Extreme Couponing: Turner Field

Wednesday I left work just after 3 and arrived at the dollar line at four. Never saw John Parkes, which was strange (he has been in the hospital). Talked the next 40 minutes to a nice grandfather and his 8 year old. He has a nice collection of memorabilia and was featured in a small time north Georgia magazine. 

Went inside and chatted with my Baptist friend Johnny (above, leaning against rail). Johnny and his friend Marshall had just watched games in Gwinnett, Chattanooga, Rome, and Atlanta on consecutive nights. Even though I had been way back in the dollar line I was able to go back through and buy a second dollar ticket. 

Got my Javy. He even signed a few bobbleheads for some people, but I didn't see him until he threw out the first pitch. He appeared to be in good shape. Saw quite a few Hawks shirts at the game.

By the end of batting practice only a few Tampa Bay coaches remained in the outfield, including one bulky young strength coach. A Braves fan on the front row started heckling him, much to the amusement of all the fans. The strength coach was good natured and at one point asked his heckler what he did for a living, but the heckler wouldn't answer.

On the way to my seat I stopped for a Coke Zero. I was in line behind this guy who ordered 2 cokes and some pizza. It was obvious he had season ticket coupons to use, but he waited until everything was rung up to hand over the coupons. This made his checkout take three times as long as it should. He was excited to see his bill reduce from $45.00 to $12.00. Extreme couponing at the Braves game. I didn't tell him I had gotten 4 tickets, 4 bobbleheads, parking, and a drink for two dollars.

My free GasSouth ticket was right behind the plate in the upper deck. Much cooler than the sunny left field bleachers during batting practice. The Braves organist is always entertaining and he had plenty of good material with the Rays lineup - especially Sousa, Loony, and DeJesus. He was able to play the Oscar Meyer Weiner song for two players. After the top of the sixth inning I walked downstairs and watched from the tables behind the seats. The seventh inning stretch didn't come until 9:20, and I left after that.

Stopped by Wendys and RaceTrac on the way home, then watched the second half of the Hawks game and David Letterman's last show. Dave's final top ten list was delivered by Alec Baldwin, Barbara Walters, Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carey, Chris Rock, Julia Louise Dreyfus, Peyton Manning, Tina Fey, and Bill Murray. I hadn't been watching all the great guests who've been on recently. I hear Bill Murray popped out of a cake last night. I follow a couple of Letterman twitter accounts.

ROB: I don't think the Hawks are dead yet. JR Smith is not going to shoot like that every game. And the Hawks, collectively, should shoot 3's better than they did last night.

ME: I sure hope you are right about the Hawks. Yes if you take away that second half stretch when Smith was so hot is a different game. Even then the Hawks didn't give up. Looked like all the calls went the Cavs way. Radio this AM said LeBron kneed the guy that hurt his knee, but it looked to me like he just came down on his knee wrong. Co-worker Amanda's husband Myers works for the Hawks. He took her to a round 2 playoff game and wanted her to go last night, but she didn't want to - too busy. She is a big football fan.

Bryce Harper may be doing better this year and finally playing close to his potential, but he still appears to be a spoiled, coddled brat and showoff. I was reading an article about Cubs phenom Kris Bryant, who grew up in Las Vegas and played against Harper growing up. Bryant's dad never made The Show but was in a Red Sox spring training camp with an instructor named Ted Williams. Teddy taught him the proper way to play baseball (including to swing slightly upward to hit the ball in the air, unlike today's coaches who teach kids to hit the ball on the ground). So Bryant passed all those lessons on to his son, who plays a completely different game than Harper or Puig.

Several years ago Marshall discovered a display in the Rome Ballpark with inaccurate information, saying the Braves won their first regular season game in Atlanta. They have pointed out the error several times since then but it still hasn't been changed.

Any activity that a child can somewhat master seems to help self-esteem and even though it takes up times, supposedly those more active kids make better grades. M has always struggled in school and only started guitar a few years ago. He wants to play baseball this fall, so we will probably let him.

Before we had kids Ceil and I went on vacation to Chicago. Saw games at both Wrigley and old Comminsky Park. The T-shirts on sale outside the park were cooler than those inside. I bought a "Late Night With the Southsiders" shirt with the Late Night logo on the front and a top ten on the back about how White Sox fans were better than Cubs fans. A little off color, but I wore it for years.