Last week I had the privilege of conducting a private signing with Giants running-back (and Steiner exclusive) Brandon Jacobs. Brandon was in New Rochelle to do a guest spot on the Brandon (Steiner) and Brandon (Tierney) radio show. The show broadcasts live from Mo's New York Grill (Mariano's restaurant) about once a month. It happens to be a pretty entertaining show and a lot of fun to be there in person...definitely try to make it down for the next one. Anyway, before the show Jacobs came up to our office to sign. Brandon, Super Bowl ring on finger, signed for about a half hour. Over the course of that small signing we talked a little about the upcoming season. Jacobs is extremely excited to build on last year's success. There is no doubt that we have no even seen the best of him yet...he is a very special player. The one thing that always strikes me when talking to Brandon is that he really, really seems to dislike the Cowboys (I love that). It is not a manufactured hatred or a company line...he does not like those guys (which is awesome). During that small signing we were able to re-up on some staple Jacobs pieces (such as NFL footballs and Giants mini-helmets) as well as some classic photos (like the 4th and 1 from the Super Bowl in both 8x10 and 16x20).
To get back to the Mo's thing...I actually spent quite a lot of time at the resturant last week. Aside from the radio show we had two separate events there. The first was with Mariano himself and Andy Pettitte. I mention the Pettitte thing because a funny story (at least to me) came out of it. Before the event I was talking to Andy about the craziness of this current season (by the way Pettitte is one of my favorite players to work with and talk sports with). I made sure to remind him (as he knows I am a completely out of control Mets fan that has spent quite a bit of time discussing Games 1 and 5 of the 2000 World Series with him) that the Mets blew a seven game division lead with seventeen games to go. The moral of that story is that anything and everything is possible in the unpredictable world of Major League Baseball. Anyway, Sunday morning I noticed a few quotes from my boy Pettitte's post game interview from Saturday. To make long story short- when asked about the Yankees chances one of Andy's responses was that somebody told him that the Phillies made up seven games with seventeen to go last year to win the division (meaning that miracles and crazier things have happened than the Yankees making a run over these last few weeks)....I thought it was relatively cool that I was that "somebody".
Back to Mo's....for any of you that have not eaten there you should definitely go check it out. The food is outstanding and the walls are covered with some ridiculously prodigious photos (as well as some personalized pieces "To Mo's" collected by yours truly).
These next seven days should end up being just a busy as the last seven. We have a private signing with Archie Manning and a few tremendous appearances coming up on Monday (including one with NY Met Daniel Murphy- who has been raking over the past month or so). Then on Tuesday I am off to Atlanta for a private signing with Rockies phenom Troy Tulowitzki.
Check back for updates.