The week working at Truist Park was quite memorable. Almost like going to summer camp: I wore a t-shirt and shorts and sneakers every day. Also a cap. I was sweating the entire time. Lots of exercise. Worn out at the end of every day. Made lots of new "friends" young and old.
For Ballpark Music, my "employer" orchestrating the pregame stage rollouts, this was their Super Bowl. As we made our final preparations, our leaders were pumped. Underneath the stands we saw various dignitaries being ushered past, including Billye Aaron ad baseball commission Rob Manfred. We weren't supposed to take pictures, but some scofflaws did. Later we saw Ludacris, surrounded by a large posse. He and Jermaine Dupri usually had plain clothed security personnel posted outside their trailers. Kane Brown was next to them.
We pushed the big red stage into position, and rolled out at 7:20. As usual, changes were made on the fly. We got the two side stages linked up to the middle, and worked to stretch out the wiring so they could be hooked up. Then us pushers lined up on each side, me on the third base side. We stood in a row, alert to be summoned to do any task that should arise. Then our row was told to walk off – except for the six of us nearest the outfield. We lined up along the grass as the grounds crew raked the infield. We might be needed to stretch the electrical cables, but after several minutes we were sent away. As the first to walk off, I wasn't entirely sure whether we were leaving of stretching cables. As we walked along the warning track we passed the dancers entering the field, wearing vintage baseball costumes.
During the pregame introductions we convened in the centerfield tunnel. The marching band and flag bearers marched out onto the field for the national anthem. Looking south, we could see the three F35 fighter jets circling over downtown Atlanta, preparing for their flyover. We lined up at the centerfield gate, waiting for the anthem to end. The jets arrived a couple of seconds late, though I'm sure the fans in the stands could see them coming.
Then the gates opened, and we "sprinted" onto the field. In the morning practice we had pushing our third base side stage toward first – but when we received the "PUSH!" command we rolled toward third. Another last minute change, I suppose. You could see us rolling off the stages behind Chipper, as he threw out the first pitch.
We rolled the stages off in three minutes, during the commercials. The finally back to the staging area, where we were congratulated for our fine work. There are supposed to be action photos coming soon at www.bpmconcerts.com
Our assignments complete, at 830 we snuck upstairs for the game. Grandfather Kevin had been talking about his grandson, so I gave him the huge oversized baseball glove that I had been lugging around. Kevin, Beau, Jarred, and I walked around, looking for a spot to watch the game. We went high in right field, at the base of the flagpoles, near the Chickfila cow (above). Later we walked over to left field, where they stopped the game to Stand Up For Cancer.
David Hurt was at the game, with daughter Haley. They had great all you can eat seats with TV monitors at the seats. They came out to talk, and we had a fine long time to catch up. There was a huge TV screen there to see the game. David is playing pickleball 5 days a week, and seems to have recovered from his open heart surgery. Daughter Margaret has two kids. Haley stills lives in Napa, and attends Giants games regularly.
While we were talking, my son in law Caleb spotted us and came over to chat. He'd been given a ticket at the last minute. I am hoarse from all the talking. Didn't leave the ballpark until 11 pm – 16 hours after I had arrived. But a very good, fun day. Didn't get to bed until midnight.
Was going to skip the gym this morning and sleep an hour later, but Will was delivering Shivonne for today's "Grand Camp" at Johnson Ferry. I had to get up at 530 to move cars. Then back to work after the week of fun. Hadn't been able to check many work emails while I was gone, so it was been a busy morning of going through emails. Started the day with 144 emails. Currently have it down to 28. We had leftover Jason's Deli and Willy's Mexican for lunch.
TOM SEAVER [SABR Bio] struck out 200 batters a season for a record 9 straight years, from 1968 to1976: 205, 208, 283, 289, 249, 251, 201, 243, 235. He was the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award without winning 20 games that season. Seaver's record in 1973 was 19-10. Every winner from 1956 to 1972 had at least 20 wins. It wasn't until 1982 that another starting pitcher won the award with fewer than 20 pitching wins. He was the first pitcher to strike out ten consecutive batters in a game. On 22-Apr-1970, Tom Terrific struck out 9 batters before setting down the final 10 SDP batters of the game.
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