Last night Matthew went to the Braves game with friend Daniel. I tagged along with his dad Mike. Kind of a last minute thing. Left work at 4:40 and arrived early at our meeting spot: the Sandy Spring Whole Foods. C was late bringing M but by the time we’d bought tea they were showing up. I was probably too much of a back seat driver, but since 400 south was jammed we took Roswell Road to Peachtree to Juniper and Courtland over to Capitol Avenue, and we were in our seats before first pitch. Too many Giants fans at the game.
Everyone was still buzzing about the walk-off win Monday night. Mike knew the usher, who moved us up into nicer seats closer to the action. We all grabbed Chickfila and King of Pops. When I saw the price I paid for the Turner Field Chick-fil-a sandwich and Coke I realized I should’ve gotten one of those H&F burgers. Later M had a funnel cake. Spoke to my Kroger bagboy friend Robert twice as he made his stadium rounds. He’s the one who dresses up like an Indian. Good game until the Giants blew the game open late with a three run Hunter Pence home run. The cheers showed that there were almost as many Giants fans as Braves fans.
Earlier the Giants had the bases loaded with one out. The batter smashed a hard one-hopper right at first-baseman Chris Johnson, who was playing behind the bag. CJ did well to backhand the ball. Not much of a chance to throw home but he might’ve had a chance to force the runner at second. Instead Johnson hustled to put the runner out at first. His momentum took him into foul ground toward the dugout – then CJ turned back toward the field, realizing there were only two out. Johnson had forgotten how many outs there were. You could tell he wasn’t happy with himself. Did the announcers notice?
Shelby Miller pitched another great game and again the bullpen lost it for him. Miller is only hitting .050 but almost hit the ball over the centerfielder’s head.
Braves left-fielder Perez made a great diving catch moving to his right. The next hitter sliced another line drive a little closer to the line. Perez tried to make a similar catch, then popped to his feet with his glove held high to say “See? I caught it!” But everyone else in the stadium knew what Perez didn’t: the ball had quite obviously rolled away from Perez into foul territory. Double.
With school starting back the crowd was small, so traffic after the game was light. Arrived home at 11 pm. Slept better.
Wore my new Olympus trail running shoes to the game, that have super thick padding in the soles. Several years ago Nike came out with their line of Nike Free running shoes that have hardly any padding. They look great (but not on me), and I don’t like running in them. My feet and legs get tired wearing those Nike Frees all day. Same deal with the pair of similar New Balance Minimus I own. But these trail shoes have extra padding and they’re super comfortable to wear. I didn’t do a great deal of walking at the game but they felt great all night. They have these weird elastic “shoestrings” that were too tight. When I got home I was able to loosen the strings on one shoe but I still have to work on the other. I might replace the elastic strings with the normal shoestrings you tie. Interesting that all three - my Nikes and New Balance and these Olympus shoes - are all dark grey with orange soles.
I like to watch teams that have a lot of players I am familiar with, so the Yankees almost always apply. ARod, McCann, Tex, Puig, etc. It’s hard for me to watch any game that I don’t know any of the players or coaches – baseball, football, or basketball. Usually every NFL and NBA team have at least one or two players I know on the field/court most of the time, but I can turn on a Twins/Royals game and not know anyone. I can’t say that all that familiar with the personnel on the Atlanta Braves right now. Have no idea where several players have come from. Perez, Garcia, Castro, Wisler, Folty, and several relievers. If they are going to have even fewer save situations there was no reason not to trade free agent to be Jim Johnson. They have that Visciano who’s probably better, plus Shea Simmons and Grilli for next year. Several of the recent bullpen callups have performed well, but I know of two guys last night who didn’t.
Monday and Tuesday Ceil was in school training meetings all day. M starts back next week. Sunday Will has to be in Athens for job training.
Finished the Duck Dynasty Phil Robertson/Mark Schlabach book UnPhiltered. When the TV network suspended Phil from the show for quoting a Bible verse in his GQ interview, the incident turned out to be a huge positive: many people not only stood in support of the show and Phil but were also brought back to a closer personal relationships to God. The suspension also gave the Robertson family increased opportunities to share their faith.
Today I started the American Sniper book. I haven’t seen the movie yet but I think the book will be better and include more details. Early on in the book the late author Chris Kyle made clear that God was the top priority in his life. Not sure if any of that made it into the movie. He said “as a boy my family attended church Sunday morning and night and Wednesday night. We were there a lot but we weren’t religious fanatics, just normal people who love God.”
For lunch today I had a Moe’s chicken club quesadilla. OK. Recently I had The Stack, which is like a better version of Taco Bell’s Crunchwrap Supreme. The standard is the burrito, which is usually too much food for me. Perhaps I will try the salad or burrito bowl. The new seasonal salsa has corn and black beans.
