CLEVELAND, Ohio - Before Major League players arrive, before the balls start flying out in batting practice or any pre-game workouts take place, another team descends on Progressive Field.
They are autograph collectors, armed with pens and binders and papers, looking like a hodgepodge of students waiting for class. Except their class is outside the players lot on East 9th Street as they wait, gripping the fence railings in the hopes of having a player come over and offer up their John Hancock.
Jim Shea, 30, said he started collecting when he was 8 or 9.