Sit down…grab a drink and something to eat, maybe a pillow….an alarm clock..because this post went longer than I thought. It could be a good thing.
Went to Atlanta this weekend and got my computer woes fixed today too…
My trip to Atlanta was one of those trips that was almost sort of magical. I’ve had good trips to the ballpark, but this one was different. It consisted of being in the right place at the exact right time.
Saturday I went with Chris to see the woeful Braves host the cursed Chicago Cubs. After a “fine” morning at work, I got to his house and we got on the road at 1 pm. The commute from Greenville to Atlanta should take three hours. The keyword here is SHOULD. The traffic in Atlanta unreal. Anytime I think the city of Greenville is huge, a trip to Atlanta will quickly denounce that thinking. Six to Eight lanes wild traffic. When entering the city, a small town boy like me can be overwhelmed by the carnivous flow of traffic. That though, the traffic flowed as easily as it was suprising and with an hour stop at the Cracker Barrel (whose “country store” is a worthless collection of overpriced knicknacks and candy…but when on the road in the south, a meat and three is a much preferred alternative to McDonalds or Burger King) we were at the gates before 5 pm…i forget, but let’s say 4:40, a remarkable pace to and through the asphalt hell known as Atlanta. I stepped outside of the gates to make a phone call and midway through my conversation I saw a man walking up to where I was standing. The man’s face was UNMISTAKABLE. I have watched the Braves since I was in 5th grade and I’ll always have a soft spot for them (never fear though, I’ll always suffer with the O’s) and especially that first team I watched. I could name all of them. Terry Pendleton, Sid Bream, Steve Avery, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Jeff Blauser, Damon Berryhill, Mark Lemke…It was a time where I could only care if they won. I didn’t give a damn about ERA, RBI, OBP and all that stats blather. If they were on my team they were boys and the guy I saw WAS one of my biggest boys…
It was Otis Nixon. Chances are you may not have a clue who Otis Nixon is, but if you’ve seen him once you’ll never ever forget his mug. Otis was centerfielder for the Braves for 3 seasons on what would be 17 season career with 9 different teams (2 stops with the Braves). Nixon was a great fielder, medicore hitter (.270 career BA w/ 11 total HR), and murder on the bases. The man stole 620 bases in his career. Seeing him walk up and by, I was awestruck by the presence of medicore journeyman ballplayer that I could only stare as he walked by and got into a waiting car and left.
Once in the stadium, we were wandering about and stumbled onto the Braves pregame bullpen. There was action in it and I expected to see call-up tossing some butterballs or something of that nature. I was happily incorrect as John Smoltz was throwing heat. The view is downward and we were about maybe ten feet up. For about fifteen minutes Smoltz threw and it was awesome. I forget my camera, but Chris bought his and got about a dozen pictures. I’ll post a couple when he sends me some. Being that close to hall of famer in action is something I will never forget.
After that I saw Mark Lemke, who now does radio shows from Turner Field with Chip Carey. Lemke was one of those players who were never an all-star, but they played their butts off. Those are the players you love to have on your team. I got him to autograph my ticket, not because it’ll worth hundreds of dollar when I’m old and gray..it won’t be. I got him to autograph because he was a player I like when I was kid and it was for that kid in me who will always love baseball.
Then there were the people I met at the park. There was a man and his wife who ran a beer stand and they live in Atlanta for a while and they explained to me how they managed to outwit the traffic (there ARE backroads in Atlanta). There was the guy who was with the promotions/event staff who used to work as a vendor at Camden Yards for 5 seasons. Great park he said, but when games weren’t selling out he had to move on. Good guy, even for a Red Sox fan.
There also happened to be a game at Turner Field that night. Wade Miller made his Cubs debut against Chuck James and let’s just say the suffering continued this night for the Cubbies. By the way, Cubs fans travel very well. I’d say it was 60/40 Braves. Miller only lasted 3 innings and got rocked. 74 pitches and only 36 were strikes. Carlos Zambrano was supposed to start, but was scratched due to injury..which makes Miller’s performance even more of disappointment. Adam LaRoche and Brian McCann homered off him.
The Cubs tried. Matt Murton hit a homer and Juan Pierre stole 2 bases. Miller dug them into too big a hole and with Derek Lee and Aramias Ramierez going 0 for the day the offense struggled. Derek Lee made three great defensive plays at first base. Seeing the man in person, you really that this man is huge.
All in all it was an excellent day…with the exception of getting back to Greenville and getting my car to find that it won’t start and the ordeal that was dealing with that yesterday, but this is not the place for it. So Saturday was my last game that I’ll be going to for the season and it was probably the best experience I’ve had at a ballpark, though the best GAME was the O’s/Braves game I went to this season and the O’s fans came out pretty good for that one. So I’ll have to wait til 2007 til I can go to a game, but I made to 3 Braves games (Orioles, Mets, and Cubs), 1 Durham Bulls game, 1 Asheville Tourists game, and probably 15 or 16 Greenville Drive games, so it has been an epic season for going to ball games.
An Orioles note: The O’s were eliminated from playoff contention officially this weekend. It’s been a rough season, kids….but I guess all we can do is root for ‘em and hope the front office can bumble into doing some right moves this offseason and get this team right. I see some good things with this team and I really think just the additional of a couple players could make a would of difference as well as the the subtraction of a couple. It is what it is, and it hasn’t been the best season.
Thus ends the longest post I’ve ever done.
Filed under: Field Trips, Good times
