Team Meet and Greet

Tonight was the team meet and greet pizza party for the boosters and season ticket holders. Our booster club meeting got cancelled but I probably would have been too late for it since I got there when the meet and greet started.

Inside the Dugout Club, this is facing the wall across from the steps that lead out to the field.


The meet and greet was in the Dugout Club under the stands behind home plate. When you watch the spring games and you see the people going up and down the stairs behind home plate, that is where they are going. When we first arrived, the players were I guess showering and getting dressed because they didn't  all make it out for about 20 minutes. They all came in and started eating.(pizza and desserts)
The thing about the meet and greet that was different was since most of the players that were with Tampa last year got promoted there were pretty much all new faces. Eventually by about May, I'll probably recognize everyone just today it was a little strange to walk up and say "So who are you"when asking for autographs.  They gave us the Tampa Yankee collector card from Spring Training and we just walked around the room and asked for autographs. Actually, I just looked for abnormally tall people and stuck out the card, if someone grabbed it to sign I just assumed they were on the team.
The first people I went to were someone and Brett Marshall and Mitch Abeita, I told Brett that I met his mom and how I thought she was nice, like a good son he agreed.
Then I got Luke Murton and Neil Medchill's autographs. I won't really know who all signed the card until I get an official roster with their actual numbers and can compare them. I know that I got Rob Lyerly, Scott Allen, Deangelo Mack, and Kyle Higashioka. The others are all unknown until at least friday.

Here is the thing I got signed. If you click on the picture, I have numbered most of the autographs , I'll do an updated picture post once I get a roster and find out who everyone is.

We talked to Mitch Abeita and I told him that I was the one that bought his hawaiian jersey on Jimmy Buffet night last season. I found out that he is number 29 now(Melky Mesa's # from last year) and Higashioka is now 28, Poor guy lost his number to the new guy.

We talked to the GM of the Tampa Yankees for a while, he said that he was surprised by all the new faces, he said he looked at the roster and hardly recognized any of the names. He then made a joke about some guys you would notice them because they have Nikes on and 4 slices of pizza but I missed the beginning the the joke so I can't tell you what he was referring to.

We talked to Scott Allen for the longest time, he was the only one that really stuck around long enough and talked to us(poor guy) He, if you don't remember, came over in the Juan Miranda trade. He is super cute(sorry, I am a girl) he was saying that he is from Orlando so he is happy to be back near family but he doesn't really like Florida because its so blah, and he is right, it is one of the most boring states especially if you're from here. He said that he spent last season in the midwest league and was in Montana and despite the 12 and 14 hour bus rides, he said it was beautiful up there. He was telling us about how they just found out on Friday where they were going to start the season and most other organizations had decided player placement last Tuesday. Kinda makes it hard to find a place to live so he said he is living with a friend in Dunedin until he can find a place. He is just 19 so I would imagine it would not be much fun.

That's really all I can report from the meet and greet. All I can say is that it made me more eager for the games to start so I can see all these guys play and get to know them better throughout the season.

Oh and when I refer to "we" I mean myself and one or two of the other boosters.