Winter Meetings Blog Writer Journal, December 8

Last week, I dedicated my little slice of internet infinity to the recollections and reflections of four Winter Meetings job seekers. This week, I’ll provide my own Twitter-centric account of the week that was.

Tuesday, December 8

Call it a routine, or call it a rut, but one thing’s for sure: Year after year after year, my Winter Meetings’ experience follows the same basic pattern. Monday is dedicated to a run of programmed events (the Bob Freitas Business Seminar, Opening Session, etc) and then Tuesday is Trade Show Day.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Trade Show. I love it because it is an awe-inspiring accumulation of vendors who, together, fulfill just about every conceivable baseball industry need. I hate it because I write about it every year and feel like I don’t have anything new to say. Also, it is a thoroughly exhausting place in which to spend an afternoon. Walking down the aisles, one can feel the eyes of the vendors as they look at your name badge to discern if you are a prospective client. It is an environment of subtle glances, awkward smiles and constant surveillance. Kind of like high school.

I began my time at the Trade Show as I often do, by visiting the Lynn University booth and addressing the students in professor Ted Curtis’s sports management program. Professor Curtis does this every year, giving his charges a great first-hand glimpse at the inner workings of the baseball industry. I imagine that it is an invaluable experience for them; through the years I have crossed paths with Lynn students at various MiLB ballparks. Just look at the prominence they have achieved.

Stephen Goldsmith, designated eater, Jupiter Hammerheads

Andrew Pollowitz, intern, Potomac Nationals

Hey, you gotta start somewhere! Anyhow, thanks to Ted and company for having me out to their booth once again.

As a point of reference, this picture illustrates how much weight I have gained and hair I have grown since speaking to Lynn Students during the 2012 Nashville Winter Meetings.

Next up on the Trade Show agenda was to meet with the lumbering force of nature that is MiLB.com Jack of All Trades Danny Wild. He served as my photographer and videographer for a piece we put together on the Trade Show. You can check it out HERE.

Included within the piece is this video.

[milbvideo id=”533846083" width=”480" height=”270" /]

Everyone should also be aware of the following piece of information, which is that OT Sports is now hawking officially licensed KISS theme jerseys.

Get ready, El Paso. (Will Eliza”Beth”ton be next?)

After grabbing some lunch and doing some writing in the gargantuan media work room, I was reminded that an election was about to take place. Pat O’Conner was running, unopposed, for a third term as Minor League Baseball president. Always eager to see the democratic process in action, I meandered over to yet another gargantuan ballroom and witnessed a most anticlimactic election. First, each league president affirmed his or her presence during a role call. This same group of circuit overseers then unanimously elected O’Conner to a third term, which begins in January and runs through 2019.

A glimpse of the white-hot parliamentary proceedings:

Then it was back to the media room. Seemingly everyone in there, save for me, was riveted by the evening’s barrage of trades and free agent signings. It began to feel so ridiculous to me, hundreds of people essentially sharing the same information while clamoring to make their “scoop” unique. Possessed of both an absurd and arrogant nature, I started riffing.

Anyone want to chime in here?

Thanks, dude.

After finishing up my work for the day, I was feeling tired down to the marrow of my bones. Also, my stupid new shoes made it so my stupid new socks had bloodstains on the heels due to my stupid old feet. It was time for a brief rest before hitting the late-night socialization scene (a prerequisite of the Winter Meetings experience).

I turned on the TV in the hotel room and began to listlessly channel surf, soon stopping to pause in amazement. None other than Jackson Generals broadcaster Brandon Liebhaber was staring back at me! Was I in some sort of Winter Meetings Twilight Zone?

The show in which Liebhaber — and the rest of the Generals organization — appeared was called I Love Kellie Pickler. Well, I’m here to tell you something, and that something is this: I hate Kellie Pickler. This show was the bad kind of stupid, cloying and condescending and fake (despite being “reality”), and it made me want to emigrate to Canada. Duck Dynasty looks like Masterpiece Theater in comparison. But, in all serious, congrats to Liebhaber and the Generals on the CMT Network exposure. All publicity is good publicity, even when the publicity in question makes one want to pop out their eyeballs with a serrated hotel room entry card (I tried).

With Pickler-rage serving as my energy fuel, I re-entered the Opryland ecosystem and hit the bar scene. It was fun. The Winter Meetings is the only time during the year in which I can walk into a bar alone and know that there will be a lot of people therein who want to talk to me. Usually when I enter a bar alone I make a beeline for the pinball machine and don’t interact with anyone save for the drink-disbursement person situated behind the navel-level wooden barrier.

I was out and about until Semisonic came on over the stereo, but the day’s work is not done until I have written and disseminated a Groundbreaking and Subversive Joke.

Haters are my motivators.

Can’t stop, won’t stop.

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benjamin.hill@mlb.com

twitter.com/bensbiz

instagram.com/thebensbiz