Braves v. Rockies, 5/23/14

I finally got back to a Braves game!!!!!!!  It’s been over a year since I last got to go, so it was pretty exciting to finally get back to Turner Field again.  I would have had this post up sooner, but I’ve had to work the past few days.  :/

Back in September 2012, a friend and I drove to Atlanta for a game and spent the night, and ever since then we’ve talked about needing to do it again.  But what with one thing and another it wasn’t until this past Friday that we were able to make it happen.  After finagling our work schedules and a lot of discussion, we and another friend headed out on Friday afternoon and got to Turner Field about ten minutes before the game started.  Our other friend was especially excited because she had never been to a Major League game before.  The friend I had gone with the first time had gotten our tickets for us ahead of time (thank goodness!), so we were able to go right on in to the stadium without having to stand in line.  As we looked for the "got your tickets ahead of time express entrance", I saw a family with two boys, and they were all wearing Medlin #53 shirseys.  Pretty much right then I knew the evening was going to be good. ;)  And then after we got inside the stadium and went looking for our seats, we found out that we were just two rows behind the right field wall!  When we realized how close we were to the field, I looked at my friend and said, “Girl, you’re wonderful!”  

As we had expected, what with it being Memorial Day weekend, it was a pretty well attended game.  The people that sat in front of us were fortunately not too tall to block our view (and one of them looked a lot like Giancarlo Stanton, which was a little weird).  We were also several seats over from the guy that dresses up like an Indian at a bunch of games.  Since we were behind right field, the players we saw the most of were Jason Heyward and Michael Cuddyer, which wasn’t too bad.  I’ve really liked Cuddy since his days with the Twins, and if any of the Rockies players HAD to get a homer to tie the game in the 6^th inning, I’m glad it was him (especially since we won anyway).  It was sometimes hard to see what was happening in the infield, especially during the early part of the game when the sun was still showing over the stadium walls, but fortunately my camera has pretty good zoom on it so I was able to get some fairly decent pictures.  And after the sun went down it wasn’t bad at all, especially with the almost constant breeze we had. 

I was really happy to get to see in person some of the guys that have joined the team since we had last been to a game, specifically Chris Johnson, who has become one of my top favorites.  So when I looked at the scoreboard during the third inning and saw that his name had been replaced in the lineup, I was a little upset, wondering why the heck he had been taken out of the game.  Was he hurt?  WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO MY BOY?!?  (I refer to my favorites as "my boys".  It's short for "my favorite boys on the team".)  Then an inning or so later the Rockies put in a new third baseman, too, so it seemed pretty ironic.  I vaguely wondered if the managers had made a deal about their third basemen or something.  Then after I got home Saturday afternoon and got on the Internet, I found this article explaining what happened.  ChrisJ…calm down, buddy.  At least he’s willing to apologize for letting his temper get a hold of him. 

Anyway, here are some funny/cool things that happened during the game, both on and off the field. 

Off the field -

• A vender came near us and called out “Snow cones!  Get them while they’re hot!”  I don’t know if that was unintentional or whether he was doing it to get peoples’ attention, but either way it got our attention!  But, since we didn't want hot snow cones (or cold ones, either, for that matter), we didn't buy any.  ;) 
• When BJ Upton came up to bat in the 6^th, someone in our section started a chant of “Let’s go, BJ!” *clapclap clapclapclap* and pretty much the whole right field bleachers joined in (BJ ended up getting a walk). 
• When Brandon Barnes was brought in to pinch hit in the 7^th the song “Old MacDonald” started playing over the loudspeaker. 

On the field -

• Andrelton Simmons got a really good play at shortstop,
• During the 6^th Justin Upton hit a ball to shortstop and unfortunately most of his broken bat followed it (and Troy Tulowitzki was somehow able to get the ball and not the bat.  If it had been me, I would have probably grabbed the bat, or else been too distracted by it to find the ball.  That's one of the many reasons I'm not a baseball player) 
  
• At one point Justin made a good play at the wall in left field and afterwards JHey looked at him and shook his hand around like “Yow, dude!” 

·         And then, of course, in the bottom of the 8^th we were tied 2-2.  Ramiro Pena, who had replaced ChrisJ at third, hit a double.  Then both Simba and Dan Uggla struck out.  Then up came Gerald Laird, the catcher for the night.  And he hit his second double of the night, sending Pena home and breaking the tie!  And that meant we got to see Craig Kimbrel!  And of course Kimmie came in and did exactly what he was supposed to, striking out the side and bringing the number of saves between his record and John Smoltz’s down to two.  And unfortunately I *just* missed seeing a Freddie/Huggla hug after the game ended.  I had been watching to see if the bullpen boys were going to run out and join their teammates and happened to glance back at the infield right as Freddie and Huggla were letting go of each other.  Drat.  So much for getting a Braves huggy picture.  Oh, well, hopefully there will be a next time.  ;) 

After the game was the fireworks show.  I thought it was a little, I guess you could say interesting, that they played classical music while the fireworks were going on.  You could only really hear it between rockets.  Soon after I realized that that was what they were doing, I thought, “They need to play "The William Tell Overture"'.  They must have read my mind, because that is what they played for the finale.  And it fit nicely (although I think I prefer the slightly revamped version of the overture that was made for the newest “Lone Ranger” movie).

After we left the stadium and were trying to figure out which direction we needed to head in to get to our parking lot, we heard drumming off to one side.  I thought that it might have been the Braves’ drum corps, but when we joined the crowd that had gathered around the source of the sound, we found out that it was just one guy, playing on plastic buckets.  And he was amazing!  He has figured out how to get all different kinds of sounds out of those buckets by angling them with his feet, making them spin, and all other kinds of cool tricks.  He was also a good showman.  At one point he told us that he was going to do a one-handed drum-roll, and then told us all to say “No way!” (which we did).  And he did it!  Wow.  Then at the end of his performance he gave a little background on himself to get us to give him a donation, and he mentioned that he used to be a school teacher.  When he said that some guy in the crowd called out, “No way!”  ;)

It really was a fun trip.  I’m so glad that my friends and I were finally able to pull it off!  Hopefully we’ll get to do it again sometime.  

Here are some of the best pictures I got from the game.  Enjoy!  

This was the view from our seats!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey, JHey.

ChrisJ and Simba.

JHey made a good basket catch RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!!!!  And he's like "Piece of cake."  ;)

ChrisJ at (his only) at bat.

Huggla on base with Laird at the plate.  If you don't understand Uggla's nickname, see here.

JHey: "Yow, JUp!"

BJ at bat and JHey on base, ready to go.  JHye's stance reminds me a bit of when Jackie Robinson was stealing bases with his crab-like shuffle in the movie "42".

Huggla (and the Rockies' dugout).

This was during one of the Instant Replay breaks.  JHey would watch the footage for a while, while BJ just ignored it like, "Whatever, the umps are going to do what they want to, anyway."

For a couple of innings I ended up standing on the main concourse while I waited for my friends to get back from doing a little shopping, so of course I stationed myself above the bullpen.  Unfortunately, the only guys who came out while I was there were coach Eddie Perez, bullpen catcher Alan Butts, and newbie reliever Ian Thomas.  Oh, well.

See all those white specks on the ground?  I think somebody likes his sunflower seeds.  Like, really likes them.  You could see him spitting them throughout the whole game.

Aw, c'mon, Cuddy, I was just picking.  Seeds are definitely a better habit than some others you could have.

Freddie, Justin Morneau, and Cuddy.

Freddie and Huggla.  <3

Part-way through the game, I noticed that they didn't have enough room on the board to put a space between "Tulowitzki" and "SS", so it's really "Tulowitzkiss".  ;)

Kimmie runs too darn fast for me to get a good picture of him running in (here's hoping for next time!), so I had to settle for a good pic of BJ in front of Kimmie's flames.

The bullpen boys going back to the dugout after the win.  I'm guessing the guy in the jacket is David Hale, the one next to/behind him has to be Alex Wood, the one with the backpack is Thomas, and the last one is Anthony Varvaro.

I got this during the fireworks show.  Made me think of "The Star Spangled Banner."

Got this as we left the stadium parking lot.  I guess since they are going to be replacing the stadium in a few years they probably won't bother fixing the wacky-jawed-ness of the sign's coloring.

As we drove away from the stadium, we found ourselves looking at this beautiful view of downtown.  A great way to end a wonderful evening.  :)