A great evening at Progressive Field

Matt's brother gave Matt, John and I tickets to the Cleveland Indians 2008 Hall of Fame Celebration. They had a ceremony introducing the players, tons of food and drinks, and the coolest part you have a half hour to meet and get autographs of all the 2008 Indians.

When the players were walking down to their seats I was snapping pictures and John was naming the players. After the ceremony we had a little to eat but there really wasn't any seats to sit down so we continued to mingle around. I told Matt we need to make sure we all go the bathroom as I don't want to have to get out of line to go. So I started the potty parade and then we decided to hang out outside the autograph area. It was the best move of the night. We were able to find out where Grady Sizemore and Cliff Lee were in the signing area and came up with a strategy to get the autographs. John was growing a little impatient as was I about when we were allowed in. It didn't help there were some kids from the RBI Leauge kept inching up and crowding us. When we were allowed in I used my basketball skills to block them out so we would get in first. Our plan worked out perfectly as we did not have to wait in too long of a line to get any autograph. The long line that we decided to skip was for Ryan Garko, Jamey Carroll and Andy Marte. It turned out as the players were coming out after the autograph session ended we were able to get Ryan and Jamey's autograph.

John's uncle asked that we get the current backup catcher's autograph, Sal Fassano, on a ball. The rule was one autograph per person so we sent John up with the ball and Matt had the homeplate that Drew made for us to get autographs on. John was nervous and actually started to tear up. Sal asked what was wrong and I explained that John was very excited about this experience. He told this is fun and not to worry about it and shook his hand. The next table David Dellucci gave him the rock and from then on John enjoyed himself immensely. For some reason a fan gave Kelly Shoppach his own card from when he played with another team. When we told Kelly John wore his number this past summer - he gave the card to John.

I hope John remembers this for a long time - I know I will