Turner Field Thursday

Decided to check out the Braves “mystery giveaway” Thursday. Quite the disappointment: a small Chipper retirement poster dated back in June. I did receive a voucher for a free 2014 ticket. For that I should’ve gone through the dollar line twice.

After walking from my usual parking place I arrived at the dollar line around 4:10. There were a few people in line, but not many. I could see that there wasn’t a pile of white bobblehead boxes stacked up inside the gates. I should’ve known that had the Braves given away anything good they would’ve advertised the specific item.

Crazy Darrell was at his usual spot at the front of the line. He entertained us earlybirds by playing a pretend baseball game. I thought about taking his picture. I looked for John Parkes at the front of the line, but he arrived late due to MARTA. John joined me in line and we had a nice chat. He only missed two games last season, but missed many weekday games this year while watching the Sneaderman trial. Once inside John follows a specific routine: watching BP from the shade near the left field foul pole, heading over to the designated driver booth at 5:20, then visiting with several of his upper deck usher friends.

While in line I noticed a guy sitting on a retired number monument. Not sure he wasn’t mentally handicapped. Later during BP a line drive sailed over the mesh fence protecting the fans down in the left field third foul territory. The shot appeared to hit this guy smack in the side of his head. He continued to sit there, but you could tell it hurt him. ushers rushed to attend to him, but he actually was able walk off to get further aide.

It was the first game I was able to wear my new Bob Uecker jersey. Fortunately it wasn’t too hot. I also wore my new Braves road cap. Since the Braves tepid offense exploded for seven runs, Perhaps I should continue to wear my new cap.

My friend Johnny was in his usual spot, still wearing his cast and left-handed first-baseman’s mitt. We had a nice chat – he agrees with me about Brian Jordan’s inability as an analyst. Very few home runs were hit in BP, and Johnny was shut out for only the fifth time all season (45 games). Evan Gattis hit a ball that bounced up and landed on the ledge just below the 1995 world champions banner. Ceil called, and I missed chasing two home runs while on the phone. Johnny narrowly missed two balls. he played one bounce perfectly, but his lack of lefty experience caused him to miss one of them.

Marshall wasn’t at the game, and a big guy grabbed two balls while standing in his spot. He didn’t have to move to catch one home run. Marshall’s son came by to say hello. Says he almost has the neon tomahawk fixed. Johnny joked that the mystery giveaway was getting increasingly worse as the gametime grew near, saying that soon they’d be giving away BJ Upton bobbleheads. I added that after that they’d give out TWO BJ Upton bobbleheads.

After BP I checked out the game used shop (no Bobby Dews jerseys), got my designated driver Coke Zero, and headed back to the car. Downtown traffic wasn’t bad at all, and I made it home before 8 pm, even after making a long stop at Kroger.