My Own Birthday Present

In case you couldn't tell by the title of this post, today is my birthday. In all my years of collecting autographs, I have never gotten an autograph on my birthday. It doesn't really come at a good time as far as the baseball season goes, but thanks to the Tampa Bay Rays having their annual Winter Development Program this week, I headed down to Tropicana Field to see if I could get some cards signed.

Each January, the Rays invite their top prospects to work out at the home stadium so that coaches can evaluate them before spring training starts.
Unfortunately, these workouts are not opened to the public.
I hung out outside of the players parking lot, hoping that I would be able to recognize the guys that I had cards of.
It was tough, but out of the 20+ players that all rolled out together, I was able to spot 2 that I knew for sure.
The first was Brent Honeywell. As of this posting, he is considered the Rays' number 3 prospect.

The other player I got was Ryne Stanek, who was a Florida State League Top Prospect this past season.

Ryne asked me how I was doing, to which I replied, "it's my birthday, so I can't complain." He then wished me a happy birthday before signing my card.

It was a good day. First time getting autographs on my birthday and the first time a player acknowledged it.