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!!

Rangers & Padres - Rookies & Rehabs

It has been a long time since I posted about our baseball ramblings. And it isn’t that we haven’t been going to games. We have. In fact, we went to the REAL San Francisco Giants opening day—the one at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. We went again two days later, when the home team fans had calmed down and were much less rude.  We attended two more Dbacks-Giants games in May, and a Dbacks-Dodgers game in July.  Chase Field is a pretty good place to watch a game for the most part.

But we had a fun—and free!—MLB experience at Peoria Ballpark on Friday night. The Texas Rangers and the San Diego Padres got all their rookies (with a few rehabs thrown in) together for a game. The Padres got stomped 9-0. It was more difficult than usual to keep score as the Rangers didn’t have names on their jerseys. Why would they want to be anonymous?? As you can see, it wasn't crowded at all; everyone else was at the Cardinals-Raiders game in Glendale.

We arrived at the bottom of the first inning. Foul balls started coming our way immediately. Little kids appeared out of nowhere to claim them. Finally, one landed in our area so close that no child could beat Tracy to it. I immediately joked to him, “Is it going to be like at the Mariners’ inter-squad game where they made me give it back??”  Right on cue, a young man in Padres gear approached us and asked for the ball. Tracy finally gave it up, but not before he had wangled an autograph from the player!  He signed my scorebook (sadly not the ball, as he wanted it back. I will be better prepared with my own Arizona Fall League ball next time!!)

 

His name was Cory Bostjancic, a right handed pitcher who had the night off. We had to have him spell his name, even though his signature was about as legible as any I have seen. That will change as he climbs the ranks, I am sure! He seemed to be assigned the ball retrieval duties; one of his teammates had the speed gun honors, another kept score. He lives in Marin County and went to the College of Marin. We looked him up on my iPhone just to verify.

Players who graciously give me autographs when they are rookies seem to do quite well. Let’s see, there was Cal Ripken, Barry Zito, Tim Lincecum, Sergio Romo to name a few. So we are expecting great things from him. Someday, my heirs may show up with that scorebook at Antiques Roadshow!

It was interesting to peek over their shoulders while they were keeping track of who was doing what. Here's the scoop on Michael Kelly. Hope they have another game like this sometime!



Arizona Fall League Championship Game

The Salt River Rafters and the Surprise Saguaros met for their championship game at Scottsdale Stadium today. It was a beautiful afternoon for a ballgame, with temperatures in the 70s.

We chose great seats right behind the Saguaros dugout--none of that assigned seating in Fall League! Batting practice was over by the time we entered the stadium but they had a little merchandise area set up so I could go shopping. I bought Arizona fall league card sets from 1999 and 2000, last year's model of their logo shirt for five dollars, and two mini bats for three dollars each. What a deal!

Several of the players had devised a totem, fashioned out of a broken bat, batting gloves, and other sundry items. We saw Tyler Bortnik putting on the finishing touches and he posed with his creation.

They even gave a couple of awards before the game. An MVP award went to Kevin Mattison, and the sportsmanship award to Rockies player Nolan Arenado. The Miami players were wearing the new style uniforms to go with their new stadium--nice! Jason Castro, the Astro from Castro Valley (try saying that three times fast) was playing catcher and had a single and a double.

The Surprise team had the better record, but the Rafters took the lead in the second inning and never lost it. The final score was 8 to 3 Rafters. Therewas much joy, jumping around, and eventually, water cooler dumping!

Mesa Solar Sox vs Salt River Rafters 11/11/11

This game was also free! I got a pair of free tickets at the "Dugout Store" in Surprise during the Rising Stars game. And since Tracy is a veteran, it was cool to watch the pregame ceremonies. All veterans were asked to stand--to much applause--and there were fireworks after the game too. Since the game was held at the Salt River Fields at Talking Stick there were introductions of many Indian veterans (yes, that is the way they were announced). The stadium is on their land...

The game was tight most of the way, but the Rafters prevailed 7-6 in the end. We had not been bringing food or drink to the game, but after the awful, rubbery $6 hamburgers at Scottsdale, we brought some drinks and Crunch and Munch. They did not search bags for any reason at any of the parks we have been to. However, they have been announcing that people are not allowed on the berms in all the parks (except Talking Stick where the kids had a great time rolling down the hill all night). Enforcing it is another matter....

We sat behind the Solar Sox dugout. We were so close we could hear a couple of the players ummm... commenting on the "Flag Lady" and imitating her. And we could see that Brian Dozier had been with the New Britain Rock Cats--we recognized the logo on his batting helmet. Oh and there was an extremely well-behaved Canine Companions for Independence dog two rows behind us the entire game--watching that ball very carefully while resting her head between the seats. The announcers for MLB Network were in a booth behind us and we could look back and watch their screen for an instant replay!

Arizona Fall League Rising Stars Game Nov 5th

You might say that the best part of this game is that we got in for free! A couple from New York that we were chatting with in the parking lot gave us their spare pair of tickets. We sat right behind the East Rising Stars' dugout and the autographs were easy to obtain. There were nearly 3,200 people in attendance. Sadly, the game was lopsided from the start--Danny Hultzen struck out the side in the top of the first, and then the West hit two home runs and scored five times in the bottom of the inning. Four more runs in the third added insult to injury, and in the end, the East was beaten by the West 11-2.

Several of our friends in the Bay Area spotted us on TV at the bottom of the sixth inning looking glum! At least a Giants player got to play in the later innings. Joe Panik got a couple of at bats but didn't get on base.

AZ Fall League Scorpions vs Rafters

Saturday night we attended the Scottsdale Scorpions versus the Salt River Rafters game at Scottsdale Stadium. Batting practice had ended before they let us into the park an hour before gametime. However most of the players were willing to give autographs before the game.

We were surprised to see that there were no Giants players in the lineup. We did catch a glimpse of Brandon Crawford in the dugout . And Joe Panik coached first base during most of the game.

Adam Eaton was the name player in the lineup for the Rafters. I purchased an Arizona fall league mini baseball bat and had fun accumulating Rafter players' signatures on it, including Ryan Wheeler, and -- I think -- Jason Castro of Castro Valley, who is an Astro , who did not play last year. Most of the signatures were illegible; thank goodness some of the players wrote the their numbers next to their names.

The photos in this post are from Tracy. After I look at my photos, I may add some more photos in another posting and tell you about the strange phenomena in the sky during the seventh inning!

Scottsdale Stadium Rainout

Tuesday was beautiful. We arrived at Scottsdale Stadium just as batting practice was ending. Tracy bought a program, I bought a hamburger, we got to our seats, and the sky opened up!

It was pretty amazing how much water came down in a short period of time. The grounds crew evaluated the field but it was clear that there hadn't been enough warning to cover the field adequately. There were some pretty big puddles. We waited a little bit, but they called the game. I came very close to getting Brandon Crawford's autograph; maybe the third time will be the charm!

Tracy was taking some artistic atmospheric photos of the stadium when who should walk into his viewfinder but Brian Sabean.

Arizona Fall League Baseball - Scorpions Gary Brown

On October 8th we went to see the Scottsdale Scorpions play at Phoenix Muni. Many of the players on the field that day were ones that we had seen when we went to the Stockton Ports game this summer (it was a bobblehead giveaway day). The Giants draft pick Gary Brown was playing and Joe Panik was coaching first base.

After the game, I got a few autographs from Scorpions players, but Gary Brown said that he would come back since he had promised some kids at the other end of the dugout first. We were good with that, but he never returned. As I dejectedly climbed the stadium stairs to go back to the parking lot, Tracy called out to me. He had been chatting with Gary's mom, who had commented on his Giants shirt, and she offered him one of her son's autographed California All Star card (with a nice signature--not a scribble!!) That sure took the sting away! Thank you very much Mrs. Brown!

San Francisco Giants Extended Spring Training--Zito sighting!

This morning we planned to go to a "matinee" of Midnight in Paris at the only theatre in the metro area showing it--in Scottsdale. We arrived in town early, and I asked my husband if he wanted to stop at Indian School Park to see if the Giants were out and about. Last year we saw an extended spring training game (I think it was in Peoria) at 10:30 in the morning. When we arrived at Indian School, we saw action on two fields: the Giants were on one, and the A's were on the other. It was only about 10:15, so we took some photos and wandered about. One of the Giants personnel threw two baseballs over the fence to Tracy. He wasn't inclined to share (or at least not share right away...), so one of the A's players threw me two baseballs. Woo hoo and thank you very, very much, whoever you were!! I was remarking something about the fact that the A's players didn't have names on their jerseys and the numbers on them were in the relatively high numbers. I reminisced aloud that I laughed the first time I saw Barry Zito on the field at spring training many years ago--"#75?? He probably won't make the team". Just as those words came out of my mouth, who should appear on the mound in his high socks but Barry Zito. We watched him pitch an inning. He allowed one hit, threw at least one pitch "just a bit outside" and tried some pickoff moves. No one scored though, so all was well, and we left for our movie, wondering at the serendipity of it all.