Signed Blake Swihart 2014 Topps Heritage Minor League baseball card from my collection
I have my first new autographs of 2016… and it only took until February 1st.
Blake Swihart was the 26th overall selection in the 2011 draft and rose through the Boston Red Sox farm system as one of their top prospects.
In 2014, my friend Bart and I got to see him play with the Portland Sea Dogs in Trenton a few times, but I never managed to get his autograph before he got promoted to Triple-A.
I tried writing to him care of the Pawtucket Red Sox towards the end of that season, but so far, anyway, nothing has come back.
If you’ve been with me for a while, you might remember the days when this was primarily a baseball card blog. One of my regular features was “Minor League Monday,” when I’d take a look at one of the minor league baseball card team sets in my collection.
Last week’s trip to see the Trenton Thunder inspired me to revive it for the month of August, as I should have enough 2015 team sets to get that far. First up, the Portland Sea Dogs.
The Basics
Team: 2015 Portland Sea Dogs Level: Double-A Affiliation: Boston Red Sox Manufacturer: Grandstand Number of Cards in Set: 34 Cost: $10 (from the Trenton Thunder team store); $10.99 (Portland Sea Dogs website)
Prospects to Watch
RHP Pat Light (Boston’s #22 prospect on MLB.com’s mid-season list), SS Marco Hernandez (#23). 2B/3B Carlos Azuaje (#24), OF Henry Ramos (#27), RHP Jonathan Aro (#29).
Arm & Hammer Park, home of the Trenton Thunder (Photo credit: Paul Hadsall)
The Trenton Thunder announced their 2015 schedule yesterday, proving yet again that whatever problems you have with the way Major League Baseball assembles its schedule, things could be worse.
The Thunder are part of the league’s Eastern Division with five other teams: the Portland Sea Dogs (Bost0n), Binghamton Mets, New Britain Rock Cats (Minnesota), New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Toronto) and the Reading Fightin Phils.
Portland visits Trenton for 10 games (and Trenton goes to Portland for another 10 games).
Binghamton comes to Trenton once for a four game series (July 23-26) and the teams play 10 games in Binghamton.
New Britain visits for four games and they play three in New Britain.
New Hampshire comes to Trenton for 10 games and they play nine in New Hampshire.
Reading visits for nine games and they play three in Reading.
One bit of good news: Trenton is going to play Sunday evening games (5:05 p.m. starts) in July as well as August next year.
Trenton’s 2015 home opener is Thursday, April 16 vs. the Portland Sea Dogs, and they will wrap up season at home with a 1:05 p.m. Labor Day game on September 7th against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Click here for the full schedule (PDF format).
For a variety of reasons, I’m less into collecting autographs than I was a few years ago. Where I once used to bring a binder of cards try to get signed to every game, this year I haven’t brought anything to more than half of the games I’ve been to see.
Monday was one of those days, but I was hanging out with my friend Bart while he tried to finish getting the last few autographs he wanted from players on the Portland Sea Dogs. He had an extra copy of this photo of Sean Coyle for me, so I got the Sea Dogs’ infielder to sign it while I was there.
Coyle, 22, was named to replace Mookie Betts on the U.S. team for the All-Star Futures Game this week. He’s hitting .347 with 10 home runs, 40 RBI and 12 stolen bases in 55 games at the Double-A level this year.
My friend has taken to calling the 5-foot-8 Coyle “Little Dustin” because he reminds him of Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia.
That’s almost certainly an unfair comparison, but the Red Sox seem to have an awful lot of young players coming along for their fans to be excited about considering that their on-field success has kept them from having early-round draft picks in recent years.
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