Went to the HR derby Just got back and i can't explain how awesome it was to be a part of that and see the things i saw. That was probably the greatest sports related experience i've had in my life. I got to fan fest this morning and my dad and some of his friends that work in the orioles organization got some signatures from the likes of "fingers" and carl (i have no clue how to spell this so bear with me) yvstrevsky. you get the idea. but anyways, we got to the ball park in time for the amerinican batting practice witch was fun. I was in the right feild foul lline chatting it up with vladamir and esteban loaiza....well maybe not chatting it up , more like me yelling at him to give me the balls he's shaggin out there. Oh and by the way, the guy has an arm. He was chuck in the balls into the upper deck. I think everyone's jaw dropped wehn they witnessed this. then we saw all of the living members of the 500 HR club which was a once in a life time deal. you dont see that every day, so naturally i took a billion pictures. So anyways, watched the batting practice, then the derby started with bonds leading it off. He entered hearing the booo's cheers and the faint chants of steeeerrrrrrr oiiiiiddddssss. Regardless of how you feel about the guy, he can crush a baseball. He was obviously my pick to win it, but what suprised me was berkman. The guy was a freak out there with teh bat. I'm suprised the glass didn't break givin the ammount of balls he hit there. then of course, sammy choked, which was a terrible dissapointment. then palmiero did his thing and we were into the second round. They opend up the dome and the place turned into a launching pad for tejada and berkman. i'm sure most of you watched it so i dont really have to go into detail about that duel. It was incredible. after teh game we went to teh ESPN booth and watched gammons and reynolds chatting it up for baseball tonight but that didn't last long, we were ushered out of the building. so we're playing around with the bagwell and biggio statues that are outside the park and we noticed a TV interview taking place so we walked towards it just wondering who the heck it was....and low and behold it was the great ozzie smith. So naturally we waited to get his john hancock. My dad got his auto on a gold glove ball and a regualr MLB official ball with his number and the signature HOF on there too. i didn't have anything so i had him sign my Ticket. Might not be muched but it was ozzie smith, i would have taken his signature on an emtpy beer can at that point just to have it. so anyways it was a great night, one that i will never forget. I got some pcitures and i'm thinkin of making a site that has all of them on there since i dont want to flood the forusm with them. great night, i'd rather watch that then the all star game any day. i suggest to everyone that they go to a HR derby at least once. I know i'll be going to more in the future. Hope i didn't bore anyone lol
