I could write pages of stuff about this convention, but...naaaa.
I'll tell a couple stories, though.
First off, right after the Opening Ceremonies, Sutter and I walked around downstairs, and you can get kinda lost pretty easy - physically and mentally.
Like, you get caught up looking at all the signed baseball bats and what they cost ($400 for a game used Soriano bat), or all the pins or baseball cards.
Then you look up and you're like, how do you get out of here?
Anyway, we were walking around and BAMMO! There's Keith Moreland just getting done with his autograph session!
(In this drawing, his nose is WAAY too big)
You could tell he was tired of it, but a couple people asked for photos and he happily agreed.
I chickened out and just took a picture of him getting his picture taken.
But...KEITH MORELAND was RIGHT THERE!
The Opening Ceremony was in the Grand Ballroom, and there were so many people they actually shut the doors and stopped letting them in.
Sutter and I were late, and walked all around the perimeter until we found a crack in the mass and worked our way in there. In the middle of the hole, there was an empty bottle of Jack Daniels laying on the floor, so I figured whoever left that left the hole when they left.
Pat Hughes was the emcee, and he introduced everybody.
It's the 40th anniversary of the '69 Cubs, so a bunch of players from that year were there.
It's also the 20th anniversary of the '89 Cubs, so same deal with the players from that team.
Everybody got a pretty big applause.
I thought the crowd might be a little divided when they brought out Milton Bradley, but the crowd went nuts.
Reed Johnson has a mondo-beard, Rick Reuschel was lookin' pretty trim, it was all super cool and I got a little yelled-out.
Then they showed a video starting with the '69 Cubs, '89, and then highlights from last year (Johnson's Catch, Big Z's No-No, that great catch by DeRo... stuff like that) - it was pretty well done, and when they turned on the lights this big guy in front of us had tears down his cheeks.
That's passion, I guess.
Next day, I saw Jim Hendry in a big question and answer thing at 9, and then later Lou and his "Lou-tenants" (all the coaches, get it?) came out for the same kind of thing.
So if you want to ask a question, you get in this line and stand at a podium in the middle of the room and ask away.
This one guy was upset about Alfonso Soriano leading off.
Lou jokes, well, why do you think Gerald's (Perry - batting coach) beard turned white?
Everybody laughs, and then Perry gives a pretty honest answer about constantly talking to Alfonso about laying off some pitches but the implication being well, you can talk all you want but he's Alfonso Soriano and he's probably gonna bat like he wants to bat.
Then the guy, feeling he didn't get a satisfactory answer, sort of yells out that if he was a pitcher he'd NEVER throw Fonsie anything but curveballs in the dirt because he swings at them EVERY TIME.
And without missing a beat, Perry patiently says, "I'll tell him you said that."
It was kind of tense, that question.
And then with this little joke I think Perry got the biggest laugh of the day.
Plus, I was glad he didn't say he had a solution because I wouldn't have believed it.
This post is too long already, but throughout the day one thing that kept coming up was the new line-up with all the lefty bats.
We'll talk more about that tomorrow.
PS. DB and Donna, it was great to meet you guys in person finally. The game of "text-tag" was hilarious.
