Manny Acta, media critic

February 20, 2007

So as I mentioned, the first day at spring training in Viera, my son took a newly acquired practice ball up to Manny Acta after practice was over and asked for an autograph. I leaned over and suggested to my son, “Ask him what’s his favorite color..” Of course my son turned to me and asked, “Why?” like that was the dumbest thing on the planet! Acta got it though, and in unison we recited, “Red. Well, actually, it’s blue…” Then he greeted me, “MissChatter!” (Whoa, my brain spun – I didn’t recall giving him a card). He told me he’d seen my videos and that they started out kind of iffy, but encouragingly said I’d been getting better. He said, “(We) have to be very careful about what’s said!” Only, I thought he was saying *I* have to be very careful about what I say, thus my spending all Saturday night fretting about what I may have said wrong in a vodcast that the newly minted manager noted. Those fears were unfounded. When I caught up with him Sunday to ask what I had said wrong, he replied, “You didn’t say anything wrong!” He was strictly critiquing my camera presence – the pauses and hesitations, which I laughed and replied I was well aware of (and thought “Whew!”)…. When he arrived at the warm-up field on his golf cart yesterday, he blew my mind.

Screech’s Best Friend, who had just arrived the night before (that guy is like, everywhere!), greeted him at the cart, then Acta strolled into the dugout at the warm-up field where some coaches and others were sitting. He turned and saw me and yelled, ‘Miss Chatter!!’ (All I could think was, oh my goodness, he recognized me!). After his critiques the previous day and having just posted another vodcast the previous night, I yelled back, “I just posted my best one yet last night!” He said he hadn’t seen it yet. He then launched into this story;

“So my brother sends me this link to something called YouTube,” (chuckles from dugout) “and there I find all your videos! That’s how I found you. Have to be very careful what we say,”

Of course, still fretting that he was talking about what I say I replied that I am careful. He said, “No, WE have to be careful around you!”

Haha, oh no you don’t! Things could be much more fun/interesting if people are not “on guard” so to speak when around me!

I remembered his critiques of the pauses and hesitations while recording the Live From Viera video – and I think I did much better that time! Hope he saw it! I guess since he only sees them through YouTube, he’s missing all my wondrous non-halting text over here on this side of the internet!

Wow, Manny Acta knows my (pseudo)name! I feel like a rock star! But on the drive home, I realized he doesn’t know my real name :-) That’s okay – he has enough names to memorize and put to faces at the moment. Mine should be the least of them. Still, kinda cool to feel like a rock star for a weekend.

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