San Francisco Giants Angel Pagan rehab in Scottsdale

We zoomed on over to Scottsdale Stadium this evening after work. I had seen that Angel Pagan was supposed to be playing three innings with the Arizona League (Rookie League) team starting today. Due to heavy traffic on I-10, we missed his first at bat. He walked in the second inning and that was it. He played the outfield just fine, catching both balls hit his way

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We left the game early--atypical for us--and we hung out at the usual door to see if Angel would be amenable to giving out a few autographs. There were fewer than a dozen people, and he came right over and signed a couple for everyone.

So while it is sad that he was not playing with the big club (who meanwhile were winning 14-10 over the Marlins) tonight, it looks like he will be there soon. It was nice to have him in the neighborhood again!

 

 

 

 

 

Baseball Hall of Famers autographs!!

Today's road trip was to Phoenix Muni for the Athletics vs the World Series Champion San Francisco Giants! Tracy had an exam in his morning class, so we arrived at the park only a short while before the game began. I had resigned myself to the fact that autographs were not likely today.

To my surprise, the A's had a bunch of their former illustrious players signing autographs for charity. As I mentioned in the last post, I have only once paid for an autograph, but since there were Hall of Famers sitting right there--with no long lines to wait in--and it was for a good cause, how could I resist?

Gaylord Perry did even better than Yogi Berra at providing a friendly pose. And Rollie Fingers even checked the autograph on his SGA bobblehead to make sure that it looked good.

Once inside the park, we found that our seats were directly below where Brian Sabean was sitting. If the seats were good enough for him, they were good enough for us! He graciously gave an autograph on today's page of my scorebook. And of course right next door was the KNBR team of Dwayne Kuiper and Jon Miller. Wouldn't you know it, I had recently purchased a Cooperstown Hall of Fame minibat at the Brass Armadillo, and it was perfect for the 2010 Hall of Famer to sign. Sadly, I have no photos of either of these gentlemen (they were a little busy doing their jobs), but my memories of the day will last a long time.

World Series Champs working out

The past few days have been weather perfection, and the Giants were looking good today on their fourth day of full team workouts. The stadium has a few additions too--a large sign in front and the new 2012 logo on the tower in right field.

There were lots of press photographers. The one from the Giants asked if he could take pictures of me taking pictures of the players. Later when he went down on the field, I took a photo of him taking pictures of the players.

We arrived at Scottdale Stadium at 9:30am to shop for a new scorebook, the annual spring training shirts, and something World Series-ish toget autographed. The stadium gates opened at 10:00am and we enjoyed the workouts until 12:30 and then went to seek autographs until nearly 2:30. They have a new area chained off where kids only can enter. Most of the starting lineup position players either avoided the throng altogether or just gave autographs to the kids. Apparently according to Sergio Romo, the players hate being taken advantage of by autograph seekers who get multiple autographs to sell, and this is the reason most of them stay away. Sergio said that he actually looks at people's faces so that he can tell who is repeatedly asking for autographs. He told one man that he didn't want to see him again.

While I understand his feelings, many of us are long time season ticket holders or just baseball fans who appreciate what they have accomplished and just want a few seconds of their time. Most of the people around me were women young and old--one of whom brought her elderly mother-in-law, who didn't last very long in the hot sun. I have been seeking players' autographs since I was 10 years old--my first autograph was  Roberto Clemente--and have never sold a single one. (And the only one I ever paid for was Yogi Berra a few years ago in Cooperstown during Induction Weekend for Ryne Sandberg and that other guy).

The good news is that many of the pitchers, non-roster invitees and minor league hopefuls were very accommodating  making the turn past the kids' section to sign for adults. Special mention goes to Javy Lopez, Barry Zito, and Sergio Romo for spending a lot of time schmoozing with the fans!

Oh and rumor has it that Jeff Kent was on the premises as a special instructor. I took a photo from the parking garage before the game started and it looked like he was working with the infielders. I think he is just shy. Or maybe he was afraid that we would talk about his Survivor experience. I thought his remarks when he was voted off were the best ever spoken!!