NOTE BEFORE READING: I wrote this for my LiveJournal and posted it there already. I didn’t leave hardly anything out, meaning it’s full of fangirl moments and rants as well. Please excuse those moments; I had to include them for y’all to get the full effects of my day. I’m posting the link to the pictures that I do have, but I may add more to that gallery soon. I’m not sure yet. I won’t crowd this post, so just click the link at the bottom. You get to read first and then look at the pictures.

Also, here is a quick nickname/name reference guide for this post in no particular order (in case you don’t know their nicknames/who I’m referring to):

* McFrenchy = Brian McCann & Jeff Francoeur (that’s what I call them together).
* Mac = McCann.
* Frenchy = Francoeur.
* Brad = Brad McCann (aka Brian’s older brother).
* Mark DeRosa = former Brave, now plays 2B with the Cubs.
* Catie = Catie Francoeur (Jeff’s wife).
* Mac’s dad = Howie McCann.
* Jeff’s dad = Dave Francoeur.
* Jeff’s mom = Karen Francoeur.
* Mac’s mom = Sherry McCann.
* Mac’s wife = Ashley McCann (I mentioned her, so I threw her in here, too).

Ok, so I know this entry says ‘day one’ as in I went both days, but unfortunately, I did not. I started writing this post the night after the first day, after I got home from Atlanta, etc. All in all, FanFest wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either, at least in my opinion. Of course, the official site makes it seem like the best thing since McFrenchy, which by the way, was in fact the best part. I’ll get more into this later.

We left my sister’s apartment a little before 7:00 am and arrived in Atlanta about 8:30-ish. We waited until 10 am in line, before we were able to go into the actual place where everything was being held, talking to a guy beside us about different things. This will go under a cut because I’m sure it will get long.

Once we finally went in, my friend and I got pictures with mock up lockers with players pictures and jerseys lining the entry way. This was probably not a good idea at the time. My mom and sister nearly ran up to one of the lines, getting to see Glavine and get his autograph. My friend, her mom, and me were waiting in the other line. All of a sudden, McFrenchy appears, coming through the curtains the players used to get around in the building. I was really excited and I noticed right away how much different Mac looks now. He looks like Mac, but a very much thinner Mac. Apparently, he’s been working out with big bro., Brad, and Mark DeRosa, to build his upper body strength and muscles. I’d say by scoping him out very closely and far away, it’s working very well and also, they apparently took up yoga as well. I read this just a few minutes ago as I was uploading my pictures and they take classes with a lot women that are half their ages. And Frenchy thinks it’s funny, naturally, and also says, “I just can’t imagine Brian McCann in a yoga outfit,” McCann’s good friend, Jeff Francoeur, playfully said. “Sleeping in tights for an hour doesn’t count as yoga.”

Ok, I’m surprisingly wondering about that last comment. I didn’t know Mac slept in tights, Frenchy, but thanks for the tip! Mac went on to say, “it’s awkward.” But whatever he’s doing, it’s working. I didn’t notice at first from looking, and him wearing two shirts that really looked good on him, but apparently, he now has muscles in his upper body. Ok, before I get too sidetracked, I’ll move on. Mac’s baby fat is like completely gone, but he still has the baby face though, even with the recently-shaved-but-getting-scruffy beard he was sporting. Two thumbs up for ridding yourself of the goatee…again. Frenchy looked good as well, but I’m not as partial to him. He looks bigger as well.

Ok, moving on again. We waited in line for McFrenchy for about an hour or so, then they left. We were halfway through the line and yeah, I was slightly pissed that they had left, thinking I wouldn’t see them again. But it gets better, keep reading. The next two players, which no one knew who was signing when or doing what on purpose, were the newly acquired Will Ohman and Chris Resop. Hardly anyone in the line wanted their autographs after McFrenchy left, but I went ahead and got them to get out of the line. They signed my “Got Braves?” shirt. While I didn’t say much, my impressions of them were that they were nice and Ohman has a sense of humor from what I could tell. Ohman had problems with his name sign with people knocking it everywhere and the little boy in front of us signed a card for Ohman, using his own signature. Ohman then said it was his first autograph and smiled. I didn’t hear much out of Resop, except for when my friend asked to see the tattoos on his arms. He showed them and they were quite cool. Resop looks much better in person, by the way. After this, we went to the main stage where Frank Wren and Pete Van Wieren were doing a Q & A with fans. We came in on a question about Frenchy being moved to center or staying in right. Naturally, Wren basically said Frenchy was not moving to center and he’s better in right anyway.

Now comes part of the better part. After Wren left, the main stage guy, Leighton (which was on his jerseys), announced that Glavine and Mac would be doing a Q & A with fans next on the main stage. We went to get a drink and came back to watch. Most of the questions were for Tom, but Mac wasn’t excluded. He reminded me of myself when sitting somewhere while someone else is doing most of the talking. He’d look at his shoes, the floor, out in the crowd, and at the ceiling. He also seemed to fidget a little on the stool. But when he was answering questions, which were somewhat funny, he seemed to brighten up some like he was happy someone noticed him sitting quietly, listening to everyone else.

Ok, before I forget this, Mac’s microphone turned off in the middle of him answering a question. He goes to hit the microphone and nothing happens. He uses Pete’s microphone to finish his answer. While he answered the question, the sound guy apparently fixed his microphone, he obviously not realizing it. He goes to hit the microphone really hard and naturally, while Glavine is being asked something or replying to a question. The look on Mac’s face was like “oops…”, it was indeed cute though and worth noting.

Mac said the toughest pitcher to face was Glavine by just looking over at him and Glavine replied, “you don’t have to worry about that now, do you?”, then Mac answered with a healthy Pedro Martinez. Apparently, Mac either was out of it, or he wasn’t paying attention. You see more about this later as well. Some guy in a New York uniform asked Glavine a question, after appropriately being booed several times, to the sound of “why did the Braves always kill you when you pitched against them?” and the guy went on to say that Glavine “got lit up like a Christmas tree” against us. Mac as well as everyone else found this funny. I thought it was funny, too, but I digress. Also, one kid asked Mac how he hit a baseball. Mac looked like he didn’t know how to answer that at first then replied with, “you keep your eye on the ball, swing, and hope you get lucky.” Pete also made a comment about Mac being married now after a question about how he handled pitchers and decided what to throw to them. Mac answered the initial question with, “I go to the pitcher and ask them what they want me to throw to them and what they like the best. If I put down something they don’t like, they can shake it off and I’ll come up with something else” and that he was still learning things. Of course, my mom said a loud he had to anyway now because he was married and Pete said the same thing to him. It took Mac a minute to register what he meant, then replied with, “Yeah, I’m learning,” with a somewhat forced-looking grin.

That’s all I remember really from the Q & A, unfortunately. I can remember Chipper’s for some reason, but not Mac and Glavine’s. Frenchy had gone to the “Reading Dugout” thing and read to kids with Catie during the Q & A with Mac and Glavine. I didn’t see them, but I saw some pictures a friend had taken. Frenchy kept staring at Catie’s chest while she read, she was wearing a low-cut top. After that, Mac and Frenchy went down to the Get Your Picture with a Brave thing and took pictures with fans. I went over there to watch and even got some pictures of them. Eventually, they ended up way out of the center of the backdrop and Mac would pat everyone on the shoulder or back sending them off after taking their picture. I watched for about thirty minutes or so, then headed back to the main stage to listen to Chipper’s Q & A. Everyone told him he was great and was their favorite player, blah blah. He was asked/talked about how he felt about being snubbed for the Gold Glove, what he did when he went to southern California, that he never had an issue with confidence, how he hopes before he retires to win a Gold Glove, and some more questions, a lot of them being the same thing. This wasn’t one of my favorite parts, but it was something to do until the “How to mold your son into a major leaguer” conference with McFrenchy and their dads at 2:30 pm.

We went up to the auditorium where the conference was being held fifteen minutes early to make sure we got good seats and ended up sitting in the second row in the middle. I was directly in front of Frenchy and Mac was to my right. Some of the pictures that I took from this were blurry because I was trying to fix the flash and keep them from being so dark from the lighting being very bad in the auditorium. I did get a good bit of pictures from this conference though. Ok, basically what it was, was the four sitting at a table and a guy asking them different questions about being drafted, dealing with pressure, other sports they played before, what made them decide to play baseball instead of the other sports, their regrets, and other stuff I can’t remember. Mac played soccer, football, basketball, and baseball in high school. His regret was that he should have played basketball his senior year of high school. Mac said he wasn’t even that good at basketball, but he loved the game and couldn’t really say why. Frenchy’s regret was that he didn’t enjoy his senior year more than he did because of all the hype and pressure of having to choose between colleges, etc. I can’t say that I blame him.

Ok, I was told to tell this story of Mac that Frenchy’s dad told everyone, which by the way was simply hilarious and sounds exactly like Mac. It was after Estrada had gotten hurt, Mac had gotten called up, and Frenchy’s dad had gone to Mississippi to be with Frenchy. Frenchy had gone 0-4 the night before in a game and was really thinking he wasn’t any good because he was in the minors and his friends were in the big leagues already. Mac’s mom called Frenchy’s dad and asked if he would bring Mac’s stuff back because neither of his parents could get down to Mississippi at the time. He agreed to do so and he went into Mac’s room in their apartment and into his bathroom. There was about 6 inches of water in Mac’s bath tub, so Frenchy’s dad asked Frenchy how long it had been since Mac had showered in that bathroom. Frenchy said about two weeks before. Apparently, Mac had stopped up the tub somehow and kept showering, letting the water collect in the tub. Frenchy’s dad said they sent Mac his stuff and also a plumbing bill. I could see this happening seriously, that’s why I found it so funny, as did everyone else.

Frenchy kept looking behind the podium at Mac across the table after he’d saying something every now and then smiling. They really do feed off of each other, but Mac seemed like he was tired and ready to go home when he wasn’t answering questions.

Other things, random or not, I noted while the conference was going on and before it started:

- I was the first one that I was sitting by to notice Mac walk into the side door of the auditorium and really wasn’t sure that was him at first. I looked a few seconds and discovered it was, as he was walking in with a group of people. He’s the only one I noticed. I didn’t see Frenchy until a few minutes later when they were standing by the stage waiting on the guy to finish that was on the stage, which I have no clue as to who he was.

- I wished I was the sound guy because he was almost molesting Mac. Ok, not really, but he got to mike him up. Also, my friend got a picture of this. I was too busy staring, heh. Mac pulled his t-shirt up, he was wearing a white, long sleeve shirt underneath or he wouldn’t have done this I’m sure, allowing the guy to mike him up and he looks a lot thinner in person than in pictures. He is noticeably thinner.

- Before the conference got in too far, a little boy and his dad got up from the front row to exit the auditorium. I watched, noticing the little boy had on a McCann jersey, and Mac’s dad, Howie, noticed this as well. Howie then got Mac’s attention, showing him the little boy’s jersey, and Mac just smiled.

- Howie talked about Brad some, but they didn’t really stay on the subject of him too long. Talked about how he was drafted but didn’t sign, going to college instead.

- Mac and Howie both made a point of not letting the draft get to you because you never know how it’s going to turn out. Mac thought he was going to be the sandwich pick, but it was a pitcher instead. He got bummed, really wanting to be drafted by the Braves and not anyone else, naturally, and then was chosen in the second round. Of course, Frenchy was the first round draft pick that year.

- Frenchy mentioned that once they started the minors, they were eighteen and in a new place, apparently in an apartment together, and he mentions that their parents did everything for them up until that point. They had to go from being spoiled to doing everything themselves. Frenchy said they ate Taco Bell every other day and Mac interrupted him, saying it was more like every day. Frenchy said Mac was still challenged when doing his own laundry, which was why I figured either his new wife does it for him or he has a maid. That instantly reminded me of the “dirty clothes in the bathtub” thing that Frenchy told about Mac in an interview they had done together.

- Mac was answering a question and he asked how many teams were in MLB. He’s like “the thirty something teams in baseball…there are thirty right?” Priceless. I’m telling you, he was either out of it or his mind was somewhere else. When not answering a question or looking at Frenchy behind the podium as they did frequently, Frenchy more so than Mac, Mac was playing with his empty water bottle, which he dropped onto the table at some point, fiddling with the mike pack in his pocket, which took me a while to figure out what he was doing (I thought maybe he was texting, playing with his phone, or something else, at first), looking up at the ceiling, looking around the auditorium or down at the table, wiped his face from sweating, which he did frequently, lean his chin on his hand among other things. Frenchy did random things, too, but he fiddled with his wedding ring a lot on his finger, while Mac seemed to not even realize he was wearing a ring that I noticed since he never touched it or looked at it. I was sitting right in front of Frenchy and they both kept looking over our way because we were taking pictures every so often. I kept trying not to make it seem like I was staring at Mac, and attempted to listen, but I did get pictures of him looking my way as well as Frenchy and Howie.

After the conference ended, Frenchy and Mac headed to the side of the stage and everyone followed them. Of course, they stopped to give people autographs and we were right there in front of Mac. They signed a few autographs and were told they would have to stop because they had to be somewhere else. The security people even said over their walkie talkie that they needed more security over there and no one was trying to get on the stage with the two, just standing in front of it. Mac stopped signing before Frenchy, telling everyone he was sorry, and then started to walk off to the side of the stage, waiting on Frenchy. Frenchy kept signing and the security woman almost literally pulled him away and out of the auditorium. There actually wasn’t supposed to be any autographs anyway, but this is how nice and caring for their fans that they are.

While the autographs were going on, my sister and mom exited from the auditorium, knowing the two would be exiting that way. My sister had asked a question and a lady wanted to talk to her about it. My mom saw the two men leaving and got my sister’s attention. My mom was able to tap Mac on the shoulder to get his attention and asked for a quick picture. He said very nicely, “I’m very sorry, they’ve had us running all over the place all day. I’m really sorry.” My mom and sister understood and Frenchy hollered at Mac, asking if he was coming, since the security people were hounding them to be somewhere. So, not only did I not get an autograph from either one of them, I didn’t get a picture with them either. I got some really close pictures of them, though, after the conference when they were signing autographs. I never saw them again after they had left, but I did get a picture with Frenchy’s dad. He said he wasn’t Frenchy, but he guessed he was the next best thing. He was so nice and Frenchy’s mom was there as well. Mac’s dad was signing autographs and talking to other fans, so I opted not to get his picture. But they both look like their dads.

After this was over, we came back to the main stage for a while as things were winding down. I missed McFrenchy somehow pitching and fielding on one of the fields for the little kids, but I figured I had seen them well enough after seeing them at the conference and I’m not sure when they were on the mini-field anyway since I never saw them myself. Jair Jurrjens came up to do a Q & A and just about everyone asked him how it felt to be a Brave. He seemed excited and happy to be on the team. Next was a Clint Sammons Q & A and I liked him being interviewed. Clint was very vocal and reminded me of Frenchy when being interviewed. He talked about getting ready for Spring Training and how he hopes to make the big league roster. I think he would be a great addition, but I also think he’ll get more time in the minors.

After the Q & A sessions, we went back over to the autographs area just walking around to see who was signing at the time. This was like thirty minutes before it was over for the day, but my sister wanted Josh Anderson’s autograph and the line was seemingly short, so we watched the Trivia thing since someone we knew was participating in it. We stayed long enough for my sister to get her autograph and then we left.

Slightly unimportant note that was probably nothing: We had parked right beside the building, luckily, and I spotted a black Range Rover, like Mac has, with Gwinnett on the tag. Not five minutes later, a Tahoe leaving in front of us looked just like the one Mac had before he got the Vette (Corvette) and Rover (Range Rover), I’m not sure if he still has the Tahoe or not though. The rims were the same and everything, but it was turning right and we went left. Plus, the dang windows were too tinted to see anything inside it. There was only one person in it, though, and the tag also had Gwinnett on it, but who knows?

Overall, in my opinion, it wasn’t a very good day. Of course, Sunday was supposedly executed better than Saturday, but I don’t know. I didn’t like vendors everywhere, there should have been more autograph lines and who was going to be signing when as well as the players signing more than an hour. The picture line was just as bad Saturday, again I don’t know about Sunday. I heard it wasn’t nearly as bad and the security people had had a mandatory meeting after the first day ended, having twelve hours to make things better for fans. I’m still hearing really bad complaints about the whole event and how it was done. I would hate to be the people reading the Braves mail for a while. We’re planning on going again next year, but it’ll hopefully be for both days. Hopefully, they’ll think of way to improve upon what fans disliked the most by then. If I had to rate things on Saturday, I would give it a 6/10 overall, and that’s only because I saw McFrenchy so much.

PICTURES: are located here.

Categories: miscellaneous, offseason, write-ups | Tags: fanfest