AzHaloFan

I will provide some stories and much more reflections, along with some pictures by Monday night guys and gals, but for those of you who went, please share our experiences in this thread. Your highlights of our fanfest event, your pictures, your stories.

I hired Jeremy Long to take pictures of not just the Angels in the camera well the past few days, but also our Fanfest event and Tim Mead Dugout Talk this morning. He took nearly a 1000 pictures and I will go through them when I get them and post my favorites in the photo gallery here and on the Blog.

First off the Friday night dinner at the Tilted Kilt of about 40 of us was a great time and ice breaker. Pics coming soon!

Tim Mead, Jerry Dipoto and Tim Salmon all said it was great, as did Jeff Fletcher, Alden Gonzalez, Victor Rojas, Joe McDonnell ... Joe McDonnell came up to me and said he'd love to do it again.

From everyone on the board of directors, I can say with certainty that this was an event to be remembered and was the best one to date. This coming after our event last year which featured Arte Moreno who spoke for 45 minutes, along with several other players and prospects. We said after that night, there was no way to top it. We did.

Speaking of Arte, he could not make it because his sister passed away and the memorial service was on March 16th, the day of our event. We purchased 5-6 condolences cards and had the 200 in attendance sign it for Arte, which we hand delivered to him today at the ballpark.

The Tim Salmon session was FANTASTIC. Just wait to you see the video and hear our questions which I thought were very good and his insightful answers. The questions from the crowd were equally as good. That session with Tim went about 45 minutes, maybe 50. I interviewed Salmon.

We then had a roundtable session with the media on the stage, with Saltzer at the podium. David Saltzer asked about 6 really good questions -- passing around the microphone -- to Joe McDonnell, Jeff Fletcher, Alden Gonzalez and Victor Rojas. The answers were insightful, filled with many stories you'd never hear anywhere and there was a lot of humor in them as well. Victor was awesome! Joe McDonnell, Fletcher and A. Gonzalez said they thought our questions were very good ones. This session went about 35-45 minutes. Was very good! Unfortunately Mike DiGiovanna couldn't make it as he's recovering from surgery and had to stay back in LA.

Jerry Dipoto. What can I say. Jerry and Tim sat at our table for about 10-15 minutes as dinner was served, then Jerry went to the stage after our MC for the night (Bruce Nye) called him and our interviewer Geoff Stoddart up. While Dipoto was at the podium, Stoddart was to his left (same format as with Salmon) and asked 7-8 really good questions -- then like our session with Tim Salmon, went out to the crowd with the mic so that the fans could ask Jerry questions as well. The questions were very good, and as always, Dipoto's answers were insightful, rich. Just an outstanding segment. Jerry could have talked all night. When that segment was done, Jerry went back to our table, had some cake as Brian Ilten entered the stage and ran the raffle segment of the night, which concluded our event. What a good time as more than $800 in stuff was given away. Big thanks to Kyle Morrissey for donated a sign custom painting he did of Mark Trumbo. Big thanks to the OC Sports Grill who donated $400 in prizes and the Angels who gave us four boxes of Peter Bourjos bobbleheads to give away.

Travis Witherspoon, Randal Grichuk, Kole Calhoun (and his wife), Matt Oye and Mike Piazza (and his family) attended as well. They all enjoyed themselves very much. They loved interacting with the fans, signing and taking pictures with them. I love Witherspoon after getting to know him more. He is a mature kid with a big heart who happens to be extremely talented and athletic. I will share more about him later.

Tim Mead's Dugout Talk was nothing short of Outstanding. Again, insightful and the Q&A session with the fans was fantastic! We will have the video of it in the next week or two.

It was great to see the Hamiltown sign up when Josh came to the plate and see Claude get it signed by Josh Hamilton himself. Oh and our AngelsWin Sign went up during the game as well. We have pictures of that to provide later.

David Saltzer was interviewed by AM 830's Jason Brennan for about 10 minutes on the air, as they talked about our Fanfest event on Saturday and AngelsWin.com. It was great -- we should be getting the audio of that.

Guys, simply put. I have not had much to post on here over the weekend because we've been busy, plus as Bruce, David, Geoff, Brian and Eric will tell you, this event was so professional - entertaining - insightful and fun, that we're still digesting it all. There's a buzz about the air and smiles on all of our faces because of how well this turned out for the fans in attendance. To see people get emotional, meet their favorite players, Mr. Angel, hear stories and answers you'd never hear elsewhere, well, it just left a smile on my face all night and throughout today. Tim Mead and Jerry Dipoto were heard leaving the event that they had a lot of fun and how impressed they were with our event dinner. They stayed 45 min after it was over talking to people, taking pictures with the fans, sharing more stories and giving more answers to questions.

I have to hit the sack because of an early flight back home. I'm exhausted, but the good kind of exhausted.

Thank you to all who helped us make this happen. I also want to thank Nick Mancini, Brian Ilten's kids (Christian and Jonathan) and Eric Notti's wife for helping us all out. Everyone that had a role in making this event an awesome one, did an amazing job and went above and beyond their call of duty.

Much More later.... The video interviews, the pictures and more stories to share. Again, please add yours in this thread or leave a comment in general about our Fanfest Weekend.

Morales costs more than Trumbo.
Morales is a FA after this year.
Morales is a Boras client.

a. The season hasn't started
b. You would not get more than Vargas for Trumbo
c. Wait til Morales gets to safeco
d. The season hasn't started

I'm new-ish to the board. I've posted here and there, but not to the extent that some of you gristled vets have. My name is Mike (duh), I blog and podcast for LA Angels Insider, I live in parts unknown (AKA Central PA), and I have the same affliction as the rest of you (For eight months out of the year I breathe baseball). Hopefully I stop lurking  and post more, but if I'm not here you can find me on Twitter at @mike_hllywa. 
 
Let's get snarky. 

New name on the new forum.  Was known before as Napacious44...cuz of my love for Mike.  Nowadays that's hard to find for him since he is now a member of the hated Red Sox.  First Angel's game was in 1971.  My dad took me to Alex Johnson give away bat night.  Pretty much got hook on the Halos and have been a fan of our team for quite awhile.  Favorite all time players are Bobby Grich and Tim Salmon.  One the the best games I have attended in the years I have been a fan was the come from behind game vs the Tigers when Schofield hit the grand slam in the bottom of the 9th.  That inning was insane.  I remember clearly that no one in my family left with a voice we were screaming so much.  Plus the stadium didn't empty very quick either...people were stopping one another saying 'can you believe this'.  Quite the game.  Of course the best game happened on Oct.28, 2002 and I was crying the whole 9th inning...of course they were happy tears.
 
Totally looking forward to our season this year. 
 
GO ANGELS!!!
 
JoAnne

That's the conclusion you came to after reading the post?  Well, I guess thanks are in order for reading the post.  Second, EVERY penny of profit/royalty from LTBUShop is going to Miracle League and on top of that, we're personally going to add to it.  The site's up and running and if nothing comes of it, no big deal...we'll still be donating to Miracle League and other charities as we choose.

Percy, did you ask Rollie if he had any pistacio's to sell?  
 
Hopefully you get together with Downing on Friday and step up the Shenanigans post.  
 
Have fun out there.  And don't get into too much trouble.  That hat might confuse the police, and you may get deported for lack of documentation.

It has begun. My friend LongHairDontCare and I roll into town Tuesday evening. My other friend HaloMVP loves the Cactus League so much that he moved there. So he'll put us up for the week, right? Uh, no. He's housing Angels minor leaguers at his place all month, so no room at the inn. As he explained, Angels minor leaguers are more important than his friends, so there we are. Nonetheless, we are in for 5 days of exciting action-packed Halos baseball, up close and personal. It is good.
 
Earlier today, I saw my beloved Halos play the stinking Pods in Peoria, my first Halos game in 6 months. The drought is OVER. Trout, with a triple, double, and a walk, looks like he's pickin' up where he left off last year. Not bad for a fat guy. Bourjos went bomb sauce. Wtf was that? Albert and Hamilton with a 2-out RBI's didn't suck either.
 
Off to bed now. Tomorrow we rise early to catch morning drills, PFP, infield roulette, etc. out on the back fields of Tempe Diablo, the crown jewel of the Cactus League. It is a beautiful thing. I eagerly look forward to the rest of the week, culminating of course with AW FanFest Saturday. Please join Arte, Jerry, Victor, Tim, and myself as we come together to celebrate my beloved Halos. SquintFest is on, bitches.
 
 
 

My favorite freeway sign on the way out. This is passing by Ironwood State Prison, where LongHairDontCare spent a little time at one point. This time he got to drive past it and wave to the fellas. That's much better.
 
 

Your humble narrator.
 
 

Trumbo and Howie ignoring the Peoria zoo.
 
 

A broadcaster with LongHairDontCare.
 
 

Old HOF'ers need cash too. Rollie Fingers, Mudcat Grant, and Gaylord Perry sellin' their balls. I shook hands with Mr. Perry, then grabbed a napkin to wipe off the foreign substance he left on my hand.
 
 

View of Trumbo from our crappy seats.
 
 

Pretty sure the callers did that on their own.

Him and Mario Impemba were great together. I remember him joking about missing the 2002 WS call. He took it in stride. I agree that it would be nice to see him come back to the Angels org.

I liked Rory's call.  I liked Dick Endberg's "And the halo shines tonight", thought that may be tinged with childhood nostalgia.  
 
Victor's current call may be my favorite because it's always said with a certain oomph.

what I liked about JAHV was that it had a natural genesis, it's just something that happened not something that was contrived.

"You can put a Halo over this one" was so painful to hear.  I still cringe when I think about it. 

There's a decent chance the Angels, Kings and Clippers (David's 3 teams) will all be playing at home on the April 21st if the Clips get homecourt advantage in the first round.  Would be classy if those teams somehow acknowledge him on that day.  Still find it bizarre when I hear "Los Angeles Goal" during Kings games and its not David.

Conger is the new Napoli, and Hester is the new Mathis. It's really sad that a young local guy with decent upside with the bat isn't ever going to get a chance.

I am so ready for this weekend! 

This again?
 
Maybe if they actively spoke out against the people who are here illegally, stealing money from our government and the people who pay taxes we would care more.  Instead they want us to feel sorry for them.

...and you'll have to excuse me for not getting slightly concerned when not a single one of our projected everyday position players has more than 15 ABs and none of our projected starters has more than 2 IP.
 
Now we may go on to have a rough year as anything is possible, but to be remotely concerned at this point based on what has happened is merely letting the ghosts of the past get inside your head. That's silly. Use your heads.

"We're talking about practice man"
 
"We're talking about practice"
 
"We're talking about practice"
 
"We're not talking about the game. We're talking about practice"
 
"Hey I hear you, it's funny to me too, hey it's strange to me too but we're talking about practice man, we're not even talking about the game, when it actually matters, we're talking about practice."
 

Maybe we can coax Finley & Percival out of retirement. They'd probably still be better than some of these scrubs.

I'm not worried at all. MLB 13 The Show comes out tomorrow. I'm going to find out how good this team really is.

I would rather they lose and embarrass themselves during ST than to do it during the actual season (like April of last year).
 
I'm not worried at all. The Rangers are 3-7. Cincinnati is 2-10. The M's are freaking 10-1. If anything, it just shows how bad the Angels' minor league system is, and I think we all knew that well before spring training started.
 
The Angels have kicked ass in spring the last two years. Look where that got them.

id be more concerned if it was our normal game day line-up out there. I wont be worried til probably march 20th or so if they are still doing poorly.

I was once a "fan of the week" back on the MySpace site....I gotta find that pic and hook it up.

Brilliant idea AW!!! I do not have nor will I ever have a FB, but I am sure there are fantastic fans there who don't know about us here. The more the merrier and hopefuly being a previously established site the amount of bandwagoners will be little to none.