That Old Coot

It's been a while since I've traded, but after I received my part of a trade with Dustin From the highly literate and entertaining Coot Veal and the Vealtones, I remembered how much fun trading could be.

Dustin has a great feel for what I like and sent some great stuff:

These relics of Michael Young and Ian Kinsler were the main attraction to the deal.

 He also added a nice lot of other Michael Young cards,

and other favorite Rangers.  I especially like the Andrus mini.

Finally, here are some misc players I collect.  I think the Hinske on the 86 Donruss style card is one of my favorites ever, and something I hadn't seen yet.

If you haven't been on Dustin's blog yet, you're missing out.  It should be fun to follow his participation in Nachos Grande's blog contest.  Vegas has Dustin listed as one of the favorites despite rumors of PEDs.

Saturday Night With The Naturals and My Boy

Despite a moderately windy evening, my boy and I decided to take in our first Naturals game of the season Saturday night.  I was a little surprised by his insistence on going, since he's not a much of baseball fan.   I suspected he just wanted to go because he wanted ice cream, so I told him if we stayed in, I would just take him to Orange Leaf and he could get as much ice cream he wanted.

"I want to go to the game so I can learn to play better by watching the Naturals."  That was a direct quote.  This is his second year of playing organized baseball, and his reasoning was very mature and compelling...  and it was a total con job and the lovely wife and I knew it the moment that lie oozed out of his little lying mouth.  He wanted snacks, he wanted to play on the giant inflatable slide and he wanted an excuse to stay up past his bedtime.  And I was thrilled to give him all of that, even though he didn't want to admit that was what he was after.  We packed up and headed for the park. 

Sure enough, before we even found our seats he asked for a hot dog.  Before the first pitch, the hot dog was gone and he wanted ice cream.  Before the bottom of the first inning, the ice cream was gone and he wanted some popcorn and his notebook and crayons. Do I know my son, or do I know my son?  

I have to give him credit though, about the 4th inning, he put his notebook down and decided to watch a little.  I wish my phone took better pictures, because this scene is priceless to me:

(An aside-  behind home plate there is a section of picnic tables that is typically reserved for big group parties.  If the section does not get reserved, they open it to anyone who wants to sit there.  They are fantastic seats and perfect if you have kids.)


Anyway, the game was fun, with the Naturals (Royals) taking on The Corpus Christie Hooks (Astros).  There was a pretty good lot of prospects playing that night:

Wil Myers was the highest rated prospect on the field, and it showed.  He smashed a 3 run homer in the first and added a couple of singles and a double and had a 5 RBI night.   I suspect he will be up to AAA by mid season and gearing to go to KC for 2013.   Carlo Testa and Christian Colon both homered as well.  I don't know much about Testa, but he looked pretty good.

Two of the Astros top prospects were playing as well.  Jonathan Singleton didn't do much (he came to the Astros in the Hunter Pence trade and is considered the Astros top prospect), but Jonathan Villar had a nice single and stolen base. 

That was a great way to kick off the season, and I can't wait for more!