FanFest 2006

january 28

Season tickets at FanFest? I think I can, I just can't remember.

This'll be my first year going (woo!) and I was wondering if anyone could say more about it? What goes on, exactly? What's something a gal should keep an eye out for? Does buying single tickets there involve insaaane crowds (I think I'm gonna be unable to resist their siren's call)? Anything a first-timer should know?

to attend fan fest

Kyli - what happens:
A bunch of the players are just walking around, autographs free. Last year I got Melhuse, Kendall, Duke, Dan Meyer, Swish and Ellis, among others. If I would've been more coordinated, I could've gotten more. It was so exciting last year, RIGHT after I got off the BART overpass, I saw Melhuse, Thomas, Meyer and Bobby Smith (who went to AAA and I think got released). It was cool, great photo op.

They have separate autograph sessions, but you have to pay (I think it was 15 last year, but you get a group of like 4 players). To pay for the autograph sessions, get there EARLY. I think I got there about 30-45 mins before it started and I was SOL. They also have Q&A sessions where fans can ask the players ANYTHING. I can't recall exact questions off the top of my head, but Z has gotten some fairly spicy questions from female admirers.

Radio booths will be all over, and players do interviews there. They have clubhouse tours, of which I highly recommend, and a bunch of other stuff to do.

I don't know much about ticket buying, but I would bargain for insane crowds.

Naturally, keep your eye out for anyone in an A's uni. A couple years ago, I saw a real tall guy in an A's uni... and I was like... no... couldn't be... it WAS Mulder. I ran, dragging my little brother behind me, as fast as I could, but I was never able to catch up :-(.

So there ya go.

Nico - We should have some sort of AN gathering or something, not sure. Don't know how to work that, but yeah.

Kbaca - Nope, no season tix necessary. Any A's fan can come. Last year, admission was like $10, so it should be something of the sort this year.

College gets in the way of so many baseball-related things. Anyway, like others have said, I would recommend the players Q&A sessions. Pretty funny stuff goes on with some of them. You can also watch on Diamond Vision if you want to sit in the Coliseum, but of course it's harder to hear. I can't really remember if you can go on the field during FanFest-- I'm thinking yes, but I could just be remembering something else. It's all so fuzzy. But that's also cool to do. Last time I went, a couple years back, we waited in line for the clubhouse tour, for a long time. In the years before that, you had to buy your tickets for it right away and you came back at a set time, but in '04 you just waited in line and basically walked through the clubhouse and stuff. But some of the guys had some stuff in their lockers, so that was cool. And you get to sit in the dugout.

Ok, that's all I can remember. Hopefully my information's not outdated. And I don't think I've ever gotten single game tickets at FanFest, so I don't know how the lines would be for that. <sigh> I'm so jealous of y'all who will get to go to this...

SO EXCITED! =) (^^o) !!!!!

As many have said before, keep your eyes open!

Last year, I was coming into the coliseum and I litterally ran right into Mark Ellis!! I was in such a hurry to get a ticket for a picture with Bobby that I just basically bounced off Ellis, said "Oh! Sorry, Excuse me!" he was like, "that's ok" and I took 2 more steps and went "OH MY GOD!" But by that point he was already occupied with other fans. That is when I noticed about 3 other players standing just inside the gates. If I had known that before going in, I would have taken my time.

That is another thing, this year, I am going to take the day slower. I spent so much of last year running around chasing Bobby from event to event, that I didn't really sit back and enjoy the whole day for what it was. So my goal for this year is to take it all in, absorb it more and just simply enjoy it. It is such a great day!!

Dang, now I am all excited!! I want to go now!!

I just realized that the offseason is now more than half over!  We've passed Offseason Solstice!

Sounds intriguing enough to go see the A's now that they are revamped.

For as long as they've had it, the A's have always scheduled Fanfest for a Saturday when I'm at work.  Usually it's in February on the weekend I have to take 35+ debaters to Stanford for a tournament.  This year it's in January, when I'll be taking my team to Emory.  Grrr.  The free tix I get as a season ticket holder just make it worse!

I'm a Bay Area Resident Fan, so do I get to use an acronym?...

Do the A's still charge a ton for parking during Fanfest? And do the ticket windows for single-game tix open when Fanfest does, or do they open early? I'm curious how early to get there since it's gonna be a loooong morning of driving.

was my first time and i had a blast.

Before the event i was waiting first in line for a free autograph signing by Erubiel Durazo that they were having for some radio station and i guess no one told Ruby cause he was headed in to the stadium when the radio station announced that he was here. So he turned round and started heading to the the stand.

Luckily for me Rich Harden and Danny Haren also joined him in coming to the stand.

I also met many other players.

I saw Mark Ellis just walking around the place casually till he got swarmed by fans.

It is a great event. My only advice is if you are looking to pay to get good autographsget there more then an hour early then line get insane and they sell out of the best players early.

Last year they had Rickey Henderson, Vida Blue, and Terry Steinbach signing.

Anyone know what former Athletics are coming this year?

I skip one day of checking AN and I miss the FanFest info!
Just this morning, I canceled a day-off request at work for that day JAN 28 so I could go to Tahoe on a different day :(

I wonder if I could cancel my cancellation? Now it seems like the off-season is flying by :)