Apr 17 2008 02:28 PM
Spent a nice afternoon at New Britain stadium, home of the New Britain Rock Cats, as they hosted the Trenton Thunder. Lots of prospects you've maybe never heard of in the game on both sides, including guys like Jose Tabata and Austin Jackson for the mini-Yanks, and Trevor Plouffe for the mini-Twins.
A few interesting game notes:
* Spoke with Floyd Rayford before the game. Floyd was a large C-3B for the O's and Cardinals back in the early 80's; I was a fan because I always thought he looked silly on his baseball cards:
I grabbed this card out of my 1984 Topps set before I left the house this morning and had it signed by him. (This isn't mine, it's an eBay auction, but mine looks eerily similar.)
Once Floyd left, some of the batboys came over and asked to see the card; I don't think they'd ever seen a card so old, and they were laughing at how young he looked.
* The other guy I'd hoped to meet was Erik Lis, a slugging infield prospect with whom I share a birthday. He walked by while I was talking with Floyd, but I didn't want to interrupt our conversation.
* Sat in the scouts' area behind home plate for a while, in front of Chase Wright and Other Guy Who Was Sitting With Chase Wright (he pitches tomorrow for the Thunder, I believe, and was charting pitches), as well as former Twins GM Terry Ryan, with whom I also had a brief conversation about a lefthanded reliever who couldn't seem to throw anything above knee level; the Cats' catcher was sliding all over the place trying to block the ball. Ryan was there watching Matt Moses, who's converting from the infield to the outfield this year.
* All the batboys for the Rock Cats wear #5. No idea why, but that's the first time I've ever seen anything other than BB, 00, the year, or nothing on the back of their shirts, I think.
* Speaking of uniform numbers, left-handed reliever Ben Julianel wears #4. I've never seen a pitcher with a number so low.