Hounding Report: Frisco Rough Riders' Open House, January 11, Stars Pregame, January 12

Ahh, the first outing of 2014.

Chris and I got to Frisco super-early. With the signing starting at 1:30, we pulled up and jumped in line at about 10:15.  Sadly, we weren't the first people there either-- we were about thirtieth.

We ended up jumping to about fifth though as the line was moved to the main entrance half an hour later. Finally at about noon, a list was put out of who would be where-- Group A was Tanner Scheppers and Michael Choice, Group B was Steve Buechele and Mark McLemore, while Group C was Elvis Andrus (in for the injured Derek Holland) and Shawn Tolleson. Needless to say, when the doors opened, we grabbed a ticket for Group C.

Tolleson came in first stopping by to shake hands and chat with the fans up near the front, followed soon by Elvis.  I was surprised-- he was signing multiples for the first few before the handlers made him crack down to one-per.  Both were in a great mood, with Elvis even commenting on my beard that I've been rocking for a few weeks now.  He has a kickass one going right now too.  Hope he's going to be more personable this season-- I got him once in all of 2013.

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has just left... err, entered the building!

 Since we got through so quickly, we went for Group A next, with Scheppers and Choice each signing the two cards I had of them (one of each for Chris; he had a bunch on both so I helped him out a bit).  From there, it was on to Group B.  The Rangers didn't announce Buechele and McLemore would be there, but Chris found about it and gave me a heads up.  I pulled every card I had on both of them, with each signing eight my first trip through.  I figured I'd go back a second time with each doing eight again. Neither seemed too happy about it though, so I figured I'd better not push my luck on 8 more McLemores and 35 more Buecheles.

I thought about taking a second trip through Group C's line but decided not to. Wish I had grabbed an extra ticket while I could though-- I would have been able to get through it before cutoff time.  I did get a few more of Chris' cards of Choice though and hit his line, having Scheppers sign the generic photo I had Tolleson sign, while Choice signed two of the three I had from Chris.

Chris got through Elvis' line as one of the last few, while I got a picture or two for him to use on his post on The Bench. If I felt like pleading, I probably could have gotten through the line there with them at the end, but I passed on it.

Overall, this was an excellent start to 2014 graphing campaign. Looking forward to a few more Winter Caravan outings (maybe) and a good baseball season

TOTALS: 37 autographs (plus 5 for Chris)

Quick outing on Sunday, Craig Ludwig 4/4 as the Stars' pregame signer. Two go to Nathan in Nova Scotia.