After last night's game, I ran into an old friend on the walk home and ended up getting plastered 'till 2:00 AM. As a result the "crazy canuck paparazziing" as KipWellsFan coined it, was shamefully delayed. I found out about Brandon's call up from Juan Nieves, when I saw Arnie warming up before the game. I called him over and said "what happened to Brandon", fearing an injury and he pointed skyward. So I said "what, he died?" and he said "no, he got sent up". I asked him why Brandon's last couple of starts produced less than super human results. He said there was nothing wrong with Brandon. He was simply victimized by the band-box that is Charlotte's home field. He described the short fences and the easily reached power alleys and foul poles. I followed with: So, he isn't experiencing a "dead arm" phase and he said not at all. I guess being sent to the show is enough testament to his current strength. The other thing I noticed was that Frank ran out a ground ball with more authority, in the 5th, than any other attempt to run in the 4 games. So that was very encouraging. On the Brian Anderson front, he made an incredible throw for a strike to nail someone at home, drilled a ringing double his first time up and made a truely laughable error with the bases loaded on a routine fly ball with 2 outs. One of those catches that you see caught 999 times out of 1000. Oh well. Frank signed a baseball card for me, so that was cool, as a momento of his trip here. I took lots of pictures and will post a few of them when I get a chance. Right now I am in a hurray to pack and take off to the cottage for the weekend. But first to set the VCR to Sunday for Brandon's first victory. And just think, it's gonna come at the expense of Jesus.

Edited May 21, 200520 yr by ottawa_sox

After last night's game, I ran into an old friend on the walk home and ended up getting plastered 'till 2:00 AM.  As a result the "crazy canuck paparazziing" as KipWellsFan coined it, was shamefully delayed.   I found out about Brandon's call up from Juan Nieves, when I saw Arnie warming up before the game.  I called him over and said "what happened to Brandon", fearing an injury and he pointed skyward.  So I said "what, he died?" and he said "no, he got sent up".  I asked him why Brandon's last couple of starts produced less than super human results.  He said there was nothing wrong with Brandon.  He was simply victimized by the band-box that is Charlotte's home field.  He described the short fences and the easily reached power alleys and foul poles.  I followed with:  So, he isn't experiencing a "dead arm" phase and he said not at all.  I guess being sent to the show is enough testament to his current strength.  The other thing I noticed was that Frank ran out a ground ball with more authority, in the 5th, than any other attempt to run in the 4 games.  So that was very encouraging.  On the Brian Anderson front, he made an incredible throw for a strike to nail someone at home, drilled a ringing double his first time up and made a truely laughable error with the bases loaded on a routine fly ball with 2 outs.  One of those catches that you see caught 999 times out of 1000.  Oh well.  Frank signed a baseball card for me, so that was cool, as a momento of his trip here.  I took lots of pictures and will post a few of them when I get a chance.  Right now I am in a hurray to pack and take off to the cottage for the weekend.  But first to set the VCR to Sunday for Brandon's first victory.  And just think, it's gonna come at the expense of Jesus.  

awesome story. lol "what he died?"

any word from frank on how long until he returns to the big club?

Thanks for the posts. Love reading the first-hand accounts.

any word from frank on how long until he returns to the big club?

 

I asked Frank this very question, but he declined to give an answer. My guess after 4 days of conversations and observations is that he will be there for the 20 day period. Here are some more pictures. I apologize for the size of some of them:

Very nice pics. It looks like you got very close to the Big Hurt.

On that last picture, is that THE Ricky Gutierrez?

On that last picture, is that THE Ricky Gutierrez?

On that last picture, is that THE Ricky Gutierrez?

 

The one and the same. He was very personable. He talked to the crowd quite a bit from the on-deck circle. And basically, I had the same seats for all 4 games. In the front rrrooowwwwww. So I ended up with a lot of pictures of Frank.

When the f*** did he join the Knights? How funny.