First of all, my apologies for not getting an article out sooner.  It sounds like a lame excuse to say that I've been busy, but I have been.  I work long hours at my job, take in a lot of minor league ballgames in the summer, try to get in a few games of Scrabble a week with my wife, write poetry and am working on a novel, plus working out at the Y and reading or listening to books on tape.  Some people say they don't know what to do when they retire.  I wish I had that problem to ponder.  I'm sure that I could keep myself entertained.

My Burlington Bees were a non-contender again.  The curse of being a Royals franchise, I guess.  Losing starts from the ground up.  They've re-upped with Burlington for 4 more years.  I'm disappointed.  In the Royals defense though, this year they did make an effort to reach out to Burlington.  They sent Mike Sweeney down to rehab for a couple games, and we got to see Luke Hochevar, the #1 pick in the 2006 draft make 4 starts in Burlington (although I missed the last one.  It was the online draft for our fantasy football league.

As a Cardinal fan I was thrilled with the talent that found its way through the Quad Cities this year.  Colby Rasmus, Tyler Greene, Jon Jay, Shane Robinson, Mark Hamilton, Chris Perez, Adam Ottovina, Brian Anderson.  With the talent they could put out on the field the final month of the season, I expected them to cakewalk through the playoffs.  Kane County had other things to say though.  The Swing was also fortunate enough to host Mark Mulder and Larry Bigbee on re-hab stints from the Cardinals. 

Worst promotion...The Swing.  They took a promotion that the Iowa Cubs do well, an

autographed baseball giveaway, where you could've got anyone from Bob Gibson and Tony LaRussa to current Swing players and mucked it up by adding to the mix a bunch of baseballs autographed by the team mascot, a lame attempt to market to children that we'll just call "Clyde."  I didn't get to that game, but I know that if I went there and pulled out of my bag one of the aforementioned balls, I would have been one angry individual.  Yes, I knew people who were.

Peoria got knocked out of the playoffs early too, but its a treat for Cub fans just to make it to the playoffs.  Kerry Wood, Mark Prior and Wade Miller all made it to Peoria on re-hab stints. 

The Midwest League had an odd occurence this year.  During August the top picks in the 2004 (Matt Bush) 2005 (Justin Upton) and 2006 (Luke Hochevar) drafts were all playing for Midwest League teams.

I'm a Twins fan as well, having grown up in Duluth, Minnesota, and I got to see a lot of Beloit that final month.  Their 2006 number 1 pick, Chris Parmalee put in a late season appearance. 

I'm already getting ready for 2007.  Laying in the short-season feeder sets.  You notice that they're getting more and more expensive every year?  I sure do.  The land that gave us overpriced coffee is the worst offender.  The fine folks (Yes, I'm being sarcastic) at Everett charged $15 bucks a set last year.  Okay, so Jeff Clement was in it.  This year they're zapping us collectors $15 a set again.  If that isn't bad enough, the dirtbags charged me $7 to ship two sets my way.  The least they could've done is kissed me first.  The land of polygamy (they're in denial about it, of course)

wasn't MUCH better.  The Utah-based Orem Owls zapped me for $15 a set as well, but asked a dollar less shipping than Everett.  Still outrageous.

I COLLECT MORE THAN JUST BASEBALL THOUGH

I like to write to people who have meant something to me.  Usually writers.  Politicians don't do much for me.  I've gotten back some interesting responses of late in this area as well.

Growing up in Northern Minnesota, I used to get home after work about 10;30 pm.  Just in time to bathe and turn on Beaker Street.  Beaker Street, for those of you who didn't grow up in the Midwest, was a program beamed out of Little Rock, Arkansas (1090 AM) hosted by Clyde Clifford.  He played the stuff you wouldn't hear on AM radio.  Pink Floyd before they became popular, long Doors cuts, the long version of Iron Butterfly's one big hit, Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" and "The Motorcycle Song", even Jaime Brockett's "Legend of the Sinking of the USS Titanic." Awesome stuff.  Well, I wrote and posted a two page poem wondering "Whatever Happened to Clyde Clifford."  Sure enough, I found out from a reader that he still does a reprise of Beaker Street from 7-Midnight on Sunday nights.  I tuned him in and it was just like hearing an old friend again.  Check out "Beaker Street" with your search engine. Clyde's got a fine blog site as well.  I put together a double-sided 8x10 and sent it to him to autograph for me.  He sent it

back with a nice note.  Autographing is a personal hobby, and who may not mean much to you might be venerated by someone else.  I know that this autograph meant a lot to me.

Got another link to the 60's this week.  Tuli Kupferberg, one of the members of "The Fugs."  If you don't remember the Fugs, you probably used your time more productively than I did.  Their "Golden Filth" and "It Crawled into my Hand, Honest" albums were in my collection until Nancy appealed to my maturity and in a moment of weakness I gave them away.  I wish I had them again, if nothing else, for nostalgia's sake.  Anyway, Tuli signed a double-sided 8x10 that I put together.  He's an interesting individual.  He's one of the poets in "The Outlaw Book of American Poetry.You can probably pull up some of his parodies on the web if you search for them.

I surprised myself and got Hugh Hefner back in the mail as well.  Arguably he's one of the most influential men of the 20th century.  The Playboy philosophy and openness about sex liberated much of the educated world.  He's been a relentless fighter for free speech issues as well.

LOOKING FOR AN ADDRESS OF SOMEONE YOU ADMIRE?

Try Zabasearch.  Punch it up on your search engine.  If you have an idea where an individual lives, it can often supply you the address.  For writers, who often teach, their bios often give me a clue as to what city and state to use.  Having their age narrows it down to once the results roll in.  For someone who's been a longtime autographer, I only found out about this tool about a year ago.  Now I use it a lot.  As they used to say to the little boy in the cereal commercial, "try it, you'll like it."  Best of all, it's free.

Anyway, I've rambled on long enough to call it an article.  Again, my apologies for not posting one sooner.  Take care and have fun with the hobby.  Remember.  We're not in this for the money.  It's a passion.  Or at least it should be.  Anyway, have fun with it.  I sure try to.