of work an hour early on Sunday morning thanks to a kind co-worker and with a waiting Mike Oravec outside work, we were on our way to meet Fred Landucci in Mechanicsburg Pa, where we would then move toward Lakewood New Jersey.
After meeting Fred, I would sleep much of the ride to Lakewood, so I missed seeing whatever was along the way!

The home of the Blue Claws, who we see here in Hagerstown seemingly every few weeks (Not quite true, but they come to Hagerstown four times this year and always are the team that visits most) is a very nice facility.
The Blue Claws, who didn't have a large number of fans on this day, but usually lead the South Atlantic League in attendance, were playing the Greensboro Grasshoppers on this day and since I had a grand total of one card for the Hoppers, I decided to work on a few Blue Claws stragglers for my sets and one that I am working on for Brian Bice, my trader in California.
I had to return to the car though as Lakewood doesn't allow backpacks etc.
That's becoming more and more normal at stadiums and with a nut like me that needs the feeling of organization, I miss that.
I always feel that I'm setting things down, afraid I'll forget them and even more afraid I'll knock something around and ding a card or worse screw up an IPad.
I should learn to get used to this because I think it's going to happen more and more.

We worked our way down the right-field stands where a few pitchers were working under the tutelage of their pitching coach Matt Hockenberry, who we talked to after he was finished working.
Turns out that Hockenberry is from Waynesboro. Pa which is where Mike lives.
I was able to get a few cards signed, most notably the Blue Claws teenage shortstop prospect Luis Garcia on his SAL prospect card.
I still have some cards left over, but with two more visits to Hagerstown on tap, I feel pretty good about getting those finished.

Lakewood isn't one of those "urban" parks that seem to be the current rage (and if Hagerstown ever receives a new stadium, it'll be one of those cramped on top of everyone without decent parking style parks), it's not out of town, but has plenty of space around the field and for parking.
I know the urban stadium looks tremendous on television and the visual effect can be really cool, but give me the easy to get to stadium outside the downtown area any day of the week.
The park that it reminded me of most that I have visited was the Tennessee Smokies Stadium in Sevierville, I asked Fred who has also been to Tennessee (Mike has not) if it reminded him of Tennessee and he agreed,
The view from the concourse was similar and the grassy area beyond the outfield wall made me think of Tennessee as well.
The team store was huge with lots to offer and lots of space, which many team stores lack.
We watched a little, I bought Fred a hot dog that he reported was crap, while I had some nachos that while they weren't awful, they did lack some zip to keep us going before we left for our next ballpark and what looks to be barring a surprise, my only new park of the season,

Lakewood's field has to rank at the top of the SAL fields that I have visited (I am missing the new Augusta stadium, Rome, Columbia, and Charleston) and I've read that when the stadium was built that it was built to AA standards in the event that an opportunity to move up arrived.
I doubt that happens as it would mean either the parent Phillies would have to give up their long-time AA affiliate in Reading or accept a new parent club and I'm not sure either of those things occurs.

We arrived at Trenton to catch a few innings at Arm and Hammer Park and add Trenton to the ballparks that I have visited (number 69 on the list).
The home of the Thunder is literally about 2 miles off an exit directly on the route to and from Lakewood, so the small detour is next to nothing time-wise.
If you do visit the Thunder, there is a huge parking lot in the back of the stadium, but very little in the front and by what I saw, a big crowd might have their problems in post-game traffic.

After getting our tickets and climbing a sizable amount of stairs to reach the grandstand ( if you have issues with step climbing as Fred does, you may want to keep that in mind), Arm and Hammer Park has a feature that I've never seen before- a screened in concourse.
It wasn't really a distraction and it was unusual, but I was surprised to see it covering the concourse.
I'm not sure how I feel about it and it felt like overkill considering the net behind the backstop, but I suppose it doesn't hurt anyone to be a little safer.
Looking around the stadium, I really didn't see anything remarkable or that stood out, other than if you walked along the first base side and looked over the wall, you could see the Delaware River flowing rapidly.
Much like FNB Field in Harrisburg and the Susquehanna River that runs along with the stadium,  the designers of the field might have missed the boat in not facing the field in the opposite direction and cost what could have been a beautiful view beyond the outfield fence.

Photo Credit: New Jersey Amateur Baseball League

While it is possible for a player to hit the baseball into the Delaware in fair territory and it has said to have happened, it could have been so much better for the fan with the river behind the outfield.
This picture shows the field and imagine if the home plate was located in either left or center and what the fans could have seen.

We watched a bit of the game but decided to leave before the game's conclusion.
There was still plenty to drive and the weather was hot, yet windy with the location being closer to the beach than we are used to.
I thought Trenton was a pretty average ballpark, nothing special for a AA level ballpark and although I didn't do any autographing to know how much access is available there, I'm not sure I'd make a special trip to return to Trenton.
I would definitely return to Lakewood though and if I was going there, I'd consider a short stop in Trenton.

In both Lakewood and Trenton, we asked around about a good place to eat on the way home outside of Trenton's traffic, but not far enough to wait too long to eat.
The name that we remembered was JB Dawson's in Langhorne, PA and when we saw Langhorne, looked it up on Trip Advisor and saw it was rated number one, it was the choice for us even though we had to immediately swerve to the next exit to get to JB Dawson's which we could see from the road!

JB Dawson's was a bit pricey in their steaks, which I really could have gone for, but I settled for a hamburger, which was good enough, but the winner was the appetizer-Philly cheesesteak stuffed into egg rolls!
These egg rolls were so delicious that they were gone so quickly between us that I didn't even have time to take a picture!

The drive home didn't seem to take very long as it was filled with good conversation ( that I took part in unlike the ride there) and before you know it, I was home and ready to get to bed shortly after.
I would definitely go back to Lakewood, where the graphing access is very good, although it does have a reputation for attracting graphers when big prospects come to town.
A fun day with new places to mark off on the list-Good times!

Back later with what will likely be the final inbox cleaning with some recent passings.

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!!!