Hall of Famer, Future Hall of Famer & an Idol

Breakfast at JB’s again, and since it was a weekday, it was only $5.99 for the all you can eat buffet. We had tickets for the A’s-Royals game, but since the park didn’t open until 11:30 for the 1:05 game, we went to the two Antique stores closest to the motel, the Antique Trove and the Antique Centre, and found a few Snoopy/Peanuts items before heading out to Phoenix Municipal Stadium. It was the Royals, and it was a weekday, so the attendance was low—we estimated about 2,000. I really didn’t recognize any of the Royals players except for Reggie Sanders, since he had been with the Giants on their World Series team. I did recognize their batting coach, though—George Brett. I took a photo, printed it out, and was able to get him to sign it after his “meeting” with his fellow coaches in the dugout. He promised to "take care of everybody" requesting his autograph after the meeting, and he did, though he signed all the baseballs first, and the paper items, like cards and my photo last. He was amazed though: “You just took this! How did you do that?” Ahh, technology!

We had great seats in row 14 behind home plate, but we moved up to cheaper seats in the shaded area near the broadcast booth. It was 81 degrees, and we got crispy fast.

The A’s had most likely taken an early batting practice, since they didn’t even show up until about 20 minutes before game time. I was able to get autographs from coach Curt Young, Erubial Durazo, Adam Melhuse and Mike Piazza. I am told that American Idol contestant Ace Young threw out the first pitch, which I missed, as I was in the “get Mike Piazza’s autograph” mob. But during the seventh inning, he walked past our seats, and I grabbed my camera, followed him, and asked him to pose for a photo. Beautiful! I returned to my seat, and printed a photo while he was leading us in “Take me out to the ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch. When he returned to the concourse, I asked him to sign it, and he personalized it. “This is the one you just took? How did you do that?” I love my printer!

The game went into extra innings and the A’s lost. Both Piazza and Lou Merloni got hit by pitches and had to leave the game.

We went to the Olive Garden for dinner, where we are almost certain that we were seated next to two of the Giants young prospects (basing this conjecture on their build and their conversation, and their jewelry and clothing—I overheard them talking about what diamonds they were planning to buy, and one was wearing two big square diamond earrings).