2010 Annual Banquet - April 17, 2010
Guest NYG William Beatty - Another Great Banquet!
By Rich Rooney
I was up early filled the truck with everything needed for our grand finale to our 2009 season. The day was dark with a slight mist of rain, but the outlook for the Giants is nothing but sunshine and rainbows, on this day.
Shortly after arriving and checking in with management at Lombardo's and making sure the hall was set and amenities were in place. I set out the photo albums for viewing the merchandise for our raffle and all key sight lines in place. The reception table was set, and the fans began to arrive. I really look forward to this occasion all year, as it's like meeting family members you haven't seen in awhile. Catching up with what's new and also my greatest indulgence, talking NY Giant Football.
Our guest of honor and speaker, Mr. William Beatty arrived right on time and was a most congenial and well spoken young man. I ushered him into the hall and introduced him around to our banquet members. After the cocktail hour was winding down and folks were getting some final munchies and drinks; we began to open the banquet to Mr. John Berti's welcoming speech and then opened the buffet and welcomed all to part take in the fine food, prepared by Lombardo's.
Everyone was in a festive mood and seem to be filled with "great expectations", after dessert was served, Barry Belotti gave us some moments of levity and proceeded to introduce our chairman John Berti. John went on, in significant detail about our speaker, his background and quite a rookie year.
Mr. William Beatty arose approached the podium and gave us his personal history of York, Pennsylvania, his years at the University of Connecticut and about his parents, family and his teammates. During his comments he talked about being a rookie and some of the fun his teammates had with him; and about his great opportunity and what the process was like, being drafted and how it occurred. He also mentioned that he was so overwhelmed with the events of that day several NY Giant players and coaches called his cell phone. He couldn't recall. One of those calling him was QB Eli Manning. Shortly thereafter the questions began, and at first I felt a little sorry for William as many of the questions seemed to be meant for the coaching staff and also maybe management as to the stretch run and our fans disappointment about the season outcome. William was masterful in dealing with some of the more interesting questions; by pointing out he's a player and a rookie and in most cases is following the lead of coaches and veteran players and getting to their mutual goal of winning a super bowl.
William continued on answer questions for more than an hour and a half, when we finally had to cut off questioning so we could continue to the raffle and end our event on time.
Before going to the raffle, Barry Belotti talked about our former member and founder Ronnie Anderson and the "Big Guy" award given out in his honor. Barry introduced me and I made my way to the podium and thanked all for coming and mentioned what a great honor to be part of this organization, we always refer to as "family". I went on to do pre introduction of our special award nominee and the "envelope please". Yes! Fran Delucia is our "Big Guy" Award honoree. Fran came to the podium and began to talk about what an honor this was and about the 2007 super bowl and about her husband Tom, being such an ardent NE Patriot and about the tough time she had during that super bowl because of co-workers and this being such a personal situation for her, but she did it with "tongue in cheek" and with humor.
We opened up the banquet for the raffle, and this year we also had a very special football to auction, a football that had two or three times the normal amount of signatures. The bidding was slow at first but built to a crescendo and even William Beatty bid on the ball, but in the end it was John L. Barry and his lovely wife Sharon taking home the prize.
Then we began the raffle and as we began Rebecca, William Beatty's friend asked if she could contribute. She took the microphone and began to call the numbers like a Vanna White of the Fan Club. The raffle ended with many happy faces and then many came by the front table and had their favorite sports memorabilia items, signed by William and had their photos taken with him. This was truly a Giant day for all of us and was one of the best NY Football Giant banquets in recent years, everything went so smoothly and even though it was a reduced crowd from previous years, was very enthusiastic and all had a great time.
