Before I got there, I thought this would be unorganized like every other Dodger event. As soon as I walked into Dodger Stadium I found out I was right. Getting into the event area was a bit of a pain in the ass, but once inside, we discovered that there were four lines to choose from and the players in them were random. You basically had to wait and hope you get someone you wanted. Things were easy at first because of the players that were signing early, but as the day progressed, the lines got very long and the weather got hot and as usual, the whole thing turned chaotic because people were standing around waiting.
My goal for the day was to get Andre Ethier, Tommy Lasorda, Fernando Valezuela , Dee Gordon and Bill Russell all on their own baseballs. I didn't even come close to meeting that goal, only getting Gordon on ball. I did get to meet Tommy at the wine tasting tent, so it wasn't all bad.
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| Vinny blessed us with his presence |
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| Me and Charlie Steiner |
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| Me and Tommy at the wine tasting tent |
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| Adam Kennedy |
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| Justin Sellers |
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| Ronald Belisario |
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| AJ Ellis |
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| Wes Parker |
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| Here's Wes Parker's beautiful side-panel job. He wanted to sign the ball in Sharpie. |
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| Dee! |
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| I wanted to get Dee on ROMLB. |
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| Elian Herrera signing my team ball |
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| Jamey Wright |
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| Todd Coffey |
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| Herrera & Coffey |
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| Loney & Guerra |
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| Elbert & Wright |
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| Honeycutt & Belisario |
I agree with your sentiments Josh. It was unorganized especially since we didn't know which line we were supposed to be in to get a particular player to sign. Plus the Dodgers always repeat the same veterans at these events. They need to mix it up a bit. I wish they did it like the Padres where the event is inside the stadium (so we can sit in the shade) and they handed out autograph tickets as you walked in so you know which player you are getting.
ReplyDeleteThe Padres know how to run a Fan Fest!
DeleteThe Dodgers need to get more 90s players to show up. Players from our childhood. Bring in Rauuuul Mondesi and Pedro Astacio!
ReplyDeleteHell yeah! How many times can they bring in Kenny Landreaux and Tommy Davis?>
DeleteI could have got a lot of autos in the first hour, but instead I choose to hit up every booth for freebies which was easy to do at the begining. Like you said the lines started to grow to an obscene amount, so I found this weird small line in the middle that could only grow to 70 or so people because a exhibit was blocking off the line from getting any bigger. I decided to jump in this line and my gamble paid off as I was able to get Ron Cey (on a bobblehead), Juan Rivera, and Andre Ethier (on a bobblehead) in this line. After the Ethier signing though the secret about that line got out, and soon all the lines felt they had somewhere between 500 to more than a 1000 people waiting in them. This is too crazy for me seeing how it's totally random who you are going to get, so I decided to quit after I got Ethier's auto.
ReplyDeleteI agree this event was very disorganized and there was a lack of security watching the autograph lines. I remember while waiting for Ethier's autograph a whole family cut into the line, and then people were having their children cut in line which is sad that parents would stoop to that level. Eventually we had to call security to kick all the cutters (including children) out of the line. It's sad though that even got to that point.
The main problem was everyone there was after Ethier's autograph, and after him Fernando and Lasorda's autograph, so it was difficult to get other players autos and really it felt all the hoopla and hooligans were after Ethier's auto only. For next year they really need to expand the autograph area and have it seperated from the main fanfest area. Also they need to tell where people are going to be signing from the beginning so they can have the Ethier, Kemp, Fernando and Lasorda people waiting to the side, and that way it's easier on people who are trying to get the lesser known players and alumni.
Fanfest has to grow in size because this Gran Fiesta sized event felt too small for the ammount of people who showed up. It felt there were a lot more people at this fanfest than there were at Angels and Padres fanfest combined. Moving this event to a convention center would probably solve a lot of these issues.
You hit the nail on the head. Hopefully new ownership can make the Convention Center idea happen.
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