The Tribe on Tour

I caught the Tribe on Tour event at Beachwood Place Mall this afternoon with the husband and the kid. Mind you, it wasn’t the entire Tribe, but a nice showing: Manny Acta, Josh Tomlin, Jack Hannahan, Shelley Duncan, Jason Donald, Jason Kipnis, Vinnie Pestano, and MC Tom Hamilton did a Q&A and then signed autographs. They started out with Hamilton asking Manny and each player one question, then taking questions from the audience. That went on for about 45 minutes, then Manny took more questions on his own while the players went and signed autographs.

I managed to get the player questions from Tom Hamilton on video (all except Josh Tomlin). The sound quality isn’t great because I was standing in the audience, but hopefully you’ll be able to hear the questions and answers.

Len Barker and Joe Charboneau were also there–Super Joe picked the raffle ticket winners at the end. Barker was behind the raffle ticket table, waiting around. I caught his eye and held up the baseball in my hand with a “Would you sign this?” kind of expression. He nodded. We were separated by a little fountain. I tossed the ball to him. He signed it and hesitated.  Perhaps he thought middle-aged women with shopping bags don’t have soft hands. He took one step toward me, then hesitated again. I kind of nodded, and he tossed it back to me. I easily caught it one-handed (the other hand had a bag from the LEGO store, which was the bribe to get my child to stay for the entire time) and he said, “Nice catch.”  Thank you, Len. 🙂

Random thoughts:

Shelley Duncan now has a beard and looks like Chris Elliot.

In person, Josh Tomlin kind of looks like a thin Gary Sinise. With a beard.

Shelley Duncan and Jason Donald gave each other at least three fist bumps in less than five minutes.

They all look like regular human beings with visible necks and normal-sized biceps. No evidence of PEDs. Refreshing.

I like Manny Acta more and more each time I see him.

A kind woman named Kathy offered me cuts in the line to get autographs from Jack Hannahan, Vinnie Pestano, and Josh Tomlin. I took her up on it. (I didn’t ask–she offered.) Thank you, Kathy.

The whole event got me fired up for the upcoming season. 66 days to Opening Day.