Bad Wax

On Saturday night, my dad and I went to see team USA play team Canada in a exhibition tune up game for the 2009 World Cup.  If you have never seen a Team USA game at either the Cary, NC training complex or the Phoenix, AZ complex, you are doing yourself a disservice.  I hadn’t been to see a complete game with my dad in probably about 8 years.  Usually we bring some family who just want to bail after 6 or 7 innings.  My dad and I plopped down on the first baseline and relaxed and chatted about baseball.  One of the most exciting players of this game was pitcher Todd Redmond of the Braves (AAA Gwinnett), who had a perfect game through 5 innings.  He was pulled after the 5th which was a bummer since the reliever gave up a hit to the first batter he faced.  I understand pitch counts and everything, but as a former pitcher myself who was lifted from a no hitter because of pitch count, I can tell you it hurts, even as an exhibition game.

One of the many great things about attending these events are that you never know who you are going to run into at the game.  While we were there, we saw a few scouts, some GMs, some former major leaguers, but none were as fun to talk to as the player’s parents.  We just happened to be sitting next to Trystan Magnuson’s dad.  My dad and his dad spoke for a while about what it’s like from a parent’s perspective to see his son not only pitch for their country, but also as a AA farmhand for the Toronto Blue Jays.  It was fun to hear about how his dad just wanted to catch a foul ball.  We asked, that with his son on the team can’t he just ask for one? He said, it just soesn’t mean as much unless you snag one yourself.

As far as former major leaguers there was Ernie Young, Jamie Quirk, Larry Walker and Ernie Whitt.  All were accessible to get autographs from both before and after the game.  I would say though that the highlight of the night was meeting and talking to Pedro Alverez, 2008 MLB draft 2nd overall pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  He had a fantastic game that night, and signed a ton of autographs after the game.  He left no one disappointed as far as signatures go, he signed everything everyone wanted signed.  Just a super nice, down to earth player.  Of the other players I wanted to meet there was Jason Castro and Justin Smoak.

Both Jason and Justin signed my bat and were very gracious about signing autographs and taking pictures.  There were some blow offs by team USA which I was disappointed about, but I will go into that later.  As far as team Canada goes, I wish I had brought a second bat to get signed.  Brett Lawrie and Adam Loewen were the stars of the team, and they didn’t disappoint fans after the game in taking pictures and signing autographs.  Even though they lost 5-6 to team USA, they seemed to be in good spirits and didn’t mind interacting with the fans.

As an aside, Adam Loewen used to be a first round draft pick for the Orioles as a pitcher.  He pitched for them for 4 seasons. He unfortunately blew out his shoulder and is no longer able to pitch, so he decided to become an outfield prospect and is currently in Toronto’s farm system.  He looked good out there, maybe not the power of say a Rick Ankiel, but certainly should be able to make it to the majors as an outfielder.

So in the end I ended up with 17 of 24 of team USA’s autographs, and Jamie Quirk’s autograph here are my successes:

• Trevor Plouffe – Twins – AAA – SS
• Daniel Descalso – Cardinals – AAA -2B/SS
• Tug Hulett – Royals – AAA – 2B (funny guy!)
• Josh Kroeger – White Sox – AAA – OF
• Jason Castro – Astros – AA – C
• Justin Smoak – Rangers – AAA – 1B
• Ehren Wassermann – White Sox – AAA – P
• Ike Davis – Mets – AA – OF
• Jason Childers – Rays – AAA – P
• Pedro Alverez – Pirates – AA – 3B
• Cory Luebke – Padres – AA – P
• Geno Espeneli – Giants – AAA – P
• Terry Tiffee – Phillies – AAA – 1B/3B (super nice!)
• Lucas Harrell  – White Sox – AAA – P
• BJ Rosenberg – Phillies – AA – P
• Kasey Kiker – Rangers – AA – P
• Trevor Reckling – Angels – AA – P

One final note, Lucas May was the only player I encountered who blew everyone off.  I asked for a signature he said sure, let me put my bag down, headed into the tent, I waited and watched him march right off to the team bus never looking back.  I’ve gotten the brush off plenty of times, but never so blatent as that one, if he didn’t to sign just say so, I missed several autograph opportunities just to wait for his autograph that never came.  Below is the Louisville Slugger I had signed:

Pedro Alverez on right side of bat.