I just got back from Tampa where I spent 4 days at the Yankees facility. I got up early in the morning to go to the field when down at the lobby of the hotel, there's 2 security guards and they are clearing out the entire lobby. One comes up to me and whispers, don't tell anybody, Arod is coming in now. Man, that was exciting. He comes in and waives and says hello to me, however, he wouldn't sign in the hotel (I tried 8 times). Luckily, I was able to get him to sign the new Sports Illustrated at the minor league complex. I saw Arod everyday atleast 3 times, and he stayed on my floor which was pretty cool. I also got Don Mattingly on an 8x10 and Tony Clark on an 8x10. Ron Guidry signed a ball at the hotel, and Greg Nettles on a ball at the hotel. The trip wasn't so successful since there was an abundance of reporters and fans to see Arod especially. But I ended up with a few nice autos.

That's awesome. I'm going down soon, I hope I get some autos. did you talk to arod?

I was up at Ft. Lauderdale last weekend, I've been following the O's for a while now, they're my favorite AL team, they remind me of the Marlins in a way with a lot of young talent.

 

Anyways, there were tons of people there even though the Big names had yet to report. but Javy Lopez was there and he signed a bunch of stuff for me. He's a real cool guy, he spoke heavily accented english but he was very polite and made conversation with the fans. Melvin Mora also signed for me as well as Sidney Ponson and Lee Mazzilli.

 

And during the end of practice Elrod Hendricks (former catcher, and now a special coach for the O's) came over and signed for me and talked to me for a couple of minutes about Pudge

 

As elrod said to me and my friend I was getting auto's with, (talking about the O's offseason moves) "We sure didnt get A-Rod, Hell, we didnt even get I-Rod, but not to worry cuz Elrod is back in town."

 

cool guy elrod is :mischief

I said hello to Arod in the hotel everytime I saw him but I didnt have a conversation with him, he didnt give me the time to start one. He just quickly walked through the hotel with his body guards and waived or said whats going on.