Practicing what I preach

After spending the past season being a human facebook for most every NHL team that traveled to Tampa, trying my hand at hounding baseball players this year has been a humbling experience.

Sure, I'll recognize the big-name or the veteran players. Beyond that, though, I'm as clueless as they come.

Rather than ask other collectors or dealers, I'm going to follow my own advice. I'll take the time to do my homework. I'll check out rosters and stats, just to make sure I'm up to speed. I'll also memorize faces so I can easily point out who's who. Simply, I'll just do what I've done for years as a hockey hound.

And, as I've said before, I plan some pretty hard-core cherry-picking when teams come to St. Petersburg. In fact, I'll practice these principles over the next week as the Los Angeles Dodgers play the Rays.

For the Dodgers, in town Friday through Sunday, I'm hoping my biggest score will be, believe it or not, announcer Vin Scully. And if Fernando Valenzuela makes the trip, I'll be certain to ask him, too. Among the players, I'll be looking for Nomar Garciaparra, Luis Gonzalez, Jeff Kent and Derek Lowe.

Consolation prize

As much as I really wanted to get San Diego's Greg Maddux on a baseball, I had to settle, if you will, for MLB's all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman. Catching Hoffman, a future Hall of Famer with 500-plus career saves, as he boarded the team bus before a matinee fly-away last week, he asked to personalize the ball. No problem. Colin's collection only improved.

If I'm lucky ...

... and I'm able to dodge the raindrops, withstand the humidity and get the timing down right, I just might get San Diego's Greg Maddux and Trevor Hoffman to sign baseballs for us this week.

In my opinion, both are future Hall of Famers and certainly worthy of adding to the collection.

In fact, we may even take a ride down to the team's hotel this evening and see who we can see.

Tough to take

As hard as I try to support my new hometown team, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, last night's ninth-inning collapse, giving the Toronto Blue Jays a walk-off 12-11 victory, certainly has me rethinking this newfound allegiance.

Granted, I don't expect the Rays to win most games. As a fan, though, I would expect them to hold a five-run league for a rookie pitcher (Andy Sonnanstine) making his Major League Baseball debut.

It's truly a disappointing day to be a Rays fan.

Yeah, I'm a slacker

I know it's been two weeks, but I haven't made a trip out for autographs in that timeframe. It seems like every time I make plans, something comes up (and, at times, it's been the lack of gumption) and keeps me from heading out to the Vinoy.

How bad is it? I haven't even hounded the Rays yet.

In other instances, such as this weekend with Kansas City, it's the team that's in town. Other than manager Buddy Bell and color analyst Paul Splittorff, there's very little after that. Sadly, even those two failed to motivate me.

Now, when San Diego comes in later this month, I might find the energy to hound Padres pitchers Greg Maddux and Trevor Hoffman.

Going forward, I promise to make more of an effort.