Day 7: HOTlanta

After the Rays game I drove over to Orlando to stay with Jaime. I’d say Buckhunter and the Dungeon were the highlights of my time there.

All day Sunday was spent driving up to Georgia to stay with Natalie and Darrick. This blog is not going to turn political on you but I will say that based on the plethora of billboards on my drive northward I learned that “a heartbeat begins at 18 days” and “We Bare All” gentleman’s clubs give discounts to truckers. And that’s all I have to say about that.

The weather in the Peach State has been impeccable. I’m making every effort to counter the combination of beers/hot dogs and sitting in the car for hours at a time so Darrick told me about some great trails to run on by the Chattahoochee River. On Monday night Natalie and I went to the Braves/Nationals game and, as expected, there were some high points and some low points.

Game Notes:

Because I thought the offer was too good to be true, I bought our tickets online ahead of time. The Braves wanted $1 per outfield seat plus $3.05 in ticketmaster fees. For two tickets. Total. That’s just silly!!

We showed up around 5:30 for a 7:10 start. The parking lot has a huge wall that was the outfield fence at the old Fulton County Stadium. I thought that was a nice touch. Turner Field has some really nice security personnel as well as some downright Nazi, I’m sorry, nasty people working for them as well (more on that later). We did a lap around the field and I saw things like statues of Hank Aaron and Warren Spahn and the original names of the Braves teams. Most of you probably know they started in Boston and you probably know them as the Boston Braves. WELL…let me be the first to tell you they were also called by the following:

Boston Red Stockings (1871-1882)

Boston Beaneaters (1883-1906)

Boston Doves (1907-1910)

not sure why that one didn’t last!

Boston Rustlers (1911)

Boston Braves (1912-1935)

Boston Bees (1936-1940)

Boston Braves (1941-1952)

Then they took Boston out of the team name and moved to Milwaukee so I stopped paying attention.

I also saw this giant drum:

There were these division champion flags:


Keeping in mind the 1994 season was strike-shortened, that’s quite the impressive run, no?

Finally we sat down in some seats along the first baseline to take in some batting practice. A kindly old gentleman asked us if we needed help finding our seats and I told him we weren’t in that section, we just wanted to watch the batting practice. He said OK, but little did I know that was the start of an entire evening filled with battling ushers.

After the national anthem we went to get more hot dogs and beer. Upon sitting down in a new section in right field we were promptly asked for our tickets. When we told the usher we didn’t have tickets to that section he said he couldn’t let us sit there. Mind you, there was nobody else in that section of the stadium, nor in the two adjacent sections. Now, I know Mr. Turner has a business to run and he wouldn’t be making any money if he sold general admission tickets and let people choose where to sit, but from a fans perspective this went from frustrating, to annoying, to downright absurd in a matter of minutes. We left the section in right field and went upstairs to our section 421. Trying to avoid the blinding sun we entered one section over, at 419, whereupon we were greeted by another usher who asked to see our tickets. I said we were in section 421, showing him that my hands were full with beer and hot dogs. Don’t you know it? He couldn’t let us sit there. I motioned with my head up at the seats which were ENTIRELY EMPTY and asked “does it really matter?”


Apparently it does. We were shooed back to the next entrance, 421, where again we were asked for our tickets. I said we knew where we were going and we headed up to some empty row, not our seats. It didn’t end there.

After sitting through 7.5 innings in roughly our section, with about 15 other people, I decided I wanted to see the other side of the park. So we started walking through empty seats, about 15 rows up in the highest section of the park. Well guess what? We got 3 sections over before we were flagged down by an usher. “You can’t walk across there!” YEEEESH!!! Here we are, the stadium is less than 25% full and we’re still getting flagged down for walking across sections. I know, I know…business to run, etc. but c’mon! That was by far the worst part of Turner Field. Have some perspective.

High Points:

-There is a Drumline-esq band of high school students dressed in Braves gear that marches around and plays before the game. That was really cool. They also have a guy that whales on the big-ass drum mentioned above.

-The ticket prices for our section really cannot be beat. $1.00 per ticket is like giving them away…even if they do make you sit IN THAT SECTION.

-The Tomahawk Chop! I could not have been more excited about this. I was in the middle of bitching about the ushers when the Braves scored their first run. Immediately the drums started up and I was brought back to memories of middle school watching the entire stadium swinging their arms in unison. You bet I got into it!

-Upon entering the stadium they had a booth for kids to make signs. The best one of the night, which also got on the jumbotron, read “The Guy Behind Me Can’t See!! go braves”

-I know I just made fun of a little kid in my last post but it happened again. This time a little boy was watching a match game on the scoreboard where a person had to pick squares (i.e. “1 and 7” oh, they don’t match, how about “1 and 5”, etc.). Well, his dad was getting impatient and said “Chris, let’s go!” so the kid turns around and bursts into tears as he’s running back to his dad…”but I love these games!!!!” Maybe you had to be there, or maybe I’m just not a nice person. Either way, I had a hearty chuckle out of it.

Low Points:

-USHERS!!! Really, I needed them to have some perspective or put the situation into context and they just couldn’t. It was great that the Braves are employing 100’s of concessionaires for each game and an usher for every single section, but really, think about fan’s enjoyment for a minute if you can. Anyway, towards the end of the game we did get to the other side of the stadium to the Coke Sky Box where they have a basepath for kids to run and touch a base. Well, once all the little ones left I decided to get in on the action. I ran my 90 feet and was damn proud of it. Afterwards I started talking to the ushers a little bit and told them about the trip I’m on. They wanted to take a picture, so I did, even though I had some reservations and told them they were much cooler than the ushers down in right field. Here we are!

-Chicago Dog. This looked great on the menu, and maybe it even tasted OK at the time, but looking at this picture it’s just like “ughhhhhh”. Ya know?



-Natalie got stopped by a jerk cop outside the subway station trying to pick me up.

-Ushers.

-Turner Field has the same concession stands…over and over and over again. It’s kind of confusing if you’re not paying attention.

-The ushers, for me, were kind of a low point in the experience.

Overall Grade: B-
(Ushers: F)

Game Stats:

Teams: Braves vs. Nationals
Final Score: 7-3 Braves
WP: Tim Hudson
LP: Matt Chico
Time: 2:50
Announced Attendance: 16,706
Ticket Price: $2.50
Parking Price: $12.00

Trip Stats:

Home team record: 2-1
Miles Driven: 977
States Visited: 2
Beds slept in: 4
Next Stop: Colorado Rockies
Favorite Park: Tropicana Field