In case you're wondering ...

That's an old Wilson A2514 Carlton Fisk catcher's mitt that serves as a backdrop for pictures of Florida State League baseballs that Colin gets signed over the course of the 2010 Summer of Baseball.

Back in the day, when I pledged by baseball allegiance to the Boston Red Sox, Pudge was my favorite baseball player, replacing my first-ever baseball hero, the late Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I had one of these gloves as a kid, but donated it to my hometown Casey Stengel League team, when I moved away from Machias, N.Y. I caught all of one game, realizing that I wasn't cut out to be a catcher when I couldn't find a foul pop-up ("Where is it," I kept asking) until the ball bounced off home plate, scaring the bejeepers out of me.

A couple of years ago, I found this mitt on eBay. After a mildly spirited bidding war, I replaced a lost childhood treasure. Even if it did remind me of an embarrassing moment.

Without even asking

Our original intent was to add Clearwater Threshers manager Ernie Whitt to the Major League Baseball alumni ball before Wednesday's sweltering game against the St. Lucie Mets. Without even asking, hitting coach Kevin Jordan added the sixth autograph to the game-used Florida State League ball.

Signing bonus

As we walked toward Bright House Networks Field on Saturday, we could hear the sounds of a baseball game going on - the announcing of a batter, the crack of solid contact and a smattering of applause.

At first, we thought we had arrived late to the Jupiter Hammerheads-Clearwater Threshers game, part of our Shark Week activities during out Summer of Baseball. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

Instead, we learned after arriving inside the park, it was a charity Legends game for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Among the former Major League Baseball players taking part in the game and nice enough to sign a foul ball Colin collected during the contest:

~ Pitcher Dick Drago, who played 13 years for the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, California Angels, Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Mariners.

~ Catcher Mike Heath, a Tampa native, who played 14 seasons with the Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Oakland A's and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Getting Extended

Extended spring training (or XST) games at the Minnesota Twins' minor league facilities are great spots to score some autographs from young baseball prospects, says Brett, a Florida State League correspondent for Baseball Mondays.

For those of you new to extended spring training, it is mostly young high school age players (drafted the year before) and international players who are not ready yet to be on their own in a minor league city. One example is Cincinnati Reds prospect Yorman Rodriguez, 16, who signed last August for $2.5 million, the largest amount given to a Venezuelan prospect.

Many players at these complexes, including some big leaguers and top prospects, are rehabbing from injuries. Some sign, some don't.

Boston's John Smoltz, in Fort Meyers as he rehabs his way back to the Red Sox, wouldn't sign recently for five people. But Boston's No. 2 prospect Nick Hagadone, coming back from Tommy John surgery last summer, willingly signed.

XST's Southern Division includes squads from the Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles, Twins, Red Sox and Reds. Among the players to sign cards recently include:

~ Red Sox: Ryan Colvin, Drake Britton, Derrik Gibson, Yamaico Navarro, Ryan Pressley, Pete Ruiz, Christian Vazquez (Brett took the photo), Ryan Westmoreland (Brett took the photo), Bryan Peterson (Brett took the photo), Hunter Cervenka, Hagadone, Tommy Hottovy, Andrew Dobies and Tyler Yockey;
~ Rays: DJ Jones, Dustin Biell, Elias Otero and Ben Ogilve.
~ Twins: Aaron Hicks (Minnesota's #1 prospect), Tyler Ladendorf (Brett took the photo), Danny Rams and Jeff Lanning.

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.

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.

Some's better than none

Okay, so we didn't load up on baseball autographs over the weekend. That doesn't mean, though, that we got shut out.

With the Boston Red Sox in town, and staying at the Don Cesar on St. Pete Beach rather than the usual Renaissance Vinoy in St. Petersburg, opportunities were available. But given the weather (hot, muggy and thunderstorms) and the fact we slept in Sunday morning, our productivity wasn't as good as I had hoped.

That's why I jumped at the opportunity to snag Red Sox legend Rico Petrocelli, who was signing before Sunday's Red Sox-Devil Rays game, for the first signature on a Red Sox batting helmet. As expected, he was gracious and personable. The signature, too, was letter-perfect, well worth the $10 donation to the Jimmy Fund.

Following the game, in which the Rays won 5-2, we also scored a couple autographs from Tampa Bay players, most notably B.J. Upton, on a baseball. Unfortunately, Rays stars (yes, they do have a few) Carl Crawford, Scott Kazmir and Delmon Young declined to sign for us.

The biggest reason for their denials, I suppose, was that we committed a cardinal sin of hounding -- we were wearing Red Sox jerseys. I try not to wear team-specific gear when hounding, but yesterday was a spur-of-the-moment session.

Again, I'll chalk it up to experience.

Looking ahead, the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles will be in town this week. Colin and I would head out for the Jays this afternoon, but I've got to work some overtime tonight. Maybe I'll head out some time this week for the Jays. As for the Orioles, Sunday morning, provided we don't sleep in again, looks pretty good right now.

P.S. I added a photo of the ball that San Diego's Trevor Hoffman signed to Colin.

P.S.S. Checking out the Rays Web site, I thought this was a pretty cool offer. It's too bad, though, that we already have something similar.

I didn't lie, really

I had every intention of getting up early Sunday morning and hounding the New York Yankees before their series-ending win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

But, between the best night of sleep in weeks and the smell of home fries and bacon, I called an audible and stayed in. C'mon, what would you do? Freshly made breakfast or trading hairy eyeballs with security?

I did stop by the team hotel late Saturday afternoon and even saw Johnny Damon. He had a St. Petersburg policeman and two security folks walking with him, discouraging me from even asking.

Besides, the Yankees come back in September. As a Red Sox fan, I kinda hope they're miserable.

As for the Angels, I doubt I'll get Vladimir Guerrero. From what I hear, he hasn't signed since his low-minor days. If I see him, I'll ask (unless, of course, he's surrounded by security). The worst he'll do is shoot me the bird. At the least, I can try to put together a team ball.

Touching base

Between getting my butt kicked by diabetes and Florida's twin 90s (90-plus degrees and 90 percent humidity), I've taken quite a bit of time off lately from hounding baseball teams.

Now that I'm feeling better, and the hapless Rays will kick off the second half of the season with a homestand with the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels, perhaps I'll dust off some baseballs and cards and see who I can get.

I'm not putting much hope into getting any Yankees. Not only will they draw a crowd at the team hotel, but the locals tell me they're one of the toughest teams to hound. Either way, I'll try to stop by at least once. Maybe Colin will prove to be a good-luck charm.

As for the Angels, I can only hope to get Vladimir Guerrero, Gary Matthews, Orlando Cabrera, Bartolo Colon, John Lackey and Francisco Rodriguez on single-signature baseballs. I suppose that might be asking a bit too much, though.

Later in the month, though, I'm really looking forward to the Red Sox coming to town. Granted, they'll probably be just as tough as the Yankees, but they're certainly worth (to me, at least) the extra effort.

A good example

Though this image has been shown and the story was told at Hound Central 2.0, this successful hounding adventure, in which Colin got Cleveland's Trot Nixon, his favorite baseball player, to sign his Red Sox jersey, will serve as what visitors will come to expect when visiting Baseball Mondays.

For the most part, you can expect to read about the interaction with a player, funny anecdotes and a get pretty decent look at a top-shelf autograph.