Well I must admit that I was one of the 100K+ people that attended the “Fan Fest” and I will say that it was definitely a nice time for the kids, but for the adults, it may as well have been truthfully advertised as a “health fair” or “trade show” – when I wasn’t being pitched with credit card applications and offers to try out “xm satellite radio” and buying a chevy (which I explained to the young gent attempting to sell me a cobalt-that I didn’t bring that kind of money with me :p), I was being scared to death about the dangers of DVT (Deep Venuous Thrombosis) – it was more geared towards the kids and for them, it was fantastic….
(sidenote) The folks that hired trade show representatives for MasterCard SpeedPass and Comcast – YOUR REPRESENTATIVES were truly AWFUL – the SpeedPass ladies were more interested in painting their fingernails than they were at engaging any potential customers – BTW, DO NOT EVER EVER USE SPEEDPASS IF YOU VALUE YOUR IDENTITY AND INFORMATION, as IT security folks, we could easily demonstrate how easily your SPEEDPASS information can be hijacked without you even knowing..all for under $200 at a local radio shak. I actually approached a Comcast representative to let them know that I am currently trying out the Verizon FIOS network and that I am considering dropping my Comcast Broadband alltogether and asked her for a reason why I should keep my Comcast account – she had NO response – TBH, I am not even sure she knew what FIOS was – FYI, nothing wrong with hiring a pretty face to do a trade show for your company, but at least attempt to train them on the basics of sales.
I was truly impressed and awe-struck by Pittsburgh’s showing in this truly magical event that is the all-star game and festivities. The homerun derby was quite a show and I was thoroughly surprised by that David Wright from the “Fets” (true pirate fans will remember this reference) and was simply left speechless as I watched over a dozen balls hit the river from Ryan Howard and Big Papi and when Howard hit the 500 free flights sign – (dick vitale quote) “Are you kidding me?!” All told, Century 21 donated over $550,000 ($300K to baseball charities + $250K towards the purchase of a home) and MasterCard (yes, the same SpeedPass folks) donated nearly $500,000 in the estimated value of those free flights – whoever those folks were that won those flights, please contact me on this blog 
If only that kid that hit the balls at the beginning of the AS game could have hit one of those tarps out in the outfield for a cool $1M from Taco Bell – I wonder if he had to hit them on a fly or could he have hit it on the ground, if so, i would have hit very hard grounders out there.
While many of you out there were surprised by the outcome of the All-Star Game, I was not…not because the dreaded American League had like a 10 game winning streak going into last nights game, nope, for me the game was decided the minute that Phil Garner chose Jim Tracy to be on his Coaching staff – that’ll learn him :p
Seriously though, you almost have to smile between the tears of being a Pirate fan, the National League lost another 1 run decision – how appropriate :p
