I set my alarm clock for 7:00 AM before I went to bed last night. My plan was to soak in every second possible in San Francisco at the Futures Game. Traffic to the game was a breeze, and my little brother Morgan (photographer) and I were on the field ready to get to work the second the US Team came out to start stretching.
To my surprise, perhaps the most eventful event of my morning had little to do with any of the ball players, but I'll get to that in a second.
First off, for all you Cameron Maybin fans, not only is he here at the game, but he's in surprisingly good shape. He said he hurt his shoulder diving for a ball – it popped out of place.
"I actually could have probably played in the game – I'm about 75% – but Detroit wanted to be on the safe side...just give it a couple of weeks of rest."
Other news, Chuck Lofgren will not get Nick Adenhart treatment for sure. (Adenhart did not get to pitch in the Futures Game last year despite the fact that he was playing in front of his home town and he had tons of family at the game.) Lofgren said he will pitch the second inning of today's game for the US Team.
OK, enough for the suspense. Here's the highlight of my day so far:
I was going around interviewing lots of guys. And there was like a 10:1 media to player ratio, so the second a player stepped off the grass – the line we're not supposed to cross to take pictures or conduct interviews – he'd get swarmed by media members. A lot of people were sharing interviews because the players only have so much time. But I was able to get guys to myself and just fire off my questions.
Clay Buchholz was a way cool dude. He was about to walk down to the clubhouse but I caught him in the dugout and he was happy to do an interview with me. He had a lot to say and I had a lot of questions...we just kept talking.
All the while, I notice the lady behind me crowding me and making it clear that she was getting tired of waiting. Finally, she let out a "Come on!" under her breath – loud enough so I'd get her drift.
But this is Clay Buchholz. I wasn't going to cut my interview short. She could wait, just like I had before her.
As I thanked Buchholz for his time and headed out of the dugout, she rushed up to him and let out a sigh of frustration. I was shocked as I heard her intrduce herself...
"Hi Clay, Erin Andrews. ESPN."
You can reach Adam Foster at adamwfoster@gmail.com.