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!

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.

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.

Krukow-and all those other baseball players

We got into town very late last night--way later than expected (long story), and got a later start to the ballpark than we usually do. Today it was the Giants at the A's Phoenix Municipal Stadium. As we pulled into our space in their parking lot, following the directions of the parking lot attendants, I said to my husband, "There's Kruk!" parked right next to us. He of course responded with something along the lines of "Yeah, right..."

Krukow walked unmolested through the lot, across the pedestrian bridge and into the park. After we got settled in our seats, I approached him in the press box and he signed my Giants mini bat.

The visitors parking lot/bus arrival area was packing with autograph seekers hours befor game time. I decided to go the path of least resistance and hang out with the A's fans. Just some of the autographs: Ryan Sweeney, Landon Powell, Kurt Suzuki, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Max Stassi (a friend of Giants' Brandon Belt), Gio Gonzalez, and Daric Barton.

The Giants arrived around noon. It has been a long time since I saw that many people seeking autographs and taking photos at a spring training game. I didn't have a chance!! And then, some nice official looking photographer handed my mini bat down to Aaron Rowand. After that, I joined some youngsters who were next to the tunnel leading to the Giants locker room. My bat fit perfectly through the mesh. The only trick was getting them to stop and sign. Most of the guys in today's lineup did not stop to sign, or just signed a for a few and moved on quickly. But Emmanuel Burriss, Darren Ford, Thomas Neal and a few other minor league prospects came over. I desperately wanted Brandon Belt's autograph and he signed for nearly everyone else--he just wouldn't backtrack to where I was, even when a very cute little boy offered to get him to sign a second time by telling him that it was his birthday! The game was fun even though the Giants lost 6-0. It was 78 degrees and there was a sellout crowd of 8,330--the A's had even sold Standing Room tickets! Oh, and the National Anthemn was done by a guitarist a la Jimi Hendrix!

In a Movie! Moneyball with Brad Pitt

My husband and I were extras in the Moneyball movie Friday night. We signed up at http://www.beinamovie.com/ about four weeks ago to be one of the hundreds used in the stadium scenes being filmed at the Oakland Coliseum. We had to report at 10:30pm (yes, you read that right--PM) and were scheduled to go until 5am.

We had to sign release papers and release of liability forms when we got there, and received a ticket for a chance to one one of their raffle prizes--if we stayed until the very end!! Two concession stands were open (you needed a specially colored ticket for the one with the better food). We got a hot dog if we had our entry ticket; otherwise we got snack type foods such as granola bars, chex mix and the like. We found prime seats in the third row near the end of the Oakland dugout. My intern Annabelle and her friends were there and we took turns using my binoculars. Annabelle spotted Brad first. He was in gray sweatpants and matching hoodie. Very soon he came over to the extras who had massed behind home plan and was giving autographs! I told my husband that I thought he would leave before I could get over to him through the mob, but I grabbed my Sharpie and my big yellow Clapper and headed his way. Some woman threw a shoe at him (gently!) and he signed it; a few people later, I tossed the Clapper, and he scribbled something that looked like "BP" in a crucifix form (see photo). I don't have any photos because we were checked at security and told not to bring cameras. Some people brought cameras anyway, and the security guards were threatening to confiscate them if they didn't put them away. Lots of cell phone photos must exist however!

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jonah Hill were there as well. Jonah took several opportunities at breaks in the filming to talk to us and thank us. The actor playing Barry Zito was spot-on, and I caught a glimpse of Royce Clayton in his role as Miguel Tejada.

The extras were herded around (invoking a lot of mooing and baa-ing) from the third base side, to behind home plate, to a particular aisle "in a direct line with the man with the blue shirt", and finally to the right field foul pole area at about 3am. My husband and I and about a dozen others were "chosen" to go into Mount Davis section 247. "It would really help us out". Someone seemed to suggest that it was home run ball territory. When we begged to differ, a woman from the production company said that they had a machine that would send balls into the area. Though a machine was rolled onto the field at 4:30 am or so, no balls were ever launched. Moreover, we had been separated from the main group of extras, who spent time yukking it up with stand-up comedian Dante. When they announced "That's a wrap!", we could hear that Dante was calling out raffle numbers without waiting for the rest of us to descend from Mount Davis---auugh! Though we called "Wait for us!", he apparently had given away all the prizes by the time the group arrived. Our production woman said that she would get us something, but even all the tickets to the Monday game against the Royals had been given away--"Sorry"--not even a chance to win Giambi bobbleheads or the Sony flat screen TV. Some people who had been there as extras since 3PM were truly incensed, not just totally disgruntled like we were. I complained to some dude with a clipboard who had been directing us as we entered, but he just kept repeating "I'm not in charge" as his mantra and saying "Sorry". Just the sort of thing people who spent seven hours helping you make your movie want to hear a 5AM. We are guessing that it is way more fun for the people who get paid to do this.

The scenes we were in were of the twentieth game of the Oakland A's winning streak in 2002, specifically the at-bats leading up to Scott Hatteberg's game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning when the A's were tied 11-11 with Kansas City. We watched "Jermaine Dye" pop out to right field--groan! Then we cheered while "Hatteberg" worked the count until the infamous home run. It apparently landed in the stands near the 367 foot mark. I am guessing that this is why we were in the middle of nowhere in section 247 during the final hour and a half. They made us sit in groups of two or three and we were told that we would be digitally reproduced to make it seem like we were either more people, or in more places. I wasn't quite sure of the concept. So when you see the Moneyball movie, look for me in my Snoopy Athletics t-shirt waving a big yellow sign. Or maybe you will see my husband with the huge yellow Clapper!

A's Player at PF Chang's identified!

In my post on Monday, March 9th, I mentioned that we had had dinner at PF Chang's and we were seated next to an A's player who was with a gentleman who was having him sign some papers. At the time, we couldn't figure out who he was. We just overheard snippets of their conversation--"small market team", "1999", per diem, "Are you staying at the team hotel?", but couldn't quite figure out who it was. As I was watching the A's-Giants game on CSN Bay Area this afternoon, this same player was being interviewed in the dugout. It was Matt Holliday!!! And here I thought that being in the same restaurant as Kyle Farnsworth was exciting. We are home now, and still unpacking, but already missing the 80 degree temperatures! My next post will be about the game on Friday between the Cleveland Indians and the A's at the new park in Goodyear.