This is from Joe Posnanski. I thought it was pretty funny.
<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->So, I made it to Las Vegas for the Winter Meetings, and I’ve already seen Tommy Lasorda, Bobby Valentine and a cocktail waitress who looks almost exactly like Elizabeth Hurley. I did not see them together, alas, but the Winter Meetings have only begun. There’s plenty of time for Vegas and baseball to collide.
The first thing they give you when you arrive at the Winter Meetings is a very large credential that you wear around your neck like it’s an Olympic gold medal. This has always interested me because the Winter Meetings are not like other events … you don’t actually get to GO anywhere. Sure, if you’re going to, say, the Olympics, of course, you have to wear a credential around your neck, that’s what will get you into the venue to see what you’re trying to see.
But there’s nothing to see at the Winter Meetings. Basically, the job is all about standing in the hotel lobby and seeing baseball people you recognize and saying to them, “So, you hear anything?” I’m really not sure why you would need a special PASS to do that. I think mostly we wear these passes so people can see us coming.
ANYWAY, in addition to giving us badges, they also give us this very official looking three-ringed binder with the label: 2008 Winter Meetings, December 8-11, Las Vegas, NV. The binder LOOKS like it would have all sorts of great, official information in there, trade rumors, photographs of baseball people we should keep our eyes on, etc. It really doesn’t. It had a welcome letter, Rule 5 Draft Worksheets, all the 40-man rosters … I mean, good stuff, but not quite what you would expect considering the James Bond look of the binder.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Joe Posnanski
