By Ed Barnes, Staff Writer ContractBud.com Staff Writer Ed Barnes also works for Channel 4 San Diego on Padres television broadcasts. He will be in Arizona for spring training from March 19th through the 26th and will be sending updates from Arizona about the goings on at spring training. Spring Training 2005 — #2 Tuesday March 22, 2004 Giants vs. Padres Peoria, AZ It finally happened even though I never thought it could. I figured that an opportunity for it died long ago, but sure enough, it happened. I big leagued a fan. The players enter the field through a gate down the right field line. Fans crowd a fence at the back of the stadium hoping to catch visiting players in their makeshift clubhouse by the right field gate, or Padres players heading for the field. I passed the crowd of fans, several with arms through the fence holding pens and various memorabilia, carrying a few copies of my research for the game. Wearing jeans, a t-shirt and my press pass, I don't think I could have looked any less like a player. However, as I walked by, I heard this from the crowd. Young Fan: "Hey buddy can you sign my ticket stub?" Me: "Um…I'm not a player." Fan: "Can you just sign for me?" Me: "I'm sorry I gotta get going." Fan: "SCREW YOU MAN!" WHOA! I wasn't expecting to be asked, but the response was even more surprising. Looking back on it, I wish I had gone and signed the kid's ticket just so he could confuse himself and his friends. Still, if I get bad mouthed for not signing one autograph when I admitted to not being a player, I'm sure players get it ten times worse if they can't sign every autograph. Still, I'm very amused by the entire incident and will never forget my moment of big leaguing a fan. Shortly after getting to the stadium, I was down on the field while we were taping our open for Channel 4 and I ran into someone I was hoping to see tonight. I played a year of summer ball with San Francisco Giants pitcher Jesse Foppert in 1998. He was a third baseman that summer and didn't like pitching and never took the mound for our team that year. A few years later I played against him again while I was playing for a junior college and Jesse was at University of San Francisco. He still hadn't moved to the mound and was trying to make it as a position player. Jesse became a full-time pitcher for his last two years at USF and was drafted in the second round by the Giants. A couple years ago, I managed to catch him down on the field at Qualcomm Stadium, but I hadn't caught up with him since he underwent Tommy John surgery a few days after we last spoke. I asked him about his comeback from surgery and he said that it's hard to find consistency in both his velocity and feel. Everything feels healthy, but it's just a question of getting back to where he was before the surgery. This season should get better for him as it goes along as it normally takes 16-18 months for pitchers to truly come all the way back from Tommy John and Jesse is in that range right now. He also told me that he didn't know where he was going to start the season. He told me he was the sixth starter so he wasn't sure if he'd end up being the long man in the bullpen or at AAA Fresno and be the first guy to be called up in case of injury. Jesse also told me that he was going to throw in tonight's game which was great news for me. I had never been able to see him throw in person before and I'd get a chance for a few innings this evening. Once the game got underway, I expected the Padres to roll as they put their everyday lineup on the field with the exception of Mark Loretta against a D lineup for the Giants. Only Michael Tucker, Deivi Cruz, Pedro Feliz and Yorvit Torrealba were recognizable names. All of the other players were minor leaguers except for the starting pitcher Brett Tomko. Padres fans should have some more reason to be excited for the upcoming season By the end of the second inning, Adam Eaton found his control and pitched well the rest of the way. Ryan Klesko also looks much better after a full off-season of weightlifting. He pulled the ball with authority in his first at-bat and generally showed much better bat speed than in 2004. Phil Nevin hit the ball the other way with some power in his first at-bat as he has been doing with regularity in Cactus League play. Nevin truly is at his best when he is hitting the ball the other way. When some of his drives to right and right center were fly outs early last year in Petco Park's spacious outfield, Nevin became pull happy and was more prone to strikeouts. If he sticks with his normal approach of using the whole field he should have another good season. More important for me, Foppert came into to pitch in the top of the sixth. He struggled with his command as the Padres put runners in scoring position in every inning that Jesse threw. However, Jesse was able to make pitches when he needed them and only allowed one run over three innings and struck out five in the process. I was impressed by his slider which he wasn't afraid to throw when behind in the count or even with a full count. Once Jesse finds the consistency that he says he is searching for, I'm sure it will be hard for the Giants to keep him out of the rotation. The Giants won the game 5-3 giving their fans a little hope after finding out that Barry Bonds will be out until the All-Star Break or maybe even longer. Padres fans can take some positives from the game too as the Friars bats look to be waking up at the right time. Still, nothing will be more memorable for me on this night than my chance to big league a fan. File last modified May 15, 2011

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