BASEBALL TRIP, PAUL MOLITOR, & the BELOIT MILLIONAIRES

Well, my trip to New York didn't go too badly.  The Monday we left we drove as far as Ft. Wayne.  I had never seen their stadium, getting to see the Coliseum means that I've only 2 Midwest League stadiums left to ge to (Dayton and West Michigan).  I opted to work the Lansing side, since Fort Wayne still hadn't produced their card sets yet.  Unfortunately, I found out that Donnie Hood had earned a promotion (I've written to him, but its been 5 weeks and I've yet to get a reply, doesn't look promising) and that Justin Jones was down with an injury and that Felix Pie had not yet returned from the Futures Games.  Still, I didn't do too badly.  The Coliseum is a magnificent old stadium. It has a lot more character than the cookiecutter stadium that they are putting up now.

A long, gruelling drive Tuesday took us to Elmira, where Nancy's sister and mother now live.  I bee-lined for Dunn Field.  Dunn Field has been a landmark in Elmira for many many years, and is showing lots of signs of age and ill upkeep.  The wooden seats are flaking and peeling paint, and while I leaned up against the yellow padding at the top of the fence while waiting for autographs, a rip in the padding oozed muddish brown liquid onto my shirt.  Still, the stadium exudes a sense of history.  As you walk down the corridor toward the fence near the home dugout you walk past pictures of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig from when they played there during a barnstorming tour and a picture of a slim, youthful Don Zimmer and his bride walking through an aisle of upraised baseball bats after they were married at the stadium's home plate in 1951, among other mementos of Dunn Field baseball history.

I enjoyed visiting with Matt Vincent, one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.  He plays for Elmira now, but I first met him when he played in Peoria, and he's since pursued his dream to Lincoln, Nebraska and Jackson, Mississippi.  Matt Williams, a player who began the year with Peoria this season was also with the club.  I thought that concession prices at Dunn Field were too high, and I found the staff intolerant of autographers.  Too many unpaid interns walking around looking for something to do, so they "move you along" like a rookie cop enamored with the power of his badge.  Elmira is a Northeastern league team, but given the wear on the stadium and the overzealous interns, I wonder how long they'll even have that.  If you ever go to Elmira though, take an hour and take the guided trolley tour. It was a great way to learn some of the history of the area.  I found it as inexpensive as it was highly informative.

Thursday night I drove east to Binghamton to watch the AA Mets play the New Britain Rock Cats, a team which included many players I'd watched come up through the Quad Cities.  Some of them even remembered me, and I did very well, getting 88 cards signed, including 2 more from Joe Mauer, a guy I never thought I'd get a chance to see again as quickly as he's moving up.  I also caught Josh Rabe, sort of a local boy, since he hails from Quincy, Illinois.  I had a lot of fun, I had dressed in my Quad City had and shirt and had brought a few extra yearbooks to pass out to the players who had played there.  Binghamton's staff was outgoing and friendly and were very accommodating to autographers.  I really enjoyed my visit there and am looking forward to returning.  Nancy experienced the same friendliness, but working the home team she had more competition, and only netted a little over 20 signed cards.

Friday we drove to Akron.  I got to the stadium and 4:05 and went into the office to buy some team sets.  I was informed that the store closed at 4 on gamedays, but that if I returned at 5 I could be let into the stadium then and would be able to buy my cards.  This sounded great, so Nancy and I found a good Italian restaurant a few blocks away, ate quickly and got back to the stadium at 5:05 only to be told that we had been given erroneous information (by 2 different people) and that we'd have to wait till 6 to get in.  I was not happy and vocalized it.  Again, too many unpaid interns who haven't a clue what they're doing.  Worse yet, it was fireworks night.  I did very poorly on the Aeros side, although 1 did get Grady Sizemore and Alex Requena to sign 2 each, but Nancy did much better with New Haven.

I didn't get to Joliet Saturday night.  I opted to go home via Dayton so that I could pick up their card sets at a Shell station as per their promotion.  Little did I know that Wright -Patterson Air Force base was hosting an air show commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Flight in the Birthplace of Flight.  That would've been a hell of an airshow to go to had I known about it, but as it was, we were stuck in traffic fro 2 hours wondering what the hell was going on.  No time to get up to Joliet then in time to get autographs, so we just went on home.

 

One of the high points of my season this year was catching Paul Molitor for autographs at both Burlington's Community Field and Davenport's John O' Donnell Stadium.  Paul Molitor is a class act in contrast to the greed we see manifest in so much of sports nowadays.  A few years ago when Burlington was having a fund drive to renovate the stadium, he donated $100,000 to it, AND he arranged to appear at a benefit autograph show for them.  I got 3 8x10s and a sportsflic signed at $10 each at that time.  Burlington was Paul's only minor league experience, he played there in 1977, helping Burlington to go on to capture the league championship.  From there he went directly to Milwaukee and a career that should culminate in his being elected to the Hall of Fame next year.  At Burlington he arranged to sign from 6-6:30 so that he could do his scouting work without being bothered afterwards.  Nancy and I each got 2 cards signed,  then later in the week he was kind enough to do the same thing at the Quad Cities, and I copped a couple more for my collection.  Molitor set up a nice way to accommodate fans and to get his assignment done as well.

Contrast this to the Beloit Millionaires club.  Rickie Weeks, the 2003 Golden Spikes Award winner and 2nd player drafted in the 2003 draft signed for a 4 million plus bonus and reported to Beloit August 14th.  We were fortunate enough to see him in Burlington on the 16th through 19th.  There he's teamed up with Tony Gwynn Jr and Prince Fielder to form the Millionaires Club.  Tony Gwynn is a soft-spoken young man, very polite like his father, and he takes the time to sign a clear, legible autograph.  Prince Fielder's "P slash" signature is an insult to the fans though.  He puts similar effort into his fielding, and Rickie, although his signature is somewhat more legible, turned off some of the Burlington fans when he told someone who handed him a picture to sign that he didn't want to see him making any money on it.  "I've seen alot of these pictures out here  today," he explained.  Hmmmm, a guy signing for that kind of bonus worried about someone ELSE cashing in for a few bucks.  Sort of pissed me off too.  I'm the guy responsible for the pictures.  I took 2 of him, in street clothes, and make 5 sets of prints, one for me, one to trade, one for the player, and 2 for friends I autograph with in Burlington.  My extras got distributed quickly.  I don't mind, at $2 per extra set of prints, I can do that for my friends, and I do it gratis.  I don't charge them for it.  Sorry to shatter your illusion, Rickie.  Compare and contrast this paragraph to Paul Molitor, above.  Maybe I'm being a bit too judgemental though.  In a lot of cases its their agents filling their minds with this BS.  Of course, its alright if the agent profits from the player.

Oh well. I've rambled on long enough.  Take care and have fun with the hobby.  I still do, despite my rant.  Oh yeah,  I do this column gratis too.  Some people ARE in it for the fun and not to make a buck.

~Rich Hanson