Today we arrived at Scottsdale Stadium at 9:40 and there was already a line to get in. Both the Dugout store and the stadium gates were scheduled to open at 10am. We enjoyed watching the team get ready for the game at Peoria against Seattle. I nearly got hit by a foul ball--I knew I had no shot at catching it, but I called it and with little competition, came up with the practice ball (it is stamped PRACTICE on the sweet spot).
Both Tracy and I took a lot of photos, and I kept running between the stadium, the bus departure area, and the fence near the back field to see who was where. Initially, I met nothing but failure. Pat Burrell signed a few in the stadium; Madison Bumgarner signed through the fence of the back field for two people. Lincecum and Cain wouldn't sign. There was a report that a few players signed as they got on the bus. So I decided to go back into the stadium to just enjoy the practice for the few players that remained and forget about autographs. Andres Torres and Pablo Sandoval were having a home run hitting contest. Pablo hit a long shot, put his arms up in victory--but the ball hit the top of the wall! However he was the winner of the next round when he hit one over the fence.
My husband saw Bill Neukom being interviewed in the walkway and approached him to shake his hand and say "Thank you!" during a pause in the interviewer's questions. Neukom replied, "No--thank YOU for being here!" and asked how long we had be coming down to spring training. He signed my mini-bat, and that started a parade of fans in his direction, now that the ice had been broken!
I started printing out a few photos and fortuitously, practice was over and first Brandon Belt (the hot rookie prospect), Pablo Sandoval, and Andres Torres started signing in the area behind home plate. I was not among the chosen (for the second year in a row) with Pablo, but I told Andres that I had a photo of him and he signed that.
Just about then, J.T. Snow appeared at the other end of the dugout and accommodated everyone--nice! We exited the stadium and joined the throng outside near the player parking lot. Some players ignored us (or worse, used the far exit so they could just zoom out). There were sightings of Pablo (in his shower shoes?), Jonathan Sanchez (on his cell phone) and Brian Wilson (who zoomed out of the lot loudly and at a rather high rate of speed).
But among those who did accommoodate us were Sergio Romo (he upgraded his car since last year, but his music is just as loud!), Felix Romero, Barry Zito (who tried to catch a cab--but somebody else's cab apparently--and thank goodness. It was the only way I was able to catch up with him!), Rich Aurilia (for some reason no one else along the fence recognized him but me--you're welcome guys!), and Jeremy Affeldt.
Once again, I was the only one who called out to him. The conversation went something like this:
Me:"Jeremy!"
Jeremy:"What?"
Me:"Please?"
Jeremy:"Please what?"
Me:"Please will you sign my bat?"
Jeremy:"All right, I'll be back."
Me:"I trust you."
People around me were saying "Yeah, right...", but I knew he would return! He cleaned the cans out of his car and came back over. Me:"You're probably pretty sick of all of us by now" and then he said something about trying to get whatever I could for his signature on eBay. I said "Never!"
So all in all, a very enjoyable day indeed. And thank you all, Giants!
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