Notes On An Evening At Turner Field

My personal experience at the game last night:

–What is up with that first exit sign on 285 that says Turner Field but doesn’t really take you there?? I grew up in Sandy Springs, but we moved to Cobb when I was ten, and any trips into the city were usually not navigated by me, so I’m relearning all this stuff. It’s frustrating, because I feel like I can half figure things out based on memory from driving around with my parents when I was little, and/or going places downtown with my husband when we came home from college for the summer. But anyway, we forgot that you’re supposed to get off at the second Turner Field exit if you want to get on Capitol Avenue, and the signs after the first exit, with arrows “pointing” to Turner Field, just dumped us out on 75-S, so we had to turn around.

–We only got to see about 15 minutes of the Braves’ batting practice from our good seats, because they had that gate on the lower levels closed when we got there around five. Nothing too exciting: the press was all over Salty — apparently Frenchy is so last season. Salty was digging it — I didn’t really see him hanging out with any players, but he and Our Katy Temple (as the studio guy on Braves Live calls her) seemed to get along great. Our Katy Temple also had a funny little assistant dude who followed her everywhere and dialed her cell phone for her. Chuckie was the best with the fans, signing for what seemed like hours. Rent was pointing stuff out to Escobar, which was cute.

–Watching the pitchers who were leaning on the dugout railing interact was the most interesting aspect of that game, sadly. Though the bench-clearer was neat: to think, I was so close to having ringside seats for the Baby Braves’ first brawl!! Escobar was worth cheering for, and Rent of course, but the rest of them were on my nerves. Scooter, what is up?! I wonder if he’s still having ear problems?

–Most of the people in our our section (113) were fine, but there was a row of girls who showed up with a dude in the third inning, and the girls did not shut up the entire time. They had some vague idea that there was a baseball game going on somewhere, but they didn’t much care. Some of the things they said were actually pretty funny (on the Braves Girls: “Oh, yeah, I like to make judgmental comments about them.” Ha, at least she’s honest!), but the girl who talked the most had a very grating, put-on, mid-twenties valley girl voice, and eventually we moved to the end of our aisle to get away from them. I felt sorry for the guy they came with, who was actually watching the game, though he seemed to be able to tune the girls out better than we could. They did provide a few laughs during a depressing game, though (one girl, lamenting over the nachos she was guiltily eating, declared that “starting tomorrow” she was “only eating vegetables!”).

–The weather was beautiful, a nice change from the home opening series when I couldn’t feel my hands.

–Don’t park in the green lot if you’re going to stay until the end of the game. The traffic was pretty bad — the orange lot is much better. We’re borrowing a Lexus this summer, and I’m going to try the Lexus lot next time.

–Finally, a tip for my female readers: don’t wear a lightweight miniskirt to Turner Field on a windy day. Just don’t. Also, don’t make eye contact with Tyler Yates, or he will stare at you creepily for a few minutes.

–Oh, and I almost forgot: I nearly had the chance to sue Turner Field, haaa! Though it was completely my fault: coming to our seats, I was watching the field while I went down the stairs, and wearing big, wooden platform sandals, not a good combination. I took a spectacular fall on my ass, and the ushers freaked out and said they were going to have to “write it up,” but I was fine, so no lawsuit! Not even a bruise, so I was lucky there. And speaking of luck: we saw a grasshopper sitting on the dugout before the game, and thought it would bring the Braves luck, but so much for that. He must have flown off and landed on the Marlins’ dugout.


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10 responses to “Notes On An Evening At Turner Field”

  1. dave Avatar
    dave

    don’t wear a lightweight miniskirt to Turner Field on a windy day.

    Pics!

    1. Jenny Avatar

      LOL — but I forgot my camera!

  2. Leah Avatar

    Sounds like you had a good time even if we did lose. When I went to the game, we had outfield seats but there was still some pretty funny stuff that happened out there in front of us (mainly Cole Hamels trying to field balls hit right to him and missing them all). I want to watch the entire batting practice from good seats because with those guys (when not hitting), that’s something you’ll get a good laugh out of I’m sure.

    1. Jenny Avatar

      They’re pretty goofy there in the outfield. The relief pitchers who stand out there never seem to worry about acting cool — they’re always dancing or doing some crazy crap. On the big screen during BP, they showed the Vulch like, nagging Moylan for scratching his chin — he had his hand on his face and the Vulch reached up and took it away, it was hilarious.

      Over by the dugout, we did see Davies filming some kind of commercial spot or PSA or something and looking quite uncomfortable, so that was funny.

  3. Leah Avatar

    Oh yes, Villareal was weird when we went as well. He would just randomly wander around in the outfield and where no one else was either. Apparently some of the pitchers are too good to catch the balls because some of them were standing in a huddle in center not even caring that balls were flying at them.

    Apparently Davies, like Heap, doesn’t like cameras too much. Although Davies does look halfway normal while Heap doesn’t even look at the camera hardly or stares blankly at it in all his nervousness.

    1. Leah Avatar

      Yeah that was supposed to be a reply. It seems I forget to click the reply button too much.

      1. Jenny Avatar

        Same thing happens to me, when I’m sure I’ve clicked “reply,” so I’m not sure what that’s about. I usually just delete the comment and repost it, though, heh!

  4. KatherineK Avatar
    KatherineK

    Um just a side note, I went to the game yesterday, the 7th against the cubs, and before my friend and I went to Lenox mall and we saw Tyler Yates! I was with some kids my friend was babysitting so we were going into Game Stop and I walked by this really tall big guy and I look at his face, and I was like… wait, thats Tyler Yates. So I didn’t say anything. He was also with a younger smaller version of himself, his brother I’m assuming. Also, we passed him again later and my friend said his name and he looked back. We of course didn’t say anything which we regret! But he was totally shopping for some video games at the mall before the game yesterday.

    1. Jenny Avatar

      Ah, cool! I would flip out if I just saw one of them wandering the mall. They are freakishly tall/big in person, aren’t they? So bizarre that my little Baby Braves are like three times bigger than me.

    2. Leah Avatar

      I always wonder how I can never be that lucky. Although knowing myself, I’d probably walk right by them and not notice them half the time. Well, maybe I would. Depends, I guess.

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