Peoria Chiefs Game

Yesterday was a beautiful day to watch a baseball game.  It was a little overcast, with temps in the mid-70s.  My son and I took advantage of the nice day and made the 3 hour drive to Peoria to catch our first Chiefs game of the year.  Game time was 2:00, which worked out great for us to leave after church and also return home before 9:00.  

Sunday is team autograph day in Peoria.  After the game, players signed autographs in the concourse for 15 minutes.  Most of the roster was there except for the pitchers who pitched in the game, which was quite a few because the Chiefs lost 14 to 6.  2 of the starting position players did not show up as well.  I cannot blame them because they were a combined 1 for 8.  We managed to get 20 autographs from 8 different players.

Won Bin Cho is the Cardinals 9th rated prospect.  Being from South Korea, I was curious to hear how well his English was.  He had quite a line of people wanting his signature, so all I heard was thank you.

I always take my camera to Chiefs games.  With less than 1,000 people in attendance, it is easy to move around to take pictures.  The Chiefs have not installed netting past the home plate side of the dugouts yet, so the view is great.  I plan to have Cho sign one of these next to we go to a game.

Joshua Baez is the 29th rated prospect.  He did play in the game.  He is a very large young man with a ton of power who also strikes out a lot.

Cooper Hjerpe was the Cardinals first round draft pick in 2022.  He is the 6th rated prospect.  I hope to see him pitch sometime this year.  He has a somewhat submarine delivery that is hard to pick up the ball from.  Very nice kid who thanked us for coming.

Brycen Mautz is prospect #20, while Pete Hansen is #26.  We were lucky none of the started pitchers we had cards for pitched yesterday.  

The last of the cards are from the 2022 and 2023 team sets for players who are not ranked.  

Leonardo Bernal is the Cardinals' #7 prospect.  He does not have any cards besides a 2023 Bowman Chrome autograph.  These pictures are during his first at bat when he hit a home run.  I will print out the bottom picture next time we go to Peoria with hopes of getting it signed.  

Zach Levenson is the #22 prospect.  I did have a card for him to sign, but he did not come out.  Maybe next time.  I liked this picture showing a ball he fouled off to the backstop.  

Despite the lopsided score, the game was very entertaining.  23 hits and 20 runs scored between the 2 teams.  Peoria's manager and a bench player were ejected during the 7th inning for arguing balls and strikes.  All that in a little under 3 hours.