Hanging with friendly Padres FO guys at the Farmers Insurance Open

My sister won tickets to the Farmers Insurance Open from the San Diego UT, so we went today.

In attendance, that we saw, were Bud Black, Nick Hundley ( we said hi), Greg Burke ( I said hi), Joe Thatcher, Chris Young (holding one of his kids), possibly Chase Headley and both Giles brothers. They were in the Military Appreciation Tent. They were all sporting the new Padres Military Logo golf shirts.

Near the end of the day, we headed to the 18th hole to wait on Lefty. We walked past the grandstands and headed for the ClubHouse because it was a bit early. We saw Tom Garfinkel, but couldnt get close to him. Later, we came out of the clubhouse, saw Tom, but he was too far away again.

When Lefty was done, sis waited and waited and got his autograph. We then headed to the restaurant place to get a beer for the "road". We were going to head back to where we came in. We bought the beers, and here comes Tom walking over. We said hi to Tom. A guy with him offered  us drinks. He introduced himself as Dan Migala, VP of Partnership Solutions. I said no, I gotta drive. Basically Tom and Dan talked us into them buying us drinks, which we were thankful for. Tom introduced us to another guy with them named Jarrod Dillon, VP of Ticket Sales & Service. We grabbed the drinks then Tom invited us to come sit with them. I said, "Are you sure?" Tom said yes. So I said okay.

So, Tom, Dan, sis and I sat down at a table. Jarrod hovered around. We all did a toast.

So, we told Tom that where we sit, out in LF, we couldn't see the pitch count. He thought it scrolled through with the type of and the mph of the pitch on the Bank of America scoreboard. We said, no it doesn't. He whipped out his phone, typed in a few things, sent an e-mail and said "Done". So, we should be able to see the pitch count now in LF. Yay!

We talked about favorite ballparks. Tom is not impressed with the new Yankee ballpark.  He said its nice but kinda generic. He told us about the Harley-Davidson display in Milwaukee where the 8 Train knocked a batting practice homer OVER the display. I mentioned about the 8 Trains raw power. He said yeah that guy is so strong.

Tom told us about where hes been and who hes seen this past week. Hes been to the Hall of Fame and  took photos with famous ex-players. I forget who. He showed us a pic on his phone of him and them. He showed us an obviously older photo of Trevor running in from the Breakfast on the warning track area at Petco. He showed us family pics.

I told Tom I liked the NEW military logo. He said he came up with the idea because he thought the Padres needed a military Padres logo. He told and showed us how it came about. He was on the USS Midway and got inspired. He took lots of camera phone photos(which he showed us) of the insignias on the sides of the US planes. He took the insignia to his graphics guy. Graphics guy integrated the military logo and the SD logo and voila.

I, being slightly buzzed, threw out that jbox and dex of the Gaslamp Ball will be so jealous of this. They are always bragging about hanging out with the FO dudes and such. So, he says, lets take a pic and send it to them. We said okay. So, Dan took a pic of Jerrod, Tom and us with Tom’s phone and he sent it to the Gaslamp Ball and me.

Jarrod brought Tom another vodka cran. He told him he was going to leave, but didn’t want to see a good drink go to waste.

He asked how I got the nickname eastbay. I said I used to live up in the eastbay of SF. Jerrod said where? I told him Pleasanton. Jerrod said he just moved from there because Tom went up there and brought him down here to work for him. Tom said he is from Walnut Creek. Dan is originally from Chicago.

We chatted a bit about ST and the upcoming Fan Fest. Then, they had to go. We all said great chatting and hanging with you.

I checked my e-mail when I got home and lo and behold, he sent the photo to me. Tom looks so Top Gun in the photo. I surriously want his jacket.

If I remember anything else, I will update.