My professional baseball debut!

My dreams of pitching for a professional baseball team came true on Monday, June 6th, as I took the mound for the Memphis Redbirds . . .

Okay, well, I took the mound to throw out the first pitch.

Thanks to Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis, Tennessee, I was a special guest of the Memphis Redbirds, who are the AAA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. That night they played the New Orleans Zephyrs, the AAA team for YOUR Washington Nationals.

I took the mound about twenty minutes before the game, and showing superb form, I laid in a tailing fastball that painted the outside corner of the plate for a strike. Yes, the ball almost hit the ground before the catcher caught it, but as I keep trying to remind everyone, it's where the ball crosses the plate, not where it's caught that matters.

After the pitch, I went to work in the front courtyard, where Davis-Kidd had me set up to sign and sell books at a table near the gift shop. It was an unseasonably moderate night for Memphis, and a very pleasant evening to be out meeting and greeting the river city baseball faithful. I gave out a ton of baseball cards and signed a few books before heading back inside to watch most of the game.

Being a AAA game (that's the highest level in minor league baseball) we saw some great players for both teams. Recent major-leaguers Junior Spivey and Skip Schumaker were in the line-up for Memphis, while Ryan Church, Henry Mateo, and the fabulously-named Larry Broadway played for the Zephyrs. We were also treated to a match-up between starting pitchers Pedro Astacio, who is a long-time major-leaguer trying to make a comeback, and Cardinals uber-prospect Anthony Reyes.

Unfortunately for the home fans, the Redbirds lost the game. But I'm sure none of that mattered to them, as they took home the memory of my amazing first pitch, one which they will no doubt cherish and tell their grandchildren about . . .