Baseball Lite

As the San Francisco Giants were not too impressive as a team this year, we lost much of our enthusiasm for spending time, effort, and money on watching them play. Rookies such as Rodriguez, Andrew Suarez, Steven Duggar and Aramis Garcia made it interesting toward the end and gave us hope for improvement in the standings next year. We attended no games here in Arizona; the only game we went to was at the Oakland Coliseum when the A's played the Giants in the Bay Bridge series. They finally got their 1989 victory parade with many of the World Series players!

So this fall, we again have season tickets for Arizona Fall League. I was at Camelback Ranch for games yesterday and today. Lots of top prospects. Today's player of major interest was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He played the first two days of season so he did not start today. I waited until the 7th inning to see if he would pinch hit, but it started to rain just a wee bit, so I left. He did sign a number of autographs--but never enough for his fans!--both after batting practice and just before game time. I did have a "Topps News" card for him to sign.

Spring Training Snoozer at Scottsdale Stadium -- Hello HoHoKam!

It has been our tradition to go to Scottsdale Stadium on Presidents' Day to see the early workouts. With the holiday being celebrated so early this year, there was little to be seen on Monday--the players' parking lot was half full, the Dugout Store wasn't open, and they wouldn't let us fans into the stadium. I did catch a glimpse of Madison Bumgarner on the back field through the fence. He stopped his truck as he was leaving and gave a few autographs--but sadly, not to me.  I did get these photos.

We drove out to Mesa and bought a Spring Training shirt at the home of the A's. The store employees at their team store were incredibly helpful, including one lovely lady who found us exactly what we were looking for in the correct size, and suggested additional sale items. Someone better snap her up after spring training--she would be a great asset to any company!

We only have tickets to three Giants games this spring--vs the Reds and the Indians at Goodyear Ballpark, and vs the A's at Mesa. But I will be expanding my volunteer schedule as a ticket taker at Goodyear Ballpark to eight games, so I will see lots of spring baseball. Last year I saw some great pitching by Cincinnati's Johnny Cueto and an inside the park home run by Cleveland's Francisco Lindor! I also won the auction bidding for a beautiful black bat signed by Lindor during that game--sweet!

Buy my tickets - San Franciso Giants and Oakland A's spring training opener in Mesa on Tuesday!

Wouldn't you know it that we got sweet directly behind home plate seats in Field Box 100 row 10 for Tuesday's first game in the A's new park Hohokam Stadium--and we can't go!! Auugh!!!  I listed the tickets on StubHub for $45 each. Surely there must be some fan of either team that would like to sit in the premier seats among the scouts, players' wives, etc. I sat next to Mark Ellis' wife one year, and one year next to Kurtwood Smith from That 70's Show (oh, wait that was at a Giants-Dodgers game at Camelback).

Friday is my first day as a volunteer at Goodyear Ballpark--Kansas City playing the Cleveland Indians--can't wait!

Authentic Opening Day for the San Francisco Giants!

While many of you are waiting for the home opener, here in Arizona, we experienced "Authentic Opening Day" at Chase Field! As Dbacks season ticket holders (hey, it's the way to get the best seats in the section behind the dugout!) we were allowed into the park early and got an autograph from Matt Cain before batting practice began. Some players made the Opening Day roster for the first time--yay! Shawn Estes and Rich Aurelia were looking good in their interviews. We caught a glimpse of Dave Fleming (and Jon Miller) in the broadcast booth.

The Giants looked a little ragged at times, but the late comeback for the win was fabulous! And Sergio did his job!

Presidents' Day workout - Tracy's photos

Tracy took some really great photos, so I wanted to post a few of his too!

San Francisco Giants Pitcher & Catchers on Presidents' Day

It's Presidents' Day and it is 85 degrees in sunny Scottsdale. The perfect day to sit in the sun and enjoy some pitchers and catchers exercising and doing some fielding drills.

The Dugout store and the stadium gates both opened at 10am. We outfitted ourselves with new official Giants spring training shirts and I got myself a blinking SF cap to wear on the real opening day night when the Giants visit the Dbacks at Chase Field in a few weeks time. It has a lot of  padding: I may resemble what the pitchers will look like in those new protective caps!

Tim Hudson was there, but didn't do any drills. We had a chance to look at Andrew Susac whom we had seen in Fall League games, Yusmeiro Petit who pitched an awesome game against the Dbacks  last year that we attended, and some new guy--David (not Aubrey) Huff.

After practice we waited near the parking lot for hours--until nearly 2pm and I am disturbed that the players are so stand-offish this year already! Most of them escaped by the far door into the parking lot, got in their cars and zoomed away. Exceptions were Sergio Romo, who smiled and waved, and Hunter Pence who spoke to some people, giving an excuse as to why he couldn't sign (some dread contagious ailment?). Angel Pagan was asked to come over, but he just waved as he blew past us--a big crowd of seven women, a young boy, a young man, and the man who made the request. Really?

Jake Dunning, Sandy Rosario and Shawon Dunston are the lone signatures on my team ball. Thank you for taking a few moments with us. I already miss Barry Zito who has given us autographs every year since 2000. He was the epitome of class.

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

.

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.