Hello Baseball fans and welcome back!  What an exciting week in the AFL. This week the Desert Dogs improve their record to 8-8, which is still good enough for second place in the National Division behind the Peoria Javelinas. After my last Blog entry, I had a few questions about autographs. The First question asked if I received many requests via mail for autographs and do I have time to respond to them. The second question asked if I received mail during the season and how it felt when I got my first baseball card, also if I am a fan of baseball cards myself.

     Throughout the course of a season I would say I receive about 5-10 pieces of mail a week from fans asking for autographs. The first time I received fan mail I was sort of taken back, because I can remember when I was young sending letters and cards asking for autographs to my favorite major league players, just dreaming what it would be like to be in their shoes. Here in the AFL I would say I receive more mail than that during the season. I always have time to sign autographs, but what I usually do is wait until I have a small pile of mail and sign all at once. I enjoy taking 15-20 minutes to sit down and read the letters to hear what the fans out there have to say (being that I was in their shoes just a few years ago). As for my first card, I remember last year being in Stockton CA during the last week of the season and was asked to sign a few autographs. After signing a few balls and Stockton Ports cards a fan pulls out a Bowman Card with me in an A’s uniform. I remember asking the fan “where the heck did you get that?” and asking if I could keep one for myself. That is a day I will never forget! While growing up, I was a huge collector of baseball cards; I can remember taking bike rides to the local card shop with my friends to spend our weekly allowance on the hottest and newest cards. After a few years and once I really started getting serious with baseball my affection for cards kind of fizzled away, although I still believe I do have my collection in the attic back home.

     Back to this past week in the AFL with the Desert Dogs, it seems to me that our team is becoming more and more comfortable with each other, because there are a lot of pranks going around being pulled especially this week. I’ll give a little insight into our locker room; there is a game that originated with the Rockies players called “goggles”, where if you look into someone’s eyes while they are holding up their hands to look like goggles you must at that moment lie on the floor no matter where you are for 5 seconds. So yes we have guys laying down all over the locker room, while talking to fans or reporters! But the best spot to “get someone” seems to be the shower (ha-ha); however, there are some rules and the biggest rule being that the game stops when we exit the clubhouse to take the field for the game. Other pranks include shaving cream in shower shoes or the freezing of a teammate’s dirty laundry in a bowl of water (which was absolutely hilarious). Also, there is Shane Lindsay’s “Missing Toothbrush” in which someone seems to steal it at least 3 times a week. I know these pranks may sound a bit childish but it does keep the clubhouse loose and promotes good camaraderie.

     The biggest prank of the week hands down goes to Shane Lindsay and Chaz Roe (both Rockies) who actually played it on my roommates and I. So, after a nice dinner we come back to house with it being completely dark outside. Sitting down in the living room watching some TV was Sean Doolittle, Adrian Cardenas and I with Jared Lansford on the phone in his room. Suddenly our lights in the house just go off. I immediately jumped up to try the switch, which didn’t work, so now using our cell phones as flashlights we walked into the kitchen and then it happened! There was banging on the glass sliding door which leads to the kitchen and scraping on Jared Lansford’s screen window in his bedroom. Completely freaked out someone yells “call the cops” and “set off our alarm”, but before we could do either, both the banging and scraping cease and our lights go back on. Looking through the sliding door into the back yard out pops Shane and Chaz laughing hysterically as Sean, Jared, Adrian and I stand there ghost faced. This whole ordeal felt like a half hour when in reality it lasted maybe 5 minutes. So I guess that was an early Halloween present. Thanks guys

     Thanks for checking in and enjoy your week. I look forward to writing again.

     Andrew