Last Monday evening I boarded a flight for Los Angeles where I was set to do a small private signing with Dodgers pitcher Hong-Chi Kuo. I arrived in LA at about 11 and hailed a taxi to San Gabriel. When I arrived in San Gabriel I noticed that everything (billboards, storefronts) were all in Chinese. It was really cool. The next morning I set up for the signing and waited for Kuo in the hotel lobby. Kuo is extremely talkative and may even speak better English than I do. We spoke about the playoffs. We first discussed his series against the Mets. Despite the loss, Kuo pitched great in Game 2 of the NLDS. We also talked about the infamous double play at homeplate in Game 1. That baserunning blunder, in my mind, sealed the Dodgers fate in that series. He also told me a little about Taiwan. I have become fascinated with that place and hope to travel there next year. Hong-Chi signed some great product including a web-exclusive baseball commemorating his first post-season start. After Kuo left I spent a few hours boxing up the product and shipping it back to New York. It is an extremely time consuming exercise. I don't think most people realize what goes into the preparation and shipping of these signing. I ended up with about an hour to walk around San Gabriel before heading back to LAX. I took a few photos to show you guys. I hopped on a night flight to Detroit and was ready to being the second part of my journey.
Check back later for a recap of my Detroit trip.