Awesome Autographs

Now I'm starting to get excited about baseball !

The 2012 Cleveland Indians press tour made a stop at Great Northern Mall last night. Our oldest son, Josh, and I were there.

For those of you not familiar with Cleveland Indians baseball, This is Ketchup.

One of the, "in between innings", festivities is a hot dog race.

This is Onion, another one of the competitors. The third hot dog in the race is Mustard, who was there, but not in a position to where I could get a photo. The three hot dogs have a foot race about half way around the playing field. Sometimes it's more entertaining than the game !

The big smile of Vinny Pistano ! To his right is Jack Hanahan and Josh Tomlin, who ducked back behind Jack just as I took the picture. Manny Acta is seated in the center, just over Vinny's shoulder. Sorry, my photography on this trip was terrible !

The festivities were supposed to start as 7:00 PM so Josh and I got there about 5. There was already about a a dozen fans lined up at the other table, where we wanted to start. so we grabbed a sandwich and got in line.

My blogger friends are probably getting tired of hearing about my Good Will purchases, but they come into play again, here today.


This fanny pack was a give-a-way at "The Jake" at one time. I found this one at Good Will for like $2.00. It was perfect for last night as I could carry my camera, cards and sharpies and have them all right at my fingertips.

We had been standing in line for about an hour when I saw a couple familiar faces roaming through the crowd. I watched, and realized, they were signing for the people in line as we waited.

I wasn't expecting to see these two guys there so I had no cards with me for them to autograph. Then it came to me ! The bag !!

"Super Joe" Charboneau
The 1980 ROY in the American League. He had a terrific year in Cleveland and a great career ahead him, but injuries put and end to that.



Right behind him was Len Barker, who pitched a perfect game in old Municipal Stadium.

These were two autographs were weren't expecting but were very pleased to get !!



Manny Acta, our fearless leader.
When he first came to Cleveland, I had my doubts, but after a few games I really liked what I saw.


Josh Tomlin

Definitely not a power pitcher, but very, very crafty ! I really like to watch him work.

One of the representatives from the Tribe was passing out these magnets to the people in line. As it turned out that was a very good thing as I brought no cards of Vinny Pistano, because he wasn't on the list of players to be there. He signed the magnet on the top. I have no cards of Jack Hanahan so I had got his auto on the bottom. Yes, that does say "Jack Hanahan". He may become a doctor after his baseball days are done.



Jason Donald is one of our younger guys who really plays hard. He is very exciting to watch and should find a spot as a utility infielder.

Whenever Shelley Duncan sees a pitch he likes, he puts a full effort into his swing. I swear he's going to comes out of his spikes one of these days ! He hits the ball very hard and sometimes a very long way !

Duncan is in the middle, Jason Donald on his left and on his right, signing a baseball, is the guy who's autograph we really wanted to get.

Jason Kipnis. He is our hard charging 2nd baseman who seems to have a really great career ahead of him. He had an injury late in the season last year but shows a tremendous amount of talent in the field and at the plate.

Four hours after we arrived, Josh and I left with nine new autographs (the best part, except for the sandwiches, it was all free !) and a real good outlook on the upcomimg season.

I'm ready !!

Bring on Detroit, our lefties will be ready for their right handed rotation !!