CHB has nothing on me!

Okay, this will be a long one, so settle in!

(The photos are all taken by me and not necessarily connected to the paragraphs they’re in.  Also, they’re thumbnails.  Click on them for a better view.  They aren’t great, but the situation wasn’t set up to take great photos so don’t be picky and take what you get!)  🙂

Screen grab of Clay Buchholz from the video of his speechThe evening started with a cab ride to the Westin Waterfront Hotel.  It took all of five minutes for us to get there, yet we kept leaning into the front seat asking the driver what he said.  Turns out, the driver was using a Blue Tooth headset to talk to someone on his cell phone.  Blue Tooth headsets were invented by the devil to annoy people like me.

We get to the hotel and I forget that there would be hundreds of people there for reasons not related to baseball.  We wade through these people and Kelly has the presence of mind to ask someone where we’re supposed to go.  After a short walk and a trip down an escalator, we find our brethren.  There’s a section for "VIP Ticket Holders" to go but, alas, neither of us are VIP ticket holders.  So we join the unwashed milling around the lobby area.

Screen grab of Mike Lowell from the video of HIS speechAlcohol.  Let us find the alcohol.  We do.  We approach the first bar we see, and there’s a handsome, friendly bartender named Jim.  Or Bob.  Could be either one (or neither one).  I tend to forget the names of nice people I meet, yet the asses stay in my mind forever.  Go figure.

Jim-Bob the bartender is good enough to make Kelly a gin and tonic and me a Cosmo (shout out to Hayes and Beck!), but wait!  There was someone in our midst who didn’t want us to imbibe.  And HIS name I remember.

Clay Buchholz and Jon LesterPaul.  Evil Paul.  Evil Paul is, seemingly, in charge of the bars and the bartenders and he’s none too happy that Jim-Bob decided to serve us.  They have a system at the Westin Waterfront and it is to open the bars at the end of the room first and wait until there are too many people in those lines before they open the bars closer to the entrance.  Jim-Bob did not know this and, while still mixing our drinks, apologizes profusely to Evil Paul who could not care less about sweet Jim-Bob’s apology.  Had the two drinks not cost Kelly $21 dollars (boy, I wish that was an exaggeration), Evil Paul would have been wearing my cosmopolitan.  But Kelly did pay $21 for our drinks (not including a tip for poor, put-upon, Jim-Bob), so I refrained from dousing Evil Paul. 

Mike Lowell and Dustin PedroiaWe decided to take a walk past the silent auction items.  The usual fare for these kinds of things.  A signed Papelbon photo (taller than me), an unsigned photo of Jason Varitek smooshing his glove into ARod’s face (which I already own)…and then, there it was, an autographed photo of JD Drew at bat wearing the green jersey.  (From the Friday night game vs. the Yankees where the Sox honored Red Auerbach).  I told Kelly that I must have that photo, but quickly forgot about it when I overheard someone ask if "…this is the trophy line".

Trophy?  Trophy?  I didn’t even have to say anything and Kelly stepped from the auction items line into the trophy line.  Our spot in the line was fairly close to the beginning, but the line ended up being longer than some of the alcohol lines.  Waiting to get our pictures taken (for free!) was interesting.  Occasionally folks who had no interest in the trophy would walk past us, thinking we were in the ‘beer line’.  When they realized it was the line to get your picture taken with the trophy, we got some really strange looks.

But, at last, Cyn has her photo with the trophy.  (Which I haven’t seen yet since Kelly took it with her camera.  And which none of you will see if I end up hating the photo.  But, at least, I’ll still have it.!)

Dave Magadan and Dustin PedroiaBecause the crowd had become a bit unwieldy, we didn’t make it back to the auction items.  Instead, we headed back to the bar.  Sweet, old, Jim-Bob’s line was longer than the guy working next to him, so we bypassed him for another bartender.  (Sorry, Jim-Bob!)  Stephen.  You’ll notice I remember his name as well.   Stephen was  nice enough, but he needed bartender lessons.  He made me a Cosmo with gin.  Yes, gin.

It was a very interesting Cosmo, to say the least.  And while I was drinking it, I noticed two men at a table next to the bar.  One was Jim Rice. (We had seen him briefly when we first came in.)  The other?  Bernie Carbo.

Jed Lowrie and his tieTo say I was excited is a bit of an understatement.  I told Kelly she didn’t have to join me, but I was getting in whatever the line was because I was getting Bernie’s and Jim’s autographs.  So I did.  🙂  Kelly, being the good friend she is, joined me in line and took some pictures.  There’s no picture of me with Bernie, because when I approached Bernie, he smiled at me, looked over at Kelly and exclaimed, "WHOA!"  He also gave her a huge smile, told her he loved her hair, and encouraged her to take a picture of him.  I was too tickled to even think about asking for a picture!  Bernie Carbo totally  hit on her!  🙂  Not so with Jim Ed.  Hey, I’ve waited a long time to meet this man and I took advantage.  He signed a picture of himself for me and agreed to pose for a picture with me (also taken by Kelly.  Another case of, if I like it you all will see it.  If I don’t, you won’t.)   I stood next to him with my hand on his back, and he laughed at how ‘fast’ Kelly took pictures.  I had a few moments to gab with him and he was friendly and nice and I was absolutely taken with him.

I work with a guy who’s also a good friend.  It seems that whenever I end up at one of these things, he gets a random text message, sometimes fueled by alcohol, but usually just fueled by my excitement!  Tonight, the text message he received from me?  "I’m going to marry Jim Rice!"  (His response:  "DO IT!")  But I digress.

Kelly and I met up with Brita Meng Outzen (fabulous Red Sox photographer for redsox.com) and had a nice discussion about Bernie Carbo hitting on Kelly and Brita not traveling with the team for the Japan games.  Then it was time to go to dinner!

So while waiting for the festivities to begin, Kelly treks off to get us drinks.  I’m sitting at our table and notice Amalie Benjamin is walking by me with a boyfriend as diminutive as she.   Red could take him. 🙂

Hey, you aren’t Justin Masterson!Kelly returns, drinkless, and I remember that I wanted to bid on the JD Drew autographed photo.  (Kelly has no drinks because they told her they shut down until 7:15.  By my cell phone, it was 7:19.  Off to kill 2 birds with one stone!)  I make my way to the photo and see that two people have bid on it.  I don’t look at anything but the amount that’s been bid, and I up it, sign my name and go back to see Jim-Bob for a Cosmo that DOESN’T have gin in it.  (Jim-Bob to me:  "Who would put gin in a Cosmo?"  I point to Stephen and Jim-Bob laughs.)

 I return to Sean McAdam introducing folks.  (It was a nice evening.  I saw Sean McAdam, Gordon Edes and Amalie Benjamin.  All Boston sports writers who I don’t want to punch.)  When he introduces Mike Lowell, it sounds like it’s 1964 and he just introduced the Beatles.  Grown men are screaming and women are swooning.  Mike Lowell looks to be genuinely touched (and amused) by the ovation.

Jon Lester We have a perfectly nice dinner and then it’s time for the autographs.  At this dinner, they allow children ages 16 and under to get autographs from everyone at the head table.  Those of us over 16 go up as well to take photos.  (Sean McAdam told us we could do this…keep that in mind.)  The barrier they’ve placed to keep the autograph seekers roped off from the rest of us is quite narrow.  Which means the kids getting autographs and the adults taking pictures are melding into one.  Security (some I recognized from Fenway and some I didn’t recognize at all) start getting snippy and suddenly the photo Nazis come out and start yelling at anyone not getting an autograph to "get back to your seats".  Yeah.  That worked out well.

 
Sadly, because of the number of people, Kelly and I didn’t get too many ‘good’ photos.  But no matter.  We were up there, looking them over.  And they all looked quite happy.  (For the record, current players up at the head table were Mike Lowell, Dustin Pedroia, Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester.)  There was this one woman who asked me where the autograph line was.  She was my age, maybe a little younger.  When I told her the autographs were only for kids, she whips out a picture of a baby and says to me "I have a four month old baby at home.  She couldn’t make it" and walks away.  As Kelly said, "And we wonder why some hate Red Sox fans".  Yeesh.

Mike Lowell, baby!We begrudgingly make our way back to our table (Kelly and I ordered our tickets separately and without even knowing the other was doing it, yet we ended up at the same table.  We were quite happy about that!) but not before checking out the rookies sitting at a table in front of the head table.  The rookies have had a long week but they looked like they were having a lot of fun.  Once back at the table, we enjoyed a tasty chocolate dessert.  Halfway through it, I realize I should go check on my JD Drew photo.

I get to the silent auction area and most of the items are already gone.  Two photos remain and one of them is JD Drew.  I approach the table and see that my name is still the last one on the bidding list.  Victory is mine!  Score one for the Wonder Twins!!!!

I’m waiting for someone to ask me why I’m standing there, when I glance at the bidding sheet and notice the name above mine.

Let me interject something here.  I don’t have one friend who has been to a game with me who doesn’t worry that I might chuck something at Dan Shaughnessy if ever I have the chance.  I’ve had the chance to throw a shoe at him and I didn’t.  I had a chance to trip him at Fenway and I didn’t.  My friends seem to think that third time will be the charm and are hoping the opportunity doesn’t arise.

Back to JD Drew.  The name above mine?  The person I outbid for the autographed photo of JD Drew?

You guessed it.  Dan Shaughnessy.

My proof! When the friendly man (whose name I, of course, don’t remember) approached me and I told him I was there for JD, I took the opportunity to ask  him if I could keep the bidding sheet.  He told me they like to keep the sheets and asked my why I wanted it.  I showed him the name.  Before I could say something smarmy, he says to me "Dan’s a friend of mine!!! Of COURSE you can have the sheet!".

So, betraying every natural instinct I have to say something nasty, I just smile and say ‘thank you’ to the nice man who is letting me keep the sheet.

More Mike!I won the JD Drew photo and I beat CHB’s ass doing it.  It’s a win-win situation.  I didn’t need to muddy it by bashing he guy’s friend in front of him. 🙂

It was, truly, quite the enjoyable evening.  I’m leaving things out  (Joe Morgan – OUR Joe Morgan not THAT Joe Morgan, Larry Whiteside’s son, Dick Berardino…some lovely speeches, for starters) but that’s only because there was so much to enjoy.

The night ended with my saying good night to Kelly and jumping in a cab.  A cab that ran three red lights (again, I wish that was an exaggeration) to get me home, yet drove through a city it didn’t need to in getting to my own.

Bubba BellI’m home now.  It’s taken me two hours to get this all down.  Kelly has sent me photos (which I haven’t decided yet if I’ll share) and everyone I know is probably asleep.  So it’s time for me to stop rambling.

I took video of various speeches, including Clay’s, Jon’s and Mike’s.  I’m not sure how any of them came out, but if there are any good ones, I’ll post them and let you all know. 🙂

Thanks for indulging me!  I had a wonderful time.  Can’t wait to do it next year!!!! 

(My apologies for any typos or spelling errors…it’s late and I’m tired!)