Brewers On Deck

So like an idiot, I drug my butt out of bed on a beyond freezing Saturday morning to go down to the Midwest Airlines Center for Brewers On Deck, only to find that there were even bigger idiots who had been lined up since 5 am. 5 am!! In sub zero temperatures! All for a chance to pay $25 for a Ryan Braun or Trevor Hoffman autograph. Everything was set up on the third floor, and the line was already down to the first floor when I got there at 9:30. Across the first floor, across the second floor, across the skywalk and back, then across the third floor.

So I finally make it through the gate on the third floor. Just like last year, there was little to no organization, no clear demarkation in terms of where lines started and ended. Lines were jumbled all up together, and signage was minimal. Do the Brewers employ anyone with any kind of event planning experience??

I went to the food court area to get some lunch and there were, I think, four vendor windows, and some carts selling food. After waiting for 10 minutes for a burger in a line that never moved, I finally went and bought a hot dog from one of the carts. $6 for a hot dog and a canned soda. Then I went looking for somewhere to sit. There might have been 100 tables set up. There were over 10,000 people at that event, and they set up maybe 100 tables. Most of them sat four, but a couple could hold 6. So at any one time, about 450 could sit and eat. I wasn't one of them.

Next year, for the love of God, pony up some money to pay someone with event planning experience!!

Enough of the bad stuff. The coolest thing this year was was the photo stages. So instead of waiting in line for hours to get a couple of autographs, I bounced around the photo stages all day and got tons of shots with most of the guys there. You can see the album here.

So that's it for now. 69 days till Opening Day! Go Brewers!