BCBL Draft 2010 – San Diego

 

The festivities got off to a roaring start when the early arrivers met on Thursday night at a nice seafood and steak place to have a welcome dinner. Everyone was trying to figure out who everyone was taking the on Saturday (the usual stuff) and it was a very nice time.

Friday was the big tour day for the league... We went to a nice place on the water to have breakfast. It was nice.. the food was good and the weather was nice. After breakfast we walked by the water...

Next up was the PETCO park tour. I am enclosing some photos of that as well.. Including the 5 of us doing the tour in the visitors dugout (from left to right... Bob Madiar, Bob Courter, Frank McIlvaine, Steve Miles, and Daryl Birch). I am also enclosing some shots from the press box, and the visitors locker room... we also went through the resturant that serves the premium seats free meals (or course the season ticket for those seats was $26k a year if I remember correctly). PETCO is a beautiful park, and that part of the city was fairly unusual. No stop lights in that area, just 4 way stop signs, and almost no traffic... for a major city it seemed very unusual.

After that we went about a mile and did a tour of the USS Midway a WW2 era aircraft carrier, that was the command post of the US fleet during the first gulf war. This carrier was huge... normal cruising during peacetime consumed 100,000 gallons of diesel per day. We spent all afternoon on that ship and there were 62 stopping points we got to around 20 of them...

We then went back to the PETCO park area and met up with Tim for afternoon drinks. We then finished off the day by going to Old Town in SD for the traditional pre draft BCBL dinner. Tom met us there, completing the group. We went to a Mexican resturant with wandering musicians.... Steve Miles was telling me who to draft, but the danged musicians kept yelling Ole and I missed it (no wonder my draft turned out so pathetic.... ). By a happy coincidence it was my birthday that day and I am enclosing a photo of the little dessert that the resturant was nice enough to give me... (that Nancy ate!).

Draft day itself the weather was cloudy, but since we were indoors the timing was perfect. The wives event for the day was a trip to the SD Zoo annex, which is the breeding facility for the world famous SD Zoo. From what Nancy told me the highlight of that trip was the wierd Zebra and baby giraffes. I am enclosing 2 of her pictures... Even though it rained most of the day at Bob's house the wives missed most of that rain at the zoo.

You all know how the draft went, it is always nice in a group... since everyone makes fun of you immediately... However, unlike most years, this draft seemed to go pretty much according to the script... Not too many early surprises. We drafted alot of players (as a league) this year, so it took a little longer than usual... but everything went fairly smoothly. (Of course Tim had brought some 8% alcohol content beer to the draft... so it went real smooth at draft central!). After the draft finished up we got some Pizza and even more beer, and had the usual discussions about how everyone thought that they did... (It is a sign of the times... I think the entire league this year drank less beer than RIck Michal did alone in the first draft in Fairfield in 1981.... ).

All in all and excellent draft weekend... and the league once again expresses its gratitude to the SD members of the league especially Bob Courter, for hosting the draft. (I got real jealous when I was in Bob's computer/game room and saw his Hall of Fame wall.. with signed pictures of Hall of Famers on it... I have a nice painting of the Foxes that Dr. Bob did for me years ago on my wall.... but whenever someone else has one of those nice displays I love it... Like Elly and his wall of Yankee caps....)

Well anyway it was a terrific time, great to see everyone and even better to meet some more BCBLers. I am already looking forward to next year!

Frank