Today’s entry is all about balls — two of which came through the mail, and two of which were obtained in person during my recent roadtrip.

Let’s start with those that made for a great mailday last week. Here’s the first one:

Sensational Blue Jays prospect Kyle Drabek, who coincidently had his first MLB start last night, signed this ball for me in about a month, care of his AA team, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. I could’ve grabbed him for another autograph during my trip last weekend, but didn’t bother fighting the crowds as I am happy to already have him on a ball. Drabek was lights out for the Cats this season, winning 14 games and being named the Eastern League’s pitcher of the year. Hard to say where he’ll be in the spring (could be AAA Las Vegas) but expect him to be in Toronto by next August, I’d say.

Here’s the next ball I got in the mail:

This one’s pretty cool. It’s signed by Hall of Famer Duke Snider, who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, among other teams. His credentials? An eight-time All-Star, two-time World Series champ, 407 career HRs and six-time top 10 finisher in MVP voting. Pretty impressive, and this addition brings my Hall of Fame ball collection up to five.

And I as mentioned, I got two balls signed while in New Hampshire. As a Jays fan, it’s always cool to see a farm team of the big club, and watch tomorrow’s stars up close. This year, I saw two Toronto affiliates: Short season class A Auburn, and AA New Hampshire.

Anyway, here’s the first ball:

It’s one of the strangest signatures in my collection, and belongs to future Toronto shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria. He’s the 21-year-old Cuban shortstop that Alex Anthopoulos signed this spring. It was exciting to get his signature. He signed for a bunch of people at the edge of the dugout, and I was slow getting my ball and pen out. By the time I got there, he’d turned around and left, but I called out to him and he came back. As he approached, he bumped a pair of groundscrew rakes that fell over with a giant bang, and he just shrugged and signed my ball.

Next up is my second ball of the game:

This one is signed by Jays third baseman Edwin Encarnacion (not Encarnashone, Buck Martinez) who was in New Hampshire recovering from a sprained wrist. I was kicking myself for not having a Ginter card for him to sign, but it’s always great to add another Blue Jays to my ball collection.

The morning after the game, as I left my hotel, I ran into Encarnacion outside the hotel’s lobby. he was waiting for a shuttle to take him to the airport and back to Toronto, and has his Jays duffel bag with him. I said good morning, and he said hello, but I didn’t hit him up for another autograph because it was early and I don’t like being a pushy autograph hound.

All in all, a pretty great week for balls for my collection, with more to come!