By Mark La Monica
One of the more puzzling questions around these tents is what is a sports guy doing covering Fashion Week. I still don't have an answer for that other than it gets me out of the office for a few days and that if I'm going to switch things up for a few days, this seems a lot more fun than being the guy who replaces toner in office copiers and printers.
As the beautiful people were ushered into the Oscar de la Renta show, the gamble paid off.
Omar Minaya, the general manager of the New York Mets, strolled in unmolested by the photographers and the 86 fashion and style networks I never knew existed.
Baseball is a ferocious beat in this town, so Minaya is used to being bombarded by the media. This had to be a welcome feeling to go unnoticed.
Near as I can figure, there were three people in the Tent who knew who Omar Minaya was. Those three were Omar Minaya, his wife Rachel and myself.
For a few minutes, I was king of the journalism jungle. The guy who knew who someone else was without asking the nearest important-looking person.
Minaya climbed the 12 or so stairs to his seat in the balcony. I caught him on stair No. 3 with an "Omar, no front row for you today?"
He laughed. "No, not today," he replied.
Maybe de la Renta didn't appreciate the trading of starting pitchers Kris Benson and Jae Seo.
The show went on as planned and I decided to be one of those stalker fashion journalists. I waited by the runway for Minaya to leave.
He walked by and I introduced myself as a sports guy masquerading a fashion guy for a few days. I asked his thoughts on the show.
"I like Oscar," Minaya said. "I've met him before. I'm definitely a fan."
Fair enough. He made some pretty fly gear for this show.
But it was time to get Minaya's answer to the question I haven't been able to reconcile.
"What is a sports guy such as you doing here?" I asked.
"My wife," Minaya said. "She likes fashion. And right before spring training, it's a good change of scenery."
Good call, Omar. Now, about those recent trades with the starting pitchers?