SB Nation User Blog: Melody

A's to Fremont: Grand Slam Event May 3rd Pics of Barton/R.Sweeney Added

Melody — Sat, 03 May 2008 07:30:03 -0000

I'm on the mailing list for A's to Fremont so I was wondering if anyone here actually heard of the A's to Fremont Healthcare Grand Slam event and is going? Sorry I posted this so last minute, I remembered this was tomorrow and I came on to see who's talking about it, but after I searched back a bit it doesn't look like anyone's actually mentioned this yet. I apologize if this is a duplicate post.

From the e-mail -

Hi A's To Fremont Supporters! Just a reminder! Don't forget to attend the First Annual Health Care Grand Slam scheduled for this Saturday, May 3, 2008 between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. at the Washington West parking lot at Washington Hospital 2500 Mowry Ave in Fremont! The A's and Cisco have partnered with Washington Hospital Healthcare System to co-sponsor this Free Fair! At this event you will be able to Meet current A's players and team owners, take home autographs, caps, and T-shirts, Experience Cisco's future medical technologies, learn how to cook healthy and nutritious meals from Chefs from Bon Appetit! You will even be able to step inside a fast pitch cage and clock your delivery, while you hang out with Stomper!

Edit: Pics from the event!

The players first arrive on the scene. Just for the record, Sweeney had on Prada sunglasses and True Religion jeans, and Barton had Versace sunglasses and Seven for All Mankind jeans.

Barton plays with a puppy! Later on, someone had their dog's A's shirt autographed and put their dog on the table. Everyone was very happy to do so :)

Lew Wolff with some guy (I have no clue who this is, but I think he said he's a tech lead for Cisco?)

AN Day III Photos (Part 1: Pregame)

Melody — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 05:04:18 -0000

Hello my lovelies... Here are, as promised, part one of the AN Day II photos. It was a great day, so much fun to hang out with a bunch of A's fans and also stuff my mouth at the same time! I only wish they wouldn't take the food away so early. And I finally got to see Billy Beane in the flesh too. I'm sure I could gush on and on for days but I'm sure no one cares because you just want to see photos of yourself ;) (Just kidding... I hope no one is actually reading this.)

Sorry the quality is so low, I no longer have Comcast so I have to use a free image host; I saved the pictures in the lowest quaility possible so I hopefully don't blow the bandwidth!

Photos of people from during the game coming soon!

1.
The rulers of AN gather for a pre-ceremony meeting. From L-R this is louismg, Baseballgirl, Nico, Ken Korach and Blez.

3.
Batgirl, SportySpice and ??

5.
Mr. & Mrs. Baseballgirl's Parents

6.
McFood trying to get another picture of me.

7.
Mrs. McFood and one of the McNuggets.

9.
GiambiZombie and family!

10.

11.
I know that the guy in black is Zonis...

12.

13.

14.
I don't think she liked getting her picture taken :[

15.

16.
Hang Man and CPA 2 Law (or something)

17.
Mini LurkerD draws Hope on the ground using BBG-supplied crayons. Can you see the little curls? :)

18.

19.
These three (Robb, Ohad and xLASTNAMEx) are like... totally the biggest troublemakers. EVER.

20.
Mrs. Apricot, LurkerD and mini LurkerD.

21.

22.

23.
They told me theye want to be famous :)

24.

25.
Sorry for the awkward moment Devo...

26.

27.

28.
Zonis (right) is talking to Huskersfan (who flew in just for the week!).

29.
I know that's Gigglingone in the center.

30.
The guy in the center is Mike Heath, I know that much :)

31.

32.

33.

34.
Justin took this one.

35.

Tale of Two Closers [A true account of Guardado & Street]

Melody — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 14:21:36 -0000

I knew going in that this would probably be my last game of the season, but I didn't think it would be as memorable as it was. These last few weeks have been a crazy rollercoaster ride of ups and downs [more downs than ups recently] but one thing I'm absolutely sure of now; there's something special about the Coliseum and the 2005 Oakland A's, and nothing, no matter what happens in this final month, can change that.

So a bit of background then, shall we? I worked this summer at Target, and one of my managers, Jesse, used to play baseball in college. We spend a decent amount of time at work just talking about baseball, and the debates always get a little heated since he's a diehard Giants fan who absolutely hates the A's. ["I just don't like Huston Street. Something about the name man, something about the name. It bothers me."] Anyway I told him that I was going to the September 6th A's/Mariners game, so we had this conversation.

Jesse: I have this picture that you have to get signed for me.
Me: Let me guess. You want Ichiro's autograph.
Jesse: No actually, I want an autograph from the closer.
Me: Who's that?
Jesse: Eddie Guardado.
Me: Hmm... Not too familiar.
Jesse: WHAT!! HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. HE'S SO GOOD! HE HAS LIKE 30 SAVES BLAH BLAH BLAH. We played together in college!
Me: Whatever. Just give me whatever you want signed and I'll see what I can do.
Jesse: He's a great guy. He'll sign for you, you just have to find him! You must do this for me!

I didn't think he was serious about it, but today he came to work with his old 8x10 team photo and told me to find a way to get it signed by Eddie. How was I supposed to accomplish this task? I took the picture, said I'd try my hardest but couldn't promise anything. Heck, I didn't even know the guy's roster number, and couldn't exactly pick him out in the Marnier's lineup since I wasn't all too familiar with the team. Jesse told me that he knew I could do it, so all was set; I just had to figure out how to get Eddie Guardado's autograph somehow.

Since it was bobblehead day, I wanted to leave work at 3:30 so I could get to the Coliseum by the time the gates opened at 4:30. Due to some miscommunication and my sister's dentist appointment, I didn't get to the Fremont BART station until 4:20. I was half an hour behind schedule by the time I met up with almost reggie [Todd] at the Bayfair BART. We finally got to the Coliseum at about 5:20, where we found the lines to get bobbleheads surprisingly short. After I got into the stadium, the A's were just leaving the field so I went over to the A's dugout, met up with hook em horns [Cassandra] and then we went over to the visitor's bullpen area. JLaff [Justin] joined us there, as we tried to figure out which guy on the field was Eddie Guardado. None of us could be too sure so I ended up asking a few Mariners fans to point us in the right direction. At first they were like, "Oh I don't think he's out here today..." but they soon spotted him chatting with Ichrio in shallow right field. "He signs for his fans alot," said the Mariners fans. "He'll probably walk over here before going into the clubhouse. Just yell his name, he'll most likely come over." I explained that I had his old college team photo with me and that I had to get it signed for my boss. I kept asking them if they were sure Eddie would stop, and they reassured me that yes, there was a good chance Eddie would come this way, we'll just have to wait until the end of batting practice and see.

We waited and waited, and it seemed like batting practice for the Mariners would never end. All of the sudden though, the cage and the nets came down just like *that* and the players quickly started leaving the field. Everyone that I had spoken to about needing Eddie's autograph [probably a good 10-12 people] stood up and started screaming "EDDIE!!" and attempted to wave him over. He first looked like he was going to head to the clubhouse, but then changed his mind and came over to the bullpen.

Me: Can you please sign this for my boss Eddie?
Eddie: *Pause* Wow... I can't believe you have this! Who's your boss?
Me: His name is Jesse, do you still remember him?
Eddie: Of course I do, he used to be my catcher!!

Photographs by Justin :)

After asking me a few more questions about Jesse, he took the picture and actually sat down in the bullpen to take a better look at the team photo. He mumbled some stuff about the players that I'm assuming were inside jokes, and finally signed the picture for Jesse. When he re-emerged from the bullpen, there was quite a crowd that saw him signing autographs and now all wanted one as well. Well, Justin handed me his ticket to be passed to Eddie, so I gave it to him. I guess Eddie assumed it was my ticket though, and after he signed it, he flipped it over and actually wrote down a number on the back. "That's my cell number," he said. "Tell Jesse to call me." [I had an extra ticket from the game, so I made Eddie sign that for Justin, as well as my own ticket for myself :)]

Being successful [almost too successful] in my endeavor to get Eddie Guardado's autograph totally put me on a high for most of the game, a game I wouldn't mind forgetting because it wasn't so pretty. But I can't say it wasn't fun; the experience of sharing such an event with other people makes a baseball game much more than just a win or lose situation. I saw Huston sign a few autographs along the railing, so I figured I could wait until he actually got to section 128, where my seat was. But when I asked him as he got the bullpen, he shook his head apologetically and said, "I'm sorry, I can't sign for you right now, I already had to tell some kids I couldn't sign for them. After the game, I promise." I was slightly disappointed but I could understand. Huston was sent in to pitch during the ninth inning, so I wasn't able to get his autograph on the field.

After the game ended, we decided to stay for the fireworks. It was a pretty good show - even though there were probably less than 10,000 people left to enjoy it. When the fireworks show was over, all of us walked out to the parking lot [where I almost ran off with Saint's son, Forrest] and Justin and I decided to see if we could catch any of the players leaving the stadium, even though we knew most of them had left already. Huston's car was still around though, so we decided to stay and wait for him. A few of Justin's friends had come along hoping to see Huston, but they soon got tired of waiting and left after about 15 minutes to go on BART instead. We waited maybe 30, 35 minutes total, and started chatting to these other fans who were hoping for a glimpse of Huston as well. Unsure if he was still around - perhaps he got a ride with someone else? - we didn't know if we were just wasting our time. It was not in vain though; finally Huston pulled out of the parking lot and stopped when he saw us.

"Huston, you promised me you'd sign for me after the game," I said.
"I know," he said softly. "I'll sign it for you now."

So he completed a round of autographs for everyone who bothered to stay and some idle comments were tossed around. Told him he did a good job, and he actually seemed a bit upset: "But I gave up a hit... And we lost." People left as they got their stuff signed, until the only people remaining were Justin and myself.

Justin: I have a question... My friends were waiting for you too, but they already left. If I call them.... would you'd speak to them?
Huston: Of course.
Justin: *Calls his friend Rani, but she doesn't pick up.* Oh, I guess she'll have the best voice mail message ever then...

She picked up on the second try though, so he handed the phone over to Huston, who didn't just say something like, "Hi, this is Huston," but proceeded to have a five minute long conversation. It just felt so surreal, like I was watching a movie. Huston Street was talking to Justin's friend on Justin's cell phone and was actually pretending to be angry that they had left before seeing him. "Me wait for YOU? What are you talking about?!" I thought about asking Justin to get a picture, but it was one of those times where you're just too afraid to move or even say a word, because you don't want to ruin the moment, you know? I felt like an observer, intruding on some private scene that I was not a part of. Huston just kept talking and talking like it was the most ordinary thing in the world, and I'm not even sure what they were chatting about but I do recall that he called Justin's friend Rani "dear" before finally hanging up the phone.

Then before he drove off, he actually offered his hand to me and Justin. I can't express how shocking it was to shake his hand; for it was us who were taking up his personal time, yet it was him who made us feel welcome. He finally left after we wished him a good night and thanked him profusely for making my last game of the season end on such a memorable note. Thank you Huston, I'll be a fan for life now.

So what is it about baseball? It's a game played on such a large field, but when it comes down to it, the whole thing really does just balance preciously on fractions of inches, the tiniest of details. What transpired today was probably a relatively normal event in the life of a major league closer, but it goes to show how one kind gesture can go a long way, and every trip to the ballpark is an adventure; you never quite know what's going to happen.

AN Day II Pictures [Including Super Panoramic!]

Melody — Mon, 15 Aug 2005 10:23:17 -0000

Well it's about 2:30 in the morning but I realized that if I didn't get these pictures from AN Day II up right now, it would probably be three weeks before I touched them again. So maybe the colors are really off, and I don't even know how to fix red eye in Photoshop [you can do a bunch of other things in Photoshop, but red eye reduction doesn't seem to be a function.... go figure] but at least I optimized for web-view so they should load fast for everyone ;)

I'm going to attempt half-assed captions right now to give you guys some idea of what's going on. But please help me out :(

First off, here's a panoramic shot of the whole group, as seen at about 1:00pm. I grabbed this while Devo, GNGG and I ran down to 220 to get pictures of the ceremony. In retrospect, I wish we took alot more group shots than what was done, but at least you can sort of see the majority of the attendees here.

Click for big

Hmm... Well that's louismg on the far left.

Group shot that's horribly backlit.

Apricot on the far left, baseballgirl with her foot on the chair, and Alien next to her.

Cathy [GNGG], Urban [!!!!!] and me

And Urban signs a few copies of Aces

Getting food... That's jlaff on the right. The food wasn't that great but the free drinks were nice.

Blez and Slusser, with the "Huston Street's Ass" shirt that GNGG made.

Slusser, Alaska A, the back of sslinger, with Urban with a person whose name escapes me :(

Blez, Zonis, some guy, and gojohn10 or something like that. Backlit again, eww.

alleninsf, bear88

The Blez Family

Blez and Maya getting mad at me. Billy and Nico in the background.

Nico, Brian in 317

People

Back of people's heads

The man of honor with our very favorite current closer and very favorite color commentator [and member of the HSC]

First pitch

Ooh tv.

Blurry Robb, and FormerHuntsvilleStar who just got a camera shoved in his face

GNGG and Devo

Apricot Family [sorry I make Hope look more like Horrendous :( She's a real beauty but that's a really bad picture of her]

Sorry I never even got introduced to you guys so I have no idea who you are ;)

Baseballgirl and some guy who was totally hitting on her

xsomethingorotherx and another person who I'm not quite sure of :(

Mrs. Blez, Maya and LongTimeFan

Pics: Root Beer Float Day, Game Action and 'Unspeakables'

Melody — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 05:16:45 -0000

A random assortment of game play, HIGH SOCKS CREW, Mug's Root Beer Float day and autograph pictures from the Cleveland series!

I went down to the bullpen on Monday to get pictures of Zito. Then he started fixing his socks... Could this man be any more breathtaking?

Oh wait, the answer is... Yes.

I was riding BART on Tuesday when I got a phone call from almost reggie. Turns out he had first row tickets right in front of the bullpen! So I went down to visit him before the game. Once again, I had brought along both Joe Kennedy's authentic game used cap and my own Rockies cap. I was wearing my Rockies jersey in the hopes that I could get Kennedy and Witasick to sign my stuff. Well anyway, I talked to the usher for 128 a bit, begged him to let me stay until the game started, and then sat down next to almost reggie anyway when he didn't really tell me no.

Street came out first though. He had with him fruit punch Gatorade, even though I usually see him with lemon-lime Gatorade.

Finally, I saw Kennedy and Witasick come out of the clubhouse together! When they were almost in front of the bullpen, I stood up and waved to them, and asked, "Joe and Jay, may I please get your autographs?" And Kennedy shrugged and said sure, so I gave him his cap and questioned, "This really was a cap you wore before, right?" And he kind of shrugged again and said, "Yeah." I can see why Urban would say he didn't really fit in at Oakland... He wasn't mean or rude or anything, but he was just kind of quiet and almost abrupt. [Meanwhile, one of the security guys came by and scolded, "You're not supposed to ask for autographs at this time!" But he didn't make us stop.] After Kennedy finished signing, I thanked him and he nodded and sat down.

Witasick on the other hand was REALLY nice and really approachable. He stopped in the middle of signing and was like, "Oh wow... What number was I in Colorado? It's only been how long, and I've forgotten? 41? Yeah that's right, I was number 41." A few kids who saw Witasick signing quickly ran up with their stuff and he signed for them too, and he even asked if he could borrow my marker again since some of those people didn't have pens.

For some reason, I only seem to be able to get autographs when almost reggie is around. Maybe he's good luck. But then again, the A's can't seem to win the games we both go to.

Just a picture of their autographs...

Boone ripped a hole in his pants during the game.

Moving on to Wednesday. I met up with jlaff before the game started, and we all went to the Mug's Root Beer Float Day event. Too bad for us, we didn't get in until 11:45 or so, and all the players had left by then. At least we got to meet the player wives though.

Table 1:
Meredith Kielty
Michelle Duchscherer
Kristen Saarloos
Bitsy Hatteberg

Table 1.5 [Not really a table, there were only three 'official' wives tables.]
Marines Scutaro
Mrs. Calero

Table 2
Annette Ginter
Kelly Blanton
Briana T. [Otherwise known as Ms. Nick Swisher]
Holly Johnson

Table 3
Chantel Kendall
Alex Chavez
Sarah Ellis
[Jamie Kotsay's name was crossed out]

Here is the beautiful Marines Scutaro fixing Justin and his brother Tyler a nice root beer float!

Justin left pretty quickly so he could take pictures of Haren in the bullpen, but I hung around. [I was with my friend Andrew, but he doesn't matter since he still won't join AN.] Anyway, it was a good thing we stuck around since we saw Carney Lansford!

Then we got to see some more pretty Lady A's!! Here is Bri [Swisher's girlfriend] and Holly Johnson, who is absolutely adorable. Anyway I stood off to the side a bit and tried to take pictures of them, but it was hard since I didn't want to stick a camera in their face, but then people kept walking in front of table. After awhile of seeing me struggle with the camera, this convo happened.

Briana: HEY!! Stop that ;) Pictures are a dollar each!
Me: Are you serious?
Briana: It's for a good cause! If you don't help is out, we're going to turn away so you can't get any pictures!
Holly: *Laughing really really hard*
Me: Oh all right...

So I tipped them five dollars just to have them all sign my cup. Holly and Briana looked like they were just having a total blast, and thought my metallic silver sharpie pen was really cool. Bri complimented my handbag, and I told them they did a great job during the softball game since they won and all.

Here's another picture of Holly Johnson, she's soooooo cute!

Anyway I went around and collected all of the avalible wives' autographs. The rest of them were not so chatty as Briana, but they all were really nice about signing. [Once I tipped them, of course!]

Here is Chantel Kendall, Alex Chavez and Sarah Ellis. I overheard this convo that a fan had with Alex.

Fan: May I ask when you're due?
Alex: Oh I'm due in August!
Fan: Are you expecting a boy or a girl?
Alex: [I think] A boy.
Fan: Is he going to play baseball?
Alex: NO!! He's going to play GOLF!

Anyway here's a picture of one side of my autographed cup. [Did you notice that Briana signed her name as B. Swisher? ;)] If anyone cares enough to know what all the other wives' autographs look like, let me know and I'll take a picture of the other side.

So... Onto the game.

This was in the second inning, with one out and runners at first and third. Then Sizemore pretty much got picked off. But as they were trying to tag him out, the runner at third base broke for home, and the throw went to the plate instead and the runner was out at home. [Here, Sizemore watches home plate knowing that it was all his fault!]

Eric Chavez had these weird round band-aid like things taped to his arm.

In order to spit like all ballplayers do, Kendall had to lift his mask up first.

There's something I love about lefty pitchers.

No comment.

After hitting a solo homer, Kielty makes his way across home plate with the A's still down 2-4.

I'm getting tired of writing comments. This is the catch of Swisher's popup in the 7th.

STREET!

We're done, we're done!! I'm done, yay!

Edit: Thank you all so much for the nice comments! I don't want to be too excessive in driving up the comment counts, but please know that I?m really happy you guys enjoyed the pictures :)

More Photos of Chez Nico II

Melody — Sun, 10 Jul 2005 06:30:08 -0000

Here we go with more photos of this unofficial AN event, Chez Nico II. Once again, thank you Nico for letting me use your camera! Sorry that I killed the entire battery and then had that huge scare when I thought I accidently deleted half of the photos.

I am really good at making ordinary people look like rapists. No wonder GNGG's mother wouldn't let her come, if I saw this picture I wouldn't let my daughter go either. Nico was trying to make shishkabobs but decided to have a bit of fun with them since the grills were not quite ready yet.

Being some of the first people to arrive, SecretAsianMan, Nico, ZeroIndulgence and Robb have a chat about the differences between Kotsay [fans] and Byrnes [fans].

As far as volume goes, we had much more alcohol at this event than dead animals. SecretAsianMan and Sslinger help themselves to this sinful drink.

It's time to advertise for Pepsi's Play Like a Pro day! Robb cleverly turns his logo to the camera as DMtShooter folds up a paper bag that contained some of the food he had brought. We were very good about recylcing today.

Now this is REAL BBQing! ZeroIndulgence slathers barbeque sauce onto his slab of dead cells. Then he proceeded to lick his fingers even though he had just touched raw meat.

The less barbaric half of the party settle for some tea... I mean, Batgirl pulls out some bread for her veggie dog as SportySpice decorates some cookies with Zito's likeness.

And a close-up of the cookies! Yeah I got a piece of that.

Trying to enjoy the shade at the picnic table, Robb, DMtShooter and ZeroIndulgence sit back and enjoy the food. Meanwhile, poor Poochini has to wait to feast on the leftover scraps, much like Eric Byrnes.

Then HighStreet joins the party and makes us all jealous by explaining that she really does live on HighStreet and she's only about four minutes away from the Coliseum.

The fact that one of the hotlinks was shaped just like a big toe was very upsetting to Saint's son, Forrest.

Pretending to be deep in conversation with Ptbarnum, Andeux conspires to point the camera at yours truly.

So it was time to turn around. Sslinger, Ptbarnum, SportySpice and Batgirl enjoy a philosophical conversation on the possible ways to make the coliseum look like a work of art.

Meanwhile, a deeply disturbed Forrest retreats to the corner and curls up in the fetal position.

Demonstrating Kielty's "Two Outs" sign to the left field bleachers is no other than Saint himself.

So finally we moved indoors. After a long talk about "Kotsay's Extention," Forrest proceeds to say, "It's so weird when a guy says another guy is hot!" To which he got this reply, "You don't have to say it, you just have to know when another man is gorgeous." Or something. I think I just butchered this story. But it was funny anyway.

I think this was after Byrnes' RBI double. I tried to come up with a clever line about Byrnes here, but I think we already wore out the "Byrnes would have ________ that" line today. That is JMC way off in the corner there, he arrived late and I forgot to get a better picture :(

This was probably after Zito let two men reach base without recording a single out. Or not.

But that's okay, since the A's came back to win and there were plenty of crotch shots [and more talk about extentions] to go around.

Photos: Wives Softball Game + More EDIT: Mrs. Scutaro Added

Melody — Sun, 26 Jun 2005 02:45:07 -0000

Hi, this is me again, with more pictures for your enjoyment! I went to the game today with Baseballgirl and Anne [I think? I am so bad with names and I just realized I didn't catch it. Sorry, please correct me :(] Anyway, we met up at SecretAsianMan's tailgate, but then decided to head into the game early so we could catch the end of the Wives' Softball Game. When we got inside the stadium, the score was tied 5-5, but the Athletics pulled ahead in the 6th and 7th innings and won 8-5! Yay!

All of the families were sitting in the foul territory, and Kirk Retuer was there with a bunch of kids. Aww, isn't it cute? I'm sorry that all you rabid anti-Giants people have to put up with this. Jason Schmidt was about a foot and a half away from me at one point, as a woman handed his three year old daughter to him, and I even said that she was a real beautiful girl instead of something mean :(

With time to spare, Saarloos tags out a Lady Giant at first base.

Armed and ready, Swisher waits for the pitch from Chavez.

Swinging and missing, Duchscherer attempts to chase a ball low and out of the strikezone.

The go ahead run, Kendall, safely crosses home plate without a slide.

Even though they did not play in today's game, Jamie Kotsay and Alex Chavez continued to cheer on their team.

The Athletics beat the Giants 8-5. At first, I couldn't figure out why all of them were wearing jerseys that were about 8 sizes too big. But then I realized they were just wearing the away jerseys of their respective men. Hah. And since I know this is the only reason why you came into the thread [to check out the hotness of the Lady A's] you may go here to see a large version of this photo :) [A group shot of the Lady Giants is available upon request.]

Edit: Someone asked for names, so I'll try my best here.
Back Row: Mrs. Hudgens, Annette Ginter, Jamie Kotsay, Kristen Saarloos, #99, Chantel Kendall, Mrs. Blanton
Third Row: Kristen Harden [Rich Harden's sister], Miss Fisher [Brad Fisher's daughter], Mrs. Buckley
Second Row: Michele Duchscherer, Mrs. Flores, Ms. Nick Swisher, Mrs. Ellis, Janine Thalblum [Note: She is wearing #10, but this is NOT Bitsy Hatteberg.]
Front Row: Alex Chavez, Brandy Chavez [Eric Chavez's sister], Mrs. Johnson

After the game, Justin Duchscherer works on soft tosses with Michele.

This is all about men and dolls, yep.

I was REALLY mad at myself because I walked over to section 129 and I left all my stuff in 109. So I didn't have anything for Saarloos to sign. Then I saw Street signing stuff as well [Saarloos ran off after like six autographs], and I was like, "FORGET THIS, I'M GETTING STREET'S AUTOGRAPH IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO." So then I ran back to 109 to grab my stuff and BBG and then we ran back to 130 and Street was still there signing. So we got his autograph and we talked to him too. AND HE TOUCHED MY MARKER! AlmostReggie got pictures of him signing stuff that he promised he'd send me :)

I'm really, really sorry. Noah Lowry is a god if one ever walked on two feet. And he sticks his tongue out when he pitches.

A not very interesting picture of Eric Byrnes, but one of him nonetheless :)

During the third inning, Baseballgirl and I decided to walk around and to look for people who said they were going to be at the game today. We first went to section 120 to look for FoolishGame22, and we found his seat and we're like, "HI DAN!" and the guy sitting there was all . Turns out he splits season ticket there and wasn't at the game today.

I kind of made a mistake when copying down section numbers, so we headed to 126 thinking we were going to see AlmostReggie. We saw a guy in an AN shirt, so we both start yelling, "HI TODD!" And the guy looks over like and we're like, "Aren't you Todd? You're wearing an AN shirt after all." Turns out it was actually RobertMelvin.

After realizing that I didn't actually get AlmostReggie's seat number, we instead headed up into the LF bleachers to find whoever was there. But that's kind of like searching for a needle in a haystack; baseballgirl was wearing an AN shirt so she walked around for a bit, but no one said anything. Then we decided to head back down into our section. We were standing by one of the openings near 128 or so to watch Byrnes bat, when a guy in an AN shirt came up to us; turns out, it was AlmostReggie! That was really cool, we still managed to run into him even after we stopped trying.

And then we were just walking back to our seat when we saw another guy in an AN shirt, his name is Alex and I don't know what his username is, but it was really neat just to run into random people that you met online.

Second Major Edit:
Here's a series of Scutaro, Marines and their daughter, Maria Veronica :)

Who is going to the Giants series?

Melody — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 04:35:55 -0000

This is a megathread for everyone who is going to the Giants series this weekend, and also for the people who would like to lament about not being able to go.

So who is going to the series this weekend? Please post here if you're going and interested in meeting other AN members at the game! I'm going to be at the Coliseum on Saturday with baseballgirl, and she still has an extra ticket if you'd like to go but haven't gotten a chance to buy a ticket yet. It's in the MVP infield, section 109 and row 17. She is selling the ticket at face value, for 35 dollars.

If I recall correctly, SecretAsianMan is also doing a pre-game tailgate party for Saturday, but this is strictly off the record unless he confirms and says that everyone is invited ;)

In any case, post which days you're going to be there and where your seat is, if you don't think you'll mind random people stopping by and saying hi! And if you can't make it to the series, please feel free to rant about not being able to go to Oakland this weekend.

Chez Nico Day Recap/Photos!

Melody — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 05:19:06 -0000

Our very own Nico had his "Chez Nico Dry Run" today. It took me forever to realize that Chez meant "house" and wasn't just a fancy word for "chef." Nico was kind enough to lend me his camera to use so we could get some pictures of the event, as I only had with me the horrible camera I borrowed from my sister. After some technical difficulty, I finally got the pictures online, so please enjoy! These photos are optimized for web viewing, so they should load okay on slower internet connections. For the most part, they are in the order they were taken. And if the photo is blurry, that's because they're off my camera.

The man of the house, Nico, sets out some rice for the guests.

Close up of some of the Thai food. If you weren't there, you missed out on some delicious curry chicken.

SecretASianMan and AlleninSF strike a pose in the kitchen.

After Anduex arrived, he was directed over to the table in order to fill out his nametag. Each guest was advised to put down both their username and their real name.

Our first special guest was Nico's dog, Poochini.

Even though Batgirl only lived a few blocks away from Nico, she decided to drive her car over. One of her amazing green and gold cupcakes unfortunately fell onto the floor of her car while she drove. She then proceeded to stick a rock into the cupcake to distinguish it from the rest. However, Nico was not about to let this cupcake go to waste...

All of us enjoyed Poochini's company very, very much.

This is Andeux and gigglingone, as they try not to smirk at Nico. *cough*

Gigglingone, SecretASianMan and ZeroIndulgence now all have drinks and gold cups, hmm...

There were lots of desserts, yum. Gigglingone bought brownies with M&Ms that spelled out "GO A's", while Batgirl's green and gold cupcakes embodied the spirit of the Athletics. Then there was also Nico's sweet rice and Mango concoction.

Eventually, we remembered that we were there for the game, not just for the food! AlleninSF, SecretASianMan and Batgirl settle into the living room. We decided to watch the TV with the sound off, and then listen to the A's broadcast on the radio even though TV was on a slight delay.

CheckSwingHR bought pizza for all, as well as his two gorgeous sons!

OMG, THEY KILLED KENNY [SecretASianMan].

Gigglingone, Devo, Andeux, and a revived Kenny. Poochini wants Devo's food, obviously.

And who shows up, but the man himself, Blez?! Blez and Nico decide to skip on upstairs to create a new AN thread.

A blurry ZeroIndulgence, Devo, and the television.

Mrs. Blez, Maya, Blez and Nico enjoy a nice rest on the couch.

As the game draws to a close, everyone [AlleninSF, Andeux, a blurry Mrs. Blez, Maya and Blez] are disappointed that the A's were unable to pull out a victory.

Anyway, thank you Nico, the "Chez Nico Dry Run" was lots of fun, and I'm really glad that you decided to host such an event! The food was great, the people were great, and it was just a cool day in general. Too bad the A's lost, we were so excited after the A's pulled ahead 3-2 in the 6th inning. The surprise appearance by Blez, Mrs. Blez and the adorable Maya was quite a treat, and really unexpected too. Nice meeting everyone, and thanks Kenny, for the ride to BART! Sorry if I got your username wrong, and also that I couldn't get more pictures, since the memory card filled up quickly :)

On Photos, Bobbleheads, Harden & ADAM (The Ballboy)

Melody — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 01:51:55 -0000

I was so excited to get to this game early that I set my alarm for 8:00am. I thought I'd get to the stadium at around 9:00, wait in line for a few hours, and get a bobblehead for sure. But of course, I stayed up late again, was so groggy this morning that I accidently reset my alarm, and then didn't wake up until 10:50am. I begged my dad to take me to BART, arrived at the stadium at around 11:45, and saw tons of people walk out of colosium carrying not one, not two, but BAGFULS of bobbleheads. Some people literally had at least 10 bobbleheads!

I thought I had missed them for sure, but there were still a few boxes left when I got in. I was told that I was "really lucky" as they handed me a bobblehead.

By the time I got there, the batting cages were already down [batting practice ends at 11:45 I think], and only a few A's pitchers were hanging out around the bullpen area. Saarloos was on the mound when I got there.

Zito warmed up for a bit, before heading over to throw a few pitches.

Hmm... He's looking good.

Harden then went up to throw a few pitches as well. His pitches looked really good, so that's great news because he's probably going to be back soon. I didn't really get any good pictures of him pitching though.

Then to everyone's surprise, he actually started signing autographs! There was this huge mob around him... I don't know how I managed to make my way to the front, but I got him to sign my bobblehead. He was seriously really cool about signing stuff, he was there for a good half hour just talking and signing and signing...

I don't have any interesting game photos because I was sitting far away and I felt kind of lazy about moving up. After the A's scored 12 runs in the first three innings, the atmosphere was completely relaxed.

After the game, they pulled Bobby Crosby aside to interview him. He uniform was about as dirty as any I've ever seen.

Oh yeah, and Adam? Okay... Before the game, I tried to go down to section 128 and ask for an autograph, since I saw him come onto the field. But as soon as I walked down to the bullpen, I saw him run off to the dugout. I started talking to the Guest Services guy in 128, and he was like, "Well, I don't think Adam signs stuff, but you should try asking him after the game."

After the game ended and all the players left, Adam walked back out to the dugout. Everyone around me apparently knew who he was, and they were all asking him for balls. He threw his hands up and he was like, "I don't have any balls! I'm sorry!" And I was like, "Adam, can you sign this picture for me?" But he just walked away. And then this other ballboy was like, "Here just give me the picture, and I'll give it to him for you." So I did, but as that ballboy and another guy who joined him both tried to convince Adam to sign, he just refused to! They were like, "Oh come on Adam, it's just one autograph, just sign the picture for her." They must have asked Adam at least five or six times. And each time, he was just like, "I can't." And then he left.

So the ballboy who offered to give my picture to Adam actually seemed really disappointed that Adam flat out refused to sign for me. He said, "I don't know why he refused to sign, does he think he can't or something?" The other ballboy was like, "Heck, I'll sign the picture!" I dropped my pen cap [it rolled down the dugout roof] and they threw it back to me and they were really nice about it in general, so it just was really sucks that Adam wouldn't sign.

So this is my new favorite ballboy, and I'm going to at least get his autograph next time. Real sweet kid, he is :) And he's cute too, isn't he?