I have not had an update for awhile and that's because there really hasn't been too much talk about.  I'm still down here in Ft. Myers...I'm expected to be down here until November rehabbing my arm.  So far everything has been going as planned.  What suprises me even more is that I have not had a single setback yet...I probably just jinxed myself.  I feel good though, I'm letting the ball go with good speed and velocity and it feels like I can play again.  Last week I did my last session of 40 throws at 120ft. with 75% effort, it went great.  This week I'm going every other day at different lengths...10 throws at 60ft.  10 at 75ft. 10 at 90 ft. ect.  If everything goes as planned I will be throwing off the mound in 3-4 weeks.  The thing that scares me the most is when I start throwing my slider.  They said I can throw my slider again once I get on the mound.  When I hurt my arm it was on a slider and since I've been throwing I cannot wait to throw the slider again and test my arm...this will be my biggest test of things I have left.  Once I get off the mound I will throw bullpens for about 3 weeks and if everything goes well I will be free to resume my offseason, as if I haven't had the longest offseason of my life so far!  Most guys cannot wait for the season to get over right now, for once in my life I cannot wait for the season to start up and I can start striking out guys again...you never know how much you miss something until it is taken away from you. 

I'm still signing autorgaphs through the mail and if you need anything signed be sure to send a SASE and I will sign everything you need.

Just wanted to let everyone know I will be doing a live chat on my message board on Wednesday from 8pm Eastern to 9pm.  Also be sure to check out the great content on the message board as well as the free contest on there.  I just gave away Twins tickets to a lucky winner and up right now is a Game Used hat.

My rehab is still going great and I'm really suprised how good my arm feels.  I have not had any setbacks and have not had any pain or weakness in my arm...I'm wondering if someone got my mri mixed up because this injury has not hurt one bit even when I partially tore the ligament.  Right now here is my schedule for the upcoming week for throwing.

Sept 1st - 1x15 & 1X25 throws at 75ft, 50% intensity

Sept 2nd - 1x15 & 1x25 throws at 75ft, 50% intensity

Sept 3rd - Day off throwing

Sept 4th - 1x15 & 1x25 throws at 90ft, 50% intensity

Sept 5th - 1x15 & 1x25 throws at 90ft, 50% intensity

Sept 6th - Day off throwing

Sept 7th - Day off throwing

Sept 8th - 1x15 & 1x25 throws at 60 ft. 75% intensity

This past week we went back to our house in Melbourne and everything there was fine.  It was pretty scary seeing everything on the news...Hopefully this will be the last bad storm.(as I speak there are a couple big storms brewing heading that way!)  In the meantime we spent last Monday night at a Brevard County Manatees game.  It was pretty sweet checking out a Florida State league baseball game, it gave me a lot of time to think about how far I have come and a lot of time to think about the days when I played in the FSL and all the memories that were made.

Just wanted to give a quick update on a few things.  First off I'll start with my arm.  Things have been going great still and I haven't had any problems but I am on the Really Really Slow plan.  As I look ahead at the plan I do not think a return this year is going to happen.  I feel like if I needed to pitch I could pull it off but the safe sure route is to take it slow and gradually get better and this is the route that we are taking.  I don't mind it but it is extra tough sitting in FL watching the team in a playoff race.  I'm jealous and I wish I was with them.  So for right now we are going to follow the plan that is laid out and see where I am in the next two months.  If things are fine I'm sure I will be playing a little winter ball someplace...if things go bad then I might need surgery.  Right now things have been going perfect.

For all the message board members be sure to check out all the free contest in the next couple days, I'll be giving away tickets, cards and whatever else I can find down here.

Live Chat - I will be on the message boards tonight (Friday) under the chat from 8pm-9pm Eastern time so if you have any questions be sure to get on.

Also for anybody wondering, we survived tropical storm Fay here in Ft. Myers but our house in Melbourne had us worried.  Our neighbors told us everything is fine but it was pretty scary how close the flooding came to the house.  We are heading over there this weekend and I hope there are no suprises.

Well it's almost been a week for us down here in FL for rehab and things have been going pretty good.  Right now I'm nowhere close to coming back and facing MLB hitters.  I've started throwing from 60 feet and am slowly working my way up...I think the word slowly should be in bold!  I would love to return but I think it's more important I don't push things and blow out my arm totally.  This is a tough injury and from what I hear I'm expected to have a couple setbacks when I start throwing more and more.  I've never had anything like this happen to me before so I think it's best to do what the docs (& Twins rehab coordinator Lanning Tucker) want me to do.  We will see how everything goes, right now I'm in the very early stages of throwing and things feel good.

Mail - Yep I'm signing up stuff that comes in the mail...the addy is above just remember to include a sase.   

I got my first in-person in a long time tonight.  What was even cooler was that I was able to find a card of him on my way to the field without knowing he was going to be there.  The guy I got to sign for me is Mark Spitz and he is featured in the new 2008 Allen & Ginter baseball card set. Mark was throwing out the 1st pitch and I didn't even know until I was getting out of my car.  I had trouble telling who he was without the facial hair but I ended up getting him to sign the card, not to bad for another day at the park!  Not the prettiest graph but I'll take it, the man is a legend

Well it just arrived around baseball card shops all over the country and it’s shockwaves are being felt by collectors and newcomers to the hobby everywhere, it’s 2008 Topps Allen & Ginter.  This is easily the top product of 2008 and is filled with even more stuff than the previous 2 releases.  What makes this card brand special?  Well there are tons of things and I will go through them because this is my favorite box of cards of the year to collect and I want to get everyone on board and those that are thinking about buying their first pack in years to go out and give them a chance at resurrecting that feeling of collecting again. 

To start I better give a quick summary of the cards.  Back in the day Allen & Ginter was a real brand of cards…I’m talking early 1900’s.  Not only did the cards feature pictures of famous baseball players but they went further and picked out champions in other walks of life and plastered their faces on cards.  Flip ahead 100 years and the brand is put back out by Topps with pictures of baseball players as well as tons of other famous people.  For example I just noticed that one of the cards inside the packs is of Hotdog eating champion Joey Chestnut, there’s another one of fisherman Kevin Van Dam, one of Harriet Tubman and even the Gateway Arch in St. Louis has a card this year.  The coolest part is that Topps put out a card of me in the set…#307 to be exact.  I’m very thrilled because this set is my favorite set and I would honestly be content for the rest of my life if I do not get another card…to put it another way this is the set I have wanted to be in for the last 2 years!

Like I said above if you are new to the game this is the brand that got me back into cards a couple years back and renewed my love for collecting.  Now I don’t want to scare anyone but these cards sell out quickly.  If you are lucky enough to have a baseball card shop in your area they will more than likely have these unless they are sold out.  For those that aren’t as fortunate you can run over to Target or Wal-Mart and check out the baseball card section.  In Target the card section is usually at one end of the checkout lines on one side of the store entrance, kind of hard to find but if you ask someone they should find it for you.  Wal-Mart is kind of the same way and they are usually located by the tobacco counter.  I’m telling everyone this because after about a month the only place you can find these things are on eBay and for more than retail price.  Now I’m not sure when these are going to arrive in stores, last year it was about a week after release when they showed up in MN and I was only able to find them in one store up here.  Also if you are in the Brooklyn Park, MN area do one thing…be sure to leave me a box to buyJ

Okay for all of you collectors there have been a couple changes this year.  Those annoying Dick Perez cards have been replaced by something called the US set.  It’s a set of all 50 states represented by a player that was either born or lived in by that player.  I thought it would be cool if they had a guy born in each state for all 50 cards and I thought that was the set but I noticed the Nick Markakis Georgia card and it said he was born in NY so that throws out that idea.  Anyways I made the Wisconsin card and will be signing and inscribing up that bad boy for whoever sends it to me to sign. 

Another couple of minor changes, there are things called silk cards #’d to 10, the snake cards have been replaced by sharks, roman emperors with world icons and countries with world leaders.  There is also a thing called Crack the code…I’m sure it will take tons of hours to solve this code but what the heck it’s worth a shot and under the message board on the site we will be sharing cards and trying to figure out the code…I guess the winner that cracks the code will get their own A&G card in next year’s set…I could just see it now, one card for our entire message board…cool.

There’s also tons of other stuff that will stay the same, rip cards, short prints, mini cards, wood cards, an Abraham Lincoln hair card and the relics.  It’s a fun set…let’s see how I did

1 box of A&G

143 base cards…not sure about short prints right now, there isn’t a list

4 Game Used card…not sure how this happened because I think you are only suppose to get 2

Vlad, Hafner, Ryan Howard, Garrett Anderson

1 Crack the code card

David Wright Box Topper

20 State born/lived in cards

1 Shark card, Mako

1 World Icon Cleopatra

2 World Leaders

12 regular base minis – 4 Ginter Back mini’s – 4 Black Bordered mini’s

Final word

Well I opened a lot of Ginter boxes over the past two years and I think this is going to be the best Ginter release yet.  The content inside is overflowing with different sets to go after and lots of nice looking cards that are waiting for ink to get put on in the form of a signature.  As you can see above I didn’t have any major hits but for the $ it doesn’t get any better than this.  If you are a set collector this set will have you working for days.  My final word…this will be the one and might be the only set I will be working hard on for the rest of the summer, if you want to dabble in cards for the first time in years this is the set for you!

Just wanted to warn everyone that 08 Topps Allen & Ginter cards will be arriving in stores shortly.  This will be the main set I will collect this year and once again the set I tell new collectors to go after if you are just getting into the hobby.  Here's a little note though, these boxes sell out quickly so be sure to start now if you want to have some fun.  They are not priced high and are a pretty fun set.  In MN the best places to find these would be Target & Wal-Mart and anywhere else you can try eBay and your local card shop.  I have a case coming in later next week and should have a box here to review tomorrow sometime.  As for now here's a pic of my new card! As always send it over to be signed if you pull one!