Thursday's draft will most definitely be a highlight

Let me know if there is anything in particular you want me to look for at Thursday's amateur draft, which happens to be only a few hours from my house. I'll be taking pictures, talking to people and getting autographs, and I hope to be able to blog. Should be a lot of fun. I'm sure it will be near the top of my list of baseball-related highlights. What are your highlights? Check out mine.

1. Sneaking into this little house -- where the Hall of Famers attending the first Ted Williams Museum induction were waiting for their limos -- and talking to Stan Musial for almost 15 minutes. He signed every card I had of him.

2. Crashing a $1,000-a-plate Ted Williams Museum dinner and talking to -- and getting autographs from -- almost 20 living HOFers. At one point I walked back to my car with so many autographed balls that I began dropping them. To this day, I don't know what happened to a certain Mike Schmidt ball.

3. Seeing Reggie Jackson at a strip club in Fort Lauderdale. I asked him to autograph a napkin that had the club's insignia on it and he said: "Do you have anything else?"

4. Meeting Charlie Gehringer at a Braves spring training game in West Palm. He died less than a year later

5. Getting to play catch with Phil Niekro in the backfields at the Braves' spring training complex in West Palm back in the late 1980s. He tried to teach my brother and I how to throw the knuckler

6. Bumping into George Bush Sr. while at the HOF inductions for Gary Carter and Eddie Murray (I turned around to look at the person who had bumped into me and noticed that it was the former President).

7. Walking onto the field at the old Busch Stadium as an 8-year-old and waving at Whitey Herzog. He waved back. The event was part of a Baseball Bunch caravan that was stopping at every stadium in the country. Keith Hernandez was the Cardinals'  Baseball Bunch representative. After we were paraded around the field, Hernandez sat in a black Trans Am beneath the stadium and signed autographs for all the kids who had paid their $5.

8. Getting to shake Mickey Mantle's hand while at the hotel in Ocala, Fla., where the HOFers attending the first Ted Williams Museum induction were staying. I was standing next to a very attractive older woman. If it hadn't been for her, he never would've walked over to me. He died less than a year later.

9. Meeting Ted Williams at a free autograph signing in Crystal River, Fla. He agreed to appear in the hopes that those attending would sign a petition to get the Indians to come to Ocala for spring training. That never happened, but I'll never forget getting to meet Williams.

10. Seeing two Negro Leaguers on the street in Cooperstown in 1986 -- my very first time at baseball's mecca -- and only years later realizing that one of the Negro Leaguers I had seen was James "Cool Papa" Bell.

11. Meeting Cal Ripken in spring training in St. Pete in the early '90s. I was talking to someone at the time and Cal came up to me and, through the fence, asked if I would like his autograph. Then after he signed my ball, he asked if I had anything else for him to sign.

12. Meeting Duke Snider at Dodgertown in Vero. Spring training hadn't even started yet, but my buddy and I were so hungry for baseball that we decided to see if there was anyone hanging out at Dodgertown. Sure enough, Snider walked out of the clubhouse a few minutes after we had arrived. We got his autograph and took some pictures. He couldn't have been nicer.

13. Meeting Lou Whitaker (or should I say Louis R. Whitaker) at his home in Lakeland back in the early 1990s. Again, my buddy and I were so hard up for baseball that we drove down from Gainesville hoping to find action at the Tigers' spring training complex. Nothing going on there, though we did get directions to Whitaker's home. FYI: Knocking on a player's door is never a good idea. Whitaker was in the process of taking his dog to the kennel. 

14. Watching Ted Williams at the All-Star game a year so before he died and realizing that today's big leaguers do respect the players who came before them. I was a copy editor at the time, and I cried right there in the newsroom. If only I could have been there........

15. Getting to direct the crowd in singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at the Jupiter Hammerheads-Lakeland Flying Tigers' game in Jupiter last month. I sounded just like Harry Caray......come on Hammerheads, get on your feet. And then when I finished the song I made sure to add "Come on Hammerheads, let's score some runs." And as I walked back to my seat, the fans in the stands high-fived me.

15. Watching "Field of Dreams." I get the chills every time, especially when:

--James Earl Jones walks in front of Kevin Costner's vehicle and says "You saw it." They then decide to make their way to Chisholm, Minn., to see Archibald "Moonlight" Graham.

--James Earl Jones tell the librarian in Chisholm, Minn., that she's a good writer (I happen to be a writer myself so that scene is particularly moving)

--you see the players on the field for the very first time

--James Earl Jones gives his baseball lecture. "American has rolled on like an army of steamrollers. Built and erased again. But baseball has stood the test of time. This game. This field" (I botched it, but you get the idea)

--Moonlight Graham walks from the field to the stands to resuscitate the little girl and says "Hot dog stuck in her throat."

16. Reading "Stolen Season" for the first time and realizing that I wanted to spend my retirement traveling the country in a motorhome and visiting every baseball-related place of distinction.

I can't wait to make Thursday's amateur draft No. 17.