They all add up

In all honesty, it's unrealistic to expect completing a team ball at any Major League Baseball game. The competition is tougher, the security less enabling and, quite simply, most players are, shall we say, more focused.

That doesn't mean, though, that you can't work a team ball a couple signatures at a time. That's exactly what Colin did yesterday before the Toronto-Tampa Bay game at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.

He worked his way into the crowd gathered near the dugout and along the first-base line, eventually earning front-row position, and snagged a pair of autographs from these two Rays players:

Pitcher Matt Garza, who worked the crowds near the Rays dugout about 45 minutes before the game; and

Outfielder Gabe Kapler, who, despite not being a member of last season's magical squad, signed right above the commemorative honor.

All told, Colin now has six autographs on his 2009 Tampa Bay Rays team ball. We have a few more opportunities, too, to add to the total.

It's a start

Last year, Colin and I spent a long, muggy afternoon at the tail end of the All Star break working a team-signed ball from the Tampa Bay Rays. This season, however, the ball is going to take a little longer.

Colin scored the first four signatures of another of our Summer of Baseball projects before last Thursday's game against the Toronto Blue Jays, again weathering a fairly muggy day and a considerably bigger crowd of hounds.

Still, the four players who did stop to sign provided a decent start to the project:

Shawn Riggans, top, and Akinori Iwamura (top photo, signing for fans in the Rays' parking lot); and

Gabe Gross, top, and Carl Crawford.

The ball, as well as a few other items, were part of our so-called doubleheader day. After attending the Jays-Rays game, we traveled to Tampa to dodge some raindrops and hound the Daytona Cubs of the Florida State League. After the Cubs-Yankees game was rained out, we turned our attention to hockey, namely the Tampa Bay Lightning's Young Guns camp.