Winter Meetings Story

[Rex Hudler]

I'll share a Winter Meetings story, since tonight is the Gala held each year at the Winter Meetings. Since most of the goings on from the Meetings land in this thread, I'll post it here.

 

The last time the Winter Meetings were held in Dallas was 2000. Each year there is a huge Gala, usually on Sunday night, as the meetings are winding down (until this year). When the WM are held in an MLB city, the gala is always held at the MLB ballpark. That year it was held at The Ballpark at Arlington.

 

They bus everyone there and dropped us off at the museum entrance. We walked through the museum as wait staff were carrying trays of Budweiser and Miller Lite offering to anyone who would take one. We checked out the museum for awhile and then headed out into the ballpark. Basically there was a path to follow, which led behind CF and around the park. Along the way there were food vendors in portable stands, offering different types of food and of course, beer. The "tour" followed to the visiting locker room where they had a full southwestern spread, complete with Mexican beers and food. We nibbled a bit, had another beer or two and moved on.

 

We ended up in the private club behind home plate (now called the Crown Royal Club). There they had the biggest spread you have ever seen. They had a huge double buffet line with just about anything you could imagine. They had carving stations for beef, separate stations where you could get nachos and tacos, a huge dessert table with 20-30 different kinds of dessert. They had a band playing. Just outside of the club, they had a Jose Cuervo station where you could get free shots of Cuervo Especial(?) and a Mexican hand-rolling cigars, all of this free for the taking.

 

After we ate a ton and had several beers, we sojourned out on the patio and enjoyed a little Cuervo (I'm not a big tequila drinker) and stood in line to get a cigar. The line was about 30 people deep and this guy was rolling them as fast as he could. Well I got mine, along with a few others and we were enjoying them. I was standing next to the line talking to some other friends that had yet to get theirs. While in line, a girl comes up to the guy rolling them and checks to see how many more he had left. She came back about 15 minutes later and took five. When asked what they were for, she said Mr. Hicks (Rangers owner) had a very important meeting and wanted them for later that night.

 

We didn't think too much of it and we continued our fun, drinking, etc.

 

The next morning, we had a flight out of Dallas somewhere around 10. As we were leaving the Anatole Hotel to head to the airport, there was a buzz around the lobby. It was announced very shortly after, that the Rangers had signed Alex Rodriguez to the biggest contract in baseball history. I smiled knowing that I smoked the same cigar that Mr. Hicks, Scott Boras and company had smoked the night before after consummating the deal. I was hung over and had to get on a plane, but it was pretty cool knowing that deal was being negotiated right there in the stadium that night while I was getting drunk.

[rangercal]

that is a great story! You know how to live it up!

[iWiN4PreP]

very nice story

[Chisoxfn]

Good stuff Rex