A Successful 20th Anniversary Draft
The extended weekend of March 21-24, 2019 saw 10 of the 14 BVL managers gather in Vegas for the 20th year of ‘The Leg Draft’. The weekend commenced on Thursday with a lunch gathering at Citizen restaurant in Mandalay Bay. New managers Todd Decker and Steve Felson were present and given props for making the journey to meet everyone despite their limited knowledge of the other managers.
Friday afternoon was the traditional ‘Meet & Greet’ which had been held at The Lodge in the Mall area between Mandalay Bay and The Luxor. The Lodge is now defunct so we meet at Ri Ra Irish Pub located across the hall. A comfortable homey feel to pub led a few of the managers to drink the allotted BVL dues down to negative numbers. After a short break for individuals to gamble, shop, or watch basketball we all met at Virgil’s BBQ on the Linq Promenade for a evening of delicious smoked meats and live music.
Saturday morning arrived and everyone met by the MB elevators refreshed and eager to start. Bob arrived to lead us to Mike’s suite which was huge and could park 2-3 Cadillacs inside. The Draft commenced at 9am and newbie manager Steve started the ball rolling with the selection of Ronald Acuna, Jr. After a few rounds of drafting and ripping each others picks, breakfast was served. Pancakes, Pancakes, Pancakes and other stuff filled our bellys and slowed some down. The draft went exceedingly well and was wrapped up around 1:30pm. Everyone went their own ways until early evening where we would meet back at Mike’s suite and enjoy cocktails and surprises. Dave breathed a sigh of relief that those surprises were not strippers or an in-suite appearance by Garfunkel & Oates.
The surprises were a well planned raffle by Bob and Mike that involved Veeck/BVL memoribilia, signed baseballs, engraved pens, and three draft picks for 2020. Some of the gifts were a rookie baseball card of Minnie Minoso, Bill Veeck autographed book, photos, and underwear. We all then met at House of Blues for food, drink, and live music from a band that could not play anything except Happy Birthday and Journey tunes.
We all said our goodbyes after dinner. Some would go out to gamble, watch basketball, or just relax. It was a wonderful weekend all because of a silly little game of dice and cards.
