Rally Monday started right after work so Jonny Dub and I met up real quick and rushed downtown through traffic. We get there at lik 5:15. There is a huge line to get in. Jon says "at least it looks like it's moving fast". We get half way up to it and it stops dead for like 10 minutes. We hear stuff happening and I'm thinking just open the gates and let us in. What is the hold up? Why do we even have to go through the turnstiles. This is a free event! I just stood there getting more and more pissed. Jon went up to see what was the hold up. Turns out they ran out of wrist bands. Why do we need wrist bands? Just open the gate. People were getting real irritable. There are two turn stiles and a few hundred people in line. Finally somebody returns with a big bag of wristbands.
As we get in, it just turns 5:30. They have a line of security saying we can't go into the Park in the Park. They are trying to tell us we need to go into the stadiums seats. Keep in mind the whole stage and all the festivites are in the Park in the Park and they are trying to route us in the opposite direction where there is nothing. I just kept walking and went right through the security. At this point they would have had to hit me with a stun gun to stop me. We get near the stage and it's crowded but still plenty of room. Fortunately I don't think we missed anything. The people running the show seriously need to rethink their whole entrance security. I understand that they weren't prepared for the number of people, but there was no reason to make people wait in line.
Vasgersian, Grant and Darren Smith from 1090 were hosting and they rolled out Bevaqua, Archi Cianfrocco and Stormin' Norman ('84 pitching coach). Crowd was going wild. Although there was only polite applause for Darren Smith. Vasgersian told us that we were the biggest crowd at any of the cities. People cheered. Then he told us that the Dodgers were calling themselves Co-Champions. People booed.
We decided to head over to the far right of the stage and there wasn't much of a crowd and got a good view. Pad Squad Kelley and her friend Pad Squad Carrie came over to talk with us. We chatted about the good old days.
They brought the whole team out one by one, it was the highlight of the night. I never thought I would see Archi, Bard and lil' Hensley standing next to each other. Seeing the Pads in their Street Clothes was funny too. You get to see their personality alot more. Peavy spoke for about thirty seconds it started off like "I'll tell you what..." in that Alabama accent of his. Then he was like "...these boys are somethin' else...". That's pretty much all I got from the speech.
Bochy came out looking f'n smooth. Had his hair greased and was charming as hell. His speech was memorable went something like this "Last year we slipped in the backdoor..." Pad Squad Carrie turned around and grimaced, knowing full well that the backdoor really means the butt. "... we poked our heads in the backdoor, but not this year, this year we come in the front door!". It was a gross speech, but so true.
The Rally died pretty quick after the guests stopped and Liquid Blue cover band took over. Vasgersian and Grant played air guitar to Van Halen's "Panama" and Grant yells "Where's Ruben Rivera from?" Vasgersian sings "Panama!" After that we walked around a little bit to see if we could spot any other Gaslamp Ballers, but we didn't have any luck. We just got a picture of Jon with a local news guy. It was amazing how many people wanted to party with Rally news guy.