On the Minor League side of the equation, most of the Winter Meetings action took place at at the Indiana Convention Center:

 

The view directly across the street:

And the scene inside. A huge portion of the Winter Meetings is spent traversing through corridors such as these:

 

Job Fair interviews took place in this room (each team received its own numbered table from which to conduct interviews):

Meanwhile, Job Fair attendees prepared for their interviews in the Work Room. This area was a hotbed of Machiavellian machinations:

 

On Monday, I gave a presentation at the Bob Freitas Business seminar, entitled “From the Outside Looking In, A Writer Surveys the Minor League Scene”. The presentation was delivered three times consecutively, leaving me thoroughly exhausted.

The following shot is from my final (and least-attended) presentation. It is taking all my willpower for me not to identify the individual who took a cell phone call without even leaving his or her seat.

 
I spent much of Tuesday at the Trade Show. I’ll do a separate post on all of the free food I was able to score, but here are a few shots of the action.

A physical manifestation of my subconscious:

Breakin’ BBoy McCoy, performing at the Skillville booth:

Posing with the one and only Dave the Horn Guy. I’m on the left.

On Tuesday evening I stopped by the Marriot Lobby, to see what was shaking on the Major League side of things. In a total deviation from standard operating procedure, a bunch of people were standing around with drinks in hand:

The scene where I was staying was quite different, however. The Crowne Plaza Hotel used to be a train station, and is attached to still-active Union Station. The building vibrated every time a train passed through, guests had the option of staying in Pullman Cars, and the lobby was populated by plaster “ghosts”:

Check back tomorrow for the aforementioned Trade Show free food extravaganza. Friday’s post, meanwhile, will focus on Lucas Oil Field (home of the Indianapolis Colts and site of this year’s annual Baseball Gala). After that, the Indy well will have run dry.

But that’s okay. I’ll just take my bucket and find a new drinking supply.

benjamin.hill@mlb.com
twitter.com/bensbiz