talks with Bruce

Well, we weren't that unlucky but we came pretty close!

After the madness that was FanFest 2011, KNBR and AT&T Park finally took note and actually organized some of the lines for autographs. They also added a few autograph booths on the top deck. And on top of that, there were a lot less people in attendance today.

We thought we had learned from our past mistakes. We headed for the nearest line first and then scouted, happily learning that the line we were in was indeed a line for autographs. We split up and bought baseballs and food.

on the field

Little did we know that we were in quite possibly the slowest moving line in the entire park. There were periods of up to half an hour when the line wouldn't move at all. I have never spent all 5 hours of FanFest waiting in line... there were so many coulda-shoulda-woulda moments when each of us thought of abandoning the line in favor of another, for one on the top deck or the surprise line at the Build-a-Bear workshop. But none of us dared to leave the line for fear of the changing-lanes-on-the-highway phenomenon. So we stuck it out.

We had been standing still for so long
that somebody started a beach volleyball game.

Huff was signing at the booth for which we were in line. Then Crawford? Then Belt, Baby Giraffe was definitely there. And finally, when we got down to the wire, we heard that head coach Bruce Bochy was signing. Just Bruce, no other guys to throw in as a thanks for waiting so darn long.

the Skipper

Better than nothing, right? Exactly, especially since one volunteer wanted to cut off the autographs with ten minutes to spare and Bruce graciously told her to keep the fans coming.

Being one who tries to make the best of things, I tried chatting with the man...

Me: Your [World Series Champions] ring is really big. Is your ring bigger than everyone else's?

Bochy: That's 'cause my fingers are bigger than everyone else's.

The more I think about it, the weirder it gets, so I'll just leave it be. But the actual autograph is pretty sharp!

My friends and I visited the remaining booths to see who we missed and we discovered that we had, in fact, not chosen the worst line. This line still stretched down the outfield because Nate Schierholtz was still making his mark...

That is, until the clock struck 3 o'clock. Then about 200 people who were still in line were out of luck.

Once in a while I entertain the thought of camping out for FanFest but who am I kidding? If I didn't camp out for the Lord of the Rings trilogy or the Missoni for Target line, I'm sure as hell not going to be sleeping by the waterfront anytime soon. Even if I got there at 5 in the morning and was one of the first ten through the door, it wouldn't help. FanFest changes every year and you never know exactly how many booths there will be or where the end of the line is (those maps are not 100% accurate.) We usually enter through the Willie Mays (main) Gate but today we were shepherded into the Marina Gate. If I had gone camping, I would've been waiting in front of the wrong door.

Now I'm not saying that coming early doesn't make a difference but you also need a lot of luck (they're not about to tell you where Lincecum is signing, early birds!) And this year our FanFest luck just didn't live up to years past.