Exciting Conclusion - 40/40 Club Party

September 22, 2006

(Prelude : Part 1 : Part 2) Whew, is this wordy enough? I couldn’t thank our benefactors who got us in enough, although they played it off like these types of events were old hat and they seemed happy to provide the experience to us. Wow! Now that was the NYC club scene and we made the cut on our first experience. So… we were in, now what? I surveyed the room, looking for players I recognized. I caught sight of unsure-of-guy standing by a column by himself and we made eye contact, so I gathered my courage and walked over to him. “Hi, I apologize, but what’s your name?” I asked. “Melvin”. I jumped and pointed while squeaking, “Dorta!” He looked back in shock, “you know who I am?” Uh, yup! Mystery solved. But now what to talk about? I remembered a recent radio interview…

So we chatted about his new baby and his wife’s lack of sleep (since he’s on the road) and how cool it is to be a parent. Always and easy topic for me! Turned out we were drinking the same type of beer too! So he got me another :-) Meanwhile, I’m still worrying about my bad Thai spring roll breath. Eek.

Melvin Dorta was very cool. He was friendly and never acted like he would have rather been clipping his toenails than talking to me. I don’t know if it’s a rookie thing or personality thing, but I hope he always stays real like that. Chris Booker was also extremely nice and fun to chat with. He even said he thought he recognized me from seeing me at games. Whoa! Now that’s cool! I do sit down by the bullpen when we have Mr. Chatter’s work tickets, but I find it extremely unlikely he’d remember me from seeing me in a sea of people in the stadium. (Unless, of course, my beauty stands out so much - bahaha!)

Next person I recognized was Nook Logan - I complimented him on bunting for single like nobody’s business. He replied something to the effect of hoping it’s good enough to keep him in the big leagues. I then (bad timing) asked if Ryan Church was there. I guess that probably seemed kind of rude. And no, Ryan Church was not there. Too bad because I would have felt perfectly comfortable chatting with him since I know he’s into the online thing. I worried about mentioning the blog (but how else to explain why we were there?), although I did mention it to Dorta and got his permission to post the photo. I didn’t want to burn any bridges and ruin any chances of getting invited to future Nationals bashes (hehehe as if! Hey, we could be the traveling fan mascots).

At a recent DC bloggers happy hour, I mentioned that I’d really like to take Austin Kearns out for a beer, show him DC isn’t so bad, and see if I could coax a smile out of him and get it on camera. A guy who used to work for the Reds considered emailing him and bringing him out one night. Well, with this party, I no longer needed a contact - opportunity presented itself and Kearns was in my “back by the bar” zone. So I seized the opportunity to get him to smile. He did smile, I swear! Ignore the funny expresson on my face. Unfortunately, with the extremely dark room, the camera proved to be a bit glitchy.

I have to add Austin Kearns to the nice guys list. I probably wore out my welcome chatting with him, but he was polite and engaging the whole time. Meanwhile, DCSC had grabbed John Patterson’s ear and I tried to snap a picture of them after commenting on the clean-shaven look (no beard!). Oh, Austin was definitely completely clean-shaven too and I informed him that I liked that look better! Not that I expect anyone to take my opinions to heart, but it’s fun to actually tell them. I’m not sure if that’s the “I’d rather be clipping my toenails,” look or if they’re just irritated that I had technical problems with the camera focusing and taking the picture!

I thanked Nick Johnson for helping me meet GB at the Diamond Gala last year. He seemed to vaguely remember after I gave details, but I’m not sure. I recognized Saul Rivera after someone pointed him out to me, but wouldn’t have recognized him without being told. I think it was the earrings that threw me. Tony Beasley is always surprised when people recognize him, but was also another friendly person.

I ran into this really tall guy at the bathroom sink and commented, “wow, you are really tall!” (like he’s never heard that before). Yep, I’m one for intelligent conversation. Well, when he entered the room, it was time for everyone else to go all fanboyish. “Oooh, that’s Patrick Ewing” Doh! I felt like an idiot.

I could have danced with Melvin Dorta, but passed since I’m not a very good dancer. I had returned to chatting with Austin Kearns when DCSC grabbed me and said we had to leave. Bummed, but getting the urgency, I tapped Kearns and thanked him for chatting, explaining we were leaving and that was that. The denoument of my first club experience. Well, there was the pizza we got afterwards. Mmmmm.

Once we returned to our diplomat-filled hotel, I couldn’t wait and offloaded my photos to the laptop. As we watched the slideshow (I think it was around 1 AM), we were screaming and giggling as we relived and saw everyone we chatted with. I’m sure the diplomats appreciated that ;-) The night was so perfect, I couldn’t have planned it better. For a fan to have practically exclusive access to the team in a fun relaxed setting was amazing. I hope we weren’t annoying and that everyone enjoyed our company as much as we enjoyed theirs.

The trip was SO worth it. DC Sports Chick was a perfect partner in crime. I couldn’t have asked for anything to go better than it did. What a wonderful night!

Posted in Personal, Players, Washington Nationals