Photo of Daniel Bard taken today by me at McCoy Stadium |
After a ride on Amtrak that included the smell of burning rubber and then an announcement from the conductor using the words “We had to cut out the brake cylinder, but we still have 99% brake power!” we made our way to Pawtucket.
McCoy Stadium was a lot of fun. Although it was a little different than last year in that they omitted the Q&A sessions in order to ensure that everyone had a chance to meet the players and get autographs. This was a little disappointing. It’s nice to see the interactions between the players and just get a small sense of who they are. We did get to see Daniel Bard and Kris Johnson have a cute back and forth regarding this picture that KellyO took of Kris last week at Jillian’s during the New Stars for Young Stars event. Kris just loved it and then signed it and added an “X” to mark the strike he bowled. Unfortunately, Lars Anderson needed to bolt before the event was over so an awful lot of people, including us, didn’t get the chance to meet him. That wasn’t so terrible, though. Along with Johnson and Bard, we met Mark Wagner and Zach Daeges, and all four seemed really into meeting the fans. Even after all the time they were there signing (we were in line to see Anderson, Johnson and Bard for a good hour and a half), once we got up to them, they were in wonderful moods and very gracious.
Being true to my word, I took the opportunity to ask Ron Johnson about Kyle Snyder. Hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? I get up to RJ and thank him for being there, congratulate him on last season and they pop out with, “So, RJ, what do you hear about Kyle Snyder?”. He paused for a moment, seemingly taken by surprise at the question and then he looked a little confused and said, “Well, I know we haven’t re-signed him. But I really don’t know what’s going on with him. I need to give him a call.” I told him that he certainly did have to give Kyle a call and he laughed and said, “You know, he’s really a good guy. A really good guy.”. Which was nice to hear. I mean, I have no doubts he’s a good guy, but it’s always nice to hear it. So I got the ball rolling…let’s see what RJ can do!