Saturday, June 20, 2009

What I Learned at Blogger Day

Here's what I learned from Blogger Day:
  • The media food sucks. I mean, I'm not saying it's bad like it could be better. It's a significant step down from the worst college dorm food I've ever eaten. And they charge $10 per meal. I know the reporters don't pay out of pocket, but jeez.
  • Charlie Slowes's contract is up after the 2010 season, and it's never too early to start clamoring for extending the voice of the franchise.
  • Manny Acta has a powerful presence in person that doesn't come across on TV. What might seem like placid lifelessness on TV is something else in person. I'm not going to say it's a smoldering intensity exactly, but it's different. Hard to explain, but it's real.
  • Watching Elijah Dukes run into outs from a press box is no less infuriating than it is from section 401.
  • They tried to be nice, but the players think we bloggers are incredible nerds. (They're right of course.)
  • Chesapeake Bay Foundation donated a "green roof" on the building behind the left field seats. I don't think this is publicly denoted anywhere. (But Exxon-Mobil sponsors the 7th inning. I'm sure you didn't miss that.) Anyway, show some love and kick a few bucks to the Save the Bay people.
  • Mike Rizzo is upgrading his wardrobe. Every time I've seen him before today he looked like he was the bass player in Jimmy Buffett's band. But today he had some pretty stylin' jeans and nice shoes.
  • Stan says Manny's not in trouble. But he's not here to stay necessarily. But the team definitely isn't letting him twist in the wind.
  • The 1990 Atlanta Braves should never have been a last place team.
  • Adam Dunn doesn't know what a blog is. "Is it like Facebook?"
  • There really is no cheering in the press box. Even on a walk-off.
  • "When there's only 5,000 people in the stadium, and 4,000 of them are rooting for the other team, it makes a difference."--Dunn
Seriously, though, we bloggers spend a lot of time busting chops in the front office--Stan in particular. Because, the way I see it, it's basically Stan's job to stand there and take it on the chin when the team's losing almost 75% of its games. (It'll be his job to just stand there and take credit when they win too, so don't feel too bad for him.)

But this was a super-cool thing for the team to do. Totally unnecessary in my view, and I honestly appreciate it. Thanks, Stan.

10 comments:

MikeHarris said...

Yeah, no cheering in the press box under any circumstances.
Which is why my blogging ass prefers the stands. I'm a fan of exactly one team in the whole wide world and I want to be able to cheer.
That's why I don't belong in a press box in this role.
But I agree it's nice to do something like this now and then and I wish I'd been able to take part.
Having eaten a bunch of that food over the years, I feel your pain. Baltimore had by far the best press box food I've had - and it was eight bucks back then.

Steven said...

Yeah I was getting some pretty nasty looks from some of the other press booths when I kept breaking the rules.

But the team cordoned us off in our own room (which was better anyway) and said it was ok for us to cheer. Why not?

Anonymous said...

DId you manage to ask any of the questions you said you wanted from us, or did Stan's plan B work and are you his tool now?

Kim said...

Thanks for mentioning the Chesapeake Bay Foundation! Much appreciated!

lawprof said...

Rules question: Julian Tavarez virtually carried Willie Harris the last 30 feet to the plate after his walk-off home run. Doesn't this constitute interference, making Harris out? Of course the game was already won when Alberto Gonzales touched the plate, but doesn't this mean the final score was 4-3, not 5-3. I know this is trivial, but I was sure you could not touch the runner until he had touched the plate.

John O'Connor said...

Michael:

I believe the phraseology is that you're not allowed to "assist" the player in running he bases. I think the umps take a reasonably (and properly) narrow construction of "assist." Harris was able to run and Tavarez didn't hwelp him do anything he couldn't do on his own.

lawprof said...

That makes sense. Thank you, John.

Steven said...

Anon--I'm not sure I'm Stan's tool, but just like I told Jim when he tried to bully me into backing off, you do catch more flies with honey.

I'm obviously not going to stop speaking my mind.

On the questions--

I didn't specifically ask about Tyler Clippard, but that was because STan and Mike both went on at length about how they look for 3 things in pitchers: GB rate, K rate, and velocity. I think that's your Tyler Clippard answer.

I told Stan that some commenters asked for cheaper beer, even if it means crappy swill. He laughed. I also told him I really appreciate the carry-in food policy and hope they don't change it.

I asked very specifically when Rizzo would lose the "acting." Stan totally dodged the question. Mike winked at me and gave a thumbs up.

On Nick Johnson, I chatted with Stan about it, and he said they really weren't in a rush to move him, that his OBP is nearly .500. I told him I agreed with that.

I didn't ask Stan about his personal accessibility. I just don't really see that, personally. So I let that one go.

I also didn't ask about the season ticket service because I'm not a season ticket holder and I didn't really feel like I was prepared to engage on that topic.

Steven said...

Oh, and I'll admit that the question I somewhat chickened out on was this: "can you honestly say that signability played no role in your draft picks last week, esp. Holder and Storen?"

Medley said...

Thanks for your work on this blog and for giving this update. Good stuff all around.