Showing posts with label minor league baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label minor league baseball. Show all posts

Monday, September 1, 2014

Autograph Adventures: Brooklyn Cyclones 8/28/14

I probably mentioned this already, but I'm back in Albany. During my first week of class, I fit in time to catch the Tri-City ValleyCats game against the Brooklyn Cyclones (Mets affiliate). I hadn't been to a ValleyCats game in about a year, and it was good to be back.

Due to my class schedule, I didn't arrive until the 2nd inning. I got the cheapest ticket possible ($6) and saw some of my friends at the game. The game itself was a tight one, but the ValleyCats ended up winning the game in walk off fashion to win their division. In the game, the Cyclones committed SIX errors, including two in the 9th inning, to pretty much choke the game away to their counterparts. 

After the sixth Brooklyn error ended the game, I went outside to where their bus was waiting for them. I had printed out a team sheet for all of them to sign, and most of them did. 

I can't tell you who came out in what order, but I'll share a few details that I can remember. 

One of the few players who I recognized by signature was Michael Conforto, the Mets most recent first round draft pick. After he signed my team sheet with his number, I asked if I could take a photo with him. Usually, I'm pretty good at photos with players, but this time I just failed. I'm not even going to post it because it was so bad. My eyes are completely shut and it just isn't worth posting, sorry. I will post a picture I took of him at bat during the game. 


I was given a Joe Tuschak signed card by one of the other graphers there who had a binder full of cards. He also signed my team sheet. I stopped getting new cards a few years ago, and there are still thousands in my house that I go through every once in a while to try and get signed, so getting one from Tuschak is a good one for my collection. I'm pretty sure that's him in the blue hoodie, but I may be wrong. 

After getting autographs from pretty much all of the team, the coaches started to walk out. One of the coaches is former MLB All Star pitcher Dave LaRoche, father of Andy and Adam LaRoche. Dave signed the team photo sheet for me. I probably have cards of him at home, but those are many miles away. So within a couple weeks, I had gotten in person autographs of both father and son Adam. Dave is on the left signing a ball for someone else. 


While LaRoche was signing, one of the main reasons why I was there also arrived. I had gotten a tip from one of my friends that former Mets great Edgardo Alfonzo was with the Cyclones for the trip. Right before I left, I printed out two 4x6 photos of Alfonzo in hopes of getting them signed. I succeeded. He signed both photos and the team photo. Alfonzo was one of the last ones coming out of the building. I took a brief video of him signing a few cards for someone else. 


Below are the two photos Alfonzo signed for me. He has a great signature.





And lastly, here is the team signed sheet. Below it is a list of everyone who signed it with the number they signed with. The list is in no particular order.
2-Adrian Abreau 1-Amed Rosario 38-Luis Arrizurieta 3-Anthony Chavez 9-Joe Tuschak
10-Cory Oswalt 40-Mike Hepple 24-?????? 29-Marcos Molina 34-Edioglis Villasmil 
32-Martires Arias 21-Brandon Welch 44-Cameron Griffin 23-Will Fulmer 
28-Alberto Baldonado 22-Dimas Ponce 19-Kelly Secrest 26-John Mora 
7-Tomas Nido 8-Alfredo Reyes 31-Brad Wieck 11-Juan Urbina 39-Michael Conforto
12-Casey Meisner 36-Gaither Bumgardner 17-Scarlyn Reyes 25-Shane Bay 

I might have gotten a couple of the names wrong. Let me know if you think I did. Edgardo Alfonzo signed with the number 13. Manager Tom Gamboa signed without a number near the M in Mets. LaRoche signed on the bottom near Meisner's signature. 

That's all for this entry. Comment if you think I messed something up or if you just want to chat. Thanks and have a great day! 







Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Autograph Adventures: Aberdeen Ironbirds

As a student at the University at Albany, I have access to a wide variety of sports teams. Recently, I attended a couple of Tri-City ValleyCats games. The ValleyCats are the Short-Season Class A affiliate of the Houston Astros.  The most recent game I attended was a playoff matchup against the Aberdeen IronBirds, the Baltimore Orioles affiliate.

I got to the game as soon as the gates opened. I had printed out an Orioles logo on a large piece of photo paper. I had also printed out a basic Orioles 4x6 photo and a 4x6 photo of Zach Britton. Britton was rehabbing with the IronBirds, but unfortunately he wasn't at the game.
Chace Sisco                                                                 Chance Sisco


Trey Mancini
Trey Mancini

Hunter Harvey, the Orioles' 1st round pick in the 2013 draft, was scheduled to pitch in the game. Some of the other people graphing at the game informed me that Bryan Harvey, Hunter's father and a former MLB All-Star, was in attendance. After someone pointed him out to me, I walked over to Bryan, and he signed a page in my autograph book. A nearby usher was confused as to why people were asking Bryan to sign things. Bryan's response to that was, "I was a big leaguer." Classic response. 

As I always do, I brought my glove with me to this game. The ValleyCats have a policy where fans can enter and exit the stadium as much as they want, as long as they get their hand stamped by an usher first. During the game, I just stood in the area behind home plate, waiting for my chance to try and get a ball. It would come. 

Foul Ball I got in the 5th inning 
In the bottom of the 5th inning, Hunter Harvey was pitching to Yonathan Mejia of the ValleyCats. Early in the at bat, Mejia fouled off a pitch. The ball ended up flying out of the small Joseph L Bruno Stadium and going into the parking lot on the third base side. As soon as I saw the ball go out of the park, I was running full speed toward where I thought the ball would go. When I reached the parking lot, I saw that nobody else was there. Suddenly, I noticed a small speck on the pavement about 100 feet away from where I was. I sprinted in that direction, and found the ball lying on the ground right next to a car tire. I am pretty sure the ball bounced, hit the car tire, and came to rest right there. It was a beauty too, perfectly rubbed up with mud. I took the photo on the right as soon as I went back into the stadium. 


That alone made my night, as I have never been able to get my hands on a game foul ball from a major league stadium, so getting the foul ball felt good. Later on, in the 8th inning, I was still standing in the same spot. In the top of the 8th inning, ValleyCats closer Gonzalo Sanudo was pitching to Jared Breen. Early in the count, Breen fouled off a pitch that went out of the stadium on the first base side. Once again, I was running to the direction of where I thought the ball was going to be. After looking for a couple minutes, I gave up and decided to go back into the stadium. As I was walking back in, I heard a ruffle in a tree near the side of the stadium. I looked up to see that Breen had hit another ball out of the stadium. This one hit a tree, and was coming straight to me. The ball hit the tree, bounced off the pavement, and then I caught it in my glove before it could go past me. I took a photo of the tree from the spot where I caught the ball after the game. Just like that I had actually caught a foul ball, and gotten my second one of the night. I took a (slightly blurry) photo of that ball when I came back into the stadium as well. 

I had gotten two foul balls during the game, and I was happy to say the least, as you can see in the photo below. 












After the game, I hung around the IronBirds clubhouse and got pretty much the entire time to finish signing my photo paper. I also got former big leaguers Alan Mills (Pitching Coach) and Matt Merullo (Manager) to sign a Orioles 4x6 logo photo that I printed. Mills quoted different verses of the bible on both autographs I also got Hunter Harvey to sign it as he may be in the big leagues one day in the near future. 




Here is the big photo paper I got signed by almost everyone. 
Here is a list in no particular order of everyone that signed it. 
Coaches- Matt Merullo, Alan Mills, 
15- Paco Figueroa
Players: 
30-Steven Brault  16-Garret Cortright 
33-Donnie Hunt  23-Hunter Harvey
26-Michael Joseph  56-Dylan Rheault
13-Austin Urban   12-Sebastian Vader
21-Jimmy Yacabonis  19-Jack Graham
35-Chance Sisco  9-Jared Breen
2-Jeff Kemp  34-Ronarsy Ledesma
51-Trey Mancini 10-Tanner Rust
6-Hector Veloz  53-Conor Bierfeldt
17-Manny Hernandez 
28-Mike Yastrzemski 

If I missed anyone let me know! I think I got everyone. Best of luck graphing!