The Baseball Prospectus Pizza Feed was last night. Good times were had be all even without the immediate avaialability of pizza at the event. Jon and I showed up at the gate early and there was a bit of panic as we realized that the gates wouldn't open until 5 o'clock which also happened to be the scheduled start time.
I neglected to read the e-mail containing the details very carefully as I was pretty sure it would just contain more lies about the possibilities of us having pizza or getting fed at all. Then, in another moment of panic, I scanned the wrong credit card at the automated will call and it looked for a second like we didn't have any tickets. Jonny Dub hates being late. And he got irritated.
As it was, having a slight advantage of knowing exactly where it is, we were pretty much the first people to show up at the Auditorium. We met David and Paul and watched as people started trickling in.
I got to meet Richard B. Wade also of Beyond the Box Score. I kinda met his blogging partner Lance. And I almost, but not quite, introduced myself to Geoff from Ducksnorts. I know. I'm lame.
I did chat a little bit with Dave from davidlizerblog and some of his buddies. They confirmed for me that the Field, in fact, is where the cool people hang out before Baseball Prospectus Pizza Feeds. Jon and I were surprised when a couple sat down at our table and knew us by name. It turned out to be reader John Evans and his wife (I assume). I'm bad with introducing myself to people. At one point, our hosts asked us to give ourselves a hand and to thank ourselves for making stuff like this possible, and John Evans' wife pointed at us and said, "Thank you for this!" To which I replied, "No. Thank you!" To which she replied, "YOU!"
Before the thing really got going, Sandy Alderson, came down from on high, and walked around the room meeting people. I shook his hand and said, "Mr. Alderson? Big fan. Big fan." Jon shook his hand and said, "hey there".
That reminds me, Davidlizerblog's friends all have really super firm hand shakes. I don't remember everybody's names that I actually met, but I remember thinking that my hand must have felt like a delicate flower comapred to their grips. Very firm.
So KT finally showed up, and let me tell you. the Padres GM is a well dressed mofo. He was wearing a striped buttoned shirt. Untucked. Designer jeans. Some slick leather shoes. Smooooove.
Towers spoke at length and very candidly about a variety of topics. He was so candid and forthcoming and seemed to be so in tune with what we'ved discussed here and on the other blogs that I'd almost suspect him of studying up on what we've been complaining about most.
Case in point. On Sean Burroughs' pulling a ball down the line for a double: "I just about fell out of my chair". On his lack of hip motion when he runs: "He looks kinda funny". He also said that he too wonders when Burroughs will hit homeruns and also made it known that he actually has shopped Burroughs around a bit. That's a little bit of gossip for you.
There's more to tell, but Jon and I are hitting the game today and I have to get this open thread up.
To be continued...
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