Lou is the greatest!
The food was pretty good, too!
Attendees all went home with a miniature version of the Perez sculpture (or is it a statue?) you see above and an autographed Perez jersey. We were seated right next to the silent auction table featuring, at center in the photograph below, an ice sculpture commemorating the Mayor of Riverfront (the Mayor of Riverfront not pictured):
This (below) is my Joshua Tree album cover photo outtake:
How good were our seats? I was just a couple of tables over from the Hit King (center, below)....
....and a few tables behind Joe Morgan (red jacket, back to me):
The non-BRM attendees formed a Who's Who photographic shooting gallery! In no particular order:
Dave "the Cobra" Parker!
Chris Dickerson (with arm in a sling)!
The large mass of human being standing at center (above), PLARF HOFer Anthony Munoz! [Big Red Machinist Ken Griffey seated in foreground]
Famous restaurateur Jeff Ruby (white hat) with his hand on the shoulder of Peter Edward Rose who is seen speaking with Tommy Helms (seated, dark jacket)!
Reds owner Robert (he let's me call him "Bob") Castellini! Here's a wide angle photo of Bob propping up the Handlebar bar:
And here's a photo of Bob walking right past me:
Bob didn't stop to say Hello. I don't think he saw me, otherwise I know - I just know! - he would have.
Montreal Expo Andre "the Hawk" Dawson! I got big-timed by Dawson when I went to axe him for a photograph. Here was my approach, my arm gesturing towards the Hawk just as he turns away:
Dejection! This could be the best photograph of 2015. Props to Lou for continuing to shoot even after I got big-timmed. I eventually got this photo of Lou with a cup of coffee photobombing Dawson (checking out the auction items):
Prior to the dinner being served, I spent a few minutes speaking with my close personal friend Davey Concepcion (dark red shirt, just over my right shoulder), Lou snapping this photograph as I stepped away from Davey:
While I was engaged in a deep conversation with Davey (topic; our being smart for choosing to stand directly underneath the a/c vent [it was warm inside The Handlebar]), Lou was speaking with BRM pitcher Pat Darcy about the Great American Ball Park. I failed to get a reciprocal photograph. D'oh!
I didn't get to speak with Johnny Bench, but I sidled up along side him (wearing his All-Star Game Hometown Legends jacket):
JB did manage to inadvertently photobomb us:
After dinner, the BRM assembled on stage to roast Tony:
I took the photo above from the back of the room, at the bar. Lou took the post-roast team photo, below:
As the dinner and roast wound down, the man of the hour walked right past my table!
Apropos of nothing, my drive home was made all the more pleasant by hearing one of the great, lost staples of 1980s FM radio and one of the classic late-night cruising tunes:
Lately, there always seems to be a Led Zeppelin connection to my days and nights down at the old ballyard.
Exactly one month later, in September, the Hit King made an appearance on the campus of Miami University speaking on a topic titled "Ethics in Sports." The crowd outside Hall Auditorium was large, vocal and animated:
The Incomparable Joe Wilhelm mooched some free tickets off Jude and invited me along with another local VIP and baseball living legend:
That's right! The Hit Doctor!
Pete was "interviewed" by a Cincinnati sports columnist of zero repute. The dialog quickly spiraled into locker room humor. There was a time when Pete was fascinating to listen to but with the loss of self-censoring filters which accompanies the onset of old age and too many years on the sports stag circuit, Pete's presentation has degenerated into too-oft told stories about bathroom accidents befalling Willie Mays, well-endowed female fans and things about Joe DiMaggio that only Marilyn Monroe should know. About half the auditorium was filled with students who began taking notes at the start of the presentation and then, not surprisingly, gave up after about 30 minutes. Who knows what their collective assignments were, but Pete didn't deliver for them. In fact, a group of co-eds seated directly behind me were as indignant as millennials can get over Pete's brand of bawdy humor. "Gawd, what a total [expletive deleted] this guy is!"
Pete was also featured in a season ticket holder-only interview, conducted by Reds Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman, in December:
Despite Marty's best efforts, it was a rehash of Pete's September performance in Oxford. I don't think the ten year-olds in front of me understood the Joe DiMaggio anecdote.
The unheralded star of the evening was this guy, seen standing at the front of the stage:
That's one of my top secret sources deep within the Reds organization, this one codenamed BOSS. He wasn't alone for long as he was soon joined by some heavyweights of Redsdom, as befitting someone with the importance of BOSS:
Boss stands, at left, with Marty, VP of Biz Ops Karen Forgus and Phil Castellini.
December is, of course, also the month of RedsFest:
You're welcome! Sal Romano (pitcher, left) and Kyle Waldrop (outfielder, right), sitting below the banner, signed so few autographs that I went through the line twice. I tried to get Lou and my niece to join me but they were upstairs kicking back and snacking in the season ticket holder VIP lounge.
Did somebody say VIP Lounge?
They were having so much fun, I went up to join them after getting a half dozen or so Sal Romano and Kyle Waldrop autographs!
Chillin'!
My youngest niece waits in line for an autograph of her new favorite player, Ivan de Jesus, Junior. Here she's wearing an IdJJ game-worn ball cap. And here she is getting it signed:
Somebody else (not me) got an IdJJ signature also:
Look who also got Homer Bailey to sign a game-worn St Patrick's Day jersey.
The drive down for Day 2 of RedsFest was foggy!
Since I couldn't see where I was going, I decided it wasn't any more unsafe to take photographs of my journey. In the photo above, there's a car just ahead of me. Seriously!
There it is!
Nope. I'm losing it again.
Heading out the door at the end of Day 2, I spotted another Reds heavyweight:
There! Do you see him? Look again....
That's my other source deep within the Reds organization, this one codenamed CAMPBELL.
A great time was had by all.
Roll the credits!
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