Once you’ve attended a few Winter Meetings, you get used to the hordes of media, the long days and the overflowing crowds of reporters that spill out of every nook and cranny of the hotel. From the lobby scene, to the gigantic media workroom that houses hundreds of reporters and serves as a stage for press conferences, to the hallways packed with dozens of regional and national television outlets, everywhere you look, there’s a reporter or 10 lurking, talking amongst themselves, talking with scouts, talking with GMs…all trying to find out the scoop. And tweeting, of course.
Add to that a couple of hundred job seekers, and it becomes unfailingly clear that if you have anything to do with the baseball industry (or are trying like heck to get someone to hire you), you’re at the Winter Meetings.
Throughout the experience, I carried my handy flip camera everywhere I went, hoping to capture some of the atmosphere, from a behind-the-scenes standpoint. It’s easy to take get used to the frenzied pace of the meetings when you’ve been to a dozen or so of them, but it’s important to not lose sight of what a scene it truly is: organized craziness.
We attempted to capture some of it here. Hope you like it.
Some of what you’ll see in the video:
Brad Mills chatting up the media.
Terry Francona and Peter Gammons on Boston-based NESN.
A very relaxed, retired Lou Piniella talks with reporters after press conference honoring four outgoing managers.
Yankees skipper Joe Girardi waiting for his media session…
…set to begin as soon as Tony La Russa was finished with his.
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