RedsFest 2014

One of the brightest days amid the dark winter (or late autumn) nights arrives annually with my complimentary RedsFest tickets, just one perk of being a valued season ticket holder.

Membership has its privileges.  One such privilege is having access to the RedsFest season ticket holder-only "VIP Lounge" on the second floor of the convention center:

Paraphrasing Adam Horowitz, the beat was a-bumpin' and - I'm sure had I looked closely enough - the girlies was hot.  However, there wasn't a spare leather-covered seat cushion for me to fall into so I split this scene after spending less than 2 minutes there and crossing paths with 700WLW SportsTalk host Lance McAlister (he said "Hey," I gave him a nod of the coconut).

The Reds Country faithful packed RedsFest as per usual:

In the photo above you are seeing approximately one-third of the main floor area. If my bearings are correct, this is the east end of the convention floor.  There is a wing off to the left for the memorabilia dealers.  Ickey Woods was there to meet and greet customers who were buying autographed stills of Ickey doing the grocery store shuffle (signed Gonna get some cold cuts today! Ickey Woods) as seen in a popular insurance company commercial.  George Foster, David Fulcher and Phil Castellini were spied among the memorabilia vendors, too.

RedsFest is a two-day event.  The highlight of Day One was this (below):

Primate on a Stick.

I'm still not certain if it was a lemur, perhaps it was higher-classification mammalian - a marsupial of some description, or a Mad Scientist miniaturized version of Big Randy, but that little guy hung onto his stick for hours just as serene as could be.  As for the lesser highlights which I found time to photograph from Day One.....

.....Chillin' with Mike Leake.....

.....peepin' on Jay Bruuuuuce signing autographs.....

.....Joey Votto rendered in LEGO, found in the Louisville Slugger Factory & Museum booth....

.....getting an autograph (not shown) from Daniel Corcino (shown, above).  Also not photographed were the two slices of LaRosa's pizza and the chocolate-covered Oreo I crushed.

Day Two of RedsFest did not feature any Primates on a Stick and in this I was very disappointed.  However, I did score the autographs of three prospects at once:

Jon Matthews, slightly blurry in the foreground, a moderately blurry Jon Moscot in the middle and Jesse Winker blurred nearly to obscurity in the distance.  I've been carrying around with me a so-called prospects ball since the 2009 edition of RedsFest.  I've had to retire the ball after the addition of Jesse Winker as there is no more space for signatures on that baseball.  Among the 20 "prospects" to be found on it are current Major Leaguers Todd Frazier, Mike Leake, Zack Cozart, Devin Mesoraco, Chris Heisey, Logan Ondrusek, Travis Wood, Chris Valaika (is he still in the Bigs with some other franchise?) and Billy Hamilton.

Just 45 minutes before closing time on Day Two I had a conversation with The 'Famer.

Marty Brennaman!  He axed me my name and from where I hailed and we shared a brisk, in-depth 1 minute exchange about Miami University.  There's a lot to be said about Miami, said Martin.  Comically, I left it at that.

Christmas card history was made a few hours earlier on Day Two when I let 2010 National League MVP Joey Votto have his picture taken with me:

I am blotto for Votto!

Roll the credits!