Covering my first Baseball Winter Meetings was a daunting task. I had no networking to speak of except a few local scribes and some people I met along the way covering the Devil Rays. That is not a complaint but a fact of life for the new guy on the block.

 

There is a lot of down time where you split it dreaming of story lines and walking the corridors hoping to stumble on an interview or two. I was twice lucky on the latter but it had not been for a lot of releases stacked on the tables, the former would have been blank cyberspace.

 

I missed a meeting with the Rays' brass, not that there was a lot of news there, because I wandered into the semi-invite trade show one level below the lobby and I can say it was the highlight of my trip.

 

Well maybe the second as the Barry Bonds arrival looked like a top prize fighter with all the hangers-on. If there was an a aerial view and with Bonds rather oversized skull, it could have been mistaken for a sperm with the slugger in front and his loyals following him in a squiggly formation through the crowd of reporters and up to the Giants suite (glad it wasn't called sweet because no one would ever eat candy again).

 

We all knew he was coming as every miserable lout that dares step onto Disney property is automatically sprinkled with a special fairy dust to let all the good people know that "one of them" is coming.

 

I spoke to a number of workers at the Dolphin Resort and none of them were sure when the anti-surly device was installed but one longtime employee remembered an incident from a seven or eight years back when someone from St. Petersburg with a Notre Dame sticker in the window arrived and all he kept screaming was," Do you know who I am."

 

He said he had an odd allergy where he broke out in hives after seeing the color red, hence the calming effect of the neutral colors around the building.

 

I also saw former Rays GM Chuck LaMar and maybe that is why I got very ill the first day. Seriously. I thought I was going to die by the time I got back to my hotel room. Sick, temperature, heat turned up to max, wrapped up in sweatshirt and thick bedspread.

 

Be that as it may, I was absolute giddy with all the stuff I could have had if my name were Getty. Imagine, an specially inscribed Devil Rays four-foot high waste can in my office.

 

How about a mascot costume of the great Harry Carey, mike in hand. The only thing missing was a glass of his favorite brew in the other.

 

It was soup to nuts and everything between. I was like a kid in a sweet shop with aisles as far as the eye could see only I had a wallet filled with moths. Didn't matter though, it was still an experience to see all the stuff an owner can buy just to make his or her park look purdy.

 

Back upstairs, the lobby had a tree the size of Rockefeller Center made of funny feeling leaves of beige and pink with humongous green bows for accents.

 

Did it make me feel like Christmas? Not really and I had to decide which sight was better, the tree or seeing Bonds and Friends.

 

Sounds like a show for FOX News Channel because they don't have many friends either. Hello? Bill O? Need a co-host who is just as paranoid? He'll be available in a year or so. Just call 415-BARRY-25. Just leave a message. I'm sure he'll call you right after CSI San Francisco is over.

 

One of the best rumors, or worst depending on your point of view, was a great man by the name of Tony LaRussa wanting to talk to Bonds or his agent. Can you imagine a dolt like Barry in St. Louis where the best baseball fans on the planet live?

 

I know, I know. Tony has a history with guys like Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire so adding a Bonds would seem logical but for what reason?

 

It's not like baseball's best city needs more fannies in the seats of the new Busch Stadium.

 

It's not like Bonds would make you win any more games either - simply check how many times HE has been to the World Series since he began play back in 1986. Try once.

 

There were faces in new places, old faces from the past and faces that went unrecognized and the mass of humanity had a feel more like Times Square on New Year's Eve than Tropicana Field on game night.

 

Please, no hate mail.

 

The reference to our beloved building in downtown St. Pete was made because there is still the Naimoli feel of "Baseball Not Spoken Here" inside all that concrete and canvass despite all the work the new owners have done to suppress it.

 

Disney was a grand host, Major League Baseball did everything nearly everything to a timed minute, MLB Radio, ESPN and XM were there interviewing anyone still standing after four No-Doze popping days.

 

As it turned out, it was actually something Bud Selig could not screw up. Had he tried, you can believe the landscapers were ready with their shovels to dig old Walt up and straighten things out.

 

If there was one regret, I was there to cover the Devil Rays and wound up writing about ex-Rays more. I would have liked to see more action from our team but I don't write the checks.

 

I know that Andrew Friedman and Gerry Hunsicker were trying. I know that Stuart Sternberg and Joe Maddon was hopeful. I, like others, were bored at times.

 

But in the end I came to realize the top guys were untouchable because the Monopoly Money Mania had returned to baseball and the Rays could not be players.

 

When average players like Lilly and Drew and Meche were pulling down $10-14 mil per on long term deals, the Bay Bunch were in trouble.

 

Deep trouble.

 

But it was still four days at a Disney Resort and it was baseball.

 

Things just don't get any better than that.