Home of the Brave

Having been disappointed by Houston, we were hoping to clear the slate in Atlanta. Our prospects were looking good, based on reading The Ultimate Baseball Road-Trip. We guess this is a good time to mention that the Kevin and Josh we keep referring to as our friends are really the authors of our road trip book. We feel like we know them pretty well by now, and often find ourselves saying, ‘That’s such a Josh thing to do!” or “You’re way more Kevin than I am.” For the record, MB is Josh and Susie is Kevin (in most scenarios). Let’s give a ginormous shout out to Kevin and Josh for guiding our trip and revealing all the must-sees and not-eats. Another shout out to Tom (Susie’s brother) for giving her the book two years ago.

We left New Orleans at 6:00 in the morning and for the first time on this trip arrived at our destination in the anticipated amount of time (8 hours). We headed to the Braves game in what started out as a light rain and soon became a torrential downpour. We were laughing at one point at the irony? idiocy? commitment? of barely being able to drive in the rain while we were going to a game that had a good chance of being postponed.

Luckily, the rain did not ruin our visit to Turner Field in Atlanta. We began as Kevin and Josh suggested, by viewing the portion of the wall from old Fulton County Stadium where Hank Aaron hit his record-breaking 715th homerun, then reenacting Aaron’s feat (i.e., running the bases) in the parking lot. Next, we headed to the ticket office. We chose seats in the left field pavilion, which is considered prime home run territory. Too bad we left our gloves in the car after bringing them all the way to Atlanta with us. Once at the ballpark, we had plenty to see. We bought admission to the small Braves Museum inside the park, which had some amazing Hank Aaron and franchise memorabilia. We went on a search for the giant concrete baseballs designed by each MLB team, but sadly only found 7 out of 30. Our seats turned out to have a rather nice view for the money we spent, located in the fifth row from the very low left field wall, and the first homerun hit by the Braves landed in the section next to us. Two of our favorite Angels, Casey Kotchman and Adam Kennedy, got in the game for St. Louis. MB became a pro at the Tomahawk Chop, the official cheer of the Atlanta Braves. One of the highlights for both of us (and other fans) was the outstanding lightning storm that started around 9 PM. It didn’t rain hard enough to affect the game, although several fans (MB included) sought shelter under the overhang. (FYI... I feel that I need to defend myself here. Just in case you were tempted to call me a wimp, I would have been happy continuing to sit in the rain, but I was keeping score... on a piece of paper... that would not have survived the introduction of any more water... therefore off to the seats under the overhang I went. Just thought we needed to straighten that out!) The neatest part was the horizontal lightning, which we had never seen before. I’d like to give a shout out to my mom, who suggested I pack raingear for all those rain delays they seem to have here on the east coast. That poncho sure came in handy!

Just to give you some quick background, we have each decided on the souvenir that we would like to purchase at every stadium. I (MB) have decided to purchase a pencil with which I will keep score. Most of my pencils have been lovely full-sized affairs with the name of the team on it in team colors. Given my previous experience, I quickly walked up to the closest vendor and purchased a pencil for this game. What do I receive? Basically nothing more than a glorified miniature golf pencil with an eraser, no team name, no team logo. Therefore, I would like to issue a reverse shout out (see below) to Turner Field for my souvenir score-keeping pencil. Seriously? That's the best you can do?

Now to the interactive portion of our blog. We are having trouble coming up with a name to call our less-than-stellar experiences on this trip. The best we have is "reverse shout out," but we don't think it properly conveys our feelings of disappointment. Please make your suggestions by commenting to this post. The best suggestions will be available for voting on Tuesday. Voting closes Thursday and we will use the winner's word in all future posts. Thanks!