Playoffs? What playoffs? It's Arizona Fall League time!

Finishing up the second week of play, and my Scorpions are at the top of their division with a 6-2 record, after beating the Solar Sox last night in a light drizzle - thanks, in part, to a seventh-inning, 2 rbi ground rule double off the bat of Nats phenom Bryce Harper, who just turned 18 last Saturday and was playing in what I'm guessing was his first professional game. I wouldn't mind having been the one who went out and picked up that ball, but I wasn't.

Since joining the team on Monday, Bryce seems to have resigned himself to signing a whole ton of autographs. Both last night, and the night before, he was out after the game surrounded by a large crowd - well, large by Fall League standards, maybe fifty or sixty people - signing, signing, signing. Seems pretty serious, but a nice kid.

Speaking of signing, Tuesday night, the Rockies' Charlie Blackmon was signing before the game, and somebody came up with a well-worn Tulsa batting helmet of his. (He found a small crack, and said, "Yeah, it's mine. I threw it around a bit.") He must have spent two minutes admiring it, and - this is what impressed me - asking the owner exactly where he wanted it signed; he even asked the guy how he was going to display the helmet, in order to get a better idea.

Aside from getting a couple of balls single-signed by DBacks Konrad Schmidt and Daniel Stange (both of whom spent time with the big club this past season), and getting Marc Krauss to sign one of his bats from Visalia, all of my autographing efforts so far have been directed toward batting coach and former Diamondback Alan Zinter. Two of his DBacks bats and a batting helmet from '04, so far, and as the season progresses, I've got one of his Houston bats, two large locker tags, one of his coach's jerseys from Visalia, and a stack of cards to bring out.

I'm taking two weeks off from work starting this Monday, and plan to get out to 12-15 games in that time. Who's got time for Baseball on t.v.?