Weekend in Atlanta

My wife and I were able to spend part of our extended Labor Day weekend in Atlanta taking in a Braves game and a few other local sights.  We had a great time, but because of my lack of time management we were running a little late getting to the game.

We didn't get a start until around 11:30 AM last Saturday morning.  I forgot a few things so we had to turn around and go back to the house to retrieve them.  When we finally hit the highway it was closer to 12 noon.  Surprisingly we didn't hit any real traffic traveling down I-85 essentially from Charlotte so at least that part f the trip went smooth.  We had our 2 month old daughter with us as well and this was the first long car ride we have taken her on.  Thankfully she slept the first few ours of the trip.  Towards the end of the drive...well that was a different story.

Thanks in part to exchanging some marketing I did for the last company I worked for we had a free nights stay at a hotel.  We ended up booking a room not too far from the MARTA station in Doraville.  This made getting around the city really easy and pain free for most of the weekend.  We got to the station at around 6 PM.  I thought we were doing good on time as the game didn't start until 7:15 PM.  I didn't realize however how long it would take us to get from the station in Doraville down to Turner Field.  The train ride was...interesting.  Not many people got on with us, but with each subsequent stop more and more people poured into the train.  Most of them were Georgia Bulldog fans that were headed downtown for a game against Boise State I believe.  It's been a long time since I've been in the thick of college football fans.  Wow, these people are serious about their football let me tell you!

After the train ride and a walk through Underground Atlanta we made it to the buses that would take us to our final destination of Turner Field.  By this time it was close to 7 PM when we were walking through the gates on the third base side.  I didn't get any time whatsoever to walk around the stadium and take in the atmosphere which I was a little bummed about.  I've been to Turner Field several times though so it wasn't a complete bust.  On the upside was our seats.  We grabbed our tickets last month off of Stub Hub...which I had never used prior to this transaction.  Not only was it easy, but we scored great seats for cheap.  I believe the seats were $55.00 cover price and we got 'em for like $13.50.  We were only 10 or so rows from the field - third base side.

 

Upon finding our seats I noticed a small mob of people by the wall.  Matt Kemp was signing autographs for people.  Even after the National Anthem was over he promptly returned to that same spot to sign more autographs before the line-ups were announced.  Very cool on his part in my book.

I was sent off to find some food for myself and my wife so I missed the first pitch my Mike Minor unfortunately.  After finding some (expensive) food I made my way back to our section.  I have a tray with 2 foot long hotdogs, a large Coke and a bottle of water basically pressed up against my chest so I wouldn't drop anything.  Then at the top of the steps leading down to my seat the usher asked me for my ticket.  This was the same usher who just took me to my seat maybe 10 minutes earlier.  Needless to say I didn't have a free hand to reach into my pocket to retrieve my ticket.  I know the woman was just doing her job, but she really came off rude to me.  In hindsight I'm guessing she has had plenty of rude fans sit in her section so perhaps her attitude was necessary to deal with certain people.

Usually when I attend a baseball game I like to sit either behind first or third base depending on what team I'm there to watch.  I've never sat in the outfield on either the first base or third base side.  I was really impressed by the view from our section.  Despite there not being much offense in the game we had a great time.  Everyone (minus the usher!) was very friendly and seemed to be enjoying the warm evening as much as the next person.  Even the beer guy in our section was funny and appeared to be having a good time himself.  Among other things he shouted out as he walked up and down the steps was "What are we here for?  To drink beer!"  I'm not a drinker, never have been and will never be...but even I found the humor in this guy.

I wasn't able to get a lot of pictures while of the stadium I did manage to get shots of the scoreboard as each Braves player came to the plate.  The scoreboard at Turner Field was really impressive and we had a good viewing angle from where we sat.  While the evening may not have gone as smoothly as I would have liked it was a great evening spent at the ballpark.

Her first Braves game!

Oops!  I cut the baby's head off in the photo!

Playing around w/ the zoom on the camera.  Glad to see Chipper was playing that night.

I was hoping Diaz would get in the ball game.  He was pinch hitting for (I don't remember) in the bottom of the 7th.

Eric Hinske followed...but struck out.

Jonny Venters was up next pitching for the Braves in the 8th

Ethier didn't start the game, but was the first pinch hitter of the game for the Dodgers

I wasn't fast enough to snap a pic of the scoreboard when Craig Kimbrel entered the game.

Result was the 12th strike out of the evening for the Braves pitching staff

Late night snack!

Constanza was brought in the bottom of the 9th hoping to put some speed on the base paths

Ball!

Slaps one into left field just beyond the reach of the 3rd baseman

Getting late, but she's still kicking...barely

My wife was hoping her favorite player would perform some more late game magic and deliver the winning hit

...but Brooks struck out for the 2nd out followed quickly by the game ending 3rd out

The Braves ending up losing to the Dodgers 2-1 in 10 innings.  It wasn't the most exciting ball game I've seen live, but the whole evening was lots of fun.  I hope to be able to bring my 2 year old daughter to a Braves game next year.

On Sunday before we left to head back home we stopped on over at the World of Coca-Cola museum - weaving our way through the hordes of Dragon*Con foot traffic.  I would have loved to have had time to attend Dragon*Con as parts of that convention appeal to the other side of the collector in me.

I won't bore you with much of the details from the Coke tour, but I did catch some old Coke ads featuring baseball players so I thought I'd at least share those before wrapping up the post.