NASHVILLE — A job seeker comes out of the cold and into a lobby that’d be empty if not for the Hall of Fame manager standing there. It’s 7:37 a.m. Tuesday. The job seeker traveled to Nashville this week trying to break into broadcasting. He’s wearing his best black suit and an air of eagerness and unease. Tony La Russa is in workout clothes, towel slung over his shoulder.
The aspiring broadcaster doesn’t seem to register La Russa. He’s on a mission. He whooshes past and disappears into the vastness of the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, the most bonkers building on baseball’s Winter Meetings circuit. Inside the 4.6 million square foot resort are 15 bars and restaurants, 2,800 hotel rooms, nine acres of atriums, three lobbies, a spa, a water park and, currently, 5 million holiday lights strung around the property.
“I hate this place,” a writer confided earlier this week, “but it fascinates me.”
The absurdity of the resort and of the Winter Meetings — a job fair, trade show, carnival and meeting place for baseball’s power brokers all wrapped into a three-day event — is best captured in individual moments. So, from dawn to dusk on Day 2, I walked (and walked) and collected as many as I could.
7:44 a.m. — My wife is in the middle of telling…
