Day Three-Chattanooga and Tennessee

The trip entered its final day with stops in Chattanooga and Sevierville-the respective homes of the Lookouts and Smokies.

A quick stop for breakfast at Shoney's was an unexpected treat.
We couldn't (and didn't) stay long, but since Shoney's has left our area completely, it was cool to return there.
I never really liked their dinner menu very much, but I always liked their breakfast buffet...

Chattanooga was two hours away from Nashville and we had to move quickly because in order to do pre-game there and still make it to Sevierville for post-game, we had to keep moving.
The interesting thing about the road to Chattanooga (which sounds like a network promo for an NCAA tournament) was that we kept seeing these signs for Ruby Falls and Rock City, which I had never heard of before, but I'll not forget soon!

Chattanooga really is on top of a mountain-so much so that the team has an escalator installed at AT&T Field to bring fans from the parking lot to the field.
It's a steep climb and I bet older fans (and ones like me) appreciate the escalator, but the hill is so steep that a down escalator might be a good future investment.
When we left, the hill was pretty steep and I bet some people have fallen through the years at Chattanooga.
Upon entering, we were serenaded by the lady that gives away their programs with "Free Programs, FREE"! She was so loud that you could hear her at the bottom of the hill in the parking lot.
I still hear her mantra in my head a week later!

The team store wasn't really up to an average AA team store to my surprise and I didn't buy anything.
I might have been tempted to buy old team sets, but usually, the team sets from past years are severely discounted and Chattanooga didn't do that at all.
The concourse felt a lot older than a ballpark opened in 2000, but the field was neat and there is a raised grandstand in the right field for some seating and a party deck as well.
We graphed in an area way down the right field line where you could get both teams, which on this day were the Lookouts (Minnesota Twins) and the Biloxi Shuckers (Milwaukee Brewers).
The Lookouts came out from behind a door right beside the right field line, while the Shuckers (and some dazzling blue uniforms) arrived through a door in right center.
I only wish the Shuckers had a hat that combined the blue with the cool oyster logo, they don't and that's too bad because I'd consider buying one of those!

I didn't bring as many cards for the two Sunday stops as I did the previous days, but there were some important players.
Chattanooga's big addition for me was Mason Melotakis, but I was able to get their manager Doug Mientiewicz on two cards for Ryan's showdown set.
It always makes me feel good to get those for Ryan because it was with Ryan after all that I started this crazy hobby that allowed me to make such good friends...
The Shuckers had the biggest catch with new top 100 player Brett Phillips, who was super nice in signing all of my cards. but also added outfielders Victor Roache and Tyrone Taylor as well.

Finally, as we prepared to leave, I was able to see Josh Hader, who I had gotten in Delmarva, and at the California/Carolina All-Star game as he prepared to chart.
Hader signed all three of my cards and when I told him of seeing him in Hagerstown, he asked "That place has more than three showers that work yet"?!
Gotta love the "House of Sadness"!!
I grabbed a frozen lemonade from the concession stand that was more slush puppie than frozen lemonade but was still very good before we traversed the hill that I noted earlier and made the two-hour trip to Sevierville, my buddy Corey White, and the Tennessee Smokies.

The Smokies ballpark was different than the one that we left back in 2011.

There were plenty of decks and buildups beyond the outfield fence in both left and right fields that didn't exist in my previous visit.
Compare the picture that I took and compare it to the 2011 picture to see some differences.
The Smokies had built things up in the ballpark and the players now stay in the hotel built next door rather than the Days Inn down the road (Corey said it had burnt down).
Meeting up with Corey, swapping items, helping Corey with Birmingham pitcher Tyler Danish and getting the lowdown on the Smokies along with the visiting Birmingham Barons, and getting to see the final two innings of the game all wrapped up the prep work for the final graphing stop of the trip.
After a team shop stop for another Doug Hopkins program, we went outside to add the Barons as the teams exit from opposite sides of the stadium.
The big get for me was 2015 first-rounder Carson Fulmer on his top 100.
Fulmer was nice enough, although the signature isn't very neat and I got to see a long-time favorite in Nicky Delmonico, a former Frederick Key that is always very accommodating.
Some other Barons were added although Courtney Hawkins slipped out somehow and getting Fulmer as well as Corey's top 100 help with Willy Adames and Conor Gillespie among others in the early year made this a great stop.

The drive home was long, but fun as we did the podcast that you see below and lots of chat with my buddies.
Thanks to Kendall for all the legwork and planning and to Derreck for setting up things on the trip.
I appreciate everything and value your friendship.
Thanks for having me!

Whew! Now that the trip recap is over, I've got a large inbox to straighten out, Cavaliers this evening. a boxing challenge to do and plan for yes -another trip this weekend!
Thanks for reading and I'll be back soon....

Day Two-Nashville

Day two saw the trip continue with the Nashville Sounds and their ballpark, which is in its second year.

We were able to eat at some pretty good places in the Music City and I'll get into those as we go on.
We woke up and were treated to a terrific breakfast buffet at the Henpeck Village Market, which has the motif of an old country store with a fabulous buffet.
It was terrific and if I'm ever in Franklin (a Nashville suburb) again, I'd be sure to check Henpeck out again!

There is so much to be said for southern cooking done without the chain restaurant food and we had a great lunch too at the Row, but first a trip to the ballpark for some pre-game graphing.
It wasn't a total success, but we did get some Nashville Sounds players coming in such as Max Muncy, former Pirate farmhand Andrew Lambo, who delivered the line of the day during postgame, Joe Wendle (always nice going back to his days with the Indians) and Dillon Overton, who was especially cool in chatting with us a bit.
Fresno and their Grizzlies came in on two shuttle buses, but we left before the second of the two showed up.
We did get Colin Moran to sign one card (Moran was just promoted to Houston on Wednesday) as it seemed that most of the Fresno players that we needed were on bus two.

We were then off to the Row for lunch.
The Row is near downtown Nashville, but not in the middle of the tourist area, and looks like a retro "run down" joint, but on the inside is anything but.
The country music motif is in evidence here as each booth honors a different country music star on the wall with a huge picture and biography.
The Row features barbeque (although it isn't just B-Q) and I ordered a pulled B-Q turkey sandwich with fries.
I was very thirsty after being outside and guzzled several sodas (Thank goodness that they were diet Cokes) and the meal was excellent.

Nashville is in its second season at First Tennessee Park and it is a great park.
The stadium has a wide concourse and on a night that was a sellout, that was a huge help.
The team store was one of the best that I've ever been to and I bought Cherie and Rachel each a Nashville Sounds shirt and a program for Doug Hopkins.
The stadium has great sightlines and of course a newer version of the famous guitar scoreboard from their previous home at Greer Stadium.
This version is bright and more high-tech than the famous one and I love stuff like this inside stadiums.
I wish more stadiums would have such features unique to their area and history!

Pre-game graphing was tough with a sellout crowd.
I did get a few guys with the best being Matt Olson of the Sounds, who signed his 2015 top 100.
Olson was a bigger deal than I thought when we were told afterward that he rarely signs.
Those top 100's are always important, but even more so when you only get one shot at getting them finished.
I also was able to get one of Renato Nunez of the Sounds and Chad Pinder as well.
Nunez was reported to be not so bad as a signer, but Pinder was noted as being occasionally tough.
Derreck got blown off by former Hagerstown Sun Jake Smolinski when he asked if he would sign, Derreck was met with a sneer and "not right now" with the unspoken term being not at all.
Derreck tried again for Smolinski off the field from warmups and was met with a barely discernible head shake no.

I spent much of the game talking to a family in front of us that told me that it was their first Sounds games and that the father was a high school friend of Dan Uggla, the former big league second baseman that rehabbed with the Suns last season.
The game was nothing special (a Sounds win) that saw Derreck's new friend Jake Smolinski homer, but the best part was the racing country music legends.
Johnny Cash, George Jones, and Reba McIntyre were a fun and interesting touch that again brought a local flavor.
Imagine that compared to a beer can, wine glass, and beer bottle.....

We did manage to get a few guys off the field from Fresno-Matt Duffy (3/3), Andrew Aplin (2/2), and Nolan Fontana (1/3) before going to the back of the stadium to try to do some more post-game.
I met local graphers Shane and Bryce there and they were involved in the line of the night as they asked the aforementioned Andrew Lambo to sign.
As they tried to get to their cards quickly (On this trip, I knew the feeling) Lambo said "Fellows, the shot clock is on in this situation" and walked away.

The Fresno shuttle went inside the stadium and few made the walk down to us.
Tony Kemp (since called up to Houston) did, but I didn't have cards for him and Jonathan Singleton was a pleasant surprise in signing three cards for me.
The rest didn't bother including former Hagerstown Sun Eury Perez, so that was about it for the Grizzlies.
I did get a few more Sounds including fast-moving pitcher Daniel Mengden, who signed three cards, and Rangel Ravelo on his heritage card before we left.

We left through the craziness of downtown and saw all the craziness of the tourist section in Nashville, but the funny part was after we took a wrong turn on the way back.
We went to turn around and were in a parking lot with a large sign that said something motel and touted its rate-three hours for twenty-eight dollars!
We said it was the type of place that was so slimy that we should have had condoms for our tires!
The even better part was the two vehicles on our bumper waiting to turn into the motel!!

All and all -I really enjoyed Nashville, the park, and its surroundings, and added some pretty good stories to the bank too.
I'll try to be back later with a look at the Cavaliers win and maybe tomorrow with the final day in Chattanooga and in Sevierville for the Tennessee Smokies!

Day One-Bowling Green

One of my trips for 2016 was off to a great start and as I got off work early to be driven by Kendall Morris and accompanied by Derreck Chupak to Bowling Green Kentucky for a visit to the Bowling Green Hot Rods,the Low A (Midwest League) affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Kendall likes to drive fast and stop seldom,but I must add a story to our only stop for gas in West Virginia.
I'm not sure of the exact name of our stop,but the sign following it was "Big Otter" WV and the stop was a treat.
As I pumped the gas,Derreck and Kendall went inside and reported that the cashier ran to the back of the store like the old 1980's WWF wrestler the Repo Man!


As I came in,Derreck was loudly crowing about his "new hick friend" who had touted "just down the road is the geological center of West Virginia"!
Being that I imagine that the rock that was the "geological" center,doesn't really exist by itself-I guess that he meant "Geographical",which was funny enough on its own merits,but to add "my new hick friend" cracked me up.
Cracked me up to the point of being unable to look the cashier in the eye as I checked out with Derreck and Kendall already out the door and because I couldn't look him in the eye,I got a view of this guy's name tag "Denzl" as in Denzel Washington,but missing the second "E".
I just couldn't stop laughing as I left the store and entered the car.
We discussed Denzl a good bit over the course of this trip!!

We drove through most of Kentucky,including a really neat drive through Lexington that enabled me (an old horse racing fan) to ride by Keeneland Race Course and the famous Calumet Farm.
For me,that was a really big deal just to see as we drove by..
When we finally arrived at Bowling Green (very hungry),we were greeted by the ballpark not opening until 30 minutes before the game instead of the standard 60 minutes.
That would then mean a severe cut in the amount of time spent graphing,time that would come back to haunt us later.

We did manage to get some players from the Hot Rods,which was the more important of the two teams rather than the visiting Lake County Captains,who we can see when they jump a level to High A in the Carolina League.
The best prospects were Jake Cronenworth (hitting .377 as of this writing),and former Maryland Terrapin Brandon Lowe.
We were able to meet Lowe's parents at the game as well as they were visiting from Virginia.
The most intriguing prospect was one that we didn't have a card for-left reliever Jose Alvarado.
Alvarado hit 98 on the radar gun and consistently was in the 95-96 range,but struggled with control.
A lefty arm like that will get plenty of chances with Tampa Bay and beyond.

The food at BG was memorable as in being Suns-worthy in being bad.
My hot dogs were decided upon after dreadful ratings for the burger and fries by both Kendall and Derreck.
They were average at best,but beat the reports on the pizza that Derreck and Kendall gave.
Between the crummy food and two dollars for a program that wasn't as good as the one that the Frederick Keys give away for free,the Hot Rods concessions left much to be desired.

But there were two positives to the Hot Rods.
One was sitting next to Kim,a superfan that was super into the game and knowledgable to boot.
I didn't introduce myself,but I really enjoyed sitting near her and watching her enthusiasm.
The other was Jennifer Johnson (I looked on her nametag).
Jennifer walked the concourse and seemed interested in interacting with fans,answering questions and actually listened-which is a refreshing change from the Suns.
Ms.Johnson is exactly the type of person the Suns need and if I owned the Suns,I'd be calling her tomorrow for the GM job,but in her current position,she was quite impressive-the Hot Rods need to keep her around.

I was using the "book" of a friend to try for the trip and frankly,I didn't care for it.
It was mostly me being uncomfortable with it and getting flustered,but it just wasn't smooth for me.
Every grapher has their own ways of doing things and what works for one grapher can be clunky and
difficult to handle.
In the end,it has to be what works for you in getting to what you need quickly and easily and for me,that just isn't the book.

In between games,Derreck and I discovered the outfield at Bowling Green and that gives the best access of all.
The players walk from their clubhouses to the field through a walkway in left-center field and through a set of steps,you can get players from both teams,which we managed to get a lot of players to sign between games.
We figured we would be able to finish up in that area after the game,but alas it was a fireworks night and we weren't allowed in the area.

In the end,I just didn't feel the "it factor" in Bowling Green from the fans and from a ballpark that opened seven years ago and felt like it was twice that age,
Ok,but nothing spectacular other than stretching that stadium chart a little further west...

Back tomorrow or later with day two in Nashville....

Podcast: Chasing Cardboard Episode 2!

The podcast returns with Chasing Cardboard with Derreck Chupak and Kendall Morris from the road!
We catch up on lost time and discuss our trip to Kentucky and Tennessee...

Podcast-The Graphing Guys return!

The graphing guys return as Brad Adams and Kendall Morris return to talk graphing,baseball,toys and more including Suckerman????