Leather-Bound Books and Rich Mahogany: Padres Social Media Night

Alternate Title:  I'm Kind of a Big Deal.

Ron Burgundy: I don't know how to put this but I'm kind of a big deal.

Veronica Corningstone: Really. 

Ron Burgundy: People know me. 

Veronica Corningstone: Well, I'm very happy for you. 

Ron Burgundy: I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.

Monday, August 27th, was the first Padres Social Media Night.  I wasn't planning on going, for various reasons, not the least of which was it sold out 40 minutes before the tickets even went on sale (Or so I've heard. May or may not be accurate.).

Lucky for me, I was on Twitter on August 21st just when Corey Brock, the Padres beat writer for mlb.com, tweeted the rules & question for a contest to win a pair of tickets.

I just so happened to be the 27th person to enter.  Which sucked because he was giving the tickets to the 25th person.  Turns out, two of the previous entries were from smart asses (I'm looking at you, Marty Caswell...).  About ten minutes later, Corey posted this:

A hearty congrats to @ghostofrak. He's the winner of two tickets to #PadresSocial on 8/27. #Padres
— Follow The Padres (@FollowThePadres) August 21, 2012

If you read this prior post, you know I've had a bad month.  So I was really excited to win these tickets.
And, judging by the responses & mentions on Twitter, so were a lot of you, for some reason.  Let me just say, to all the people who took time out to wish me congrats, thank you.

And now, after the jump, we can start to relive the night.

Bud Black announced a few days before the game that Casey Kelly would be called up and make his first Major League start that day.  So now, these tickets were gold!  Gold, I tell you!

The email from the Padres said to be there by 4:15pm to participate in every aspect of the event.

And wouldn't you know it, my Padres & Pints cohorts, RJ's Fro & Avenging Jack Murphy had managed to score tickets when they went on sale.  Also in attendance were representatives from The Sacrifice Bunt, Woe Doctor!, and The Friarhood.

(Sorry for the less than stellar quality of the photos.  I didn't feel like lugging around my good camera setup all day, so I just used my phone.)

Watching batting practice from the field.

Dick Enberg & Don Sutton comparing inane stories, probably.

At one point, Chase Headley was in the batting cage, and he hit one out that appeared to hit someone.  So, of course, a bunch of us started tweeting that Headley had killed someone.  Of course, I had to up the ante.

Chase Headley just killed an entire Boy Scout troop during BP. #PadresSocial
— Ray Kroc's Ghost (@GhostofRAK) August 27, 2012

Yeah, that's Yonder Alonso.  He looks like he could be my brother.
Or my son...

Turns out all those stories Harry the Heckler told about
Chipper Jones on Padres POV were accurate.

After about an hour on the field, we all took a group picture in the dugout.  This is stitched together from Leila Rahimi's tweets.

I have mad Photoshop skills.
In that I must be quite mad to think I know what I'm doing.

Of course, as soon as I get done with stitching those pictures together, the Padres communication manager, Shana Wilson, sends out a thank you email with the "official" photo attached.  Dammit.

Mine looks better...

Shana & Josh, the Padres social media director, then escorted us to our suite, which was on the Garden Level of the Western Metal Building.

They had food delivered almost all night.  Hodad's.  Cold Stone Creamery.  Filippi's Pizza.  Nothing Bundt Cake.  Alas, beer was not included.  But that gave us a reason to visit with Neil the Beer Man.  Like we needed a reason.

 

Avenger In Chief & RJ's Fro stock up with Neil the Beer Man.

I'd be remiss if I didn't offer my congratulations to Neil.  For this piece of news:

Big news from Beermanland. I'm going to be a dad!@refreshbymidori and I are expecting a little one in early April. We're pretty excited.
— Neil the Beerman (@neilthebeerman) August 28, 2012

You'll be a great dad, Neil.  Just keep the kid away from the beer cellar for at least 21 years.


They also had a few tablets, apparently from Verizon, for us to use.  It was quickly determined that, given the fact they hadn't downloaded any sort of Twitter app on them, the tablets were pretty much useless.  I saw a couple of people using them, but for the most part, everyone tweeted out updates from their phones.

Our view.

All night, Padres media & front office people stopped by to say hi.

Andy Masur

Randy Jones was the biggest hit by far.
But myself, RJ's Fro, and Avenging Jack Murphy big-timed him.
(Not really.)

Even Josh Byrnes, AJ Hinch, and Tom Garfinkel stopped by.  I introduced myself to Garf, and he replied with, "Oh, yeah!  I have a bone to pick with you."

Luckily, he was just kidding.  Big joker, that Tom Garfinkel.

Leila Rahimi stopped by in the 5th to do a live shot with us.  I managed to somehow get selected to sit behind her, along with Dex & Jbox from Gaslamp Ball.  I couldn't hear a word she was saying.  So I didn't realize until I got home and watched the replay that she said Ghost of RACK.  Disappointing, to say the least.  But, I forgive her, because I can say she's a friend now.  And that's what friends do.  Plus, the view from my vantage point at the time was enviable, to say the least.

Good luck in Houston, Leila.  Don't forget the little guys.  And by little, I mean the Gaslamp Ball guys.  They were the ones acting like fools behind you, not me.

Corey Brock hung out with us the entire game.  At one point, someone handed him a beer and made him guess what it was.  He got it on the 2nd guess, and the 1st guess was the same brewery.  The man knows his beer.

Speaking of beer, I finally met Ryan, the marketing/communications manager for Karl Strauss Brewery.  If you have read this blog before, you know I love me some Red Trolley.  Anyway, Ryan sent me these about two months ago.

Never underestimate my ability to bug the crap out of someone for free schwag.

I take my assignment as Advance Scout for Padres & Pints very seriously, so you can expect a future episode to happen at Karl Strauss' soon to be completed tasting room at the main brewery.  Guest to be announced.

I had such a good time, I barely paid attention to the game.  But I blame that mostly on my decision to sit in the air conditioned suite, charging my phone, until the 7th.

The Padres won, 3-0.  Casey Kelly pitched a gem.  Hopefully, this kid has many more performances like this in him.

So, that's it.  There's really nothing more I can tell you.  I hope you had as much of a hard time reading this as I had trying to remember details and writing this drivel.