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Fox Sports SD takes us on a Sycuan Daycation

By jbox

Just by retweeting a Fox Sports San Diego tweet I was invited to join their crew on a bus trip to Sycuan Casino to watch the Padres game at their Gameday sports bar.  Any chance to get some quality time with the Fox Sports San Diego girls and to a lesser extent, my fellow Padres fans, I'm in.  I brought Darklighter as my plus one.  Any chance to get some quality time with me and he's in.

The invitation promised free food, non-alcoholic drinks and raffle prizes.  I, in turn, promised them my rugged good looks, comedic wit and boyish charm.  We both delivered on all counts.

I got down to the ballpark an hour early so I could see the new changes to the Jerry Coleman statue before anyone else.  I took some pictures and tweeted them out, prompting the official Padres twitter account to follow suit.  Scooped!

I wandered the Park at the Park looking for anything (or anyone) interesting until I ran into Crazy Charisma and it came time to board the bus.  I hadn't been on the Fan Express bus since our trip to Spring Training 8 months ago and let me tell you, the memories came flooding back.

When all the passengers were seated, FSSD Girl Katie grabbed a microphone and made a speech about emergency exits and floatation devices or something.  I wasn't really paying attention.

Once we were finally underway, the FSSD girls handed out pictures of the heads of their on-air talent fastened to tongue depressors. The fans had their choice of Mike Pomeranz, Mark Grant, Mark Sweeney or Dick Enberg. There was clearly only one correct choice:

It wasn't until after the girls had started handing out the heads that  I grew irritated with myself for not keeping count of who was the most popular.  Now that would be something worth blogging about, but now we'll never know.

We rode the Fan Express bus through the winding roads of East County until we came upon the Sycuan Casino.  We were told not to run off once the doors open, but instead be prepared to pose for a publicity shot.  Darklighter and I are in here somewhere:

It was so hot.  If you look closely, you can see the thermometer on the bridge saying it was 100 degrees.  We rushed into the casino to take shelter in the air-conditioned sports bar.

We were carded to make sure we were 21 and then the doors were opened and cigarette smoke and the sounds of slot machines poured out as we poured in, in seek of refuge and appetizers.  The staff at Sycuan had a nice spread set up for us.  We had our choices of hot dogs, taquitos and chips.

I felt like we picked a good day to Daycation since both the Padres and Chargers games were being played simultaneously.  Hardly anyone cared about the Padres game.  It was so dull and their season feels like its been over for months already.  People were psyched about the Chargers though, they were pumping fists and nervously twirling their hair like crazy people throughout the game.

In the 6th inning the FSSD girls held a raffle.  I won the first prize to see a Beatles cover band.  I gave the tickets to Crazy Charisma, because I was shamed into thinking that only old people like the Beatles.

As the Padres game dragged on, I let the FSSD Girls guest tweet from my phone.

It turns out they are really big fans of ours, like really big.

Eventually the Chargers won and I wondered if I should ask if we should leave since no one was watching the Padres game, since they sucked, but I figured that'd be impolite.  Soon enough though the time came and we thanked Sycuan and FSSD for their hospitality and again boarded the bus.  Fast Eddie, the driver, got us back to the ballpark in no time at all.

The instant I got home I threw my clothes into the wash and jumped in the shower since I smelled like an ashtray.   Good times.  You guys should go.  I'd recommend it.  They'll have another Daycation on September 28th, watch their twitter account closely for details.

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