Mr. Beane & the A’s personality
Originally written February 2014 on my personal blog.
I’m officially an “A’s personality”! The A’s sent me a Twitter private message & requested to correspond with their marketing team. They invited me to this year’s FanFest to come on stage to talk about my signs. A quick excerpt from our conversation:
Writing to you to see if you’re interested. I know you’re not so much a character as you are a personality. You’re well known for your signs so maybe you have one or a couple that you’d bring on stage with you? Or even a new sign for the 2014 season?
If the A’s asked me to jump, I’ll start training to be an Olympic high jumper. In this case, if they want me to bring a sign or two on stage with me, I’m going to bring ten. I even made two new signs just for this event!
At this year’s A’s FanFest, they held a Question-&-Answer session at the Oracle Arena, directly next door to the Oakland Coliseum. The festivities commenced with the introduction of the players slated to play for the 2014 season. After their intro, it was our turn with the presentation of A’s fan characters & personalities. Since I shared the stage with A’s fan favorites like the ‘Oakland Green Man’ or ‘DerekNorrisSaurus’. I felt a bit out of place on stage because I was one of the few not wearing a mask, uniform, or something cool I had on my body. I did wear a collared shirt under my jersey, though. Close enough.
In-game host Kara Tsuboi went down the line to ask each of us about our fanaticism. As a horrible public speaker, I requested not to be asked questions (that’s why I’m a graphic designer, after all — my designs do the talking for me!), she threw a few softball questions my way & eased me into the conversation. I was jittery, but managed to keep it relatively cool. In the end, I presented & talked about all 10 signs that brought with me. I guess that’s what makes her a good host.
Second bucket list item: I finally got to meet a very important person in the A’s community: the general manager & Brad Pitt-lookalike himself, Mr. Billy Beane!
After after the A’s characters & personalities presentation, we were taken to the side of the stage for a quick photo session. Waiting in the wings were the next group of speakers. It’s a doozy of a group of people to meet if you’re an A’s fanatic. Standing on the side was A’s manager Bob Melvin, coach Chip Hale, & the general manager himself, Mr. Billy Beane! Everyone around me kept nudging me to take a photo with both Melvin & Beane, since I’m carrying signs that I’ve created in their honor. I walk up to Billy Beane…
Me: May I take a photo with you, Mr. Beane?
Billy Beane: Sure. What do you have here?
He takes a glance at my Billy Beane baseball card sign. He smiles.
Me: Would you like a copy?
Beane: Sure!
Me: You can take this copy then.
Beane: Oh no, you don’t have to do that.
Me: No, it’s really okay. I make these copies of these signs all the time.
Beane: You keep this one, but send me a copy. I’ll probably give it to my daughter.
I thank him for his time & walk over to the someone of the A’s front office people. I asked if I can leave my Beane sign with them so they can deliver it to his office. They agreed & thought it would be awesome to post it on his office wall. I’m giddy at the thought.
Next, I head over to Bob Melvin. For those not familiar with my Melvinsanitysign, it’s a sign of Bob Melvin, but with googly eyes glued on:
I get his attention by shaking my sign in front of him. He smiles. I ask for a photo, & like the nice guy he is, he delivers:
Geez, I just can’t help sounding like a little kid when I talk about baseball this way.
Also, huge thanks to Oakland Vader for hooking it up with above photos!
As always, you can see my whole sign collection on my website atgreatestsignmaker.com.
