Distance doesn't matter, I guess

Here we are, exactly 1,398 miles away from Fenway Park, but that distance doesn't keep us from adding to our autographed baseball memorabilia.

Boston's David Ortiz signed this Dominican Republic replica jersey from last year's World Baseball Classic for Colin. That's Big Papi's signature on the number 4.

As an added bonus, Ortiz also signed a base similar to the McFarlane sculpture shown at left. That, too, belongs to Colin. I'll tell you what. Colin is pretty darn fortunate to have such friends in the right places.

Rumor has it, too, that there will soon be a gathering of members of the Red Sox's 1967 Impossible Dream team. I wonder what will come of that. Nothing, probably.

Hanging out, by the dugout

We may not have scored the most autographs we'll ever get in a day, but Saturday night's trip to Tropicana Field marked a first in our hounding adventures. Rather than stand along the edge of the field, in the hopes of calling over one of the Rays young stars, we hung out at the edge of the dugout.

First off, let's just say it's pretty cool being that close to the action. You can hear the players talk among themselves. You get a very different perspective, too, watching balls splay all over the field during batting practice. If you pay close attention, you'll even see the team owner soaking up the atmosphere.

It's like you're a small part of the game.

The best part, at least as far as hounding is concerned, is being, in essence, in the front row. You're more apt to score a few autographs there, rather than reaching from three rows deep. And, as we soon came to realize during the pregame festivities, it's a highly sought-after piece of real estate -- everybody wants to stand there.

As far as sheer production from our coveted perch, I'm certain we'll have better days. But what we lacked in quantity, we made up for in quality when Tampa Bay's Delmon Young, part of the Rays core of young talent, obliged our request to add to Colin's team ball. For the record, it now has eight signatures.

We even helped one young fan get her baseball bat signed by Young, acting as the proverbial middlemen in the exchange of lumber and silver Sharpie. Unfortunately, her excitement at getting his autograph, matched only by her father's exuberance, kept her from thanking Young, or us, for our gestures.

As for hounding the Indians, another Sunday morning spent sleeping in and having some homemade sausage gravy and buttermilk biscuits proved too tempting of an offer to refuse.

Winding down

With just a week before Colin heads back to school, we're planning on ending his vacation this weekend hounding the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox. Chances are we'll go to either Saturday or Sunday against the Indians, but pass on the Red Sox for now. They'll be back later, on a weekend.

We're going to work a Cleveland team ball, trying to snag a few at the hotel and the game. Besides Trot Nixon, we'll look for Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore and, really, anyone else we might recognize. The same goes for the Red Sox. The team stayed at the Don Cesar on St. Pete Beach, rather than the customary Vinoy, during its last trip to play the Rays.

I'll be honest. I'm much more comfortable doing hockey than baseball. I don't mind doing the homework. And it has nothing to do with the player, either. It's just too blasted hot and humid to spend a couple hours in the heat and sun.

We do need to make a couple more trips out for the Rays. We came across a McFarlane of Tampa Bay's Scott Kazmir, so that's something that meeds to get signed before season's end. Colin still needs a few more players, notably Carl Crawford, Akinori Iwamura, James Shields, Delmon Young and Kazmir for a pretty solid team ball.

It'll still be warm in September, when the Lightning opens camp, but it won't be too awfully long before we're back in the 70s. Hounding in T-shirts and shorts. That's one of the reasons I moved here.

Old school

Rather than wake up early, wolf down some breakfast and stand out in the sweltering sun for a couple of hours, we took an old-fashioned approach to getting autographs this past weekend -- we stood near the dugouts.

With Colin and I working the Rays side, and Lisa using her Cal Ripken jersey to its full advantage along the Orioles side, not only did we add to the Rays team ball, but we also scored a pretty solid two-player ball.

Colin was able to get Rays pitchers Gary Glover and Jason Hammel to sign his baseball, raising the total to six. It was Lisa, though, who snagged Baltimore's Miguel Tejada, top, and Kevin Millar on the baseball shown above.

We learned, too, to stick around, right up until game time. By heading back to our seats early, we missed out on others from both teams.

With the Rays heading to Detroit after the game, we didn't bother working the team's parking lot. Cleveland and Boston are coming back in a couple weeks.