Cuban National Team vs USA Baseball College National Team

I had the chance to check out the first game of the USA Baseball College team's friendly series against the Cuban National Baseball just up the road from my house in Cary, North Carolina.  I have done a few write ups on the games I have attended at the National Training Complex in the past, my favorite of which was a no-hitter thrown by Tanner Houck (Mizzou/Red Sox), A.J. Puk (Florida/A's), and Ryan Hendrix (Texas A&M/Reds).

The final out from that no-hitter from the arm of Ryan Hendrix, which was also against Cuba....

I have not been to many games yet this year between kids and work, so a holiday weekend is just what the doctor ordered.  It was a little bit hot at the start of the game, but overall a really nice evening to take in a baseball game.  The USA Baseball complex is a nice place to watch a game.  

There were a few players I was excited to see last night.  The main player of interest however was Clemson outfielder Seth Beer.  The past two seasons the slugging outfielder has been one of the better players in the ACC.  Beer should also be one of the higher draft picks coming up next summer.  

He had some really good at-bats early in the game, worked the counts, and showed good patience.  

The best at-bat of the game took place in extra innings after the game went into the "International Tie-Breaker Rules".  You say you do not know what that is?  Neither did I, nor 90% of the stadium, and likely 100% of the players on the US team.  Here's a quick tutorial.....

Anyway, Cuba was the road team, so they batted first and scored twice.  The US team then put Cuba in a bind by scoring two runs, loading the bases, for Mr. Beer.  The Cubans brought in the infield and their pitcher actually made a decent pitch breaking his bat, but......

Very cool game to watch.  Not as cool as the no-hitter game, but still one of the better amateur baseball games that I have ever attended.  I need to do one of those Friday countdown things this week to share out the cool ones.

There were autographs too.  Towards the middle of the game there was a table set up on the concourse of the stadium with different signers.  A few Olympians that I did not really know and a member of the 1984 Olympic Baseball team, former Rangers pitcher Bobby Witt.  He signed a ticket for me......

I mentioned being a Cardinals fan and the fact that I saw him pitch for the Cardinals in 1998.  He didn't seem thrilled that I remembered him as a Cardinal.  Not his best year.  

I'll Take A Second Beer

One of the hardest parts of the 2016 baseball season was the fact that the USA Baseball College team did not play any home games instead opting for a summer of touring Asia.  Their home stadium is about ten minutes from my house in Cary, North Carolina so they are always on my calendar at some point every summer.  They also usually tend to play a few games around other stadiums in North Carolina too, including the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

Last summer the USA Baseball College team included one of the most impressive freshman in the country in the person of Clemson outfielder Seth Beer.  I am pretty sure that he is going to be a very high draft pick in the near future.  I had the chance to see him play at Duke last spring....

I also ended up with a Seth Beer autographed card.  

While the college team did not play a single home game last summer they still got some baseball cards in the Panini Elite Extra Edition product.  There are a few players from last year's team that I am hoping to find, but Seth Beer was a pretty big priority for me.  

I watched a few of his autographs on Ebay, but landed a really nice looking card off of a Facebook group page....

He has another autographed card in Elite, which just has an autograph, but I opted for this one with a jersey swatch.  I had a choice between the two cards.  Both are sticker autographs.  Overall, I just really happy to land another Seth Beer card.  Considering he was a freshman last year, I'd guess he leaves after his junior year, so we get three more chances to find some Beer cards.....

Beer Me.

I was supposed to make my way to the ACC Baseball Championship this past Sunday.  The tournament last all week and took place at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.  Unfortunately the tournament fell on the same as progress reports at school, which means that I am hellaciously busy with grading and typing grades into a grade book.  I figured with a three day weekend, it would be fun to take in the game.

Well, it did not really work out that way.  The game was moved up Saturday night to 10am because of the impending Tropical Storm.  Then the game was pushed back to 11am.  I like going to baseball games, but my five year old does not do really well with rain delays.  We decided to watch the game from the comfort of our living room.  

8 hours, 31 runs, and a whole bunch of Florida State errors later the Clemson Tigers won this year's ACC Baseball Tournament.  

My son and I had a good time watching the first few innings of the game, but by the time Clemson had opened up a 13-1 lead the little guy had moved on to watching Lego Superheroes.  I stand by my decision to stay home and watch the game....

Truth be told, I have actually already seen Clemson play this year.  Back in April, while I was on my vacation from blogging, I went to see the Tigers play Duke.  The Blue Devils have actually been playing a lot of their home games at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in recent years, but they were playing at their on campus stadium Jack Coombs Field.  Coombs was a pitcher on the Philadelphia A's way back in the day.  Here is his statue outside the baseball stadium....

Jack Coombs is a small stadium.  The seating area is tiny and relatively flat.  Small stadiums can be nice when you have a good view, but then sometimes someone in a mascot uniform walks up and sits in front of you.....

Mascot Free.....

Mascot.....

Sir, your devil horns are obstructing my view of this baseball game.  So what does any of this have to do with Beer?  Great question.  If you are a fan of college baseball and have watched Clemson this year you will know exactly where this is headed, if not I will introduce you to a name to file away:

Seth Beer.  

Beer is the freshman right fielder for Clemson, the ACC Player of the Year, and should garner a few more pieces of hardware before the end of the college baseball season.  Beer graduated from high school in December of his senior season, so he was never drafted by a Major League team.  Just straight to college.....

Beer had a quiet game against Duke, but seemed to reek havoc against everyone else in the ACC.  Luckily, as a freshman, he is going to be around for a few more years.  I am looking forward to seeing him a few more times with Clemson, and I am guessing that he has a pretty good shot at making the USA Baseball College team too.  

While I was at the game I also picked up a card from a friend who I met up with at the game.  Also happens to be one of the biggest Clemson fans that I know.  The card was a Beer card.....

I rarely do in-person autographs, and while Beer has a few certified autographs from Leaf, I was really happy to land this card.  My friend actually was picking up a few autographs from a few of his favorite Clemson players.  Seth Beer stopped and signed and my friend was generous enough to give me one of the signatures.  Really cool card and a great player to watch in the future.