Friday, June 19, 2009

A Loco Party with Dad

The Father's Day celebration continued as I was able to attend the El Pollo Loco Dodger Tailgate Party at the KCAL 9 studio. Of course, Dad was the special guest and was part of the KCAL 9 pregame show. And when you think of the Dodgers, you think Christopher "Kid" Reid from Kid 'N Play to MC the event. Right? We arrived a little late because the traffic was HORRIBLE getting to Studio City. Having this on a Friday during the height of rush hour traffic is not good planning, and I think it hurt the turnout. I think a Sunday day game might be better, as traffic would be lot lighter. The event was held in a large sound stage set up with lots of tables and Dodger decorations. Kid was actually great as an MC. He was very knowledgeable about baseball, bringing up the Raul Ibanez controversy to Gary Miller during the Q-and-A portion. He also got the crowd going as well and was pretty funny. Turns out, if you aren't part of the Kid fan club, he is now a comedian doing a lot of shows at the Laugh Factory. Only slip-up was saying he was going to get "Steve Harvey" into the Hall of Fame. Ugh.

The food catered by El Pollo Loco was pretty good. Of course I missed the Dodger Dogs, but what can you do. The tables were in the middle and there were a lot of flat-screen televisions around the periphery. After the pregame show ended and they finished filming all of us going crazy in the sound stage, Steve Garvey and Gary Miller came over to talk with the fans and give away some Dodger prizes. There was a short Q-and-A session and Garvey indicated that the toughest pitcher he faced was Charlie Hough due to the knuckleball. He also said he was hit in the jaw twice during his career - one requiring 22 stitches and the other requiring 10 stitches. He had to leave early, but Gary Miller stayed around and ate with the fans. I was able to ask him if he read any of the blogs, and he mentioned 6-4-2 (due to the Angels coverage) and Dodger Thoughts. He also plugged Jon Weisman's book. I asked him to check out this blog - so Mr. Miller if you are reading this - THANKS! He told me that McDonald was called up and Estes called it quits and retired (but I guess that last one is not confirmed). We had to cut out early, but had a great time. Thanks to El Pollo Loco and KCAL 9 for setting this up. And of course, thanks Dad for hanging out!

Sound Stage 17 on the CBS studio lot.

Kid 'N Chicken - A New Group?

Spin the Dodger Wheel o' Prizes!

Dad Garvey and Gary Miller - the KCAL pregame dream team.

Hey Dad, thanks for signing the ball!

7 comments:

EricoPerico said...

I consider myself an honorary son of Steve Garvey and can't tell you how awesome it was to finally meet Dad face to face. He actually came right over to me since I was wearing his jersey and I made sure he didn't leave without signing it.
Is Dad moonlighting as a stand-up comic? I liked when he asked one of the guys that won Dodger tickets if he was Ron Cey in disguise.
I didn't know what to expect when I met him, but Steve Garvey is a genuinely really nice guy.
I'm the guy sitting at the table in your "Dad Garvey and Gary Miller" picture. I also won a ball autographed by Rafael Furcal.
I love the blog. Keep up the good work.

Josh S. said...

Weird. I got a text from the Dodgers yesterday saying Garv was appearing at a viewing party at Hooter's Hollywood last night. Did your dad do double duty last night?

rbnlaw said...

Did you ask dad to go to the stadium this Sunday?

berkowit28 said...

KCAL never, ever, broadcast Sunday games. Most weeks, just Tuesday night. So Friday night is probably the friendliest they can get, being a weekend night.

berkowit28 said...

I should have checked first. KCAL are in fact broadcasting several Sunday afternoon (and morning) games in July and August - but they're all on the road, none in LA. I don't know if that matters.

Alex Cora said...

Erico: Sorry I missed speaking with you. I did notice your jersey and thought it was really cool. Congrats on winning the Furcal ball too.
Josh: Guess that is why he had to leave early. Priorities. Oh and "double duty" at a Hooters is not hard to do, if you know what I mean...

Bryan said...

i thought that was ryan braun in a dodgers jersey for a second