The Futility Infielder

Monday night's Baseball Prospectus event at Foley's Pub and Restaurant was a smashing success. It turns out that unlike most BP events there was no pizza and no formal Q&A-type presentation, but the beer was cold, and it's been said that I do my best work at the bar. I chatted at length with colleagues Will Carroll (whose birthday visit to New York was the impetus for this gathering), Joe Sheehan, Steven Goldman and Derek Jacques as well as Bronx Banterers Cliff Corcoran and Alex Belth, who came bearing gifts: a CD of an interview with George Carlin, and a sheaf of copies from the Sports Illustrated research library on Tim Raines. Gotta love a crate-digger like that.

Also met or renewed acquaintances with several BP readers, MLB Advanced Media's Cory Schwartz and Eric Solomon, Sports Illustrated's Mark Bechtel, Ben Reiter and Chris Stone, Was Watching's Steve Lombardi and -- at long last given that it was four and a half years ago since he wrote about me and my blogging brethren -- finally got to meet Peter Abraham of the Journal News. Oh, and as long as we're talking about ancient history, I got to see Jason Giambi hit a triple, his first since 2002.

Foley's is famed for its collection of sports memorabilia, which certainly makes for a great atmosphere for this type of event. However, I have to wonder about the wisdom of their web page discussing said artifacts. When they enumerate their baseball holdings -- which include hundreds of baseballs and jerseys and over 300 bobbleheads -- first on the list is their 40 game-used bats, including the likes of Gerald Williams ("Step right up and see the bat with which the Iceman went 0-for-17 in his second tour of duty with the Yankees!"), Roger Cedeno ("Does it really have a hole right in the middle, or did it just seem that way?") and Billy Ripken ("Do all of his bats have 'Fuck Face' written on the knob?"). Not sure why they failed to list the one I found myself next to when chatting with Pete, Alex and Cliff, an Andy Fox ("The bat he left behind to pinch-run in the 1996 World Series!"). Better talk to the PR department on that one.

Pete and Joe have nice recaps of the night.

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Apropos of nothing except clearing the decks, here's an MP3 of my appearance on Tuesday's Rotowire Fantasy Sports Hour with Chris Liss.

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