Royals caravan, complete with pictures

Some Minda math for y'all on this lovely Tuesday:
Long economics paper + Tomorrow due date = me doing the whole thing yesterday/today.

But I did take the time to head over to Sportscasters Bar & Grille here in Lincoln to catch this stop in the Royals Caravan. John Mayberry, Mark Teahen, and Lincoln homeboy Alex Gordon manned the autograph table. In the time I was in line, I heard about a thousand stories of how everyone "knows" Alex Gordon. Some of them are a little bit pathetic/desperate, and after 1.5 school years of being in Lincoln all the stories start to sound the same. "He was my neighbor's best friend's teammate in middle school," "I babysat his best friend's girlfriend's niece all the time," etc. He must have an insane number of "best friends," because that is the one "connection" to Gordon that I hear more than any other.

Here is my completely non-exaggerated Alex Gordon story: I met him today, for about 30 seconds. But I was kind of distracted by finishing a conversation with Mayberry and Teahen. (To all the ladies out there, I asked Teahen to find a way to get some pictures from his fashion show online. All the handsomest Royals...in suits?? No fair keeping that from us!) John Mayberry, Mark Teahen, and Alex Gordon kindly sign all kinds of stuff for Lincoln's freezing masses.


What I was really hoping for in going to this event was to talk to Royals broadcaster Ryan LeFebvre, who has been with the organization for a decade now. To be honest, I really disliked him when he was first brought in. I think it was mostly because he was not Fred White; I grew up listening to White along with Denny Matthews my entire life, so anyone different was hard to get used to. But I really enjoy LeFebvre now; I can count on him for a lot of hearty chuckles in every broadcast, similar to the way one can expect two scoops of raisins in every box of Raisin Bran.

He's also a really good person, as far as I know, and a devout Catholic. That earns about 20 billion awesomeness points in my book. I'll bet I was the only person (out of a LOT) in that bar who left feeling more excited about having met anyone but Alex Gordon, but that is the broadcasting nerd in me.

As for Mayberry, he seems like a jolly fellow. When he asked how I was doing, I said, "Great, because there are only 69 days until Opening Day." He chuckled and said something about how I must be a good baseball fan for having the countdown, and so forth. And when I was leaving the autograph area, I heard him happily telling some young boys, "Get excited, guys, there's only 69 days until Opening Day!"