Graphing in Peoria

Over the weekend my wife and I attended two minor league baseball games.  Saturday night we traveled to Indianapolis to watch the Indians play the Louisville Bats.  It was team autograph night, and I always try to help out good trading partner Ron B add to his Pirates collection.  We managed to get 10 cards and a program signed for him.  I forgot to take pictures of them before I mailed them off Monday morning.

Sunday afternoon we traveled to Peoria to watch the Chief play the South Bend Cubs.  The game was not as intense as a Cardinals Cubs game, but still fun to watch.  The Chiefs gave up a 2 run home run in the ninth inning to lose by 1 run.  The game went by fast in a little over 2 hours.  As in years past, some of the team signs autographs after the game.  I did not have very many cards for the current roster, but did not come away empty handed.

I picked up a 2025 team set at the Cardinals Winter Warm Up in January.  Many players were either promoted or released.  

Tanner Franklin is the Cardinals #11 prospects.  In his 3 starts he has been dominant.  I doubt he will be in Peoria very long.  I watched him sign 16 copies of this card for someone in front of me.  I joked I only had one.  He laughed and said it is all good.  

Rainiel Rodriguez is a 19 year old catcher who is the Cardinals #3 prospect.  He is one of those players who when he makes contact, the ball sounds different off his bat.  He hit a double in the 8th inning that appeared to clear the wall, but neither umpire saw it well, and there are no challenges in Single A.  I was disappointed he was not in the autograph line after the game.  As I was walking out, another collector said Rodriguez would sign outside the player entrance.  After a 15 minute wait, he appeared and signed for me and 2 other collectors.  He appeared very shy and soft spoken, but signed quite a few cards for the other 2 people and posed for pictures.  He is another player I doubt will remain in Peoria very long.