Home of the Braves

I am obviously no jock. I don't even follow many sports and haven't for a very long time. I used to play golf up until a few years ago, but now my weekends are better spent with my amazing KajaKid, so I don't follow that single-player-dominated-sport any more.

So it was with great enthusiasm that I joined my fellow neighborhood men to celebrate Bryant's birthday with a Braves home game at Turner Field. I have been to two ball games in my entire life and they were both pretty awful. One was in Chicago (White Sox) and it was freezing and the other was for a corporate event in Tampa, where the Devil Rays actually managed to win one.

Atlanta is definitely a baseball city. The Braves are a great team with lots of history and a World Series under their belts. It was a standard home game on a sunny Sunday against the Reds and there were 33,750 people in attendance. I think the stadium seats about 50K, so for just another game I guess that is a great turnout. The atmosphere was very relaxed and it was just fun hanging out with 9 other guys, cracking jokes, having a few beers and watching the game.

I am not a big baseball fan because usually the games are slow and boring and nothing ever happens. So it was great to watch a game that ended with a score of 14-7 for the home team. With about 30 hits! We went to grab some dogs and drinks at the bottom of the second inning when there were no points on the board and by the time we got back the Braves were leading 7-0. So that added to the fun.

I had one beer and released the driver from his duties by volunteering to drive us back home. It was actually pretty hilarious how we got to the stadium. Since nobody wanted to drive we ended up in Tim's mini-van. Just picture 8 grown men (most are over 6 feet tall and a few are over 250 pounds) cramming into an Odyssey. Tim drove us there and we let Bryant sit shotgun since it was his birthday. I ended up in the middle row, middle seat. The guys in the back were cracking up and even helped me raise the head-rest so that it doesn't stick into the middle of my back. Then they found out there were arm-rests and told me I should put those down for added comfort. I tried to get one down and it was a bit of a stretch and then Jeff says: "I'll give you $100 if you can get them both down". BANK! I twisted my body to sit sideways and easily lowered both arm-rests. He should know better than to prop bet me so callously. He tried to get out of it by buying me a $2 bag of peanuts, but I am going to collect!

Anyway, we get to the parking lot and the attendant just can't stop laughing when she sees us roll up in our clown-mobile. I yelled out "we're saving the planet!" but that didn't seem to help matters much.

After I drove us back home we all ended up in Bryant's basement. He finished most of it himself and it is just an adult playground. Amazing bar with built in beer tap, big-ass HD flat screen, Wii, dart board, pool table and another TV by the table. Susana brought down a ton of food and the guys were just having a blast. A great time was certainly had by all.