FanPost

OT--My Night in the Minors

Well, kind of off topic, I can actually tie this is in to the organization. With all the negativity surrounding the team right now, I thought I would post this little pointless story. The Air Force saw fit to move me and my family out west to Nevada. Since I am in Vegas alone right now, I decided to take in a Las Vegas 51 game. The 51s are the AAA affiliate of the Blue Jays. Beautiful night and a really nice stadium. If you're ever in Vegas, go to Cashman field, I highly recommend it. The opponent tonight was the Sacramento River Cats, the AAA club of the A's. I had seats not 10 feet from the field. In fact, Tony Gwynn was there tonight signing autographs and walked right past me on the way to continue his signing after he threw out the first pitch. On a side note, Tony looks like he has eaten the entire Padre line up, he's gained a little weight from his playing days. Anyway, there were a few recognizable names on both sides of the diamond. For the 51s, their 3d baseman is one Edwin Encarnacion and their 1st baseman is a young man by the name of Brian Dopirak. A few of you may remember the name--we drafted him in 2002 and he moved through the system until we released him in 2007. On the A's side of the diamond, Dallas McPherson was the DH. Not much really to report, the 51's pitcher Lance Broadway had nothing and got lit up all night. The really interesting thing was the River Cats' pitcher--Clay Mortenson. He was dealing tonight. He was hitting mid 90's consistantly and had great movement on his stuff. As a bonus, it was announced that former Las Vegas 51 Edwin Jackson threw a no hitter shortly after that game had finished up. I really don't have a point with all this, just use this to see that there are still truly fun things to be had in baseball. If our major league 4 year olds have you feeling down, take in a minor league game. These guys are playing for a chance or because they still love the game, the setting is family friendly, and its a hell of a lot cheaper than the bigs.

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