Man, we were late to the opening ceremonies. There was a line a mile long and then this guy says, "It's all filled, you'll have to go watch the simulcast in the other room." (You know simulcast, like when the President speaks.)
But we went in there, Sutter and I, and it was still pretty cool. There were a bunch of tv sets, and they introduced all the players, old and new. And even though we were in a completely different area, people were shouting and cheering and there was a news crew filming people...watching televisions. And when Tom Ricketts came out, everybody started taking photos of the tvs. Lots of flashes and stuff.
I felt like a boob, but I did it too.
Tom was super composed, saying all the right things. And you know what? Until Sutter said, "Can you even imagine that jag Zell doing this?", I'd completely forgotten about him.
How awesome is it to have this new Ricketts family running the Cubs?
At the end they showed the Big Video, and one thing I noticed is they had Reed Johnson's amazing catch that robbed Prince Fielder in it, and EVERYONE cheered. They don't just put anyone in that video - of course there was no Aaron Miles or Milton Boner, but there was no Rich Harden either. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for The Reed Possibility...
After that we ran around, talked to the Vine Line guys, looked at these displays of Ryno and Andre's shoes.
Ryno with the Nikes.
Andre with the Cons.
This photo of former Cub pitcher Kenny Holtzman was on a wall with all these other shots, but, and I swear I did not retouch a thing...CAN YOU BELIEVE THE SHAPE OF HIS HEAD?
And that "smile". Really says, "Will you hurry up with the picture already?"
But the best part came in the bar, and I can never remember the name of it - it's like "Molly O'Grady's" or "Sally O'Toole's" - and we were having a beer when up came...Zonk! Keith Moreland! Sutter walked right over and had a little chat with him, complimented him on his color announcing. He was a super nice guy.
Of course the BIG NEWS, maybe of the entire convention, is that Geo Soto "dropped about 40 pounds."
Now, of course we all expect our highly paid professional athletes to act professional and you know... get in shape. But that expectation has been dashed a million times so it was pretty cool to see Soto be real.
He's gonna be a HUGE part of success or failure next season.
More from convention soon...
