More from Mesa…
- I saw Greg Maddux pitch against the Padres at Peoria last night. Greg Maddux is one of those guys that I watched on TV, had his baseball card, and read about, but was never really real to me. Seeing him in person was pretty damn awesome.
- I ran into Peter Gammons at Phoenix Muni. He was just walking around, clutching his notebooks full of secrets and information that only Peter Gammons should know. He signed my baseball that I had in my pocket. Previously I had had Freddie Bynum (an A’s youngster with massive talent), and Ron Washington (the A’s great 3rd-base/fielding coach) sign the ball. That’s an odd trio of signatures on a ball, but I like it that way. It only has value to me.
- The weather in Phoenix was ideal for baseball yesterday. You couldn’t ask for better. 72 degrees, sunny, with a light breeze.
- Two days ago, in Scottsdale, someone stole my grill. I had it underneath my car so it could cool off, and someone crawled under there and took it. I was parked in the big public parking garage in Old Town Scottsdale, right next to the stadium. Not exactly a bad neighborhood. Who steals a man’s grill, though? Seriously, that’s just not right. At least it was a $20 Walmart model, which I replaced yesterday.
- At the A’s game yesterday, in the second inning, the game was delayed for a few minutes due to bees. Yes, bees. Conor Jackson hit a homerun to right field, which stirred up some bees. Nick Swisher and Mark Kotsay both ran in to the infield dirt, and the Diamondbacks bullpen quickly stopped throwing and jogged in. It was odd.
Here are some pics for you all to enjoy:
Maddux
Phoenix Muni
Esteban Loaiza vs Eric Byrnes
Bees!
Peter Gammons
Freddie Bynum
Bobby Crosby doing a promo
I’ll have more tomorrow. On the agenda for today:
A’s @ Angels
Diamondbacks @ Mariners
(Oh, and Joel, I tried to get Aramis Ramirez to sign a ball for you. There were approximately 3000 other people trying to do the same thing, though… Sorry.)