Yes, we had a great time at Friar Fest 2007. My daughter and I went with a friend and her children. The entryway was a little chaotic, but the lines for autograph vouchers were clearly marked. They were quickly running out of vouchers, but since I promised my daughter she’d get to meet a baseball player today, I grabbed her and we headed straight for the Heath Bell/Darren Balsley signing.

First of all, my favorite part of the autograph signing was, indeed, the voucher system. We got our vouchers and headed to the autograph line. Once 11:30 came around, they filed us all into our seats in section 110. Yes, our seats! Instead of standing up for an hour, we got to sit down while we waited. People were very friendly and I didn’t see any line-cutting, it went smoothly. Once the overflow from the prior signing (Brian Giles) ended, our section moved quickly.

Pitcher Heath Bell was first. He was so adorably sweet to my daughter, he has now earned a place in my heart for being so kind when he could have just signed her baseball and sent her on her way. They had a nice little conversation about her pink Padres baseball, and I know we’ll be rooting for Heath this season.

Padres pitching coach Darren Balsley was next. By the time she got to Darren, she was pretty much tongue-tied. He also complimented her on her cool baseball.

We were allowed to take photos of them signing her baseball, but sorry collectors, she’s not giving up this baseball! Not even to me.

Next we headed over to the Padres Garage Sale, which was raising money for the Madres Foundation. I thought this was a brilliant idea, and a quick way for a baseball fan to spend a ton of money in one place! My daughter really wanted a signed baseball bat, but at $75 we passed on that. We did spend $50 for Balsley’s game-used jersey and $15 for his locker nameplate. A nice way to remember who she met that day. We also spent a lot of time going through the signed baseballs, and when I came across the "assorted pitchers" baseballs, I found one signed by Trevor Hoffman and Woody Williams, and we got that one, too.

From there, we ran the bases. VERY crowded. That was kind of annoying, people just standing there, making it difficult to actually RUN the bases. It was, however, very cool to stand on the bases. Thumbs up from the kid.

Next we went to the outfield fences, really cool to see just how tall they are. I’m pretty short, that just reiterated that fact for me! We headed to the Park at the Park for the kids games. My friend’s children only wanted to play wiffle ball, but I couldn’t get my daughter to go try. She was still too enamored with her jersey.

Our last activity for the day was the clubhouse. We waited entirely too long to go on the clubhouse tour, because by then it was 1pm and packed. The line moved quickly but there were so many people in the locker room, we were just tired by then of all the people. Ditto the dugout, very crowded. The thing I found most amusing about the clubhouse was that the weight room has the Padres logo stamped on every single weight in there. Having visited the visitor’s clubhouse, it’s overwhelming how nice the Padres clubhouse is- much bigger, much plusher.

I did manage to pick up my season tickets that day (yay!), so now I really can’t wait for April to get here! Single tickets go on sale on March 3rd, mark your calendars!

Lessons learned: if you want to shop at the garage sale, go the first day. If you want autographs, get there by 10am when they start handing out vouchers (not 11am, like I thought). If you want to go on the clubhouse tour, do that earlier in the day or late in the day, to avoid crowds.

Here are a few photos from the day:

Heath Bell

Darren Balsley

Scoring big at the Garage Sale

Petco Park- third base

Crowd running the bases

The Giles Brothers lockers

Weights in the locker room

Entrance into Petco Park

You wanted a harder one, yes? Bonus points if you can tell me EXACTLY where this was taken. *What* this is should be easier than *Where* this is…

Good luck!

Yes, it’s time for Friar Fest! If you went today, please post a comment letting me know how it went. We’re going tomorrow, we can’t wait! Should be really fun.

In the meantime, Ducksnorts visited today and has a post up about his visit.

The answer to last week’s "Where in Petco?" was, indeed, the press box. Did anyone notice that it said "Los Angeles Times"? For some reason, that was the one I chose to photograph (some stations were blank). I’m sorry for the delay in posting the answer, I’ve been sick all week, trying to get better so I can make it to Friar Fest tomorrow.

I will post photos from Friar Fest after my visit tomorrow! Here’s hoping for some good stuff, it looks like so much fun!

Another easy one, yes? A hint- this is the first stop on the Petco Park Tour.

The most exciting news of the week is that the Padres deal with Wells is now complete! Impressive rotation!

Here’s a fun post over at Gaslamp Ball about attending significant ball games in team history. Do you have any to add?

And in another item for the column of "Padres who think they are Chargers", Marcus Giles was involved in an "incident" at the Chargers-Patriots game last week.

Because no Padres roundup is complete without news of Tony Gwynn, here’s one for your calendars. Gwynn will be honored at Petco Park on March 10, read full details here. Tickets are only $20 for reserved seating, hope to see you at the ballpark!

MLBlogs.com has some excellent links up today, in honor of Jackie Robinson. Notably, go see Tommy Lasorda’s Blog, and Bruce Markusen’s Cooperstown Confidential Blog.

The answer to the "Where in Petco?" question last week was from the Padres Dugout, of which Dex from Gaslamp Ball got that one correct! Though I assume Klesko’s name won’t be on there much longer… Greene has signed a one-year deal with the Pads. Not much news yet out of the meeting with Wells. Bard has supposedly signed to a one-year deal as well.

In other Padres news, Spring Training tickets went on sale. Drown your Chargers sorrow in Padres spring training, which begins shortly! I’m hoping to take my first-ever pilgrammage to Peoria, Arizona.

Photo taken during the tour of Petco Park. Any guesses on where this was taken? This one should be easy! Post in the comments, I’ll post the answer tomorrow morning.

Yes, it’s official! Congratulations to Tony Gwynn! It is indeed a wonderful day for all Padres fans, and for baseball fans. I doubt we’ll see a hitter as great as Tony Gwynn again.

To those of you who made it to the press conference, please send photos if possible! I’d love to share them here. I was unable to attend due to early dismissal day for my daughter’s school. I saw the beginning of the press conference on KUSI but then I had to scoot.

Cal Ripken, Jr. will also be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 29th. What a terrific class that will be!

All I can say is, well, thank goodness Tony Gwynn chose baseball.

Tribute to Tony Gwynn at Petco Park, pre-Hall of Fame announcement.

Today is the day, folks! Hall of Fame results will be announced at 1pm ET (that’s 10am for us Padres fans). You can watch the results announced live so many thanks to MLB.com for providing that service for us west-coasters!