Article:The Padres, the Royals, and the MLB Alumni made for an interesting weekend

Time really does fly, it's hard to believe its been a year since the first installment. Things turned out a bit different this season because of the Alumni game being moved, but with everything else going on I really didn't miss it.

The weekend started on Saturday with visits to the Padres and Royals workouts. Out in Peoria, Arizona, the Padres took the field at 9 am sharp. I didn't get there until a few minutes before 10, and while I missed seeing some players I had hoped to get a look at (Chase Headley), I did see an impressive workout by Brian Giles, who is coming off micro-fracture knee surgery. Adrian Gonzalez also put on an impressive hitting display, and was impressed and surprised by the notable weight/strength gain by Khalil Greene. After hanging around the main field awhile, I headed out back to the practice fields hoping to catch an established pitcher throwing a bullpen, and while I wasn't fortunate enough to see one, I did see Mark Prior throw a sim. Understandably with what he has gone thru he wasn't sharp at all, but his motion was free and easy and he seemed to be throwing without pain.

After leaving Peoria, I headed back to my neighborhood where I saw the Kansas City Royals workout. Most impressive was a round of batting practice by David DeJesus, Mark Teahan and Alex Gordon. Teahan is a big guy, (6"3", 210), much bigger than the other two, but Gordon put on the more impressive show. Teahan doesn't generate the natural top spin necessary for the ball to carry, he would hit a ball and off the bat it appeared to be a goner, then would die in the air and end up a routine flyball. Gordon, on the other hand, does have the knack (actually, timing) of generating topspin, he would hit a ball and it would appear to be a double or flyout in the gap and would just keep going til it landed beyond the fence. Last year's slow start, (.163 on June 1) was nothing more than rookie inexperience and was a aberration, I expect Gordon to be close to .300 this year with 30 homers.

As I did with the Padres, I walked around to the backfields hoping to see either Zack Greinke or Luke Hochevar throw. The players were all congregated on one field and broke up just as I came by. While waiting to see where they would disburse, I watched pen sessions by Brian Lawrence and Taylor Lumsden. I finally settled on on field where Brian Bannister was throwing a 30 pitch sim. He looked sharp, striking out five of the nine hitters he faced, four of them called. I noticed a group of Japanese tourists/journalists hanging around and figured they were looking for Yashuhiko Yabuta, the Royals new reliever signed out of Japan. Then, I noticed a familiar face. A noticeably disinterested Hideo Nomo, in camp as a non-roster player. Nomo took the long way out of the practice field intentionally to avoid the group of cameras, and ended up walking 1200 feet out of his way to his assigned location, whereby if he walked a straight line he would have ended up in the same place in less than 100 feet. At this point, coach [http://www.baseball-reference.com/d/davidan01. Andre David] strolled by, I asked if either Greinke or Hochevar would be throwing, he answered in the negative, so I left.

Due to contractual obligations with Surprise Stadium, the MLB Alumni Game was moved to HoHoKam Stadium in Mesa, spring home of the Chicago Cubs. Driving 52 miles instead of 2 kept me from going, but I did hear the American League Alumni stretched their winning streak to five games behind a six hit performance from Pat Bourque and a three inning save by Bob Lacey, both former Oakland A's. Former San Francisco Giant Steve Scarsone had the game's only homer. The pre-game homerun hitting contest was won by former Phillies and Braves catcher Ozzie Virgil, Jr.

Monday was the highlight of the event, the annual Fund Raiser for the Alumni, the Golf Outing. Each foursome is captained by a former ML player, this year my group was led by former New York Mets outfielder [http://www.baseball-reference.com/b/brownle02. Leon Brown]]. We had a great round, shooting 13 under par in  a five man scramble format, then headed back to the pavilion for dinner and auction. The auction contained 111 items, and included two pairs of courtside Phoenix Suns tickets, a Diamondbacks suite package, and a trip to the Masters Golf Tournament. Numerous autographs, ranging from Arnold Palmer to Tom Brady to Phil Mickelson along with numerous baseball related images, including a 1975 World Series lithograph signed by the entire Cincinnati Reds team.

I owed my buddy Phil a favor, so I brought him along for the after golf part of the day. He's alot younger than I am and while he likely never saw most of the guys in attendance play. While he missed getting Ferguson Jenkins to sign for him, he did end up with Robin Yount and Bob Uecker, in additon to Carlos and [http://www.baseball-reference.com/u/unserde01. Del Unser] to name a few.

One guy making his first appearance I had hoped to meet was [http://www.baseball-reference.com/h/hornebo01. Bob Horner]. Unfortunately he had another committment and left pretty early but I'll have him on my radar for next season.

There are Alumni events] all over the country during the season, and whether you play golf or not is a good way to help raise funds for the Little League and other baseball related organizations in your area. Check it out.