The End of Spring

Today is the official last day of spring training in the Tampa Bay area, as the Pittsburgh Pirates wrap up their camp in Bradenton, Florida. Bradenton is a bit of a drive from where I live in St. Petersburg, so I primarily visit the Philadelphia Phillies in Clearwater and the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin.
Yesterday, the Blue Jays held their final camp, so I went down to watch. I was surprised to see that Aaron Sanchez, the Blue Jays 5th starter, would be pitching in a Minor League intrasquad game. Also in attendance was Marcus Stroman, in a full leg brace after tearing his ACL 3 weeks ago.

I ended up finishing the spring with 6 more autographs to add to my collection.

Prior to this spring, the last time I collected autographs at spring training games was 16 years ago.

I only got back into collecting last summer when I attended some Florida State League Minor League games as well as a few Tampa Bay Rays games. That summer I accumulated 21 signatures. This spring I added 73 more.

Here they all are in the order that I acquired them.

Not too bad for someone who's been away from the hobby for so long.