Fan Fest Part 2

On the concourse up to the 100 level was the long line to acquire the tickets to stand in the long line to get an autograph from a Marlin. A band was setting up to play: past that were some guys sitting in front of a big screen TV playing some baseball video game. Then came tables of various groups, like Roger Dean Stadium and the Marlins fan club ($20 to join? Geez!).

And there was a Sunsports/FSN table, where who did I spy standing there waiting to be noticed but Rich Waltz, infamous year-old TV voice of the Marlins. Suckup that I am, I walked over, stuck my hand out, shook his hand and said, "Good job you did last year." And I swear, maybe it was an affectation, maybe it was something in his eye, but for a brief second he lifted his gaze skyward, in an attitude of blessed relief, as if thanking the Lord that someone finally showed up who didn't want to complain about his performance. But then again, maybe it wasn't anything.

As opposed to last year (from what I remember) the concession stands were open; I didn't see any food vendors on the ground level this year. I went through a tunnel towards the playing field and saw an amazing sight. All the grass was completely gone, the dirt was dug up in patterned spots, exposing the blue pipes underneath. The pitchers' mound was entirely scraped off, and I saw the elevator-platter all by itself - a big round disk with a squared-off promanance pointing towards what would have been first.

The scoreboards were gone; workmen were welding and moving through 8 levels of the large box-like structure that's to house the new monsterous hi-def scoreboard. It was like an 8-story steel building floating over rows and rows of orange seats, open on the side with men walking back and forth in plain view. The other (western) scoreboard was in a similiar state.

And then when I was drinking in that sight who should pop out of the Fish dugout but Dontrelle Willis with a little kid that he was trying to get to play catch with. It wasn't much though - they just goofed around in the dirt for a while and then walked back in.

Back on the concourse, past some more game-type things, there were tables set up to sell old Marlins give-aways and old batting practice caps and other things (like year-old media guides for MLB teams, which were $3 as opposed to $1 last year). There were papers to write down bids in a auctioning-off of an authorized-and-framed sliver of the old ripped-up warning track (used during 1997 And 2003!). And another auction of a bottle of champagne that was Not opened during the 2003 celebrations. Both auctions had written bids in the hundreds.

At the end of where they wanted us to go were the Marlins autographers, and the lines of autographees waiting their turn. When I was there Matt Treanor, Lenny Harris and Randy Messenger were manning the tables. Messenger kept standing and taking pictures with the folks, something the other two weren't doing at that moment.

Then I wandered up to see if only the 'VIPs' would be allowed into the Club level. Turned out I just walked in. Not much was happening in the open areas so I wandered back out to the seating sections to see what the prices were on the seats that were papered with price lists. Earlier a Fan Fest worker was saying to someone that they had tagged some 2000 seats for the Fan Fest but that actually about 8000 seats were available for season-tickets. That was believable.

And then another amazing sight. Just below in the orange seats about 16 Mermaids emerged with a photographer. He lined them up and tried to position them the way he wanted for a shot. I stood there for a good while admiring his professionalism. Some Fan Fest worker was behind me aways, seemingly concerned about my presence but not approaching me or anything. He soon went away. After about the thousandth Mermaid hair-flip or so, I wandered back in to the open areas. That's when things got a little interesting.

Oh oh, I'm getting yelled at to get off the computer. (Not really, just building what little suspense I can build. And I need some sleep. This writing long posts keeps me up too late. Congrats to those who do this on a regular basis. More later.)