Recap: Gameday Experience

Nick Digilio and Cory Provust hosted the "Game Day Experience" session at the Cubs Convention. The guests were Ted Lilly, Koyie Hill, Kevin Hart, Mike Fontenot, and Joey Gathright. Here's the recap:

• Ted Lilly was asked about his routine on the days he starts. He said he tries to keep it the same as any day he starts. He tries not to think about it too much early in the day because then he wants the 7:05 game to start at 1:00.
• Koyie Hill said that the game is the same in the minors, but the environment is different.
• Fontenot said that his day is a little bit different when he's starting. He says he lifts and runs more on days he's not starting.
• Gathright says he wakes up late and gets to the park around 2:00.
• Kevin Hart likes to get to the park early.
• Mike says sometimes he likes going on the road to see all the ballparks.
• Joey has never seen as many fans in a hotel lobby as he saw at the convention.
• Koyie says the many Cubs fans are great and make you take a lot of pride in what you are doing. He thinks that the fans on the road give you an edge.
• Ted says that you have to be as consistent as possible.
• Cory asked about superstitions. Joey says that he has an old teammate who will put on lady's underwear when he gets into a funk. Mike says he has to be in the dugout to be ready for Zambrano's beat into the ground everyday.
• Nick asked who screws around the most in the clubhouse. The guys said that there are a lot of characters on the team. They mentioned Dempster and Jon Lieber as jokers.
• Cory asked about aliases that the guys used on the road. Ted says he used Harry Rosenbag. Koyie used Turb Fergurson. Joey only has his current one.
• Mike and Ted's favorite story was when the security guy clotheslined the fan who was about to jump Bobby Howry.
• Joey said that it's fun to be on the plane when you're winning, but it's not when your losing.
• Koyie said that we would laugh if we knew how much stuff gets broken on the plane when you put 25 competitive people on a plane for 4 hours over losing card games and stuff like that.
• Kevin described AAA travel as "no fun".
• Joey said that he doesn't train for speed. He said that his mom was really fast and his dad could jump really high so he got a combination of both.
• Joey was asked about the YouTube video where he jumped over a car. He said it started after football practice in 10th grade. He said he can't jump over cars any more because he will get in trouble.
• Kevin has seen Joey jump cars first person before.
• Mike says that he will stick with jumping over chairs not cars.
• Kevin said that some teams make rookies ride on a motorized cooler that they make the rookie ride out to the bullpen. Lilly had to carry a pink purse from the dugout to the bullpen.
• Someone asked if any of the guys played fantasy baseball. Most of them play fantasy football in the off seaon.
• All the guys follow football pretty closely. Fontenot likes the Saints. Gathright and Hart are both Cowboys fan. Ted said that football is his favorite sport to watch. He enjoys watching high school games. Koyie likes the Chiefs.
• Mike says he likes to hunt and fish. Joey likes to draw and play X-box. Kevin says he plays X-Box live for about 4 hours a day. Koyie said he always wanted to be an architect. One of Hill's goals is to get better a racket ball. Ted enjoys golf.
• Someone asked if they get distracted by the fans. Mike says he tries to ignore them. Ted said that it just show that they are interested when they cheer and boo. Joey likes to interact with the fans.
• Cory asked if Wrigley has lived up to their expectations. Ted says that when he see all the fans you realize how special this place is. Lilly thinks the new guys will have a lot of fun this year. Joey said that when you found out he got a chance to come to Chicago, he came mainly because of the fans.
• The panel shared their favorite Lou Pienella story. Ted told a funny story about how Fontenot had a great game, and Lou went up to the bullpen catcher and said, "Great game today." Lou has confused Mike and Corey Miller more than once.
• Joey said he knows Lou because he played for him in Tampa.
• Lilly was asked about plowing over Molina during a game against the Cardinals. He said that Molina is a class act, Ted said he felt bad that he got hurt no that play. Ted says that sliding would have been more dangerous for himself.
• Someone asked about there favorite and least favorite places to play. Mike's favorite city is San Diego and least favorite is Pitsburg. Joey and Ted's least favorites are Minisota. Ted's favorite is San Fransisco and Gathright's is Boston.
• Lilly says that when he was on the Blue Jays, Wrigley and Fenway were his favorite places to play.
• Mike's favorite thing about Chicago besides Wrigley is the weather in the summer. Koyie enjoys how active the city is. Kevin says that he likes walking around the city and seeing millions of people with your teams logo on their hat.
• The guys talked about the small visiting clubhouse. They love the fact knowing that the other team is miserable over there.