2017 Baseball Spring Training

[mberger718]

Had a decent year in Spring Training, never able to take off as many days as I like since I want to have enough days left over to take a few vacations this year.

Mostly did AA/AAA Minor League games since (1) they are free and (2) guys are nicer and better signers than the major leaguers. Also, you have a good shot of at least a couple major leaguers at the minor league games. In addition, with the Heritage Minors, Pro Debut, Bowman Draft, Elite, Prizm, etc., there are a lot of nice cards of many of these guys available.

My worst day was in Lakeland, where there is limited access to players on the back fields and they can avoid you completely. In about a 4 hour span I got one autograph. Yes, one. It was Alan Trammell which is a good one, but that ranks among the worst days ever.

My best day was AA/AAA Pirates and AA/AAA Phillies. We got A Phillies getting on the bus, got the AA and AAA Pirates and Phillies before and after the game. I got 135 cards signed that day.

Other days I saw AA/AAA Blue Jays at Yankees, AA/AAA Twins at Orioles, AA/AAA Braves at Blue Jays. For the most part I got between 45 and 60 cards signed each day. Some guys will sign full pages of cards, others will sign one of each type of card (no duplicates), others sign 1-2 cards, and a few don't sign at all.

I also caught WBC Team Canada at the Blue Jays before the actual WBC tournament started. That was great since I got some guys I've never gotten before with Team Canada.

My personal highlights were:
Josh Donaldson - sweet spot OMLB autograph and picture with
Larry Walker - 1998 Donruss Studio 8x10 and 1997 Fleer - two autographed set projects I'm working on (30/36 on Studio 8x10s, 337/500 on 97 Fleer)
Devon White - 1997 Fleer autograph - autographed set project (up to 338/500)
Mickey Moniak - 10 Bowman Draft/Bowman Chrome Draft
Justin Morneau - sweet spot OMLB autograph

Didn't get caught up in chasing Tim Tebow, or Ichiro, as those camps are on the other side of the state.

Funny thing with the AA/AAA games is that I've hit a lot of Single A Florida State League games over the past few years, focusing on the teams that are closest to me (Yankees, Phillies, Blue Jays, Pirates). Many of these guys are now in AA or AAA so many of my autographs this spring were of guys I already had a lot of.

The Phillies complex continues to be great for getting guys on the back fields as well as the parking lot. I know they did renovations to Steinbrenner Field in Tampa but I didn't get there this spring so not sure if access in the stadium has changed in terms of getting guys by the dugout. I do know they have extended some of the nets in some parks so it may be tougher now.


Mike

[CYmarlins]

Well done!