Mike's Day

The Friends and Family series rolls on with five questions from Mike Oravec.
Mike is one of my two regular traveling partners from when there was actually baseball to watch and Mike was gracious enough to participate in the series.

Mike: What are your thoughts on Andy Kaufman's wrestling career?

TRS: Well, his spots on the Memphis television show are hilarious to watch even today as Kaufman plays the role of big Hollywood star talking down to the Southerners and driving them crazy by hitting them in their sore spot- the stereotypes that people from the South aren't very intelligent.
Very few things will make someone from the South madder than some bigshot from the West Coast (let alone that is originally from New York City) telling them how inferior they are and their quality of life is as well and Kaufman did that to the hilt.
Kaufman played the heel very well, but what isn't remembered as well is that Kaufman's run in Memphis didn't do as well at the box office as so many believe.
I wasn't positive though, so I asked an expert in John McAdam.
John is the host of the successful Stick to Wrestling podcast and I asked him about the legend of Lawler-Kaufman as an attendance hit.

"Jerry Lawler vs Kaufman with the neck brace angle on April 5, 1982, drew 8,091 (at the Memphis Mid-South Coliseum), Lawler vs the Colossus of Death with Andy Kaufman drew 9,194 on May 2, 1983, and Jimmy Hart and Andy Kaufman vs Lawler drew 8,774 on July 4, 1983.
All of these were slight upticks in attendance, but Kaufman vs Jimmy Hart on July 11, 1983, as an undercard match drew 7,466- No difference.
Lawler and Kaufman vs Jimmy Hart and Assassin #1 on July 18, 1983, drew 6,790- You can see where we're going here, the novelty was over.
On November 14, 1983, Andy Kaufman (wearing boxing gloves) and Jimmy Hart against Jerry Lawler drew 3,800.
Attendance was down anyway, but this didn't help and Kaufman vs Lawler in a "Wrestling vs Boxing" match on November 21, 1983, drew 3,800 in Kaufman's final appearance and you can see why"
In other words, as brilliant as the microphone work as Andy Kaufman was, it didn't pay off at the box office for the Memphis territory

Thanks to John McAdam for his thoughts on the drawing power of Andy Kaufman and if you like wrestling from the 70s and 80s, give Stick to Wrestling a listen as it is one of the top podcasts each week that I enjoy!


Mike: Ball Four is a great book- What is your favorite story from the book?

TRS: Wow. This one is tough.
So many lines from the book are constantly swapped between Ryan and me and so many great stories that it's hard to choose one.
I've always been partial to the Astros team bus complete with singing "It makes a fellow proud to be an Astro'" and the players riding manager Harry Walker at an Old-Timers game.
I cannot think of Sicks Stadium without thinking of Jim Bouton breaking into the stadium to grab Gerry McNertney's knuckleball glove after hours, only to see that guard dogs were around after he had left.
But there can be only one and it is the story of Fred Talbot's "Home Run for the Money" that won Donald DuBois of Gladstone Oregon $27,000 (which currently would be over $188,000!).
Talbot hit a homer during a "home run inning" and won Dubois this money, so the Pilots bullpen sent Talbot a letter from "DuBois" promising him five thousand dollars with the joke progressing from there!

Mike: Name one sporting event on your bucket list and why so?

TRS: I'm not as much of an event person as I am a venue person.
For example, I'd like to see Churchill Downs, but I don't have to be there for the Kentucky Derby.
But to answer your question, I think I'd like to go to a college basketball tournament and see the entire tournament from start to finish.
And I think I'd also prefer a mid-major or small conference tournament so that the seats could be good without breaking the bank.
Examples for a few would be the MAC tournament in Cleveland, the Ohio Valley in Evansville, Indiana, or the CAA tournament in Washington.



Mike: Name your all-time baseball announcers for radio and television

TRS: It's funny that the current announcers that I'm familiar with are the television people, but the past announcers, I am better versed in the radio game-callers.

Television, I've always thought Bob Costas is top-notch nationally and his NBC game of the week pairing with Tony Kubek was outstanding.
Team announcers for television? I wouldn't have become a Giants fan without being hooked by San Francisco's team of Mike Krukow, Duane Kuiper, and Amy Gutierrez.
I was a big fan of Baltimore's' 1980s and 90s team of Mel Proctor and John Lowenstein.
I know Hawk Harrelson was a polarizing figure, but I got the biggest kick out of him during his years with the White Sox.
I've liked Bob Carpenter well before his time with Washington and I also think Brian Anderson of the Brewers is excellent.
I also like the teams in Texas with Dave Raymond, Tom Grieve, and Emily McCoy and Tampa Bay with veteran Dwayne Staats, the "other" Brian Anderson (the former Indians pitcher), and Tricia Whitaker.

On the radio, you have to love Vin Scully with the Dodgers and Bob Prince with the Pirates in the same manner as Hawk Harrelson.
I've always thought Pittsburgh lost a gem in Lanny Frattare when they let him go in 2008 and I loved the Reds duo of Marty Brennaman and Joe Nuxhall.


Mike: What is the one thing that you would change in professional sports today?

TRS: There are many things I would say, but the number one would eliminating the "one and done" rule for basketball players.
The NBA won't allow high schoolers to enter without one year in college and as a result, the college game has been weakened in quality with hired guns playing one year for most notably Duke and Kentucky among a few.
My answer would be this- Use the baseball rule.
You can enter the draft out of high school, but once you attend your first class you are not eligible for the draft for three years.
The college game will improve with better players for a longer time, the pro game can add those impact players right away, and for the player that isn't an impact player, has potential, but doesn't want to play the facade of college player?
That's where the NBA's minor league can come in with an agreement to farm out those players.
College basketball was so much fun before this rule and it needs to change to get back what it has lost.

Thanks to Mike for his questions and thanks again to John McAdam for his help!
I'll be back with more soon!

Road Trip: Akron

Before we begin, because of this trip and yesterday's IFL Draft, I have yet to watch the weekend's DAZN or FS1 boxing cards. I have watched the Sergey Kovalev fight from Russia and I'll be doing a post on the weekend boxing when I have a chance.

A day/night trip to Akron with Mike Oravec was different than planned, but different isn't always bad and this day was a great time!

The Akron Rubber Ducks had originally scheduled Brian Baumgartner "Kevin Malone" from "The Office" fame for a bobblehead/meet and greet event back in the off-season.
As a huge "Office" fan, I immediately wanted to do it and Mike, who never watched the show, was happy getting to graph, travel and look around for items in his collection and we scheduled this and the event ASAP.
The problem arrived a few days before the event when Baumgartner was forced to cancel due to an acting role.
This is not uncommon in these situations and in contracts for appearances, there almost always is a clause that allows the actor to back out of the obligation if they are offered an acting role.
Akron kept hustling and landed what would have been a more than acceptable replacement in Leslie David Baker "Stanley Hudson" from the Office.
However, Baker had just appeared in Frederick two weeks before and Baker had already signed the picture that we (Cherie and Rachel's) are working on (sometime I'll write about that) and I didn't need him.
I try to think ahead though and asked the Ducks, if we could work on the visiting Richmond Flying Squirrels and the Giants top two prospects in Joey Bart and Heliot Ramos.
The team was very gracious in allowing us to do that and Mike and I had over an hour of being alone in the ballpark to get whatever we could get signed.

Mike and I were able to knock a sizable amount of the Squirrels team out (I think I now have gotten every team set card signed that I actually saw the player at) before the crowd even stepped into the place.
However, the crowd did enter eventually and neither Bart or Ramos had hit the field as it was mostly pitchers that were out earlier.
That changed our plans on the fly as we had originally planned to end our graphing day when people arrived and instead decided to stick it out.
I didn't get Heliot Ramos, who was the last player out to the field and the last to the dugout and said after the game ( with a five-hour drive ahead, that wasn't happening ).
That's too bad because I have three really cool cards of Ramos to have signed, but I'll have other chances I hope.
I was able to add Joey Bart on his Top 100, so that was a great grab for my set with the highlight being Bart telling a kid "why do you have three of these? Are you selling them?"
Bart said it with a smile and in a teasing manner, so it wasn't being nasty at all, but it shows you how the players of today have people selling their autographs on their mind.
It doesn't happen nearly as much as they think it does, but I can't blame them for thinking that way.
The general rule of thumb, if a person has five cards and four of the five are different, it's a collector.

Mike and I then ate at the paid-for buffet before we left, which was quite good and then a stop at the team store as we wound our way through the tight concourse, which is always tight at Canal Park.
Akron is a single deck downtown stadium and those stadiums have usually one concourse for the entire crowd, which makes it very tight and with no room for expansion or renovation, it will just have to be something that you deal with when you go to Akron.
I know many folks like the urban ballparks, but give me the wide-open suburban stadiums anytime.

The game and autographs were nice, but the highlight was the stop on the trip to Akron.
There is a massive antique market that would take hours to get through to do it right, but Mike and I try to stop whenever we are in the area to look around and see what we find.

On this day, we would both get lucky and find some things for our respective collections.
Mike ran through one end of the football field-sized store, while I did the other.
As I moved through, I was taking pictures of anything that I thought Mike would be interested in, mainly because doing this in the past I could not remember all of the locations that items were located in and we would waste time finding them.
I found it to be very helpful and I'll be doing it again in future visits.

I took a picture of one booth in particular with old collectibles and figured Mike would be interested in at least taking a look.
Mike was thrilled to find something that he had never seen before and bought a program from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which of course was made famous from the film "A League Of Their Own".
It wasn't cheap, but Mike did take advantage of it being reduced from its starting point and you could see how happy it made him as he found this rare program.

I did pretty well with a bobblehead and two programs as well.
I'm not sure if I had ever written about the 1970's era Cavaliers bobbleheads (Austin Carr, Bingo Smith, and Campy Russell) that were only given to season ticket holders for the Cavaliers, but I always wanted to add the next generation of the series as well.
I didn't find all of them, but I did find the Larry Nance third for twenty bucks, which was rare enough, but an equal find was two wrestling programs from Canton from 1960 at twelve dollars apiece.
I'm not a huge wrestling collector, but at this stage and similar to Mike, when you see something that you've never seen before and have the money to buy it- you should!
As for Nance, he was a player that I watched in college (Clemson), spent his entire career playing for the two teams that I rooted for (Cavaliers and Suns) during his era and if I had to pick one of the three pieces of the set (also Mark Price and Brad Daugherty) to find, I'd select Larry Nance.

All and all, a very successful trip and a fun one as well.
I always enjoy graphing trips and I love hitting places in Ohio, where I have a better chance of finding things that I really want for my collection.
Mike and I have a great time together and the time truly does fly by when we go on these ventures.
The season is nearing its end, but the fun of hanging out with your friends never goes away.

I haven't forgotten about the longest trip yet, but that might wait until September with the frenetic pace of the final week of the season!

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.

Road Trip: Salem

When planning the trip, we had two options depending on how well we did at Lynchburg.
If things went poorly, we would return to Lynchburg for another chance, but conversely, should things go well enough, we would drive the little over an hour to the home of the Salem Red Sox.

After doing decently after Saturday's game, we decided to take our victory and see what we could in Salem.
I usually send Fred a handful of restaurant suggestions and then he'll pick what he thinks looks best.
I sent a few after being in the hotel that night, but Mike and I then decided to let this be Fred's day and see what he wanted, whether those few or one of his own finds.
Fred selected a place called Mac and Bob's, which turned out to be a Red Sox sponsor.
It's always nice when it suits to reward the businesses that sponsor a local team and although we found that out in hindsight, it still was a pleasure.

Mac and Bob's was a place with plenty of seating and they said they were serving brunch.
Fred visibly winced and audibly groaned as he still talks a few years later about a place in Charleston WV serving a "Betwixt" menu.
Still, we decided to check their brunch menu out and if that is a reduced version, I wonder about their offerings on their regular card!
I thought about one of the burgers, but I had been eating a decent amount of those, so I asked about the chicken tenders appetizer (fries added for one dollar).

Many times, places serve some chicken tenders that can be pretty scrawny and I knew that we likely wouldn't be eating for a while, so I asked about the size.
Our waitress said there were five "hefty" tenders and that it would be no problem holding me for a while.
Sure enough, they were huge and took multiple bites to finish one-plus they were delicious with the buffalo sauce that I mixed with bleu' cheese.
I'm almost positive that should we ever return to Salem, Mac and Bob's will be a must stop.
My problem is chicken or burger???

I had been to Salem a few times, so I had a general idea of the layout and how best to position ourselves for the day.
I had gotten most of the home Red Sox earlier in the month when Salem visited Frederick, but the visiting Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Chicago Cubs) would not make their first visit to Maryland until late in May, so they were the target, mainly due to the presence of the top prospect of the Cubs- Panamanian catcher Miguel Amaya.

Amaya was the biggest catch with his entry into this years Top 100 set and after we nabbed a few pitchers from various team sets, Amaya moved out for warmups. If you look straight down at the picture shown, the other two graphers were located there, where Amaya signed for them.
We called for Amaya and he started to walk down, when he was called by other players to warm up, he stopped and told us "I have to go, but I'll be right back".
You hear that a lot from players and only occasionally do they come through and even rarer than that are they friendly, so we were wondering just what he would do.
Sure enough, as soon as warmups concluded, Amaya jogged right over and said "Sorry about that, I had to warm up".
Amaya spoke with us and signed all four of my cards, a ball for Fred and whatever cards Mike had before saying thanks guys and trotting to the dugout.
The player that I needed most had signed and that was all four Top 100's for the trip!

The two other players that I wanted most were returning Pelicans from last season.
I had gotten a few Alex Lange's since I last saw Myrtle Beach last season, but Lange was the starter, so I didn't bother him.
Lange's April might have placed him in a bad mood anyway as after this outing- Lange had pitched only nine innings over four starts with a season ERA of TWENTY ONE!
Twenty-year-old shortstop Aramis Ademan played last season for the Pelicans as a heavily hyped prospect but struggled in hitting only .207 in 114 games, so returning Ademan to Myrtle Beach made plenty of sense for both the shortstop and the Cubs.
Last year, Ademan was one per and not always that, so I didn't count on my two cards (Eugene Emeralds and Bowman) getting signed.
Fred asked him to sign and he said "after the game", which is a refrain often heard of late, but Fred was digging in "We won't be here, we have a four-hour drive home, so we are only staying a bit".
I was more than surprised to see Ademan smile, walk over, ask how we were and where we were going back to as he signed both.
Great job-Fred!

We watched a little bit and started moving towards home, stopping this at Jess' Lunch, which is the place that Mike wanted to stop on the way down but was closed.
I wasn't starved, but I had what Mike had- two hot dogs and a side of fries.
It was about as basic as one could get and since they cater to the students at local James Madison University, it's exactly how to build a local icon.
After that, it was straight home and we were at the end of the weekend trip.

I'd make this trip again in the future, should the schedules align.
Lynchburg is a bit better than Salem for graphing since postgame at Salem is dependent on being allowed into a certain area, which from what we have been told isn't always the case there.
Still, Salem isn't awful and you can get some things done there.

Another successful trip and I had a great time with Fred and Mike.
May looks light other than the usual circuit, but June is looking fun and I'll be looking forward to the next road trip.
I'm going to try to work on day three of the Browns draft in the next post unless breaking news shoves that down the road.

Road Trip:Auburn and home..

The road trip season concluded with our trip to Auburn New York for a visit to the short season home of the Nationals.

Mike and I awoke early and began the drive to Niagara Falls for my first visit there.
I expected a kitschy souvenir-filled place and it was that, but the actual falls were anything but that.
I mean really, you could see all of the various tourist places from "scenic" overlooks, "walking" under the falls and the boats going around and under the falls (memorable to me for where Jim and Pam were married on "The Office") and it was all of that.

However, there was more to them than that. There was a lot of walking (I bet Mike and I walked at least 3 miles round trip by the time we got back to our car), but the view of the actual falls was so worth it.
I have to be honest as we walked and saw several less-than-impressive falls, I was starting to think that Niagara was way overrated, but then we reached the "real" falls and it was breathtaking!

Mike's not the greatest heights guy so he stayed way back.
I'm not that bad, but I'm not a person who likes to peer down over the side, so the above picture is as close as I am going to get to do that.
Mike and I walked and checked out a few of the shops as I looked for a souvenir for Cherie and Rachel (I would eventually go with a keychain for Rachel and a snow magnet for Cherie) and it was fun looking through those stores, even though I was concerned I was boring Mike a bit!

Mike and I had to make our way back through Niagara Falls and we had scoped out a place near our hotel to eat at-Buffalo Wing Joint and Pub.
We were the first people in the "joint" and I hadn't eaten in almost 24 hours, so I was starved.
I ordered a burger and wings, figuring that if I was full, I'd put leftovers in the cooler.
I walked around the pub while we waited and the decor was cool- This autographed jersey of longtime TRS favorite Jim Kelly was at the table across from us and they had my favorite arcade game of all time (USA vs USSR hockey) that I spent so many hours playing as a high schooler and even occasionally Cherie and later even Ryan.
I didn't play, but I had to have a picture of a game that meant so much to me years ago!
When our food came out, the wings (2nd hottest) were delicious!
Ranking among the top I've had, but I turned to the burger and Bleech!!!
Those of you who know me know I order my steaks very rarely, but my burger medium well- this was barely rare, so it had to go back.
The waiter was very apologetic and offered a new burger, but I took more wings instead-it was a great call!

We left Niagara and moved towards Auburn.
Our original thought was to do Auburn and then hit Rochester after that to mark that park off on the schedule.
However, Rochester would be an hour in the opposite direction of home, so it would be two extra hours on the road. so we stopped at Auburn early to prep team sets.
We were treated so well by Shane Truman, the assistant general manager that I remarked going to the car, that I would almost rather skip Rochester and spend extra time here all things considered and Mike jumped on that idea quickly, so we killed a little time in town before returning to Falcon Field.

Falcon Field is an old-time park that doesn't look its age.
The field is maintained incredibly well and looks much better than many fields that I've seen at higher levels.
The food is varied and reasonably priced and one can tell that the management and community care about its team and its facility.
I really liked Falcon Park and I would prefer it to our other old-school stop in Batavia.
It seemed that the people in the office and in the stands just care more, which isn't a knock on Batavia.
My only issue came in graphing-Mike graphed visiting State College, I took the home Auburn and I had asked beforehand about where I could go and where I couldn't and was told that since there was not a party I could go to an open area very near the clubhouse.

I moved to this area and immediately started knocking off cards and felt I was about to redeem myself for my poor day in Batavia!
It was too easy and I was loading when an older employee moved down and told me "This is a restricted area, you can't be here".
I tried to explain that I had been given the OK from the assistant.GM to be down here from earlier and this response was "The GM sent me here, he outranks the assistant, you have to go".
I finished the two players I was getting and followed directions.
I'm the outsider, I wasn't going to be "that guy" from out of town who acts like a jerk, I hate it when others do that on our circuit and I wasn't going to be that way.
I did ask what the problem was as I packed up and the response was great.
"Well, Jerad Head (Auburn Manager) had been complaining that kids were asking for autographs during the game".
"Well, I'm far from a kid and there are still 45 minutes before the game, so that doesn't fly"...

I moved to a different spot and was able to have all the position players except one sign their Auburn cards, but I would only add one more pitcher because the access wasn't good for them.
The pitcher though was the National's number one pick, Seth Romero.
I had taken three baseballs for Fred and Michael Landucci, thinking that Romero didn't have any baseball cards.
Auburn had done such a good job with the team set (Brigham Hill was one of the NY/Penn top prospects and had left Auburn maybe 10 days before, yet the turnover time had Hill, not in the set) that Romero was included.
Normally, that would be good news, but now I suddenly had 4 cards (I was working on 4 team sets for others) and three baseballs, so I'm not especially smooth with many things, to begin with.
Seth was very nice as I explained I was from Hagerstown, getting stuff signed, etc, and said no problem as he signed he said: "I got you, no problem".
I switched from cards to baseballs along with Sharpies to pen and talked with Romero-very cool and the opposite of how he was portrayed to me, which goes to show that you really have to see for yourself about people and even then, things can vary from night to night.
Regular people like anyone else.

We watched about half the game and hit the road for home as we finished our road trip with plenty of driving.
I had a great time on all of my trips this year and I'm already beginning to look at schedules to toss around trips for next year.
Thanks to all of my friends for the great trips this year and now it's onto the offseason, lots of work and replenishing that war chest to be ready for next year... 

Road Trip: Buffalo and Batavia

We return to the road trip series after a whole bunch of Browns news and the beginning of the football season pushed the final two days of the New York portion off to the side.

We originally were going to start our day in Batavia and shoot over to Buffalo, the problem was that the rainstorm that we ran into the previous day canceled Batavia's game, but Buffalo got their game completed, so we called an audible as we figured going to Buffalo first would allow us to do Batavia in between games of the now doubleheader and then after the game....
I thought that made a lot of sense and we shuffled off to Buffalo, which was less than an hour from our hotel.

Buffalo's Coca-Cola Field is celebrating its 30th year and even though it's 30, it isn't showing its age any as it seems to have been well maintained.
We arrived early to get tickets and asked around about a local place to get lunch and the place that most recommended didn't open until 12.
A lot of places around the stadium (this happens in other urban stadiums) didn't open until 12, which I wonder about since the stadium is supposed to drive people to the surrounding areas, yet if you open at 12 for a 1 o'clock first pitch, I would think that defeats the purpose.

We ate at one of those places that doesn't look like much from the outside, but serves great food inside as we went into Washington Square, a local bar and grill.
Washington Square was exactly like one of those bars that you see on television, complete with locals with the local accent'.

Mike had the famous wings (they didn't have boneless) and I had the other local item- Beef on Weck, a roast beef on a Kimmel weck roll.
Kimmelweck is a harder, chewier roll and it's a little hard to bite off, but the sandwich was quite good-especially with a small cup of horseradish, which I love.
I really liked Washington Square, I mean how could you not like a bar with sports pictures all over the place including a team picture of the old Buffalo Braves?

Coca-Cola Field was the first of the retro parks to be built, preceding even Baltimore's Camden Yards in 1988.
Buffalo was going after a baseball expansion team and despite the dazzling stadium came up short of the more populated Miami and Denver areas.
Buffalo still is the largest minor league stadium in the country and despite other great Triple-A parks that I have visited
(Louisville, Nashville, Durham, and Columbus have great parks),Buffalo's stadium has a special spot with fans (like Baltimore in the majors) because their park was the originator of all the ones to come.

I really liked Buffalo,I liked how it was snugly placed inside the Buffalo skyline rather than the skyline being beyond the outfield.
The other thing that I liked was the northern New York thing- the farther north that you start seeing Canadian flags and in Buffalo before the game, the Canadian anthem is played as well.

Normally, the only time the Canadian anthem is played is when a Canadian team is involved, which wasn't the case on this day, unless Gwinnett, Georgia moved way north!

It wasn't perfect, the concourse is a little cramped for a stadium of its size and the two gift shops were downright claustrophobic and that is from someone that generally isn't bothered by such problems.

We left Buffalo to go to Batavia, basically going from the hardest level of graphing (AAA) to the easiest (short season).
Even though we didn't graph Buffalo, since there was really no one that I needed for my sets, and decided to save the AAA aggravation, I was looking forward to bringing the briefcase out and working on the Williamsport Crosscutters.
The short-season affiliate of the Phillies, Williamsport was the visiting team and I would do them, while Mike did the home Muckdogs.

I didn't have to learn the layout as I had been to Dwyer Stadium last summer, so when we arrived in the middle of the 5th inning of game one, we were able to settle in.
My problems started at the end of game one, when the Crosscutters rallied to force extra innings, but then blew the game with defensive mistakes.
This meant the Cutters were not in the best moods as they entered the clubhouse, so I only got a few, but the top prospect-outfielder Jhailyn Ortiz signed two of eleven.
Ortiz was aggravated, but his family was there, watching his father, you could clearly see the pride that he had in his son.
I did get another player or two as they came onto the field for game two, but the biggest catch was former World Series hero and Williamsport manager Pat Borders, who joked about the shape of Bowman Field (who was hosting the Pirates-Cardinals game that night) when they returned to town

In between games, we decided to eat a small dinner and we planned on my return to Bourbon and Burgers, which I loved last year with Doug Hopkins.
We were disappointed to see that they were closed on Sundays, so we needed to find someplace that we wanted to try and reasonably quickly.
Around a corner, we found a small Irish pub called O'Lacy's that we decided to give a try.
I had a sandwich called the Harold that was on "weck" again with roast beef and ham with another cup of horseradish.
I enjoyed it, although if I had to choose between Washington Square and O'Lacy's, I'd go with the Buffalo pub, but not by much.

Williamsport controlled the second game and held a 3-0 lead entering the final inning and I felt like I was able to get some cards signed after a disappointing start.
That thought disappeared when Batavia scored four runs and won the second game that they should have lost on this day.
The Crosscutters were leaving town, so they just wanted to get on the bus and I was only able to get a few more players in one of the worst days graphing that I can remember -And it was in the New York/Penn League, which I usually do well in!

Disappointed (especially next to Mike's haul, where he did massive numbers with the happy pack of Muckdogs), we began to drive to Niagara Falls, which neither of us had ever seen, but wanted to.
Really, if you get this close, you should go see the Falls!

We drove to our hotel and expected to watch the Pirates and Cardinals play at Williamsport's Bowman Field, but there was a television reception problem with the hotel and ESPN wasn't on our television, due to some sort of issue!

The really odd thing was ESPN 2 and ESPN News were fine.
Mike and I watched the game on my laptop, prepped cards for the final day, and planned just how we wanted to allow the final day to play out.

While Mike went to bed, I did what I often do on the road- watch local TV.
I've written before on how I like to watch different market news people when I am on the road and remember them for future reference (remember this post and I'll be doing another one over the winter), just see how things progress.
I don't always find people that I look at and they stand out, but I saw a commercial for a new upcoming local show (a preview of the Now Buffalo show can be found here) in Buffalo and decided to watch to see if I could see more.
I only saw the same commercial another time or two, but I looked this person up on YouTube and her video work screams potential star in the news "biz".

'
Hannah Buehler was her name and I bet that eventually, we'll see her in the cable news arena- if she wants it and at minimum, she'll be the top local star in Buffalo, where she was born and raised.
Bet on Hannah making an appearance in the "If I ran a network" bi-annual post later this year...

I found myself pulling for the Bills ( and the Sabres too) a little more now since I've been there.
It reminded me a lot of Cleveland a sports-crazy "Rust Belt" town that deserves a break.
It's hard to believe since the Browns have been so terrible, but it's the Bills that currently hold the longest streak of not reaching the playoffs.

A good day, although I was mad at myself for not doing better with cards in Batavia.
Mike and I are almost planning on making Batavia (and Auburn more on that next time) an every-year stop.
Those parks are old-school baseball and (usually) easy to graph.
One day to go on the road trip, which I'll try to fit in during a busy week...

Road Trip:Scranton,Pain and the rain

My road trip through New York with Mike Oravec didn't begin well,but the fun always is around when Mike and I take trips and despite a slow start,it still was a great time...

We drove to Scranton Pa. for our first stop as the Railriders were hosting the Durham Bulls.
There wasn't anyone on either team that I really needed,but the Railriders have a legends series that they bring in a player a month (usually a former Yankee) to sign autographs and meet fans.

Neither of us had a burning desire to graph the team,but the chance to add Hall of Famer "Goose" Gossage to my 1988 and 1990 Score set was intriguing enough to start the trip in Scranton.
Sadly,we were both dismayed by the Railriders customer service.
We were in the door among the first few non season ticket holders,went straight to line up for the Goose and were as far up the line as we could be.
Yet,we never made it to the Goose.

The people in line in front of us said that this was the third time in a row that they wouldn't get the guest to sign.
That sounds like a rigged game to me-The team advertises the player using "Come See" and with letting the season ticket holders in first ( as they should),the line rarely gets to the fans that come to get the player.
Perhaps a better way would be to have a line of season ticket holders and a second line of non-holders that are told up front that they may not get one,but the chances are their's.
And of course,there's the always present rent a cop,who gave rudeness a new name.
This guy strutted up and down the line,shouting out time remaining and lied to everyone that spoke to him-"Gossage isn't taking any pictures" (Not true), "We have no control over how long he signs" (You are paying him,put more time in the contract),"Everyone is always mad at me during these things" (Ok,they weren't all lies)...
I'd go back to Scranton,but never for a legends evening.
They were rude,disrespectful to fans (I didn't have words with anyone) and I feel like they ran a con game-.

Mike and I's plans to go next to Binghamton for the second game of the doubleheader between the Rumble Ponies and Portland Sea Dogs.
However,we ran into a huge thunderstorm and pouring rain that we knew was unlikely to allow them to continue (they didn't) and going north meant getting colder in the rain too.
Since your author is an idiot and left his sweatshirt on the counter when he left-he was very cold.

Fortunately,we pulled over and called Jason Christensen,who we were supposed to meet up with the game and asked if he was at the stadium.
He wasn't,but he said we could come to his home to swap cards that I brought up for him and he graciously loaned me a shirt to wear (I wore it for the remainder of the evening as my "jacket').
Thank heavens that the rest of the weekend weather was good!
We spent a little time with Jason and his family,who had met on several of their visits to Hagerstown and then drove to our hotel between Batavia and Buffalo about two hours away.
The ride was fun and the rest of the evening was uneventful.

Not the greatest of stories for day one,but I promise the stories get better on the next two installments...

Road Trip-Salem

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Road Trip:Bristol

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Road Trip:State College

We decided to make a short day trip to State College Pa and even with the baggage that I have towards this place,I always enjoy going here-go figure.

Mike Oravec had never been to State College and his list is even longer than my extensive list so that's saying something!
That means that this noon start was circled on the calendar early in the season for Mike.
We drove north and picked up Fred Landucci and drove to State College and breakfast at IHOP.
I've always liked IHOP although I don't eat out at ours very often-mainly because you can get whatever you want (I've noted in the past that I am not a big breakfast fan),I ordered something called the Denver Omelette Burger and it was decent enough.
It's funny,I like most breakfast foods,but I'm not a fan of breakfast-strange,I know.

After breakfast,we drove the few miles to Medlar Park through what appeared to be orientation park at Penn State,
It is the paradox of my visits to State College-I dislike Penn State,their "We Are" culture and particularly the looming giant that is Beaver Stadium across the street,yet this is one of my favorite ballparks to visit.
I love the way I'm treated by the staff (as long as I don't wear Buckeye gear,LOL),there isn't a bad seat in the place and it's a great graphing park for both pre and post game.
In other words,Medlar Park is a jewel.

Medlar Park is always a great graphing stadium,which isn't always the case with fairly new stadiums.
You can graph both teams from the same spot and get a lot of things finished at once-a plus when you are only doing a stadium for one day.
We graphed the visiting Auburn Doubledays and warned their players about their promotion to Hagerstown and what awaited them them as far as the Muni goes.
I didn't have many cards for Auburn-actually just a few for one player-pitcher Yonathan Ramirez,who I had in the Hagerstown Suns team set.
Ramirez asked Mike and I,if he could keep a Suns card and Mike said sure,if he signed all his cards.
It was odd though,when Ramirez got to the last card and started to sign it,I told him he didn't have to sign it since it was his.
Ramirez signed it anyway,smiled,said thanks and then put it in his clipboard and smiled as he walked away.
I only needed a few for the home Spikes,which was Bryce Denton on a newly acquired Perfect Game card and Scott Hurst on a USA card and then after a while,we were off to CC Peppers.

CC Peppers is a local cheese steak joint that must be a hit with the Penn State crowd as two tables down sat two assistant coaches from their perennial doormat men's basketball team.
It was a sparsely decorated place with posters of mostly Penn State,but had one that always is a must have picture!
The Richard Nixon picture that most oddballs such as myself go to for their Nixon of choice is the classic Nixon with Elvis Presley,but that's the "tourist" version.
The real Nixon aficionado uses the Nixon bowling on the White House lanes and that is what poster was featured at CC Peppers.

I ordered the special of the day,which was a steak sandwich,fries and a soda.
The ordering system might confuse a newcomer or two,but the steak was very good and as were the fries.
The place could have done a better job clearing tables,but it seemed to be more along the lines of just too much traffic to keep things running and that's not a bad way to go..
If you ever hit the Spikes,try CC Peppers-it's a little out of the way from the stadium,but nothing awful and worth the drive.

We went home soon after and I made it home to do the Hickory Crawdads in Hagerstown.
But another fun road trip with y friends and well worth the time-even if I did have to go to State College....

Road Trip:Augusta

Yet another TRS road trip recap begins as my friend Mike Oravec and I visited four parks for games and another two to visit without a game.

I'll be recapping those as the week goes along,but we'll be moving along to our first stop and my biggest target of the year-Lake Olmstead Stadium in Augusta,Georgia and the home of the Augusta Greenjackets.

The Greenjackets are moving across the lake next season to a new stadium in North Augusta South Carolina and I wanted to add Lake Olmstead to the stadium map before the team left Georgia.
I wondered why the Jackets were leaving a stadium that isn't quite 30 years old,but my answer came before we even pulled up to the stadium-the neighborhood.
Every building with a business located in it had metal bars in the windows-never a good sign and when I would ask around later at the park,it was told to me that a day or two before,a players car had been broken into and that fans cars have been broken into as well.
If that is the case and I believe it is,I bet that is why the Jackets don't draw well.
I remember a conversation years ago when Augusta visited Hagerstown and then-pitching coach (now with Richmond) Steve Kline told me that when his wife visited Lake Olmstead he refused to have her drive to the park because she would have to drive home at night.

Lake Olmstead isn't a great visual park when you enter,but it's not awful either.
The grandstand is covered as it should be (in most places,but especially the South),but there are some parks that have zero shade available as you will see later on the trip..
The grandstand reminds me of the Muni though-the OLD Muni as when the grandstand had all metal bleachers without backs.
The Muni grandstand has those and makes it a more comfortable seating experience,but Lake Olmstead did have an addition in each section that Hagerstown does not-Fans above the area that are moved by the wind and at least attempts to keep the air flowing around you.
I know the city of Hagerstown doesn't want to put any more money than they have to into the Muni,but this would help keep the air circulating and maybe help a few more people want to pay the extra cost to sit in the grandstand.

Mike went to the third base side to graph the visiting Asheville Tourists,while I did the home Greenjackets.
Asheville came from down the left field line,while the home team had a dugout tunnel to come out of.
I was sitting along with one of the Augusta superfans as I was the only person graphing Augusta (other than a young group of females with baseballs that were graphing in a different manner!).
Susan King was wearing an Augusta Pirates jersey from "back in the day"and it was fitting since it was supposed to be "Augusta Pirates Weekend,where Augusta was supposed to wear throwback jerseys that would be auctioned off at the series end on Sunday.
I asked Susan if she would mind taking a picture for me so I could use it here and she graciously complied.
As it turned out,Susan (and another season ticket holder) would grumble about the Augusta manager,who they claimed refused to allow the team to wear those in favor of a camo version,which the team must wear a lot for home games.
I really didn't like those because the numbers were hard to read and as a result,I missed some players that I might not have,if they had worn the Pirates throwbacks.

Mike did much better than I and was able to add Riley Pint on his top 100 and SAL prospect as the big Rockies addition along with multiple team set cards.
I didn't do as well as Mike,but I did get Kelvin Beltre on his SAL prospect card among a few others.
Was very difficult as the only grapher and those awful uniforms to see guys and get them stopped.
Mike and I hit the team store where the logo shown above rested next and I bought shirts for the ladies and Ryan.
With Augusta being a Giants farm club,I wanted to get those for them,while Ryan has done so much for us of late and I wanted to pick him something up.
I told him to pick the team of his choice of the four teams we would be seeing and he selected Augusta as well,so my shopping was finished on the first stop with the exception of team sets for others at Kannapolis.

We settled into our seats to watch some of the game and began to work on dividing up our cards.
Suddenly,it began to get very dark and very windy in the second inning and we had a feeling that things were about to get bad!
The Greenjackets rolled the tarp on the field in anticipation of the thunderstorm as that happened Mike and I quickly decided to get out of Dodge!
We figured there would be a lengthy delay and between the delay and what was likely to be VERY humid weather following the storm and that's exactly what happened on this 98 degree day!
We ran to the car and went to eat at Xaxby's for dinner.
By the time that we left there,the weather was oppressively humid,so with a two hour drive to suburban Charlotte ahead,I think the decision was the correct one.

After Xaxby's,we made the drive to friends of Mike's,the Parrish family.
The Parrish's were so gracious to allow me to stay with them after never meeting me before and we stayed up for hours talking with Bob,Laurie and their great children Tucker and Will.
Tucker in particular reminded me of myself at the same age with just tons of sports knowledge.
Tucker can hang with me or anyone on what he knows and it made me smile with the memories of my own experiences as a teenager.
Will is just plain funny and he loved hearing Mike and I's stories from the autographing circuit.
I'll write more about the Parrish's on the next day's post,but what a kind and wonderful family.

I stayed up until 4 am quietly in my room,working on the blog,playing Strat-o-Matic and relaxing as everyone slept before getting a few hours of sleep to end a long but fun day.
In the end,I was happy to put Lake Olmsted Stadium on the list.
It was nothing special,but it gave me my first stadium in the state of Georgia and it added a park that won't be around much longer.
Great day!

Back tomorrow with the day in Kannapolis unless there is breaking news...