Memorial Day 2012 Baseball: Atlanta Braves Baseball Game....In Review

It has been a little over a year but I finally made it out to a MLB game again.  Everything came together for me to check out my first Atlanta Braves game and my first game at Turner Field.  Atlanta is about 2 1/2 to 3 hours drive from Spartanburg so if it's a night game it would make for a really long night back or a stay at a hotel.  But for a day game it's doable.  So yesterday was Memorial Day and it was a day baseball game.  So several friends of mine from church and I made the trip down to Atlanta to check the game out.

This was my first time at Turner Field.  It is the 4th MLB stadium & 3rd active stadium I've been to (I went to old Busch Stadium in St. Louis).  It was cool out in the parking lot they still have some remnants of old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium where the Braves played prior to Turner Field opening.  Walking into it, it was a nice facility.  They had some cool stuff like a big Coke bottle and a big Chick-Fil-A cow statue out in left field.  Was disappointed that it cost money to go to the Hall of Fame Museum (didn't do it this time, might some other time).  On the plus side, they had a free drawstring bag that they were giving out for the game so that was cool.

Our seats were in the upper deck near the front on the first base side near the foul pole.  The line of sight wasn't that great to see balls and strikes and such but it wasn't too bad.  The only other negative was the sun beating down on us.  It wasn't particularly hot yesterday but when the clouds weren't there, the sun was scorching.  I can't imagine what it's like in July or August in those seats.  Might be worth investing in a little more money to get some seats with cover next time but you can't beat Stubhub special on tickets.

The Braves were playing the St. Louis Cardinals, a familiar team for me.  It's funny watching a game where I really didn't have a rooting interest.  I was disappointed that I didn't get to see Chipper Jones for the Braves or David Freese for the Cards play as they were both out of the lineup.

There was some pretty cool pregame stuff for Memorial Day.  They had the military honored with solders standing around the basepaths along with the players from both teams.  There was also a huge American flag held out in center field along with reps from the branches of the armed forces.  They had a moment of silence along with the playing of taps by two trumpeters.  After the national anthem, there was a flyby by two jets.  Also in the middle of the game, there was a family honored as the "fans of the game" that had the husband and father stationed overseas.  There was a video message on the big screen from him and then as a surprise, he showed up on the field.  Really cool moment.

The game itself was one of those that wasn't so good for the home team.  The Braves starting pitcher, Tommy Hanson, didn't have a great outing.  It was so bad that fans were cheering when he eventually got pulled.  The Braves couldn't get anything going offensively either, only scraping together 2 runs.  The Cards on the other hand, had a great pitching performance by their starter Lance Lynn and had a good offensive performance (including a couple of home runs, 1 that I saw and 1 that I didn't see as I was up at the concession stand getting food, which leads to another negative to Turner Field, no TVs or radio broadcast being put out on the concourse to help keep up with the action while you wait in line, also the out of town scoreboard wasn't working so didn't know what the scores were of the other games going on).  The Cards ended up beating the Braves 8-2.

It was a fun time and I don't know when my next trip down there will be but I look forward to the next time to catch a MLB game.

Random Sports Reflections

Lot to talk about (hopefully I'll get back into a regular blogging routine in 2012) so it's bullet point time:

*I can't say that I'm disappointed about the BCS Championship Game, because it being the BCS, one should not be surprised.  I've said it before & I'll say it again, if every level of football except Division 1 football can have a playoff and do well with it, why not them too? I had several discussions on facebook about it, almost to the point that I got sick of it. I don't fault my friends who are Alabama fans who are happy about being in the national championship game but the BCS is a messed up system.  Would a playoff be perfect? No, but at least a championship would be decided on the field and not by computers and voters.  Maybe someday there will be one but we'll see.

*Lots of Tim Tebow talk going around.  It seems every week (or even every day) there is new Tebow talk.  In a lot of ways it reminds me of Brett Favre and the media attention he got in the past few years.  It seems a lot of writers and media come up with a story, slap Tim Tebow's name on it and boom.  Given the 24/7 nature of news (sports or general), it's a given.  But there comes a point when a lot of it is just rehashed news (he's not seen as the QB of the future, his faith being mocked, etc) pointing back at events that were a month or more ago.  It will be interesting to see how long this media frenzy will hold up.  When the offseason comes, will the Tebow talk still continue? Should be interesting.

*Albert Pujols signed with the Anaheim Angels (still refuse to call them the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) this morning.  I can't fault him for signing the 10 year 250+ million dollar contract.  I just fault him for signing with the Angels, mainly because they're a rival of the Mariners & it means for the next 10 years (barring him waiving the no-trade clause) I'll have to root against him.  Well I guess there's Tim Tebow to root for.

Albert Pujols and 60 Minutes

Last night on 60 Minutes there was a piece on Albert Pujols, star first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals.  It was about his time that he spends reaching out to people both in the U.S. and the Dominican Republic.  He is one of those players that I have a lot of respect for and who I've followed since he came into MLB a decade ago.  The more I've heard his story, the more I've seen how God has used Pujols through his testimony.  I recently got Pujols' biography that came out in February (and was cowritten but Tim Ellsworth, who works at my alma mater Union University) and I look forward to reading it.

Here's a link to the piece from last night