Tagged: Winter Meetings

A very busy time

Wow, are the Holidays crazy! The Panama trip was insane, what a special place. I think just about all of you heard that the Winter Meetings went pretty well for the Fish. I’m very happy the Marlins showed the world just how serious they are about winning.

I hope the city of Miami will react nicely to the new Miami Marlins. Of course, one way to take care of that is to win consistently. Heath Bell, Jose Reyes and Mark Buehrle will be great additions to our team. Apart from being great baseball players, they are extremely good people and very fun to be around. They also have a lot of stones, so it will be a lot of fun to see.

I can’t remember the last time I was this excited for Spring Training to start. Usually I do it to get away from my wife for a little while, but man, this is going to be completely different. It’s very special. It’s going to be fun, and as I have been saying, everyone on the team just needs to have some fun and win games. That’s what it’s all about.

Today is a big day for Team Pepsi in Caracas, Venezuela. We are having our annual home run derby with the Venezuelan stars. Andruw Jones is also coming in to town because that’s what friends do, they help each other out! Last year it rained, so this year it had better not. I’m hoping and praying for a good day.

I will keep you guys posted with pictures of the event later this week. Very excited to see D-Rose (Derrick Rose) play on Christmas Day!

Winter Meetings begin

So, I was in Chicago for a few hours and man, does it get dark there really quickly! I don’t know, maybe it was because the Bears lost a tough game. Hopefully they can bounce back.

I flew out to Dallas this morning for the Winter Meetings. This is always an exciting time if you are baseball fan and if you work in the sport. It gives us a great chance to see what exactly everyone else is doing. Every team always has needs, and this is the place where teams come to get better and fill those needs.

The charity event in Panama was awesome. Congrats to Andruw Jones on the event, as well as the Noriega brothers and Carlos Lee. They all did an amazing job. To be able to get the caliber of baseball players down there that they did was truly remarkable. Baseball is coming back to Panama and it’s very exciting. We played a celebrity softball game down there. I had Andruw, CC Sabathia, Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson (or as I like to call him “UIC”), so we had a pretty good group. I got a couple of hits and almost pulled every muscle in my body. It was great that all of those guys took the time out of their offseason to go help out and it certainly paid off.

I also got a chance to watch Miguel Cotto pick up the win on Saturday night. There were a lot of satisfied people around since Cotto won, I can tell you that.

Now, it’s time for a few days here in Dallas. It’s going to be a fun time and already looks like some good news for Marlins fans! I will keep you posted.

Check out the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine!

How is everyone doing today? I’m still spending a few more days down here in Panama, but now we have moved to Panama City. We are at a place called the Manrey Hotel and it is amazing. I have to say, I’m actually in awe of Panama and how advanced this place it. Very impressive. I haven’t had a bad meal since we landed in this country. The food and the people are great.

Some of the Yankees guys should be getting into town either today or tomorrow to get ready for Andruw Jones’s event.  From everything I have heard, this event should be pretty awesome, and I will be sure to put up some pictures when I can. Today I may even get a chance to meet Roberto Duran. My kids and I love boxing, so that would be a real thrill!

Got some good news the other day while I was down here: The people over at ESPN The Magazine informed me through my guys at Triple Crown Productions that we got the cover of the magazine’s December issue. That’s pretty awesome news! And the fact that my lazy-ass dog, DH, made the cover, too, is even better. It looks like he got a taste of my whole mouth on the shot, too. I can’t say enough about the ESPN crew. They showed up and did their job. They were telling me that usually during shoots people can be pretty quiet. Well, as you could imagine, not me and my family (haha). I think we ended up talking more than we got photographed. You can check out some behind-the-scenes pics I posted last week from the shoot on the website. It’s an honor to be on the cover, and I couldn’t be happier that I got it. And for your sake just be happy ESPN didn’t pick me to be on the cover of their “Body Issue”. That would have been bad for everyone (haha).

So, here is the final product; the cover (with DH, of course) that hits newsstands tomorrow. Be sure to go pick up a copy and read the interview I did with Tim Kirkjian. He did a great job with the questions and I answered as best as I could.

Chris McPherson/ESPN The Magazine

Happy December everyone, and hopefully we will see you guys this weekend in Chicago or at the Winter Meetings next week. This is always an exciting time for baseball and I can’t wait to see what happens.