Not all minor leaguers

I'm sure I said this last summer, but it's possible to find former big leaguers serving as coaches and managers in the Florida State League. Just a couple weeks ago, Dunedin Blue Jays pitching coach Darold Knowles, a 15-year big-league pitcher and a member of the 1973 World Series champion Oakland Athletics, was nice enough to sign these four cards as well.

Paper work

For the most part, we haven't placed much of an emphasis on getting cards signed this summer. That changed a couple weeks ago, when we made a dent in the 2010 Dunedin Blue Jays team set.

With at least two more games (weather permitting, it's been raining most every evening lately), we should come close to completing the set, save for those who moved up or along.

Kicking off this season's set were:

Top: Travis d'Arnaud, Chuck Huggins, Mike McDade; and
Bottom: Brad McElroy, Mark Sobolewski and the ever-obliging D-Jay on a 2006 team set card.

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.

He'll take two

It might not be the greatest start to our Major League Baseball hounding campaign, but we all have to start somewhere.

With the Oakland A's in town to play the Tampa Bay Rays last week, we took in an afternoon game on a fly-away day. Despite the rain and grousing about a $15 parking fee, we made it inside -- dry and in time -- for Colin to snag the first two MLB autographs of the campaign on one of his hand-drawn team sheets.

Oakland pitcher Brett Anderson, who won a bronze with Team USA at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, was the first to sign. A's pitching coach Curt Young, who spent 10 years in the big leagues, also signed, even engaging Colin, decked out in Rays gear, in a conversation about his loyalties.

"Hey, you got a lot of Rays stuff on. Who are you rooting for - the Rays or the A's?" Young asked.

"I like the Rays because they're my hometown team," Colin replied. "But I really like baseball."

"That's good," Young said. "That's what I wanted to hear."