Ty Cobb Day August 15

Well it has been over a month since I last came to you guys and I apologize for that.  It has been a little busy around here with home stands coming and going, 100+ temperatures and end-of-the-year duties starting to begin.  I will try to capture everything that has happened since my last blog, but trust me I won't even be close to accurate. 

The 4th of July was pretty wild with a sold out stadium with some excellent fireworks following the game with probably half of Omaha watching inside and around the stadium.  It also made it a great day because my parents were in town celebrating their anniversary on the 4th.  I don't know what it was with my family having me on Ty Cobb's birthday and having my sister and their anniversary on July 4th but it all works.  They got to see me in action with taking photos, walking around the stadium preparing the stage and getting the fans ready for the fireworks and basically anything else that would happen during a baseball game.

We have also had two great concerts one being country music artist Keith Anderson who put on a great show and also got to do some batting practice before the Royals game against Round Rock.  Anderson was scouted by the Kansas City Royals before forgoing that career and opting for a singing career in Nashville.  One thing that connected me to Keith Anderson and let me having a talking point with him was that he was touring to my hometown of Mattoon, IL for their Bagelfest which is held annually.  He was heading that way the next day and informed him of the not-so exciting drive ahead of him.

The other concert was our Faith & Family performer Mark Schultz.  I actually had the opportunity to pick them up from the airport along with my bullpen intern Joe Doren.  We brought along some walkie talkies for us to use and let's just say they had some fun using them to talk to each other back and forth.  But the concert was awesome with a lot of people showing up for the concert following the game against Salt Lake. 

Well that gets me to the latest in my journey of Minor League Baseball, which is having my own promotion during a Royals game called, Ty Cobb Day.  The Royals (I had nothing to do with the staging or planning of this, all GM Martie Cordaro) thought it would be only right to have a Ty Cobb day where I would have my own baseball card, autograph session and photo session where fans could see the new-age Ty Cobb at work in baseball.  I have not really been excited about it but I guess people around Omaha and the Royals like the idea and some media have actually liked the idea. 

The promotion landed on the Top 10 promotions for this week which you can go to and vote for if you would like at, http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080812&content_id=444754&vkey=news_milb&fext=.jsp.  Along with milb.com getting in on the action, ESPN First Take has taken notice and I will be doing an interview with them on Thursday which will be airing around 10:30 Central Time. 

Along with the baseball cards will be a chance for someone to "Win a Date with Ty Cobb" which has been bleak as to how this will go during the game.  The front office does not want to tell me in fear that I will not want to do it, so I think they are waiting till the last chance to explain to me. It should be a fun night with fireworks following the game so if you have always wanted to know who the actual person is behind these blogs and you haven't seen me walking around the stadium, come on out August 15 and meet Ty Cobb!!