The Funai Classic and other golf stuff |
November 1: In news that only a golf geek would love, Andy Barnes was top qualifier at his sectional for Q-School. His brother is Ricky Barnes. Third at that sectional: none other than Casey Martin. They both advance to the next stage of Q-School in the hopes of getting their PGA card. Could be interesting if Casey is able to regain his card...carts anyone?
Oct. 20 & Oct. 23: Spent Saturday out at Disney for the Funai Golf Tournament. Got to
watch some great golf, as my friend and I followed Fred Funk and Dan
Forsman on the front nine, got a few autographs, then followed Joey
Sindelar and Tom Pernice on the back nine (OK, actually we started
following them on the 13th hole).
It was great to see Ryan Palmer win the event. Ryan has been super
nice both times I got his autograph (this tourney and Bay Hill
earlier in the year).
Here's who I got (Saturday only totals):
Bob Estes: advertisement out of Golf Digest from 1997.
Joey Sindelar: Golf World magazine from this year when he won the
Wachovia.
Chad Campbell: SI from last year...he personalized
Billy Andrade, Fred Funk: Upper Deck cards
Stephen Ames: Nike card from his win this year
Justin Rose, Rod Pampling, John Rollins: signed the pairings
sheet...Charles Howell III signed his profile inside the pairings
sheet
Shaun Micheel and Jay Williamson: signed printouts I made
Joe Durant, Jeff Maggert, Craig Perks, Matt Kuchar, John Rollins,
David Frost, Ben Curtis, Ben Crane, and Gene Sauers: signed the
custom cards I made for them.
Saw John Daly (he missed the cut) but he was being carted around by
security so he wouldn't have to stop to sign autographs. I was just
surprised he was still at the tournament. But, between Wednesday and
Saturday, was a good time and added some great autographs to my golf
collection.
Wednesday Journal Entry: (abridged version) I got
about 60 golfers, including Vijay Singh, Nick Price, Aaron Baddeley, Rich
Beem, and David Duval (all on magazine covers). I also got some
players on pages from magazines, including Carlos Franco, Woody
Austin, Arron Oberholser, Rocco Mediate, Geoff Ogilvy, Rod Pampling,
Jonathan Byrd, Briny Baird, Bernhard Langer, Bob Tway, Heath Slocumb,
Jesper Parnevik, Daniel Chopra, Charles Howell III, Fredrik
Jacobson. I also got Jerry Kelly, Brad Faxon and Jeff Brehaut on
Upper Deck cards and plenty of guys on my custom golf cards,
including Lee Janzen (who almost ran over me with his cart), Ryan
Palmer, Hank Kuehne, John Cook, and plenty of others.
Only bad thing about the Funai is that the tourney is played on two
courses, so I logged in quite a few miles walking around trying to
get autographs between the two courses. I never did see John Daly,
David Toms, or Duffy Waldorf, all of which I still want
for my golf collection. |
Random Thoughts from July 2004 |
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Sorry for the lack of updates. I have a new job, a new baby, and little time to do anything besides those two things. However, I did utilize one lunchtime break for the Orlando Magic Summer League. I was able to get Celtics 1st Round Pick Delonte West (St. Joe's), Cavs first round pick Luke Jackson (Oregon...see picture of the month to your left), and a few other players like Chris Burgess (Duke & Utah), Dean Oliver (Iowa), Nick Jacobsen (Utah), and Robert Jackson (Marquette). Since I no longer will work in downtown Orlando, this will greatly diminish my ability to get NBA autographs. I'm not terribly worried about this since the NBA just isn't as fun to watch and I'll have even less of an interest now that my boy, Brent Barry, is leaving Seattle to go to San Antonio.
May 20: The mailbox has still been a little slow so I sent off a bunch of requests. I did however add to my Mariners autograph collection with autographs of reliever Mike Myers and Jim Campanis, the catching prospect who never made it to the bigs.
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Random Thoughts May 2004 | Not much to report. Got back in the mail Jerry Lumpe (All-Star in 1964), Talley Haines for my Orlando Rays set. I also recently got an authentic Harold Reynolds Donruss autograph for my ever growing Mariners collection.
On April 24, I made a HUGE FREAKIN' UPDATE to the autographed baseball card page. I listed an additional 300 signed cards as well as updating the entire page. Check to see if I have some cards to complete your sets!
Also got through the mail: John Montague (former Mariners pitcher...recorded the first ever save for the M's) and Bobby Shantz.
Quick link to a crazed minor league fan: Jeff Crupper's unofficial Clearwater Threshers site. This is for anyone with interest in the FSL.
Not much to report on as my mail successes have been non-existent. However, my best friend sent me for my birthday a signed Randy Johnson Sports Illustrated. He even had it framed for me. Very nice indeed. He also included a few extra Spring Training successes which were Julio Mateo, Rett Johnson, and Rene Rivera.
I'm still trying to determine what Florida State League games I'd like to attend. I already got most of the Port St. Lucie Mets, such as Kazmir, at Spring Training. I will try to get Mike Schmidt (managing at Clearwater) and Detroit minor leaguer Kyle Sleeth before the season ends.
On a separate non-autograph diatribe, the recording industry has shown that CD sales are at an all time low. They, of course, blame this on downloading and piracy. Let's not take into consideration two factors: 1) the economy sucks and 2) the recording industry has regurgitated the same crap formula to sell albums. If some group or musician has a breakthrough, every new act is compared to them or tries to copy their formula (see Britney, Justin, Christina...etc.). I recently purchased the new CD from Snow Patrol and some reviews of their CD have drawn comparisons to Coldplay. I don't see the comparison but because Coldplay had a breakthrough and won some grammy awards, now the A and R guys are trying to push extra sales by this fact.
This is why I listen to College Radio and Adult Contemporary. I don't bother listening to Top 40 Radio station. I hate Florida radio and spend my time listening to the Internet for radio. I did find a great station from Martha's Vineyard: WMVY. Check it out on Accuradio.com.
David Duval Letter (March 31) | Nice letter to David Duval posted on the Golf Digest web site. Some people have criticized Duval but if you have the money to spend all your time with your family, more power to you. Here's the link. Enjoy!
Random Thoughts March 2004 | I've created an entire page to my Bay Hill experience. Click here for the page or click here for scans of some autographed items I was able to get in-person. |
Random Thoughts March 2004 |
Spring Training is starting to wind down, which means that I will be focusing on signatures through the mail. I recently received through the mail autographs from Ernie Harwell, Mark Malaska, Bret Saberhagen, and Larry Sherry. Larry was the 1959 World Series MVP and was nice enough to include a signed photo in addition to my printout.
I am also hoping that this website redesign will help me achieve my goal of collecting at least one autograph from every player to ever play in a Mariners uniform. My wishlist is right here so if you can help a brother out, that would awesome. For the record, I have 67% of all Mariners, which includes not only the "big boys" like Griffey, A-Rod, and Ichiro but also the lesser known players such as Jim Weaver and Mike Trujillo. |
In Person Autographing: Wizards |
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Since the Wizards played the night before, the only opportunity was
to get the team before they went to the Arena for the game. Did
pretty good, even if Larry Hughes snuck by us and Jared Jeffries took
a cab to the Arena. Stackhouse didn't travel but I didn't think he'd
sign anyways, considering that I haven't been able to get his
autograph in like 4 years. Here's my haul (one card unless otherwise
noted):
Lonny Baxter: photo
Juan Dixon and Steve Blake: both signed a Maryland Yearbook (Baxter
signed it last year)
Jarvis Hayes: photo and card
Chris Whitney
Christian Laettner
Eddie Jordan
Kwame Brown
Mitchell Butler
Gilbert Arenas: 2 cards
Brendan Haywood: poster from Magic Magazine. I already had Jeryl
Sasser and Stephen Hunter on the poster...finally got Haywood. Magic
should have kept Haywood and traded away the other two picks.
Etan Thomas
Got rejected by Phil Hubbard (Phil Hubbard???) who said his hands
were full. |
In Person Autographing: Bucks |
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I now realize that I have a sickness. The disease is called autographing. I went to
the Bucks hotel before shootaround, mostly for TJ Ford and Van Horn.
But, I also wanted Anthony Goldwire. I've never gotten his auto even though he's been bouncing
around a number of leagues for years.
Van Horn signed but is back to personalizing (no big deal for me). I
got Ford on my SI, so now all I need on it is Nick Collison (please
travel with the Sonics this year, please!). I also got Marcus
Haislip, Toni Kukoc, and Desmond Mason. Anthony came out late with
Redd and Strickland and couldn't sign because the bus was waiting for
them.
So, this goes back to my sickness. I again went over to the hotel
after they got back from shootaround JUST so that I could get
Goldwire. He signed two cards for me. But, the bonus was that I got
TJ one more time to complete a Desmond Mason/TJ Ford full page ad
that was in ESPN magazine a few months ago. It is fabulous looking. The scan I made does not do justice to the piece. |
| Random Thoughts 2/26/04 |
As I was getting my stuff together for the Dodgers camp, I found an interesting story about Dodgers prospect Willy Aybar at the Washington Post. Here is the link. It does take a while to load but well worth the read about major league teams scouting Latin America and the shady dealings of owners and agents.
In a separate note, I find it interesting that many of the MLB web sites have had pictures of players signing autographs during Spring Training. I believe they are really trying hard to use that angle to get people to come out and watch some ballgames. If that really is the case, how about MLB owners telling their players to sign more autographs? What Colangelo did in Arizona was great but I would still like to see more players understand that us collectors really do put money in their pocket by purchasing tickets to the games, purchasing merchandise, etc.
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| In Person 'Graphing: Utah Jazz 2/18/04 |
As each trading deadline looms, you never know who you might get. Luckily (or unluckily, however you view it), none of the Jazz had been traded yet. I missed Michael Ruffin who went to the Waterhouse early, but did get most of the Jazz players including all star Andrei Kirilenko. Greg Ostertag again didn't sign for me. He must recognize me from my days in Utah since this is his second time that he has signed for everyone except for me. Oh well. I did miss Carlos Arroyo as he was signing at the same time as Borchardt. Sloan was personalizing cards but I don't have any other items for me since he signed for me a ton in Utah (and without personalization, I might add).
Here's my haul:
Kirilenko, Pavlovic, and Lopez: printout of the three
Jarron Collins, Curtis Borchardt, Maurice Williams, Deshawn Stevenson: 1 printout each
Raja Bell: card
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| Random Thoughts 2/17/04 | Who would have ever thought that Aaron Boone would be a Red Sox Killer in the Off Season? We all know what Mr. Boone did to the Red Sox during the post season but his biggest dagger to the heart of the Red Sox loyal was what he did off the baseball field, namely, what he did on the basketball court.
Had Aaron Boone not injured himself playing a pickup game of basketball, would the Yankees have even looked at Alex Rodriguez? But, when Boone went down for the 2004 season, nobody in their right mind would consider guys like Enrique Wilson, Tyler Houston, or Ron Coomer as viable options for third base in pinstripes. And we know that George Steinbrenner is NOT in his right mind.
Now, if I ever hear a major league player complaining about the "business" of baseball, they need to look no further at A-Rod. He is the poster boy for the business of baseball, but from a different angle. He has manipulated and used owners in Seattle, Texas, and now New York. Good luck Alex. You deserve to be a Yankee. |
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