SoxFest

[mummifiedstalin]

I must love my son. We're at the first of three days at the annual White Sox convention where he gets to play and I get to stand in lines for hours to get him autographs.

Oh, and I spend a shitload of money on my team's marketing ploys...

[mummifiedstalin]

And now I'm at a half hour of waiting in line for the great (?) Alexei Ramirez. The only way this weekend is worth it (to me, not my son), is if I can get AJ Pierzynski to slug me.

[siamesesin]

Just speak to him. It'll happen.

That's so sweet of you to take the midget and indoctrinate him early. I hope he has fun!

[Crowfan]

that is so cool. Have a great time!!!

[Mod City]

Jan 21, 2011 20:13:40 GMT -5 mummifiedstalin said:

The only way this weekend is worth it (to me, not my son), is if I can get AJ Pierzynski to slug me.

Every White Sox fan deserves that. Here's hoping you were successful

[mummifiedstalin]

Unfortunately, no. I didn't even see him. My wife and son ran into him while I was dealing with the other sick kid. All she did was get a pic of the three of them together, post it to Facebook, and have all her female friends (and a couple of guys) drool all over the picture.

But while I'm on the subject, Gordon Beckham was absolutely cool with my son. The other players/coaches were nice and all, but we were at the very end of Beckham's line. He'd probably spent an hour signing and fake-smiling at people and had to be totally worn out. But he spent a good 3 or 4 minutes just chatting with my son about things, baseball and non, and did it with the true interest you show a kid when that kid's excited about something. I've met my share of "celebrities," but none of them handled kids as sincerely as he did. It was awesome to see someone cut through the crap and play an authentic, non-selfish "sports hero" to a little kid. Impressive.

[Mod City]

Great story, mummi. Always cool to hear stories about gracious pro athletes, especially when it's with young fans. Never been to one of these kind of events but I'm sure a lot of the kids are wide-eyed. Must be fun.

As for AJ, well, what can you say? He's the most delightfully devious player in Major League Baseball. I tolerated him when he was with the Twins, but I've actually grown to appreciate his devilish approach to the game more since he joined up with the rival White Sox. Man, can that dude get under your skin when he's playing against you! Not a terrible stick, either, but I'll take Joe Mauer

[mummifiedstalin]

I have to admit that the whole thing was a bit weird. I spent my youth at comic book and gaming conventions, but this crowd was much stranger. You had the obviously ultra-wealthy who came here to spend loads of cash on memorabilia. Then you also had the eBay freaks who were (stupidly) thinking that a few signatures were going to make them rich. And then you had the idiot-savant baseball fanatics who were like the unwashed basement dwellers that are supposed to be the norm at comic book conventions. (You also had the minority of "me"...the people who brought their kids, and who seemed to largely be treated as the only normal people by the staff.)

The only truly awkward moment came one evening. My wife's cousin had scored tickets to the Bears game, and his wife works for Hilton, so he was randomly staying at the same hotel. But they were up on the "Executive" penthouse floor, which was also where the players and VIPs were staying. They gave us an extra key so we could go hang out in the lounge up there. So my son and I just sat around eating snacks and building his birthday LEGO sets. (Fun bit there...every guy, no matter how old, who walked by had to stop and look at the Star Destroyer we were building while the women looked confused and irritated.)

But Steve Stone came in about 10 pm. He was obviously drunk, but my son recognized him. So I told him to go ahead, and he chases him down the hallway with his ball. Some other woman was also obviously camping out for signatures, too, and grabbed a bat for him to sign. They were around the corner, so I couldn't see what happened, but I suddenly heard a slurred, "Give me a break! I'm nice enough to do it for a kid but not you!" and my son came around the corner with a weird smile. He got the autograph, but the woman didn't.

It's funny. Hard to blame those guys for being irritable, though. Stone's old and probably just wanted to sleep off his martinis.