If any of you bothered to read the About section, you know that I worked in the Devil Rays’ public relations office

This could be you! (Photo by Brian Cassella, St. Petersburg Times)

for 9 summers.  It was awesome even though the most exciting thing we did on some nights was guess how long Steve Kent would go between appearances.  (Players like Kent were one of the great joys of the Devil Rays’ era.  The guy spent an entire season in the big leagues because we were too cheap to admit that we shouldn’t have drafted him in the Rule V draft.  So, Hal McCrae just didn’t use him and we played a man-down in the bullpen.)

Imagine how cool working in baseball is now that the Rays are winning.  If you’d like to find out, let me know.  (Or, if you’d like an excuse to attend the winter meetings, or just spend some time at the Disney Boardwalk resort).

Sports Management Worldwide has offered one reader of The Ray Area* free admission to their Baseball Career Conference being held at the Winter Meetings in Lake Buena Vista.  I don’t know any of the speakers personally (which is probably evidence that they are competent or knowledgeable) but there are some really big-name presenters.  Either email me (MarkHeilig@GMail.com) or post your interest in the comments and I will put your names in one of those mini-helmets they use to serve ice cream (the one I use for these sorts of thing was actually used in a game by Jason Tyner) and pick the winner.

*If you do attend the Baseball Career Fair and plan on going over to jobs fair Major League Baseball holds at the Winter Meetings, it’s probably in your best interest to keep your readership of this site under wraps.  Especially if Peter Golenbock’s editor is there hiring researchers.