Friday, December 07, 2007

Notes From Nashville


Boy, what a wild and crazy week it has been. Never before in my life have 2 sides of my brain been in such conflict. Remember the old Frosted Mini Wheat commercials? Well, the adult in me and the baseball fan in me definitely conflicted in Nashville:



I spent alot of money that I didn't have, and drove 13 hours and 900 miles to Nashville to find a job in baseball. The Job Fair was pretty much a complete joke. Trying to find a team hiring close to where we moved was supposed to be fairly easy; instead, of the 8 jobs that I applied for, 5 of them never even scheduled interviews with anyone! And it wasn't just me, as most of the 450 job seekers that were there were as completely frustrated and baffled as I was. It's not all bad news, as of the 2 interviews I had, I got a second interview scheduled with Wilmington next week, albeit for another barely-paying job as I had with the P-Nats. One more job fair in Philly in a couple weeks, so we'll see what happens...

As for the baseball fan in me, it was a virtual nirvana. There were dozens of baseball players, managers, and TV personalities roaming the same hallway as the Winter Meetings were taking place as well. The two biggest thrills for me was bumping into Tommy Lasorda my first day there, and then seeing and nodding to Cal Ripken as he walked into the hotel bar. Also got to watch live broadcasts of ESPN, XM and MLB.TV, as well as the live announcement of the Vets' Committee on who they are sending into the Hall of Fame. So it wasn't a complete loss, but when you spend money you don't have to further your career, the adult in you invariably wins out.

Some pics from my adventure. Jerome Bettis. Wrong sport, but I'm not gonna tell him:



Cal Ripken:



Former Dodgers GM Fred Claire interviewing Astros manager Cecil Cooper. This also was a big thrill for me, as he is the architect of the last Dodgers Championship in 1988, unfortunately he came and went so quickly that I didn't get a chance to speak with him:



Ravech, Kurkjian and Gammons live on Baseball Tonight:


2 comments:

Ian O'hEnas said...

Cool! I thought you should just go with it and take any really good job which was offered - no matter where it is because it's your dream, D.I.! - I know you don't want to move again, but sometimes it is what it is and you have to do things you never wanted to do in order to make dreams come true!!!

Good luck with the local teams!!

BRO

Mari said...

Cal Ripken is THE MAN!!

This blog approved by Fred McGriff

This blog approved by Fred McGriff