Ten of Wonko's Favorite GLB Moments

My friends and family will tell you I have a great memory, but making this list I still worry I'm forgetting stuff that I loved about GLB. I was even worried I could come up with 10 distinct things. I really just love being a part of this site and its community. This is my 4th year I've been allowed to write articles for GLB and that time period still hasn't surpassed the time I was just hanging around being a nuisance in the comments. I'm big into Gaslamp Ball.

Hoffman's retirement, breakfast and shirts, brought to us by Tom Garfinkel and the Padres

I can't believe it has already been 3 and a half years since this day. Jodes mentioned it in her top 10 as well and I just couldn't leave it out of mine. I would have never expected a Major League Baseball organization to take a group of fans that I belonged to and make them feel so special. It was a special day for Trevor Hoffman with all sorts of organizing done to honor him, but Tom Garfinkel set up a breakfast for Gaslamp Ballers before the game and gave us all shirts with retired numbers on them that could replaced our now obsolete 51-free shirts that were purchased way back when.

My First Comment

This may be shocking to some, but in my first ever recorded comment on GLB I was correcting jbox. Or at least you could frame it that way. The post was a running update of the team's roster (back then in the internet dark ages we still needed to do such things). And I importantly noted that Steve Andrade was a Rule 5 selection. Andrade was sent back to his former team before the season started. These are the significant things you discuss on the interwebs after all. And where else to discuss such significant Padres things but Gaslamp Ball?

GLB Wiki

The GLB wiki from day one was something right up my alley. Despite my aforementioned reputation for a good memory, part of my recall abilities come from knowing where to find stuff and probably having recently looked it  up for one reason or another. The wiki is my favorite little tool for both documenting those little things (which helps me remember them) and then looking them up later to help my memory. Over 10 years a lot of that stuff has come up. The wiki is not perfect, but it's our little not-perfect thing and I adore it. For those that don't recall or weren't around it originated from the comments generated by this post: You know you're a Gaslamp Baller if...

Fox Sports San Diego Studio Tour

jbox, Dex, Jonny Dub, jodes0405 and Darklighter have all gotten to do special invitation only blogger related things and I've done 1 or 2 with them, but the one thing I got to do on my own as a representative of Gaslamp Ball was the preview of the new Fox Sports San Diego studio. I don't hobnob well, but I got to talk with Jeff Byle and Mike Pomeranz, take a bunch of pictures and report it back to the public.

Every Draft Ever

The first moment I am going to cheat on as it is a collection of many moments. I'm a weirdo who loves the baseball draft. And I love doing open threads on Gaslamp Ball. It's the one thing I have been contributing to the site since before I was even a writer (besides comments). Most of the time it consists of me rambling to myself about such and such happening, but I enjoy it. Others come and go (the draft goes on for a while). I'm game for anything on draft day. Some just come to say things about players' names. Others want to see when a San Diego HS or college player gets draft. Whatever. Just stop on by. These days I also get talked in to doing pre-draft coverage as well.

Meeting jbox

This isn't some epic story. It is quite the opposite. I met jbox at Padres-Cubs game at Wrigley Field. I don't remember how I found out he was there or where he was sitting, but I made my way up to him and took a seat. I don't think we exchanged more than a dozen words, but I talked at length with his friend. It was a fun series. I went to all 4 games and the Padres won all of them. I highly recommend going to a 4 game series in another ballpark where the Padres sweep the series. Good times.

The 2008 and 2009 seasons

My second cheat as this consists of a lot of moments. I'm not going to get all hipster and say GLB was better back then, but it was something for us who needed it at the time. Those seasons were dark times to be a Padres fan. You could say it began after Game 163. That was followed by the Padres spending more than they ever had in 2008 and achieved less than they ever had since moving to Petco. In 2009 they tore it all down some more. Misery loves company. Especially company that will make you laugh. This was a terrible time to be a Padre fan, but a great time to be a Gaslamp Baller. Back when That's What She Said (TWSS)was still hilarious. Funny enough to chronicle EVERY mention of it for the entire season. Or when Dex would just let his mind wander to strange places on the blog. Like the idea of Putting Things In Dex... for a price. Or the origination of GLB favorite phrase PFOB. Or coming up with drinking games to cope with our disappointment. Or any of the game threads where we kept each other amused instead of depressed. Or Paul McAnulty references. I loved every one of them. In a different way than I do now.

Joining the GLB writing team

After reading my intro paragraph many of you may have thought it was a foregone conclusion that since I had stuck around since near the beginning and loved this little site that eventually I would write for it. That was not something I had ever thought. I was completely surprised when I was asked to come aboard as an "intern". I had been writing for SBN's Chargers site for a while, but my first love is baseball and the Padres and Gaslamp Ball was my favorite SBN site. I was quite honored when jbox and Dex invited me in 2012. Unfortunately, my first post doesn't show it. I just jumped right in and starting posting news related to the Padres. I'm not a hot take machine. I just like talking about moves that have been made, what they mean for the team and what others think they mean.

Wimbledon

When you can't think of anything else to say, you say "Wimbledon". It was a silly GLB joke that probably lasted too long and yet I remember at that time hoping that one day I could use it way off in the future and those that knew what it meant would laugh. Today is still not yet that day, but one day it will be. Until then feel free to say Wimbledon when it seems inappropriate. Or when someone asks you where Dick Enberg is.

Everything Else

This may seem like cheating again, but hear me out. There are things that GLB hasn't given me directly that I should note. Back in those aforementioned 2008 and 2009 seasons I was somewhat of a recluse. GLB was my gateway drug. Starting around 2010 I started to branch out. My GLB friends became my twitter friends after they encouraged me to use that site. Through twitter we would tweet up, either at games or around the ballpark. I hadn't had friends that were as into the Padres as I was. It encouraged me to change things up in my life. I moved downtown. I met more great people that were into the Padres. Most importantly, these changes helped me meet my girlfriend and partner in Padres crime of 3+ years. Thanks, Gaslamp Ball.