You Never Know Who You Might See at the Ballpark

On Tuesday, I went to a Oklahoma City Redhawks games with some girlfriends.  It was a very "chilled out" game by my usually standard of insanity.  I did not go early for batting practice.  I did not even make it to my seat before first pitch.  I did not keep a score sheet.  Sometimes, it nice to be normal.

I also did not take the time to shoot some photos of the "Dodgers" theme throughout the stadium.  I did eat a tasty Dodger Dog.  A Dodger Dog is long and skinny, much like the people you see in L.A.  I also had garlic fries that were just as good as the ones I had in San Francisco.

However, I did listen to the Cardinals game on my iPhone and enjoyed the play-by-play of the Cardinals disassembling the Tigers' ace, Verlander.  Nice to see the offense come around.

Under the category of "Where are they now?", I saw three people you might have wondered about.  It is just amazing who you might cross paths with on a weeknight in the southern Midwest. 

So Taguchi

I wrote a blog this Spring about how So Taguchi might possibly be the ultimate good luck charm, and I was concerned because he was a non-roster invitee to the Chicago cubs camp.  I knew that he did not make the 25-man roster, but I did not know what became of him. 

I scanned a borrowed roster for the Iowa Cubs and was tickled to find So Taguchi's name.  Actually, I was down right excited.  I mean, it is not like you see a former Cardinal with two World Series rings (one from Philly last year) playing in Oklahoma City.

I spotted him in the dugout in his usually bench playing role:

He later came in to play right field and got one at bat:

I missed getting a picture of his at bat because he was hit by a pitch almost immediately.

When he came up to bat, I cheered loud.  I was the only one in an otherwise quiet stadium, so it seemed really loud to me.  Yes, I cheered for a cub.  Probably, the first and last time that will ever happen. 

However, I am nervous that he is a lucky charm, and he could still end up playing for the cubs.  More about my So Taguchi superstitions can be found here.

Jeff Samardzija

Jeff Samardzija is probably better known for his college years where he was a fine wide-receiver at Notre Dame.  Samardzija set single-season school records in both receiving yards and touchdown receptions.

He did spend a little time up with cubs last year, but did not make the team out of Spring Training.  He has been pitching with the AAA Iowa Cubs this year.  He has a 3-3 record with a 4.27 ERA.

Samardziji got the start (and the loss) on Monday night.  So, on Tuesday he was in the stands with a radar gun logging pitches for the Tuesday pitchers.

El Duque

Orlando Hernandez, the pitcher born in Cuba in either 1965 or 1969, recently signed a minor league contract with the Rangers.  I spotted El Duque in the dugout: