I just returned home from my journey to Boise, Idaho where I did a large private signing with Bill Buckner. Before I get into the whole trip I am going to fill you all in on everything that went on from the Saturday night thru my flights (there is no direct flight from NYC to Idaho) to Boise. Sunday morning (day after the Cano/Melky appearance) I woke up to the news that Yankees legend Bernie Williams sat in with The Allman Brothers for one song Saturday night. I was pretty pumped to hear that as I have always had more fun talking guitar than baseball with Bernie. I have since heard the show and am looking forward to getting Bernie a copy. Hopefully that was only the first of many collaborations. Then Sunday night I headed over to the Beacon for the final Allman's show of this historic run. The Brothers were joined by reclusive legend Johnny Winter for several songs including Ray Charles' "Blackjack". I did not think it could get any better until they later called up Ravi Coltrane to play sax on "In a Silent Way" (One of the top five Miles Davis tracks ever!). All in all it was a very special night.

That brings me to Monday which happened to be opening day at Shea Stadium. I am sure many of you have similar parking horror stories to mine. I ended up having to park in Lot E which is way past the tennis center. It was , and will be, well worth the inconvience. The Mets appear to be ahead of schedule in building Citi Field. It will be so awesome to finally have a beautiful new ballpark in 2009. I will miss Shea though. There will always be something special about it- remember Game 6 was played there (and nowhere else!). Much to the displeasure of Jimmy Rollins, BH and the city of Philadelphia the Mets had a serious rally in the 8th inning and Billy Wagner (who happens to be appearing at Last Licks Huntington this Saturday) closed the door in the 9th. The final score was 11-5 and, to tell you the truth, I never doubted the team for a second.

That bring us to 4:00 AM Tuesday morning when my alarm clock went off. After getting dressed I drove over to LaGuardia to catch a flight out to Minnesota. (As I said earlier there are no direct flights from New York to Idaho. Anyone surprised?)
After changing planes in Minneapolis I finally touched down at about noon at Boise Airport. There is no much to say about Idaho. Boise is surrounded by mountains and there is not much to do. I wish there was more to say but that is about it. It is, appropriately given the situation, as far away as one can get from Shea Stadium, Game 6 and Red Sox Nation. Once I landed I walked (everything is pretty much in walking distance) to the hotel and began to set up for our marathon signing.
Bill arrived at about 3:00 (Mountain Time!) and went right to work. I have known Buckner for a long time and have always enjoyed talking to him. He knows so much about baseball. Bill had an incredible 22 year career in the major leagues and, over that time, put up amazing numbers including 2715 hits. It truly is a shame that such a great career has been marred by one mishap. Anway, Buckner signed for about three hours. This signing gave us an opportunity to re-up on the Buckner/Wilson photo which happens to be Steiner's best seller. After Bill left it took about two hours to prep the product to ship back to New York.
I woke up at 6:00 this morning to walk (I am still amazed that I was able to walk to the airport) to the airport to catch the first flight out to civilization. Anyway, to make a long story short, I finally landed in New York at 5:30. Befittingly enough I ended up in some serious Shea Stadium traffic on my way home.

We have a lot going on this weekend so check back tomorrow for a preview.