The minor league regular season came to an end earlier this week on Monday. 3 of the Cardinals teams qualified for the playoffs. Triple A Memphis is currently tied 1 to 1 in the best of 5 series against Colorado Springs. High A Palm Beach won their first round series 2 games to 0 against Fort Myers. They were declared co-champs of the Florida State League along with Dunedin because the final series was cancelled due to hurricane IRMA. Low A Peoria is tied 1-1 in the best of 3 series against Quad Cities. If they win tonight's game, there are still 2 more rounds to win to become Midwest League champions. I would love to go to a playoff game, the Peoria home games will be during the week. Their game Wednesday night had less than 800 people in attendance.
The family and I did make it to Peoria one last time for games on August 26 and 27. The season ticket holder meet and great was Saturday afternoon. We were able to get quite a few things signed.
My son got 27 signatures on this Midwest League ball. It only lacks the hitting coach and 1starting pitcher.
I took these pictures at a Chiefs game in early August. I like the action shot on the Nick Plummer photo. Kramer Robertson does not have any cards yet, so I printed out a 4x6 picture.
I also took this picture of Dylan Carlson at the same game. I chose an 8x10 for this one because both my kids like him because he is only 18 years old.
By far my favorite autographs were from manager Chris Swauger. It was nice to get the dual card with Tommy Pham signed. He was in the dugout by himself, so I had a few minutes to talk with him. He was on the Springfield Cardinals 2012 Texas League Championship team. He hit 3 home runs in one game in the early rounds, but could not play in the finals due to a separated shoulder he suffered while making a diving catch. I mentioned what a great team that was, and he commented on how he was the only member of the starting 8 position players who did not make the Majors.
We managed to get six more cards signed for our 2017 team set. Trosclair has by far the best penmanship of the bunch. Oxnevad would be the laziest. The Chiefs won the game 4-0 in about 2 hours and 20 minutes. Gotta love those quick games.
We returned on Sunday for the last kid's day at the ball park. Hard to beat $9 tickets for kids that get them a free hot dog, chips, and a drink. Sunday was also the final team autograph day. It was also team poster day.
The picture is bad, but my son got everyone on the roster except for some coaches. Cather Brian O'Keefe was called up to Palm Beach two days before, so it maybe hard to finish the poster.
My son forgot his team ball from Saturday, but we still got Saturday's starter and the hitting coach on team cards.
I took this picture of Carlson and my kids during the meet and great. The fight is on about who gets to hang the picture in their room. Guess I should have made 2. The Chiefs won this game on a walk off single in the 10th. The last 2 innings were played in a steady rain.
It was a fun minor league season for us. A lot of driving, but we saw some great games and got a ton of autographs. I will have to add up the total number of autographs, but here is our game totals:
Springfield Cardinals: 2 in Springfield, MO
Indianapolis Indians: 1 in Indianapolis, IN
Palm Beach Cardinals: 1 in Jupiter, FL
Memphis Redbirds: 1 in Nashville, TN
Peoria Chiefs: 5 in Peoria, IL
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