July 6, 2004 - BOB
Baltimore, MD
Camden Yards tonight. I get to see my Bella tomorrow. Some sweetness will most definitely wash over this group with the arrival of the ladies. It’s what dad needs and what I need. I need to call my Orioles contact -- make that 13 tickets. And I need to call Big Bri (a good friend from back in high school) and get square with the housing situation in Boston. It’s so cool we get two nights there.
Highlights:
Enjoyed our pre game meal at Pickles Pub (right across the street from Camden Yards). Our company, the Shinholts as well as the Dunlops are fantastic. They bought dad an O’s hat and signed it -- very nice touch. They also got us a very nice room right next to the Baltimore Airport.
I had my first (as far as I’m aware of) ugly technical camera gaffe tonight at the game -- I was interviewing a VERY entertaining beer vendor (his call for beer was outstanding) and didn’t have the mic turned on. Oh boy...he’s very nicely framed, though...
As for Camden itself, I wasn’t as blown away as I hoped. It’s a nice park, no doubt. I think it came along at a time when everyone still had the 70’s concrete rings or old cavernous pits for parks and so it sparked a lot of interest (the copycats are numerous). Now it’s...well, it’s still nice. But I didn’t feel the magic I was hoping for. Could have just been my expectations.
Now the Toronto deal: we need to let people know what’s going on there. It’s amazing how quickly time runs. I just thought how we’d been on the road for over two weeks yesterday; on the one hand it feels like we just started, on the other it’s like we’ve been on the road forever! It’s Crrrrrrrrazy like that.
I know I’ve got tons of marketing stuff to do. Let people know, let people know, let people know. It’s hard to crack people’s “life-shell”. We’re all busy. We’ve all got “lots to do”. To break out of that and do something unique takes effort, more effort than a lot of us are willing to allow. That is what I’m up against.
The hole in the schedule with the Yanks game is Big-Big proof of that. It seems like we should have a big event going on there. Then again, in a city that is bigger and busier than many countries in the world, who am I fooling? What do we and a hill of beans matter?
As for the Jays, I guess I felt like, okay -- I met Greg Zaun and the Jays P.R. guy already down in Tampa Bay, so it should be all good (i.e.: donate some tickets, get it on, bang a gong, etc.). Was I not clear? Possible? Did I call the Parkinson group in Toronto? I think so.
Random thought of the moment:
Bitterness and cynicism make the troubles, shortcomings and foolishness of others easy to see and criticize.
That same power of (limited) sight is, itself, limited -- it gives one an uber focus on one thing and therefore every time it is seen, it is pointed out and the limited focus is validated -- and narrowed. The person becomes critique-savant.
Said more simply, we see what we want to see, not necessarily what "is".
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