One Fine Day (so far)

I drank Charmucks coffee. Yuck. I only did it because I was stalking.

I used to think that hanging out after a game waiting for player autographs was like stalking, but not anymore, because I was sitting in a hotel waiting for the Reds to come down and go to the ballpark, and that felt more like stalking. I went on my lunch hour, which turned into hours, and I was drinking burnt coffee at the hotel lounge. It kind of went like this:

I thought I saw Jared Burton as he was heading out the door. Then I thought I saw Griffey's son Trey with his mom and a black pug. The guy who I thought was Jared Burton came back in the door and said "What's up?" to the kid I thought was Trey, and I pretty much knew I was in the right place.

At that point, I thought I was just no good at stalking. I gave Burton the "I know who you are" look and waited until he got to the elevators before getting up to go to him. I was too late, though, because the elevator doors closed. A few minutes later, I saw John Fay, who is much smaller than I could have imagined. I still had a notion that I was making it all up in my head. Belisle came in with coffee. My heart was beginning to race with excitement.

Two years ago when the Reds came to town, my family came to visit. One morning before one of the ballgames, we went to Arlington Cemetery. Being the fans we are, we were all decked out in Reds gear and a cemetery employee told us that Junior and a couple of other guys had visited that morning. I thought many of the players were out seeing the sites and was kind of surprised to see so many of the rookies.

When I saw Chris Welsh, it proved to me my "sightings" were actually sightings and not just a figment of my imagination brought on by wanting it to be true. When we see Chris, it's never in a uniform, so he was easy to recognize. That's when I really started having fun.

David Weathers passed me to go out the door. When he came back, I gave him the "look of recognition." I said, "Hi, Stormy!" He smiled and said hello, which was cool. More on Weathers in a minute...

Soon Norris Hopper came out. I don't know what time the Reds got into town, but a lot of them seemed to be just checking in. Norris was looking for his bag, and it seemed to be a problem. I finally got up the nerve to go ask for an autograph on the scorecard I had brought along (the one with Mike Gosling's autograph from a game in Cincinnati.) I was very shy in approaching him and ended up saying, "Excuse me sir, are you Norris Hopper?" Affirmation, ask for autograph on scorecard, rush back to my seat, embarrassed.

Red Reporter Brendanukkah came to meet me soon after that.

Alex Gonzalez comes in. Yay! It was great to see him there. I sure hope this means his kid is better! I approached him in the same tentative manner, said some jumbled words about great to see you, not wanting to broach the subject of his child's illness, and let the embarrassment set in again. There was also a feeling of guilt, as I was invading their privacy. I tend to be a considerate person, so it was tough for me to approach them, but I really felt like a kid and did it anyway. At that point I was on Cloud 9.

I was getting braver, too. Said hi to more players. Tried to identify trainers, media guys, etc. Then, the inside info came. A familiar looking face was at the checkout counter. Brendan and I couldn't figure out who he or another ballplayer-looking guy with a Padres bag were. We speculated about some dreadful trade of Dunn or Arroyo for some Padres guy - not seeing Dunn or Arroyo walking around was a source of stress and worry! Finally, I was like, is that the Lizard? Yes! He's been recalled? (Further study of the roster revealed the other ballplayer looking type as no ballplayer.) First time I've had firsthand info about Reds news. If only I had brought the laptop!

Fellow Reds fan I Miss Hal King (I think?) arrived for lunch around that time. He confirmed my suspicions that it was, indeed, the Lizard.

Then, Brandon Phillips came out. Brandon Phillips is ball worthy, so I brought my baseball over to him, again embarrassed. He was quite nice about signing, too. Hal King also went to get his ink, and then I asked Brendan to get Brandon's autograph on my scorecard, too. After all, Phillips' picture is on it!

David Weathers came out again (was he going out for smoke breaks?) and smiled and said hi again - he was extremely nice. Hal King asked for his autograph and spoke with him, so I went over and stuck my scorecard under his nose, too. He was so friendly, my opinion of him will forever be changed because of the encounter.

You know you're a fan when you recognize the rookies. Jon Coutlangus came out - he's a good looking guy! It was my last autograph before I was told that I was not allowed to do that by a hotel employee. To be fair, she was doing her job and even said I could go outside the doors to get autographs, which was nice of her, because she could tell how excited I was.

There weren't too many other players to come down after that. I saw Javy Valentin, Chad Moeller, and Bobby Livingston. The lowlight was when I ran to the restroom after I assumed we weren't going to see any more players. Guess who came down then? None other than Ken Griffey, Jr. Of course, the one guy I brought the authentic Major League Baseball for! Ok, there are other ballworthies, but I wanted to at least see Junior in person.

Hal King called George Grande over and expressed his sympathies in a way that was much better than I could have done. George was a really nice guy and talked to us for a minute. I said very little because I couldn't get over how much he sounded like he was talking on FSN Ohio!

C. Trent Rosecrans was nice enough to talk to us, too. And no, he doesn't look like the picture on his blog! It was about 1:30-1:45, and he said Arroyo and Dunn were still on the team, so it was a little bit of a relief, though there was still some time left before the trading deadline. Thankfully, they will be in uniform tonight. Thanks, Wayne!

As I was heading out the hotel door to go back to work, I had my "I carried a watermelon" moment. In comes three kids, a woman, and...Ken Griffey, Jr. What do I say? "Oh my god, it's Ken Griffey, Jr.!" He was on the phone, and I left, happy and excited and well, now it's time to go to the game!

Oh, one other thing. The couple who sat beside us eating lunch completely unrecognized until they stood up to leave? Manager Pete Mackanin and his wife. Didn't even realize it.