Valentino Pascucci’s signature is the latest addition to my Mets autograph collection. I believe I’m just missing 92 players now.
Pascucci is playing for the Camden Riversharks in the independent Atlantic League this year.
A few of you might remember that I was hoping to see former Met Val Pascucci play for the Camden Riversharks this season when the team announced signing him back in February.
Well, that’s not going to happen – at least right away. I had considered going to watch the Riversharks play a spring training game against the Somerset Patriots today, but I decided to skip it when I saw that he wasn’t listed on the roster.
It turns out that Pascucci is playing for the Broncos de Reynosa in the Mexican League, where he is batting .200 (13-for-65) with 6 home runs and 16 RBI through 19 games.
Former New York Met Valentino Pascucci was one of three players signed by the Camden Riversharks today.
Pascucci went 3-for-11 in a 2011 September callup for the Mets. He also played in 32 games for Montreal in 2004. In the Expos’ final game in franchise history, an 8-1 loss to the Mets at Shea Stadium, Pascucci went 3-for-4 including a pair of hits off of Tom Glavine.
In 2010, Pascucci played in 14 games for Camden, so this will not be his first Atlantic League experience. Unfortunately, during that time I didn’t manage to get his autograph – I don’t think I was able to find any of his baseball cards in time. So Pascucci remains among the 101 current and former Mets players who are not represented in my autograph collection.
The Riversharks open the 2013 season on Thursday, April 18th, in Lancaster, Pa. against the Barnstormers. Their home opener is Tuesday, April 23rd vs. the Bridgeport Bluefish. My first shot to get to Camden this year will probably be on Sunday, April 28th for a game against the Barnstormers – hopefully I’ll be able to get a baseball card signed this time.
The other players signed by Camden today were Ruddy Yan and Raul Padron, both returning Riversharks.
On the final Saturday of the season the Mets swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Philies, sending the National League East champs on to an eight game losing streak. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the mostly-meaningless games.
R.A. Dickey set the mood by taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning in game one. I should really know better, but I really believed that he might be able to do what no Mets pitcher had before. I’d already seen him pitch an “imperfect” game for the Buffalo Bisons, when he retired 27 batters in a row after giving up a leadoff hit.
Even Dickey thought he had no-hitter stuff yesterday: “I had the type of knuckleball today where I thought I might have a chance,” the Mets pitcher said, as reported by the Bergen Record.
He looked visibly upset after losing the no-hitter and the shutout, something I don’t remember ever seeing before from the usually unflappable pitcher. But Valentino Pascucci hit his first major league home run since 2004 to get Dickey off the hook for the loss, and David Wright drove in Ruben Tejada to give the Mets a 2-1 lead. Even more amazing, the bullpen hung on to the lead.
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