SugarHouse "Lunch With a Legend" Review
Editor's Note: The Phillies Collector reader, Scott Segerstrom was selected to meet former Phillies Manager, Charlie Manuel as part of SugarHouse Casino's on-going "Lunch with a Legend" promotion last weekend. He has graciously documented his experiences for our benefit. Thanks, Scott!
I just got home from the Charlie event and it was a good, not great event. I would say there were about 100 "winners" that attended the event ranging from mid-twenties to senior citizens. A crowd big enough to be worth SugarHouse's time but small enough that everyone was seated close.
The Good:
By far the highpoint was the question-and-answer session moderated by Mike Missanelli from 97.5 and was excellent. Mike asked questions and got out the way for Charlie to weave those rambling tales that go all over. Charlie talked about his childhood and even mentioned his father, who took his own life, which was surprising. He said that the 2009 World Series loss was his lowest moment as manager but that the Yankees out-played us and deserved to win. Many, many more cool moments during an hour-long session.
Winners also received signed 8x10s of Charlie, and before the event he tweeted out a picture of him signing the photo stack at SugarHouse.
The casino also provided an employee to take pictures using each winner's cell phone of them with Charlie, which supplemented the casino's own photographer who has posted the pictures of the event here.
The Okay:
There were only three questions asked by the crowd, which was a little disappointing. I asked one of the three, and used the opportunity to ask about the Phillies strategy of engaging more Cuban and Central American prospects as a shortcut to rebuilding. This generated a typical-Charlie meandering answer that was irrelevant and fantastic at the same time.
The food was normal banquet-style, with banquet chicken, flatiron steak, or veggie stir-fry. Definitely not quite what you would get at the MGM Grand in Vegas, but certainly nothing to complain about. They also served everyone a complimentary rum-punch drink without telling you what it was, which I thought was hilarious.
The Not-As-Good:
First, the fact that the casino said he would not sign was personally quite disappointing. The pictures on SugarHouse's website show Carlton and Lidge signing items, so that provided a little expectation. Also, with only 100 people--plenty of whom were older and clearly not carrying items--it would not have been an issue. I should add the casino employees were not rude about that, but it did not seem completely reasonable. A few folks did hop up immediately after Charlie left the dais but the casino staff quickly moved Charlie to the photo table.
Secondly, the casino permits smoking which created a very noticeable odor and honestly makes me concerned for the dealers I saw that clearly inhale smoke for their entire shift on the tables. I had to wash my clothes upon getting home and my game-used Charlie jersey (that I really wanted signed badly) had to be aired out on the deck because I did not want to wash it.
So that's a quick overview, a good event that the average fan would love and the collector would be lukewarm on.