Father/Son's Day Meeting Recap
We all "tip our caps" to Past President Dan Cole and his organizing committee for hitting a "home run" with a wonderful post-Father's Day celebration at lunch this past Monday! Three cheers to Dan and company!
President Peter rang the bell to open his last lunch meeting and introduce President Patrick and our time-honored tradition of Son’s Day.
We all knew "who's on first" with Dan's grandson, "the natural" Patrick Cole (age 11), as acting president at the meeting, and "what's on second" was a whole team of excellent speakers ages 4 to 16 helping alongside Patrick and sitting at the speaker's table. It was a "perfect game" from start to finish!
Highlights included souvenir baseballs and Giants hats for all sons in attendance, a wonderful moment of prayer to give thanks for "The Big Inning," the fans making the wave across our meeting hall, Giant's memorabilia (courtesy of John Swentowsky), tickets raffled off to a dozen lucky winners, photo opportunities with actual 2010/2012 Giants World Series Championship rings, commemorative posters for all -- plus lots of great food, Cracker-Jacks, and ice cream (tossed from "vendors" yelling the same just like at the ballpark!). In hindsight it was actually a "Grand Slam" of an event!
Keynote speaker Bryan Srabian, the S.F. Giant's Director of Social Media (not to be confused with Brian Sabean, the S.F. Giant's Sr. VP and General Manager) entertained us with stories of his eventful years with the team from 1994 to the present. He recounted his involvement with the move from Candlestick Park in 2000, the wonderful Opening Days at Pac Bell (now AT&T) Park, the hoopla surrounding Barry Bond's run for the home run record, and the 2010 and 2012 World Series campaigns. His words brought back wonderful memories and lost of laughs and cheers.
He also educated us about how recent additions to fast paced communications media (like Twitter, Facebook, etc.) are rapidly changing how younger fans get their information and interact with their teams. Gone are the days of secreting transistor radios to class -- here are the days of tweeting your favorite player or texting updated photos of the game in progress!
He concluded with an entertaining video with highlights of the 2012 season, and of the celebratory parade, and of some of the "Junior Giants" kids that benefit from the generous support from the team and its fans. We offer a collective "high five" in thanking Mr. Srabian for his time and wish his team well in 2013!
(P.S. There were a handful of A's and even one Dodger fan way in the back somewhere -- Cindy! -- and by my accounts a good time was had by all!)
Remember we are dark for lunch next Monday, meeting instead at the historic Elk’s Building at 11th and J Streets downtown for President Peter’s Demotion Dinner. RSVP required.