Friday Braves Recap

On a beautiful Friday night for baseball in Atlanta, the early-afternoon grey clouds cleared away, allowing the Braves and Tigers blue skies and brilliant sunshine for batting practice. Javier Vasquez threw four perfect innings, then Mike Gonzalez and Jeff Bennett extended the hitless streak for five more outs. Omar Infante’s two-run homer to left was enough offense, and the Braves went home 3-1 winners.

Fresh off preseason training sessions, Turner Field parking attendants, ticket-takers, and ushers were all smiles, welcoming us to the park. Indeed, they are usually most friendly, but tonight it seemed more so. Perhaps their higher-ups reminded them they’ll be fighting for customers in this tough economic climate. Even a young male employee in the parking lot greeted us…while chatting on his cell phone.

Leadoff hitter Yunel Escobar singled the first pitch up the middle for a single, but then was hit in the bicep by the first pickoff throw. He had to leave the game.

When Gonzo was introduced in the top of the fifth, the giant video screen caught him kneeling to tighten his spikes. He was rocking a pair of red-swooshed Shox. Rookie phenom Jordan Schafer, he of the celebrated Nike contract, had his shoes mostly covered with extended pants legs. Vasquez’s adidas had red accents. Clint Sammons joined buddies Francoeur and McCann on team Mizuno. Curtis Granderson sported orange-swooshed road Nikes. Several young Tiger outfielders wore high-cuffed pants and stirrups. In our party, Amber rocked a cool pair of brown/beige Pumas, and Alyssa broke out green Nikes with yellow swooshes. The young pirate Matthew wore his familiar black Converse, which were showing some wear.

Granderson broke up the no-hitter with a two-out 6th-inning double. Twice Schafer got to show off his accurate arm. Infante made two tough back-handed stops filling in for Chipper at the hot corner, both times accurately one-hopping throws over to first. After snaring a line drive to end the sixth, Omar carried the ball with him, to toss to a fan. He found the top of the dugout filled with the Tomahawk Girls starting the Home Dept Tool Race, so he patiently waited for the race to start before finding a young fan to toss the ball to.

The game moved along quickly. The seventh inning was reached by nine o’clock. Saw a few regular faces: the white guy who’s at every game dressed as an Indian, and the gregarious, always-smiling learning-impaired black guy (who Lemke and Chip Carey were razzing).

We got off to a late start Friday afternoon leaving Living Science. This was to be a team-building exercise, a chance for the Group Eight Servant Leaders to spend time together. It appears the other seven groups weren’t able to organize get-togethers, quite understandable this busy spring. The entire seven-member Group Eight was able to attend.

Being LSA (Living Science Acceptable), the boys rode in my van, and the girls rode with Alyssa’s dad Craig. Pulling out of Living Science at 4:15, traffic didn’t slow our little departure caravan until we hit the Connector. Had I not stuck to my beloved HOV lane, we would’ve arrived at the park 15 minutes earlier. This gave us time guys to chat up many topics, including the old Pepsi commercial were the old lady “likes Rock, but prefers Rap.”

Still, there were dollar seats remaining, and we made it into the left field stands in time to see the Braves complete BP. The Tigers took over, so Craig and I sat back while the teens took up a front row. Christy’s dainty wave to the Tiger players quickly became contagious…soon all the girls were daintily waving. I noticed one difference right away: no piped-in rock music. Instead the old-school pipe organ cranked out tunes. Nice.

The waving worked…soon all four were holding baseballs. Kaitlin gamely tried to catch a ball tossed by a Tiger. She bobbled it, but stuck with it, and soon secured it. Alyssa had no problem making a catch. Christy also stuck with it. Kevin’s long reach snagged him a ball, which he immediately handed to Amber. Later Alyssa caught a ball, then seeing a lady behind her, generously handed her the ball. Will and Kevin also gave balls away. Interestingly, three of the four balls were International League balls. After BP the girls got the balls autographed by ex-Brave Mark Lemke.

During BP Tigers manager Jim Leyland sauntered out, making his way to the bullpen, stopping to sign multiple autographs…unlike Tiger ace Justin Verlander, who took a break from his daily running to very nicely decline. Magglio Ordonez also begged off. Nearby, I determined an Oriental in street clothes was the interpreter to a skinny, young, Tiger hurler. One line drive narrowly missed a youngster in foul territory…who hadn’t been paying attention. It reminded Craig of a story: At a minor league game when Alyssa was quite young, he caught an errant warmup pitch headed their way.

We leisurely chose seats down the left-field line, in section 222. In front of us was a spry old usher who was on the move all night: leading cheers and chatting with fans. He was quite popular with the young Tomahawk Team girls, who were always sure to stop by to give him hugs. The oldster was hip, wearing his Braves cap with the shiny holograph sticker still on the brim. Can he keep up this frantic pace for 82 more home games? Will he wilt in the summer heat? What about day games after a night game? We thought that perhaps he was on the Braves retirement program…whereby older executives are later put out to pasture as ushers. Was this the guy who discovered Hammerin’ Hank?

Whatever the case, this usher was having the time of his life (however short that may be). I wondered out loud “I bet he drinks Pepsi.” Amazingly, we even saw him STARTING THE WAVE! All this time I thought it was heathen fans committing this crime.

A very old WWII colonel (in uniform!) was selected for the NAPA Cap Shuffle. Looked a little like a skinny Col. Sanders. Since I can barely keep up with the high-tech, fast-paced puzzle, I knew he had no chance. Did he even know where to look? After losing, they still gave him the prize.

After the game ended (before 9:30!) we cruised over to the Varsity. The weather was on the chilly side, and I thought Mrs. D’s greatest hopes (and worst fears) were realized: the team had a great time, but they may have froze to death at the same time!