I am a new Gaslamp Baller and had heard about this event and wanted to go. I had plans to go out with a friend of mine that night to another downtown function, but I thought I could convince her to switch to this, but then she emailed me and told me she had a last minute work thing and couldn’t do anything at all. So then I was faced with the dilemma of not having anyone to go with.

So I decided to head down by myself. I was a little confused because the note had been posted on here about Kouz, Giles and Peavy being not actually at this event, but at  the Fleetwood. I had been there before when it was the Luna Lounge so I was going to go there since Kouz is my favorite Padre. I had parked right near Petco on the street a few blocks away from 6th and J where I was heading, but I thought I would go further down towards where I knew Basic was to see who was there first before doing anything else. It’s a good thing I did because I was walking by trying to see who was in there when I spotted Kouz on the stage in there along with Jenny Cavnar and John Weisbarth from Channel 4.

I was completely surprised how easily accessible the players were and how they readily talked to people, etc. Basically at Basic, you went up and could buy a Miller Lite for $4 from the players or someone else from Channel 4.  had a couple of brief conversations with Kouz there (but sorry, those are going to remain off the Internet and private, but it was nothing too exciting.) Weisbarth then announced they had to go to East Village Tavern and they were taking the players with them. I went with there as well.

I had never been to East Village Tavern & Bowl, so I went in to look around and I walked right into the bowling alley part and saw some people playing in the first lane. Once I took a harder look, I realized it was Chase Headley and Cla Meredith playing along with Cla’s girlfriend (I think it’s fiancé now). I didn’t see Chase’s fiancé who I know exists because he talked about her on the radio last week. He was definitely not with her. I think they had already finished their obligation and were just hanging out. They stayed a little longer after that, but then left.

Kouz and Myrow were introduced to the bar by host John Weisbarth and they gave out free raffle tickets to everyone there. I guess they had arrived later than promised earlier, so the crowd had been there the whole time waiting for them. Here, there was definitely a better place behind the bar to have the guys bartend. And boy did they ever! They did more raffles and the first one was a Padres shirt worn by Kouz that he signed for the winner, but it took about 5 picks to get a winner since some people with tickets must have left already.

If you have the chance to get to know Brian Myrow, do it. I actually spent quite a bit of time talking to him and we was a really good bartender! I asked him if he ever did it professionally and he said he did in 2002 and sometimes in the offseason. He was also really, really funny and had quite a personality. I asked him if he had the homerun ball from Tuesday night and he said he personally didn’t, but he knew the Padres had it he heard and that he would do whatever is needed for the  guy that caught it. I told him about the guy and how he acted and how Matty and Mud were talking about it for a bit on the broadcast.

Overall, it was a fun night and a really great way to see the Padres in a normal environment. They were probably blowing off some frustrations from the game and the season, but they still seemed upbeat. Kouz even was asked about the second half, and he said something positive that I couldn’t hear, but Weisbarth’s reaction was something like "That’s what we like to hear." So I know they aren’t giving up entirely and are going to keep fighting. All I can say is keep the faith and at least try to think of something positive among the negative.

I read the other post with Kouz's comments and I guess I take stuff like that with a grain of salt. All of us at one time or another have gone to a bar after work and complained about our jobs, and to me, he seemed to be having a great time and he was very popular. I hope he wasn't serious in all of his comments and them being posted here doesn't hurt him.

I am not posting any pictures because this site would not let me do it without just showing the link to a private location or just upload. And I would prefer not to anyway.