August 15- San Francisco Giants

This post pertains to the specific date posted above. Enjoy.

My parents had separated for only a few months when my other decided to take my brothers Matt and Adam and myself to Livermore, California to visit our grandmother for a weekend in August in 1989. We had left on Friday the 11^th, but we returned to our home in Bakersfield on Wednesday the 16^th after missing a few too many days of school. It wasn’t like my mom to have us miss class, but I think she needed some extra time to spend with our grandmother to really grasp everything that had come to her and my father splitting up. From what I can recall the eventual divorce hit my oldest brother Matt the hardest as he was about to turn 11 in November, and at that age the sense of “I did something to cause this” was starting to settle into his mind. My brother Adam, who would be turning 10 the same month, took a protector role as I was too young to really understand what was going on. As the years pressed on these roles shifted slightly; Matt hated my mother for almost two decades as he eventually blamed her for their split, and Adam flip-flopped a bit on things as he became way more rebellious and sometimes took his frustration out on me. I merely sat back and observed, occasionally taking the role of the leader as I became way more methodical about the situation as I got older. As I loom back on the way things have panned out, it almost feels like a dream. No child should ever be put in that situation. I fully understand that marriage isn’t a for sure thing, even in a Mormon household that I grew up in. Everyone will be changed in some way, but it’s how we react to that adversity is what truly defines our character. I did my best to rise above the pain and frustration, as did my brothers, mother and father, but that’s not to say we didn’t slip from time to time. Today we’re all a bit happier. My mother and father don’t speak to one another, but my brothers and I don’t hold the grudges against either of them, nor do we bicker and fight like we used to anymore. I’m not entirely sure how my brothers got over it, but for me, I was always sought sports for my comfort.

1989 was an especially weird year, and the divorce made things especially odd when the World Series came around that October. Adam and my father had both grown up huge San Francisco Giants fans while Matt and I favored the Oakland Athletics. Obviously we all know how that series panned out. Matt and I were more than jubilant while Adam and my dad had the bitter taste of defeat in their mouth. My mother was indifferent due to her Boston Red Sox loyalty, but from what I recall, it was the last time I remember us all being collectively involved and happy in the wake of the madness that would slowly tear us all apart for the majority of 20 years.

There’s a reason I brought all of this to the table and most of it has to do with that weekend in August. While I remember small bits and pieces of my brothers and me running around the neighborhood of my grandmother’s house on Drake Way, I only partially remember my mother crying and her mother trying to console as I looked on in confusion. As the days passed I did my best to entertain myself by watching movies and baseball to kind of tune everything out since no one was making an effort to fill me in on everything that was happening. That weekend the Athletics had taken two out of three from the California Angels and beat the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday by the final score of 5-2. As for the Giants, they had lost two of three from their longtime rival the Los Angeles Dodgers and had begun a three game series on Tuesday in Montreal against the Expos. The Athletics game wasn’t on, but the Giants game was being broadcast on KTVU, so my brothers and I ended up watching it that evening. There’s a reason why I remember all these little bits and details even though most adults shouldn’t more than 24 years later. This was the night that I, and every Giants and Expos fan who happened to be watching that game, saw Dave Dravecky pitch for the last time.

8/15/89: It would be a few years before I fully understood what I was watching. I had heard the name Dravecky a few times in the three years that I had been following baseball, but it didn’t really stick until he took the mound against the Expos. He had started the game for the Giants, only his second appearance/start of the season after he underwent surgery in October of 1988, in which doctors removed half of the deltoid muscle in his pitching arm and froze the humerus bone in an effort to eliminate all of the cancerous cells that had been spreading throughout his left arm; his pitching arm. He had returned to the mound after an extensive rehab run in the minors on August 10^th against the Cincinnati Reds, a game in which he would thrown eight innings while only allowing three earned runs on four hits and a walk on the road to the win. 

Against the Expos Dravecky had started out on fire, throwing a no-hitter through three innings before giving up a single to Andres Galarraga with one out in the top of the fourth. Dravecky went on to retire the next two batters. The Giants tacked on a run in the top of the fifth inning to give them a 1-0 lead. Dravecky had a some trouble in the bottom half of the inning, but managed to get through it after allowing back-to-back singles by Tim Wallach and Mike Fitzgerald before retiring the next three batters. Dravecky recalled a tingling sensation in his arm throughout the inning, but persevered. In the top of the sixth Will Clark led off with a single before Matt Williams cranked a two-run blast off of Bryn Smith to give the Giants a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the inning. With a lead in tact and the minimum amount of innings to get a decision in the books, Dravecky took to the mound to face second baseman Damaso Garcia. Dravecky’s first pitch was a ball, but his second pitch was right down Garcia’s wheelhouse as he blasted it to deep left field (3-1 Giants). The next batter was Galarraga. Dravecky started off a little shaky as his arm was started to bother him more intently. He got Galarraga up to a 2-2 count but eventually beaned him on the sixth pitch. A few Expos fans booed, but it’s pretty obvious that Dravecky didn’t mean to retaliate over the home run, especially after getting the next batter to a 2-2 count. With Galarraga on first base, up to the plate came the ever-dangerous Tim Raines who had gone 0-1 with a walk in his previous two plate appearance. After a brief cool down Dravecky got into his wind-up and fired a shot that went high and to the left into the net behind home plate. Before anyone could grasp what had happened, Dravecky dropped to the ground in writhing pain. The shoulder on his pitching arm, in the same area where the surgeons had removed the cancerous tumors, had snapped. It’s not often that one sees a grown man in such pain on live TV, but the gravity of the situation never leaves your mind. There are a few videos on the web that show what happened, but I’m not in favor of posting it. Fictional violence in film is one thing, but showing something horrific happen to another human being is where I draw the line. The news broke later that night of what had actually happened, but I didn’t find out until the next day. After a few more surgeries and staph infection broke out in Dravecky’s arm, he made the decision to have it amputated.

I’ve brought this up in a few of my other blog posts, in that I really didn’t come into my writing skills until I was 13-years-old. The moment it all became apparent was in Mr. Fowler’s American History class at Fruitvale Jr. High School in Bakersfield when we were given a major presentation assignment under the topic of “Triumph and Tragedy” or “Tragedy and Triumph.” There really was no wrong way of doing it just as long as the essence of perseverance was conveyed through our report. I chose Dravecky’s story through his book Comeback. One of the other reference items I had to aid me in my report was one of my favorite videos that I miraculously came across on Ebay back in 2008 on VHS called “Champions by the Bay,” an essential collectors piece for any Giants or Athletics fan. Due to the fact that the internet was really just getting dropped on the world at the time, all of my research came from these two resources and a scatter of magazine and newspaper clippings that I could come across. At the time, I didn’t know a whole lot about Dravecky other than his years with the Giants, what I later came to realize is that he was way more of a polarizing in baseball than most remember.

Born in Youngstown, Ohio Dravecky attended his hometown college, Youngstown State, where he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 21^st round of the 1978 amateur draft. He spent his first three years in the minors with the Class-A Charleston Pirates (1978) before getting promoted to the AA Buffalo Bisons, where he spent two seasons (1979-1980) going 6-7 in his first year and 13-7 with a 3.35 ERA in his second. When 1981 came around he was traded to the San Diego Padres where he went 15-5 with a 2.67 ERA and 141 strikeouts with the AA Amarillo Gold Sox. It was in this season that he became a devout Christian. 1982 with the AAA Hawaii Islanders started off just as prosperous, 4-1 with a 2.48 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 16 appearances (15 in relief), when he was called up to the Majors and made his debut on June 15^th of that year. From then until the middle of 1987 Dravecky made 199 appearances (119 starts) and finished with a 53-50 record, a 3.12 ERA, 456 strikeouts, one All-Star Game appearance in 1982 and one appearance in the World Series in 1984 against the Detroit Tigers, which they lost in five games. Dravecky pitched 10 2/3 innings in the playoff that season and didn’t allow a single run while striking out 10 batters. 

In the middle of the 1987 season the Padres traded Dravecky along with Craig Lefferts and Kevin Mitchell to the Giants in exchange for Chris Brown, Keith Comstock (who will appear in a future post), Mark Davis and Mark Grant. If you know anything about 1980s baseball, you know that the Giants totally owned the Padres on this deal. For the rest of the 1987 season Dravecky went 7-5 in 18 starts with a 3.20 ERA and 78 strikeouts as well as an appearance in the National League Championship Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, which they lost in seven games. Dravecky made two starts and went 1-1 despite pitching 15 innings while only allowing one run seven hits and four walks while striking out 14 batters. Seriously, he was lights out, but the Giants couldn’t give him any run support after Cardinals’ right fielder Jose Oquendo lobbed a sacrifice fly in the second inning of Game Six.

In 1988 Dravecky started off the season well, but was shut down after his start on May 28^th when the cancerous desmoid tumor was discovered. 

He had pitched in seven games, going 2-2 with a 3.16 ERA and 19 strikeouts. When he made his return at Candlestick Park on August 10^th he was met by a standing ovation from the sold out crowd of 34,810 fans. 

As I mentioned above, he pitched beautifully. His comeback merited the Hutch Award at the end of the season which is given to the player who "best exemplifies the fighting spirit and competitive desire" of Fred Hutchinson, by persevering through adversity. The award was created in 1965 in honor of Hutchinson, the former MLB pitcher and manager, who died of lung cancer the previous year. When Dravecky’s pitching career ended on that unfortunate day on August 15^th, one detail from that game ended up being an intriguing moment down the road. Garcia, the player who had hit the home run off of Dravecky in the top of the sixth inning, saw his playing career come to an end less than month later in September 12^th. The home run he hit would turn out to be the last in his 11-year career. Even eerier, a year after he retired, Garcia started to have double vision and was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. In 1991, Garcia had the tumor removed, and was told that he only has six months to live. The effects of the tumor left him with limited speech and certain movement. He recovered enough to throw out the first pitch of a Toronto Blue Jays playoff game in 1992, the team he had been with for the majority of his career (1980-1986). His oldest son suffers from hemophilia which prompted Garcia to run a baseball camp for hemophiliac children in the Dominican Republic. As for Dravecky, he found himself at an unusual crossroad after the additional surgeries, the staph infection and the eventual amputation of June 18, 1991. After his recovery Dravecky looked at his life and analyzed his relationship with God and realized that baseball was merely a stepping stone to reach the next step. He began touring as a motivational speaker he wrote two books about his battles with cancer and his comeback attempt: Comeback, published in 1990 and written with Tim Stafford, and When You Can't Come Back, co-authored with wife Jan and Ken Gire and published in 1992. He has also written a Christian motivational book titled Called Up which was published in 2004.

I don’t speak much of religion in my posts unless it is pertinent to the topic at hand. As I mentioned above, and in a few other instances, I was raised Mormon. Most of what I have done in life may not reflect that of the typical Latter-Day Saint lifestyle (alcohol consumption, tattoos, smoking, etc.), but the one thing that has stayed within my life from those days is my faith in God. I’m a firm believer in the philosophy of “everything happens for a reason,” but that part that I differ on from most religions is that I don’t feel that God is necessarily controlling those moments. To me, God is merely watching over us, working more as a conscience when it comes to moments of right or wrong and taking the next step. It’s really more of a comfort, kind of like the way our parents are always by our sides, reminding us that they gave us the tools to succeed and now it’s up to us to choose the right path as they look on. Nothing about what I believe is meant to persuade anyone. You are all free to believe what you want and do what you want, but this is merely look into how I became the man I am today as I reflect upon the moments from my childhood that somehow became involved with the day that Dravecky took the mound for the last time. Much like Dravecky, an injury while I was playing baseball is inevitably what ended my possible opportunity to play professional baseball. Obviously mine wasn’t as horrendous, but the end result was the same: Baseball is merely a platform for us to see what our greater purpose is. For Dravecky, it’s sharing his story and sharing his testimony and relationship with God. For me, it’s sharing stories through my writing and baseball in the attempt to become a better person and help others along the way. While my drive isn’t a religiously charged as Dravecky’s, the mission is still the same.

Originally I was going to save this post until I could track down a Giants 1989 World Series cap since he was a part of the team that year, but I have something else planned for that. Instead, I chose this cap that the team used as their game cap from 1983 until the end of the 1993 season. Even though there were a lot of stories to tell during that time frame, nothing really embodied the good spirit of those teams quite like Dravecky in the two-and-a-half-years he was on the field. When I laid out my design plan for my mascot and logos tattoos I did it with the intention that every single piece had a greater story behind it. For the Giants, I got rather subtly creative.

Originally I was going to add the old Crazy Crab that everyone used to hate, and I may still add that down the road, but ultimately I chose Lou Seal. More specifically, I found a picture of Lou Seal from a kids MLB coloring book which featured a picture of him giving the thumbs up. Now, being an Athletics fan I of course had to put my tweak on it by giving it a thumbs down on top of the old school green underbrim on the cap; however, there is one aspect that I was very specific about that very few ever notice. If you look above you’ll notice that Lou Seal isn’t exactly all in frame. Yes, his legs are being boxed out by Chief Noc-a-Homa below, but the left arm was purposely covered up/removed as my tribute to Dravecky. Also, and this will blow your mind even more, if you look at the full tattoo below you’ll see that the two team mascots to his left (the Reds and Expos) are the last two teams he faced, and the last two teams he notched wins against as the Giants still won the game on August 15^th as they preserved a 3-2 lead to end the game. 

I may not see eye-to-eye with Giants fans most of the time, but I do respect their history and quite a few of their players. Until the day comes when I am dispatched from this life, I am happy to have Dravecky always be a part of it.

July 23- Eugene Emeralds

If you’ve been keeping up with these blog posts I merely need to refer you to my Eugene Emeralds post from March 7^th to have an understand of how this story began. Due to the fact that I was living and working in Portland, Oregon from October through the first week of January I had missed the Emeralds’ new logo/merchandise release party in Eugene on account of me having to work. I remember making some comment about “how I wish I was there” when the next thing I know I had a DM from whomever was running the Twitter account that day; I’m pretty positive it was General Manager Allan Benavides. Anyway, it was a reply to my comment which basically said that they wanted to know my hat size so that they could put aside and hook me up with one of their new caps. I wasn’t really sure to what I owed the pleasure, but I’ve also never turned down a free New Era Cap so I made sure to note when I would be back in Eugene for winter term.

When I finally had a free moment to get down to the office of the Emeralds I made sure to give plenty of notice, not to mention I made sure to get directions because I had no idea where I was going. Everyone in the office was especially friendly and excited to meet me, which I totally wasn’t expecting, and everyone had questions about my season-long Major League Baseball stadium tour and my time in the MLB Fan Cave. All of them had been supporters of my time which is what had started the vested interest in getting out to the games upon my expulsion. Besides the alternate Emeralds cap, Allan also hooked me up with an Emeralds pint glass which I ended up leaving in Eugene with my roommate Reed. Totally unintentional. One-by-one I shook hands and thanked everyone for their kindness for not only the hat and glass, but for taking good care of me when I was able to get out for Emeralds games at the start of the 2012 season. Near the end of my visit the subject of my tattoos was finally brought up and, like always, I showed no hesitation in showing them off. This was the lead-in Director of Corporate Events Tyler Tostenson needed to ask, “Have you thought about getting Sluggo tattooed on you?” For those who don’t know, Sluggo is the big neon green bear mascot for the Emeralds. In fact, the person who had been inside the outfit, who was also the man in the suit for Puddles, the University of Oregon Duck mascot, happened to be standing next to me as I answered Tyler question. My response, “To be honest, I have been mulling it over. The only problem is that it doesn’t fit with the theme of MLB logos and mascots so I would have to think of a location of where to place it.” But in short, yes, I was deeply considering it. I said my goodbyes and thank yous once again and headed back to campus to get some writing done. What I wasn’t expecting was to get a call from my tattoo artist a little less than a week later.

Flashback

Felix “The Tat” Epperson and I have known each other since April of 2011, but the first time we met was on September 6, 2008. I wasn’t at all surprised that he didn’t remember me as the situation that put in the same room together involved my girlfriend at the time getting her first tattoo done by him at Black Lotus Tattoo in Eugene, the same shop where he works today. The only reason why I remember the date so well is because I was originally going to go to the Oregon versus Utah State football game that morning, but put it off to be there while the work was getting done. Also, I had to work at the Hilton that morning from 5 AM to 10:30 AM, which led to me falling asleep in the waiting chair while she was getting tattooed which then led to one of our first arguments in our relationship. I should also point out that I paid the $250 for the tattoo as a birthday present for her. God, I’m such an asshole! Moving on; when the time came for me to finally commit to getting my two-sided MLB showcase tattoo he was the first person who came into my head. Actually, that’s not entirely true. My good friend Nick Porter, who did both of the tattoos on the outsides of my forearms (the quote and the lumberjack/shark) had recommended Reed, my future roommate, to do it as he was a big baseball fan and would probably better understand a lot of the concepts I was throwing out. Not having a problem with that bit of honesty, I hit Reed up and emailed him everything I wanted to do. Originally I wanted only a few of the mascots and I wanted to put it on my left arm as a half-sleeve, something that he quickly shot down because I didn’t have enough canvass to work with. During the time when I mulled over what he his comments I came down with a near fatal case of “what the f--- is wrong with me?” I phrase it like that because I had strep throat, my kidneys were shutting down, I was dehydrated and a staph infection had broken out underneath my belly button which then spread to my neck and both of the tattoos I mentioned above as I had just gotten them done about two weeks prior. In short, I looked like hell. I wrote a much longer piece about this in my other blog, so I’m trying to keep this short. Here’s the link to it if you ever want to read the full detailed account of what went down. What I will tell you is that when I was lying on the hospital bed all I could think about was baseball and how happy it made me. It in these fleeting moments that I came up with the placement and design concept for what I eventually got tattooed on me.

Once I recovered I emailed Reed with a new plan and ideas which was eventually shot down a few weeks later for two reasons: 1. Reed was pretty booked up. 2. A lot of what I was asking for was a bit too confusing. The latter part made a lot of sense because trying to relay what I wanted via email was not an easy concept for anyone to understand. Had I gone in person to discuss it with him, things might have been different, but because I was itching to get this started, I moved on. It’s something I still feel bad about because there were a few other artists in the shop who would have loved to do an extravagant piece like this, but I didn’t think about that. For some reason the first thing that popped into my head was to go to another shop; which is how I ended up at Black Lotus on a Sunday evening about five minutes before they closed.

Felix happened to be the only person left in the shop when I cracked open the door and walked inside. Hey greeted me and politely told me that they were just closing up. I told him I didn’t have a problem with that and that I was merely there to get a recommendation on an artist. He told me he might be able to help, so I asked him if he was a baseball fan. He quickly responded with, “totally.” It’s kind of a useless question for an artist, I suppose, but my focus was on making sure that he or someone else would have an understanding of what I was after. I then rattled off the concept I was going for and that I would be coming back with a ton of notes, etc., etc. Felix was hardly miffed by what I was saying and told me to come back with photos, notes and anything else he needed to get a sketch up.

For a week I toiled. Searching everywhere for pictures of mascots dating back to the 1960s, collecting important historical stories that could be told through cartoonish shapes that wouldn’t mind carving into my body for the rest of my life. At the end of my research campaign I had about 15 total pages worth of material to hand over. All of which he assembled perfectly in two pieces on the first take. To make a long story short it took roughly six sessions of four to four-and-a-half hours per session to get the first wave done.

 

Since then we’ve spent another four sessions of four hours each adding more including additional mascots, my Major League Baseball heart piece and the totally badass bowtie right below my neck. 52 hours worth of bloodless, sweat, a few tears and hard earned dollars later my canvas has become a remarkable tribute to the game I love… and we still have a lot more work to go.

Over time Felix and my friendship built and I even went out to take a few photos of him carving pools during the mornings when the weather was fair in Eugene before he had to go to work and I had to go to class.

Without him I wouldn’t be where I am today. It’s kind of crazy to think that tattoos helped me achieve some sort of position of providence, and for that, I will always be in his debt.

Back to reality

I was working in the library on the campus of the University of Oregon when I got a message over Facebook from Felix. Apparently Tyler had hit him up and presented a promotional idea that the Emeralds were curious if he wanted to take part of called “Bats and Tats” Night (clever). The promotion in a nutshell was discounted tickets for anyone who came with a tattoo as well as a tattoo competition for local artists on who could come up with the best Emeralds-themed tattoo. Based on everything we had collaborated on together it was a no-brainer for Felix. I of course said yes as well. Felix and I had all ready had an appointment set up near the end of January (the bowtie tattoo) and we decided to mull over some ideas when I dropped by.

The only problem that arose with this promotion, in my head at least, was trying to figure out a way to add original elements to an incredibly clever, but brand new logo. When Felix and I talked it over during my ink session I still couldn’t come up with anything. Of the three logos that the team had affixed to their hats, two of them were ones that I wasn’t considering. This one. And this one. Nothing personal against them, I just felt like we could do more with a different design. After the session wrapped up I told him I would do some research and try to find something that we would both like, because; after all, the other part of this assignment was to get Felix as much business as possible, something I have been very dedicated to since I was first getting interviewed for the MLB Fan Cave.

The promotion wasn’t slated until July 23^rd so I had a bit of time to finish up my last term of school, fly out to Florida to visit Angie as well as have some time with her in Portland as well. Before I graduated for the U of O I had pieced together a design concept based on two photos I had come across on the internet. The first part was the alternate logo which, at the time, was not featured on any of the team’s hats.

This, of all of them, is hands down my favorite based on the historical context behind it. The Emeralds are a short season-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres and the company that designed their new logos, Brandiose, took a classic Padres concept and perfected it.

The second part was that I wanted to somehow incorporate Sluggo into the design as well. So, I did the best, funniest thing possible and made Sluggo the tree in which Sasquatch is swinging.

In all of my hat-related exploits I came across a cap on the Hat Club Web site which happened to feature the Swingin’ Sasquatch logo with an original color scheme to back it up, this one. With little hesitation I scooped up and kept it away from being worn until the big day. Meanwhile, Angie ended up paying me a visit in the middle of June before she headed to Wisconsin to see her family. Angie had never seen me get a tattoo so I made sure to hold out on the piece until she arrived to sit next me. Tyler dropped by Black lotus to get some video and some photos together for the event and was blown away by what we had come up with. He had also mentioned that he saw the logo on the hat on the Hat Club Web site, but I made no mention as to whether or not I had seen it, even though it was kicking it on a shelf in my closet. It didn’t take us too long to get it done (roughly two hours), but it was finished, and set to be fully-healed by the time July 23^rd came rolling around.

7/23/13: Due to the fact that I didn’t have a car I ended up footing the bill for gas to get my friend Sean Davis to roll down to Eugene from Portland with me for the game. Felix had an extra ticket for me to use and couldn’t think of anyone better to spend the game with than one of my really good friends. Felix greeted us near the first plate entrance and we hugged it out. The tattoo had healed perfectly, I made sure to give it a good shave and the weather was spectacular. Felix had ended up snagging a suite, as did the other tattoo parlors involved in the contest. All that was really left to do was see how many people would come out for the event.

Tyler greeted a little ways up the stairs and noticed that I was rocking the Emeralds hat he had talked about back at Black Lotus. He also asked for a peek at the finished product which I had no problems with. “That’s sick!” he exclaimed, a pretty common response I’ve gotten from everybody. Tyler had to bounce, as he was still coordinating a few things, but Felix, Sean and I headed up to the suite to meet up with Felix’s friends and family.

One of the really cool perks of the night was that all of the artists were called down to the field to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Felix got the honor of going first and lobbed one up and across the plate.

Contrary to the arch of the ball in the photo, he was the only one to find the strike zone. Another thing to point out with this is that, like myself, Felix plays baseball/softball regularly. Throwing out a first pitch without warming up is not a picnic in the park. Trust me; check this out if you don’t believe me.

With food and beers in hand we all settled out on the patio to watch the game. The Emeralds were hosting the Boise Hawks which was cool because the Chicago Cubs’ 2013 first round pick (second overall) Kris Bryant had just signed his contract and was making his professional debut for that game.

On the other side of the plate, the Padres’ first round pick (13^th overall) Hunter Renfroe had already been digging it out for the Emeralds in the outfield, so it all made for a rather compelling game.

As the game went on the Emeralds showed the photos and videos for all the artists, tattoos and canvases who were in the running for the Best Emeralds Tattoo. Of all the ones shown Felix and I had the only one that looked spot on to what the actual logo looks like, while the other artists took to their own creative devices. Fans voted on Facebook for the winner, in which we finished in second place by the time everything sorted out at the end of the week. Winning wasn’t really the objective as much as it was about more business for Felix.

One thing that I definitely have to tip my cap to is the Emeralds’ front office for putting this night together. PK Park was borderline sold out, and the crowd was definitely into the game. Sluggo came up and paid us a visit

And Felix and I toasted our accomplishments.

Sadly the Emeralds lost 0-6, but the loss certainly didn’t spoil an amazing night.

July 14- San Diego Padres

It’s kind of crazy to think that in the 17 years that I lived in California (born and raised) I never went to San Diego until years after I moved away. Living in Bakersfield for the majority of my life this really doesn’t make much sense, especially since the two cities are less than four hour apart from one another. An even weirder thing to consider out of this is that from when I was 13-years-old until I was 19 I was a pretty avid surfer. The furthest south my board and I had ever gotten in California was down to San Clemente, which is still only about an hour north of “a whale’s vagina.” I don’t know. I can’t think of an reasonable explanation as to how I dodged it for so long, but I’m glad that I was finally able to make it out there this last year to catch a game with fellow MLB Fan Cave hopeful Andy Bishop.

Andy and I hit it off almost immediately when we first met in person in February of 2012 for the top-30 of the Fan Cave auditions. He and I have the same appreciation for weird, outlandish, off-the-wall comedy and we are both Mormon. Well, he’s a bit more adherent to the rules than I am; nonetheless, we were both raised with the same faith and struck a common accord during our time together. I thought he would have been a lock as one of the final nine from last season, but then again, I felt that way about a lot of the people that I met. Like Los Angeles Dodgers fan Nick Hamilton, Andy was one of the many people who I told that I would go south to visit him and take him to a San Diego Padres game no matter what the outcome of the Fan Cave experience would be. Just a few days after Independence Day 2012 I lived up to my word.

The timing of my visit technically couldn’t be any worse. Yes, Andy was around; however, Andy was also in the process of moving and didn’t really have a place for me to crash, but we did end up slitting a hotel room downtown. Aside from being an aspiring sports play-by-play announcer, Andy served as a tour guide at Petco Park on off days and before Padres games. Sadly, I never got to get the grand tour from the man, but he did show me around a bit before the game started and after we got to shoot the breeze with Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips. Andy took me to the warehouse in left field and we made our way to the sandbox in centerfield and the grass knoll-area which sat behind. The Padres were hosting a beer and wine tasting event at the time which was a really cool bonus for fans who don’t otherwise want to just sit in their seat waiting for the game to start. One thing I wanted to do was check out the Padres team store as I was in search of a Tucson Padres cap, the AAA-affiliate of the Padres, for my collection. As luck would have it they had a score in stock; however, the price on the caps was $50, and this was before tax. I passed without thinking twice about it.

The game itself was pretty rough. Even our rally caps couldn't thwart the Padres 0-6 loss, but we didn’t let that spoil our night. 

Andy and I retreated to a local ale house for a quick beverage, well, I did and we stayed there until the end of the Seattle Mariners versus the Oakland Athletics game that was in the bottom off the ninth inning. Andy and I spent most of the time chatting about what we’ve got going on over the next couple of days when the next thing I knew Chris Carter had just blasted a three-run home run off of Steve Delabar in the bottom of the 11^th inning to give the A’s a 4-1 win over the Mariners. Worn out an both with busy days the next morning, we went to the hotel, turned on MLB Network and passed out. Andy had all ready paid for the hotel so I headed outside in the middle of the night to grab a smoke and run to an ATM to get money to pay him back. Of all the things that I will ever forget from that trip, the one that sticks out the most is how I left the cash sitting on the nightstand next to Andy’s bed. When I didn’t see Andy leave the next morning, but saw the money gone, I couldn’t help but laugh at that exchange being almost like I paid Andy for a date that night. I have a twisted sense of humor sometimes.

If you’re an avid follower of my blog you might have recognized the cap I’m wearing in the photos with Andy as the Padres Military Day cap I wrote about on April 12^th. Seeing how I didn’t write about the game I went to with Andy I felt that this was a good enough platform to bring it up, especially considering the fact that Petco Park, and the numbers I have marked are all relevant to the cap that I’m writing about. The Padres introduced it, along with this cap, at the start of the 2004 season when they retired the white “S” with orange “D”-logoed cap at the end of the 2003 season; this cap. In the case of this sand-colored “SD” logo cap, the Padres wore it as their road and alternate cap and retired it at the end of the 2011 season. The all-navy blue with a white “SD” cap then took over as their regular game cap. I couldn’t believe that I had never worn this cap until I put it on today; the price tag was still on the bottom.

Picking players to mark this cap up was actually a pretty easy move. 

#44- Of all the players to move on from the Padres over the last decade, the hardest to swallow has to be Jake Peavy. I had actually written about Peavy back on February 12^th for one of my Lake Elsinore pieces, but there’s so much that I left out as I focused primarily on his time with the Storm. 

Peavy grew up in Mobile, Alabama and cheered the Crimson Tide through and through. As a kid he followed the Atlanta Braves whose core of the 1990s was built around the brilliant pitching of Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and one of his sports heroes Greg Maddux. Jake’s father, Donny, was a skilled carpenter who made cabinets along with his father, Blanche, on their three-acre plot of land in the outskirt town of Semmes. Donny was an especially gifted and well-known ball player around town, as was Blanche. Jake was especially close to his grandfather who was still playing fast-pitch softball. He drove Jake to school in his old El Camino most mornings. After school, his grandfather would videotape Jake pitching, pop the tape in the VCR and analyze his motions. Despite all of this keen analysis, no one noticed that Jake was profoundly near sighted. After he got his first pair of glasses, he turned into an excellent hitter, too. One day, in 1994, Blanche turned on a fan in the shop and the unthinkable happened. The blade snapped and went through his eye and into his brain. He fell into a coma, and his family later agreed to let him go. Jake was devastated. From that day forward the loss motivated Jake as he gave it his all for his “Paw-Paw.”

When Jake was ready for high school, his parents sent him to St. Paul’s Episcopal in Mobile. The school had a reputation for its tremendous sports program, and his parents felt that this was a smart path for their son. St. Paul’s was a private school, so Debbie, his mother, had to take a job in the post office so they could afford the tuition. Money well spent.

As Jake grew into his burly 6-1 frame, he blossomed into an unbeatable pitcher. He had a hard fastball that he slung across his body, and a change up that was very advanced for a boy his age. In his first three varsity seasons, Jake went 31-1. He exhibited the kind of wildness one would expect in a live young arm, but after throwing an occasional pitch to the backstop, he was usually able to collect himself and get back down to business. The scouts who began showing up at his games took note of this quality. –JockBio.com

During Jakes senior season, 1999, he led the Saints to the state championship and never lost one of his 13 decisions on the mound. Of all the colleges who were interested in him, the University of Alabama was the one he wanted to attend the most. Upon hearing this Peavy was invited to Alabama’s campus in Tuscaloosa by then head coach Jim Wells for a tour and an offer… or so Peavy thought. Peavy though that Bama was going to roll out the red carpet for him, instead he was welcomed with little-to-no fanfare and the only offer he was given was Wells’ promise to pay for his books. Yup! The best high school pitcher in the state of Alabama was offered books. Dejected, Peavy took an audience with Auburn University head coach Hal Baird who offered him a full ride if he played for the Tigers. Peavy was at a cross road. He now had even more motivational fuel by playing for Auburn to stick it Alabama, or he could roll the dice and see where he ended up in the draft and make his decision from there. Peavy had all ready told most scouts that he would commit to Auburn if he wasn’t drafted in the first four rounds, which scared a lot of teams off… except one, the Padres. Padres’ scout, Mark Wasinger, had gotten to know Jake’s other grandfather, and was convinced that the kid had all the intangibles necessary to be a star. Wasinger called the Padres late in the draft and asked how high Jake had gone. When he was informed that his name was still on the board, he begged the club to take him. They did, in the 15th round. When the draft concluded Wasinger got Jake to agree that he would sign a contract if he was given fourth-round bonus money. Wasinger put his reputation on the line and convinced the Padres to offer six figures. Jake signed, making Hal Baird the unhappiest man in the state of Alabama.

Peavy made his Major League debut on June 22, 2002 and became an immediate fixture in the Padres rotation despite going 6-7 with a 4.52 ERA in his first year. From 2003-2006 Peavy would win at least 11 games per season, only having one losing year in 2006 where he went 11-14. His ERA was cut in half as he led the National League with a 2.27. In 2005 he made his first All-Star game as he lead the NL in strikeouts that season with 216. But all of these accomplishments were merely the warm-up to his phenomenal year in 2007.

Peavy’s final year in San Diego came in 2008, but it was his triple crown, second All-Star Game appearance, Cy Young-winning season in 2007 which will always make Peavy a legend in San Diego. That season he went 19-6 with a 2.54 ERA, 240 strikeouts and even a league-leading 1.061 WHIP to boot. Had the Padres made the playoffs that season Peavy may have won the NL MVP as well, but he finished in seventh place.

#30- If there is one player throughout my years whose name has come up at the most unusual times in my life; it has to be Ryan Klesko. Klesko was a fifth round draft pick by the Braves back in 1989 out of Westminster High School in Westminster, California. He made his Major League debut on September 12, 1992 and hung with the Braves all the way through their World Series run in 1995 and until the end of the season in 1999. In fact, Klesko is the only person in World Series history to knock a home run a three consecutive road games, which he did against the Cleveland Indians in ’95. At the end of the 1999 season he was traded to with Bret Boone and Jason Shiell to the Padres for Quilvio Veras, Reggie Sanders and Wally Joyner.

From 2000-2006 Klesko played first base and left field in San Diego where he made his one and only All-Star appearance in 2001 after hitting .286 with 30 home runs and a career-high 113 RBI. In 2002, he hit .300 with 29 HR and 95 RBI, and collected career-highs in hits (162) and doubles (39). In his career he has a .370 on base percentage with a .500 slugging average, for a .870 OPS. His .525 slugging percentage as a Brave ranks 4th all-time among the team's career leaders, ahead of Eddie Mathews. His .886 OPS as a Brave ranks him 5th among Braves' all-time leaders. Klesko hit .279 with 278 home runs and 987 for his career. He also had a really sweet mustache for most of his career.

My one story that has to do with him came in 2004 when I was interning at a newspaper in Salem, Oregon called The Statesman Journal. My first assignment was to interview a bunch of kids who were on a Little League team that was gearing up to make a solid run for Williamsport. One of the questions that I had to ask all of the kids was, “who is your favorite player?” One of the kids said his favorite player was “Brian Flesko.” I even had him write it down. Well, guess who got their ass chewed out for not correcting it to Ryan Klesko? It wasn’t that I didn’t know who the kid was talking about; I just knew that he was being a smartass so I decided not to change it, which is also why I made him write it down. Needless to say, I never let that happen again.

#3- Khalil Greene was one of my favorite players to come up through the Padres organization. A 2002 Baseball America All-American, Dick Hoswer Trophy winner, ACC Player of the Year, All-ACC first team, Rotary Smith Award winner, Golden Spikes Award winner (best college baseball player), sociology degree recipient out of Clemson University, Greene entered the MLB draft and was taken with the 13^th overall pick by the Padres. Greene moved through the Padres farm system with ease in a year-and-a-half starting with the short season-A Eugene Emeralds on to the Lake Elsinore Storm on to the AA Mobile Bears and then for a brief time in 2003 with the Portland Beavers before making his MLB debut on September 3^rd.

Greene became a regular fixture in the Padres lineup in 2004 and put up solid numbers in his first year, but finished second for the Rookie of the Year award behind Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Jason Bay. Greene hit .273 with 15 home runs and 63 RBI on the season. Greene became a fan favorite overnight. He looked like Jeff Spicoli and played with reckless abandon.

Hell, he even won me over.

But Greene’s time with the Padres would be short-lived as he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals during the 2008 Winter Meetings. What’s actually pretty crazy is that even though Greene only played in five full season with the Padres, he still holds the franchise record for most home runs hit by a shortstop with 84. Greene took several weeks off during May and June 2009, after it was revealed that he was possibly injuring himself in mental anguish (revealed to be social anxiety disorder) due to a slow start for the Cardinals, hitting .197 with only three home runs at the time. He returned to the Cards lineup on June 19 at the Kansas City Royals. Playing third base for the first time since college, he went 2-for-2 with a double, a solo home run and a walk, eventually being substituted after fouling a ball off his foot. Following a 1 for 17 stretch over five games, Greene was placed back on the disabled list with social anxiety disorder on June 29. Greene filed for free agency for the 2010 season, and signed with the Texas Rangers. He announced on February 22, 2010 that, suffering another episode of social anxiety disorder, he would not be reporting to Rangers spring training. On February 25, the Rangers voided Greene's contract. Greene’s final game in MLB was October 4, 2009.

#32- Sean Burroughs was born in Atlanta, Georgia but grew up in Long Beach, California and is regarded as one of the greatest Little League World Series stars. His father Jeff, former American League MVP with the Texas Rangers, was the Long Beach coach and led his son and company to the LLWS and won back-to-back championships in 1992 and 1993. Sean is also the only player to pitch back-to-back no-hitters in the LLWS. Before breaking into the Major Leagues Sean was also a somewhat accomplished writer as a piece of his was included as one of the freedom writers as his is diary entry #132.

Burroughs was selected with the ninth overall pick in the 1998 amateur draft by the Padres, bolstering solid numbers with the gold medal-winning 2000 USA Olympic team and the AAA Beavers in 2001 before getting called up and making his MLB debut on April 2, 2002. Burroughs’s career with the Padres had a lot of promise. His best season came in 2004 where he batted .298 with 156 hits, two home runs and 47 RBI, but after the 2005 season the Padres dealt him to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for Dewon Brazelton. Burroughs only made it through August before the Devil Rays released him. After that, he faded into obscurity… or so people thought.

After getting released by the Seattle Mariners in June of 2007 Burroughs disappeared, literally. He ended up in Las Vegas, Nevada moving around from motel to motel, drinking up to eight Slurpees a day and eating cheeseburgers out of trashcans. Sounds unbelievable, right? It gets worse. During an interview with ESPN Burroughs admitted, "I was doing a lot of things that were morally not correct and physically not correct. I was knocking at death's door. I was flirting with going to jail and getting locked up someplace. It was scary. Some people kind of came to my rescue. It was pure insanity, but I got myself back together and I'm coming back out of the haze I was in for so many years.''

The former LLWS star, Olympic gold medalist and highly-touted prospect picked up the broken pieces of his life and got back into baseball in 2011 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and then the Minnesota Twins in 2012. In 2013 he was signed to a minor league deal by the Los Angeles Dodgers and played 57 games with the AA Chattanooga Lookouts.

July 6- Eugene Emeralds

March 7^th was a pretty spectacular day. It was the day when the Eugene Emeralds were selling all of their brand new 2013 caps for $20 outside of the bar (@TheWebfootBar) my friend Justin owns. Having all ready scored the alternate cap back in January, and seeing how $20 is too good of a price to pass up, I bought the remaining two I needed to round out my collection. It’s days like this that cap collectors like myself love and hate as we all love to get new caps, but hate how quickly the money evaporates from our pockets. No matter. Down the road we are all happy for our purchase when we don our newly purchased caps and hear the ever-familiar, “Hey! Where did you get that cap? It’s awesome!” In the case of this cap, the fine folks at Brandiose in San Diego deserve the most credit.

For those of you who don’t know, Brandiose, or Plan B. Branding as they were formerly known, have been at the forefront of team logo design for the better part of the last decade based out of San Diego, California. The founders, Jason & Casey, started out in their college dorm room designing logos for high school teams and eventually were given their big break by the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx as they were the only team to respond to the 150 letters they sent out to every minor league team. After their first success, many more followed. They are responsible for many of the logos I have all ready written about for teams such as the: Everett AquaSox, Pensacola Blue Wahoos, Stockton Ports, Lakeland Flying Tigers, Casper Ghosts and even revision for the oldest team in Major League Baseball, the Cincinnati Reds. In 2012 Jason & Casey were tapped by Emeralds General Manager Allan Benavides.

"When we started this process, we wanted to end up with something fun that fans could really associate with," said Ems General Manager Allan Benavides. "Sasquatch gives the Emeralds a face for the first time in our long history." Sasquatch biting the tree will be the emblem on the home hat while the foot-shaped "E" will serve as an alternate. The road uniforms will feature the "Eugene" script with feet on each end. Home, away and alternate uniforms will be released in the spring.

The new identity pays tribute to America's greatest urban legend, the legend of Sasquatch in the Pacific Northwest. The primary logo features a Sasquatch unearthing trees behind "Emeralds" lettering. Fans will also enjoy the iconic "E" Sasquatch foot logo, and several other Sasquatch and foot related marks. A number of different options were considered including themes that involved forests, trees and various woodland creatures. "Ultimately, we felt that sasquatch was the best fit to represent the mystique of the Northwest woodlands," said Benavides.

The development process began last June when Jason and Casey met in Eugene with fans, staff and community members to learn about the stories, history, and personality of the Emeralds and Eugene. Brandiose developed the logos, uniforms and is dreaming up enhancements for the 2013 fan experience. "Eugene is a hotbed of countercultural ideas," said Brandiose's Jason Klein. "From Sasquatch sightings to hippy culture, the Ems are honoring Eugene's eccentricities with a few of their own." – MiLB.com

Back in November of 2012 when the Ems unveiled their new logos I was stuck in Portland for the holidays and working as was unable to attend the event. But that didn’t stop Benavides from hitting me up asking me if I wanted any of the new caps later that night. I of course said yes and they made sure to hold the alternate cap aside for me until I moved back to Eugene to finish up school this last winter. As I’ve mentioned in my previous Ems articles, they run a pretty solid program and I’m always happy to share the love in my blog posts. Kudos!

Now, as I’ve mentioned in a lot of my other “new to 2013” posts it’s hard to tell a story about a hat or player who wore that if it hasn’t been used on the field. In this case I figured it would be a cool time to share a random, but true story about Eugene that only a few people know about in keeping with the theme of Eugene’s oddball history. Since this cap is the team’s road cap, it kind of makes for an appropriate discussion piece as most of my 2012 was spent on the road; only a few weeks were actually spent in or around Eugene.

So… it was July, only a few days after I had returned to Oregon after the West Coast leg of my MLB road trip. I still had until the end of the month until my roommate and my lease expired on our apartment in Eugene so I made as much use of that as I possibly could on any random nights when I felt like going back home to visit and catch up with friends. Since my apartment was only about five blocks from the campus of the University of Oregon and about a 9-iron shot away from the bar I worked at (Max’s Tavern), I rarely ever strayed far from that area. It was some time around 9:30 PM when a few of my friends who worked at the tattoo parlor across the street rolled in and saw me drinking a few beers and enjoying whatever game was on MLB Network that night. None of them knew I was in town so they were all especially excited to see me, as I was excited to see them. Everyone had questions about my experience in New York and why I was home so early, all of which eventually was made worse by the fact that the MLB tickets commercial I was featured in was blaring on the television in the background. Most of the people I knew from the tattoo parlor weren’t fans of baseball, but all of them had grown a particular interest on account of me. At the same time, most of them didn’t have MLB Network so seeing me on TV as I sat in front of them blew most of their minds. To me, it was really uncomfortable as more people around the bar started taking notice to the fact that “the guy from the commercial” was sitting in their midst. Luckily my friends quickly realized how embarrassed I was to be “that guy from the MLB Fan Cave” and they all suggested that we head somewhere else for a few drinks and to catch up. This was something I was more than happy to oblige.

The bar they chose was a bit of a metal/punk rock/anything goes type bar called John Henry’s, which also serves as the 80s night hotspot for all of Eugene on Thursdays and a burlesque house on Sundays. In other words, the place is pretty rad. The only problem that I ever had with it is that it sits in the “Barmuda Triangle,” an area in downtown Eugene where to larger hub of popular bars reside. I’ve never been a huge fan of going to ridiculously jammed up bars, so this was definitely a pole vault out of my comfort zone. My friend Brendan got me a 32 ounce bottle of Miller High Life; yes, they serve those there, and it’s awesome. The group of five us shot the breeze, talked about what we had all been up to and I made sure not to be the centerpiece of the conversation. I just wanted to have a normal night back in the reality I was used to before I left for New York. As my MHL emptied I headed back to the bar for a refill, but ended up staying for a little bit longer than expected due to a conversation I got myself into with someone who seemed really out of place.

When I got to the bar I could see the bartender was busy so I took a seat on the only open stool and waited until I could flag them down. Just as I sat down I felt a hand upon my right shoulder and a voice ring out, “Excuse me, but you’re in my seat.” Not being the jerk who takes seemingly open seats, I got up and said I was sorry. I then followed it up with the routine, “I didn’t know it was taken, I’m just waiting to get a drink.” In all of this time I still didn’t look over my shoulder to really see who I was talking to, a constant theme in my life as I’ve always been the kind of person who does reasonable things on command like duck when someone shouts it, as opposed to looking to see what’s about to blast me in the face right before it happens. Just as I finished my comment the stranger replied, “No worries young man… what are you having? It’s on me.” At this point I chuckled and was about to say, “No worries, I got it,” but all that came out was “Nnnnn…” as I finally looked to see who I was talking to.

Dave Chappelle.

At this point I just froze and laughed some more, but then muttered out what I was originally trying to say. He then said, “No really, I’m buying.” I half-expected him to follow that up with yelling, “It’s a celebration!” in his Rick James voice, but he didn’t. Not wanting to be rude I told him what I was drinking and sure enough he put it on his tab… after he made fun of me for drinking a “32 ounce bottle of urine.” To which I replied, “You know, kids are going hard these days. And when I drink piss, I make sure it’s the finest the great city of Milwaukee has to offer.” He laughed and said, “I’ll have to remember to think of that if I find myself passed out in a bathroom stall in Milwaukee.” We then shook hands, said goodbye and I walked back over to my friends. I never bothered to find out why he was in town, but for that moment, it made me feel better about everything. I figured that at the end of the day, if I can make one of the best comedians in the game laugh, life isn’t so bad.

#50- When I marked this cap up I did under the guise that I was writing down the number on the roster for the 2013 season. Nope! It ended up being someone from 2012; however, the name alone is well worth the acknowledgement.

Goose Kallunki was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 27^th round of the 2012 amateur draft out of Utah Valley State University in Orem, Utah. The son of collegiate athletes, Goose prepped at Orem High School and helped the team make it to the Region Championship in 2006 and a fifth place finish at State Championship in 2008 as a four-year starter for the Tigers. He was also a three-time All-Region and two-time All-State selection. He also played basketball and golf at Orem, earning All-Valley, All-Region and All-State honors in basketball.

At UVSU he played first and third base, becoming the first player from the school to receive All-America honors during his senior year by Louisville Slugger, National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and CollegeBaseballInsider.com. He was also named third-team All-America by Baseball America and Perfect Game, was one of three finalists for 2012 Dick Howser Trophy, honor nation's top collegiate player, a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, which goes to top amateur baseball player, District VIII Player of the Year (NCBWA), ABCA First-Team All-Region selection, Great West Conference Player of the Year and First-Team All-Great West Conference Selection. He was quite the busy boy.

Goose’s time with the Emeralds only lasted one season for 53 games. He hit .254 with two home runs and 13 RBI in which 51/53 of those games came as the team’s first baseman. This year Goose has been moving around to various Independent League teams such as the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings, the Joliet Slammers and the Roswell Invaders (minor league teams always have the best names). Between all three teams he is batting .286 with two home runs and 32 RBI.

June 18- Eugene Emeralds

Three days and a year prior is when things really started to kick ass for me. After getting kicked to the curb by Major League Baseball, more specifically the MLB Fan Cave, I was feeling pretty low and did my best for a few days to step away from baseball. That process was not exactly an easy one to accomplish, especially when considering that for two-and-a-half months I did nothing but watch baseball every day. As much as I love baseball, I never want to take it to the extreme of what I had to do in New York City every again. More specifically I mean that I would much rather be out in the elements, watching a baseball in person, rather than having my corneas fried by watching every game on 15 TVs.

I flew back to Oregon on June 8^th, and my timing couldn’t have been any worse. The one thing I can pride myself on is that I watched every no-hitter and perfect game from the 2012 season from first to last pitch… except one. I suppose it’s my fault really. I had postponed my flight back to the West Coast for a few days so I could actually spend time doing things in New York as opposed to be voluntarily locked in a glass zoo for the world to watch us watch TV. Kind of sick (literal meaning) when you really think about it. MLB was at least kind enough to send me back first class, something I guess I should have paid more attention to on the ticket as I still waiting in line at JFK to check my bags. It was after the hour-and-a-half wait that this fact was finally brought to my attention by the woman working at the counter. From that point on, I streamlined… or tried to at least. Once I checked my bags and walked to the next terminal to go through security the woman in charge of the lines stopped me as I was going into the express line and asked, “Are you supposed to be going that way?” Keep in mind; this is when I still looked like an understudy for ZZ-Top tribute band. I handed her my ticket, she looked it over and he eyes immediately darted back at mine, realizing she had made a mistake. As she was about to open her mouth to say something I said, “I know, right!” gave her a cheesy smile and grabbed my ticket out of her hand. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s people judging others based on appearance; it’s a constant theme in my life. I got through security, boarded the plane, had a few beers (on MLB's dime), had a decent meal, watched "We Bought a Zoo," and touched down in Portland late in the evening.

As I was walking through PDX to retrieve my bags I noticed the tail end of the Seattle Mariners game was on in one of the bars. What I didn’t realize until I got home was that Tom Wilhemsen was closing out the final three batters in route to a team no-hitter. In the end, based on what I had been through over the previous week, it made sense that something as awesome as that would happen at a time when I couldn’t watch it.

Trying to get things back on a positive, I drove down to Eugene the next day to catch the first game of my Oregon Ducks’ Super Regional matchup against the Kent State Golden Flashes. I was only able to stay for a few innings in the Ducks 6-7 loss in Game 1 due to a TV interview I had to give later that night. I highly recommend watching it if you want to see me at my most-candid. I made it back the next day for Game 2, but once again had to get back to Portland in the evening for something, but the Ducks took that match up 3-2. Finally, I went back for the final, deciding game without any interruptions, but alas, the Ducks fell in the final out 2-3 and were eliminated just one win away from going to Omaha.

Two things happened to improve moral a bit though:

1. The Eugene Emeralds had hit me up on Facebook offering up to four free tickets for Opening Day on June 15^th.

2. The Oakland Athletics hit me up asking if I wanted to participate in a project they had in mind. The project turned out to be them wanting me to throw out first pitch, which I gladly accepted.

With my Ducks out of the College World Series and four Emeralds tickets in tow, I called up my friends Chris (@MooseandBear69), Scott (@ScottCLandis) and Leif (he doesn’t have Twitter). Another good friend of my, Taylor (@TaylorGelbrich) was in attendance, but he was busy working. Since the Emeralds are a short season-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, I had to roll deep in Padres gear.

Around the second inning the team’s mascot, Sluggo, spotted me in the crowd, came over and gave me a huge hug. I thanked him for everything as he was the person who had messaged me about the tickets. Being a mascot, he didn’t have much to say other than a shake of the head, which I totally understood. As I turned around to go back to my seat the gentleman sitting next to me tapped me on the shoulder and told me to turn back around. As I did, I saw this…

Sluggo had taken the t-shirt graphic my friend Adam Tamarkin and I had made for my Fan Cave campaign and turned it into a tattoo. I was smiling widely on the outside, but underneath my skin I was in tears. Aside from the Athletics, no one had done so much for me since I was let go from New York. I thanked him again and did my best not tremble as I took the photo on account of being of the verge of losing it emotionally on the exterior. Around the fourth inning the Emeralds had one more surprise for me. I looked over to the right and saw my face on the jumbotron in right-center field as they made an announcement that I was at the game. The public address announcer then went on to explain who I was and what I had done, at which the crowd gave me a round of applause. I was even more floored by the fact that my tattoos artist, Felix the Tat, was sitting three rows behind me. Without Felix doing such and amazing job with my tattoos, I doubt very many of you would know who I am. By the time the game had ended I was emotionally deflated. I don’t mean this in a bad way. It had been such a long time since I had felt so appreciated that all I could do was crash… but not before a walk-off RBI single by Clark Murphy, as seen here… WalkOff!!!

The Emeralds rocked this cap from the start of the 2010 season until the end of 2012 when they switched up their colors and logos for 2013 in the thematic-style of Bigfoot. In 2010 the team went 32-44 under then-manager Greg Riddoch who managed his final year with the team that season despite having been at the helm since 2007. In 2011 and 2012 the Emeralds went 46-30 and 47-29 respectively under manager Pat Murphy, who in 2011 led the Emerald to their first Northwest League division title 2008. The other think of note from this hat lies within the stadium. 2010 was the first season in which the Emeralds called PK Park home as they had occupied Civic Stadium, one of the last remaining wooden ballparks in the country from 1969 through the end of the 2009 season. As for marks…

#3- A three-year time frame isn’t much to work with, especially when we’re talking about short season-A baseball; however, there was one name that quickly jumped out: Jedd Gyorko. Gyorko was a second round draft pick by the Padres out of West Virginia University in the 2010 amateur draft. His first stop as a professional came with Emeralds that year, but he only managed to play in 26 with the club on account that he was just a little bit too much of a badass. In 106 at-bats he had 35 hits, good enough for a .330 average. Five of those hits happened to be home runs and he also made sure to knock in 18 runs as well as score 16 himself. Yup! Talent like his is only destined to move fast through the rankings and proved to be true when he made his Major League on Opening Day this season.

#14- This one was a little bit tougher as I could have gone two ways with this. My first option was to roll with Australian-born pitcher Josh Spence, but he’s now a members of the New York Yankees despite playing in multiple games over two seasons in the Majors with the Padres. Buuuuuuuut I decided to go with my second option, up-and-coming pitcher Justin Hancock.

Hancock was taken in the ninth round by the Padres in the 2011 amateur draft out of Lincoln Trail College in Robinson, Illinois. Hancock spent his first year in the Rookie League with the AZL Padres, but found himself moved up to the Emeralds for the start of the 2012 season. In the 15 games he played in he started 14 of them, going 5-2 with a 1.61 ERA and 66 strikeouts before getting promoted to Class-A Fort Wayne on the play with the TinCaps. As far us “under the radar” prospects go, Hancock is looking to be the real deal as he is 7-1 with a 1.15 ERA so thus far in 2013 between the TinCaps and the advanced-A Lake Elsinore Storm of the California League.