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| Gio Gonzalez |
Furthermore, by attending minor league games as well I've seen a number of players climb the ladder to the big leagues too.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about. In 2004, the Chicago White Sox drafted a 18 year kid out of high school near Miami, Florida with the 38th pick in the first round of the supplemental draft.
His name was Gio Gonzalez.
Since then he has bounced around a number of different organizations.
He was traded to the Phillies in 2005 in the Jim Thome trade.
In December 2006, he was traded back to the White Sox in the Freddy Garcia deal.
Then in January 2008, he was shipped out to Oakland in the Nick Swisher swap.
On April 26, 2006, I got to see Gio pitch for the first time. He was with the Reading Phillies at the time. The King & I were in Norwich, Connecticut that day. Gio pitched for Reading against the Connecticut Defenders as they were called back then. I recall Gio pitching a great game in front of us.
After following him through different baseball publications, I finally got to see Gio in person on May 15, 2009 in Sacramento, California.
Royalty went to the Bay area to see the Mets play the San Francisco Giants that weekend.
Since we try to pick up minor league ballparks whenever the opportunity presents itself, we decided to go to Sacramento on that Friday night to see the Rivercats, the Oakland A's Triple A farm team play.
Gio who pitched the night before was at a table on the concourse signing autographs.
I saw him so I went over and I got his autograph in my scorebook. I spoke to him about that visit to Norwich. Gio was a very friendly person. I told him I was from New York City. He said he was never there. I wished him the best of luck in his future and I told him I'll look for him down the road. He said and I quote "I need to stay positive". He's been practicing what he preaches.
As a result, he made his major league debut in August 2008 but he after a short stint he was sent back down to the minors.
The Oakland A's were visiting New York in July 2009. Ironically I went to the Friday and Sunday games. On Saturday July 25th, we went to Fenway Park to see the Red Sox play.
Gio was back in the majors and he pitched the Saturday game in his first visit to NYC. He pitched great at the New Yankee Stadium that day. He allowed one run in 6 and 2/3's innings.
Just like in Sacramento when I saw him, he pitched the day before.
This past weekend we went to Cleveland to see the A's play the Indians.
Amazingly Gio pitched Friday night. He threw 7 shutout innings against the Tribe.
We arrived Saturday afternoon in Cleveland with plenty of time to get in the ballpark to watch batting practice. I decided to go down to the rightfield side where the A's were taking BP. Afterwards, I got Gio's attention.
He came over to sign autographs for the fans. I told him I saw him in Sacramento last year. He remembered me. He was amazed by how much traveling I've done. I told him I go everywhere.
He let me take his picture though the sun was beaming down so it's hard to see him clearly.
Furthermore, I got him to sign my scorebook for this year as well. I mentioned to him how I missed his brilliant performance at Yankee Stadium last July because I was in Boston that day. I gave him my business card with my contact information.
I told him I recently started a blog and that I was going to write a post on him.
I told him I hope to see him again at Yankee Stadium at the end of August when the A's come back to the Bronx.
We'll wait and see.
In the meantime, I'm going to continue to follow Gio. I told him he finally found a home in Oakland. For his sake, I hope so he's traveled a rocky road to the Major Leagues thus far.
Time will tell.
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