Turner Field 2009 Opening Weekend

So this past weekend, I was pretty much absent from my own home, my computers, and free of any and all social obligation, because it's that time of year again.  The best time of the year for any baseball fan, the culmination of six long months of anticipation coming to an end.  The Home Opener.

But in my case, why limit the occasion to a single game?  I live close enough. It was time to hit up all three games, versus the Washington Nationals.

I will be posting 20 more images, so if you don't have high-speed internet connection, you might not want to click the jump, as well as get with the program.  You wouldn't believe it, but people still have to make that kind of disclaimer these days, because there are actually people who still use dial-up.

FRIDAY - Mother Nature's Wrath

The day chugs along at a rapid pace, because I have Nationals-fan friends in from out of town who are doing touristy crap while I be a good artist and work, even on Opening Day.  But eventually, I finish up with work, pick up the friends, and it's off to the Ted.

This lovely lady goes out to my main-man, bigjoe, who actually seriously debated on purchasing a miniature replica of one of these for himself.  And back then, we all laughed at him.  I expect those of you who recall, and those who like to be sarcastic pricks to follow suit and continue to laugh at bigjoe.

However, this lovely gal goes out to the rest of the guys.  A new addition to the Tomahawk Team.  In lieu of the departed Jamie Kotsay, I'm actually thinking about making . . . well, I don't know her name, but I think it started with an "R," making her the official victory image, in some capacity.  I for one would prefer this over Storm Troopers, Chewbacca or diagrams of penii.

A moment of silence to honor and respect the departed Nick Adenhart was observed prior to all on-field activity.  I admire the world of sports fans for all being able to unite and respect the tragedy, and if there's any good to have come out of this gruesome situation, is that we witnessed some reiteration that when the days are over, we're all still capable of being compassionate, considerate human beings over our sports fandoms.

I also took the liberty of sharing this image with those over at Halos Heaven, because I wanted them to see for themselves that even on the other coast and in the other league, Braves fans give their condolences for their loss.

Pete Van Wieren throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.  Glad to see that he is getting the due respect he deserved, and was even more pleased to see that his throw made it all the way to home plate.

Of course, being Opening Day, a big flag had to make its appearance eventually.  The Braves and Nationals cover the baselines, while Little League teams from Metro Atlanta surround the outer edge of the infield.

AND now, we get to some baseball.

The Nationals drew first blood, scoring first, and I wondered how many of you guys were facepalming at Yunel Escobar's first at-bat Vidro when it happened.  And when Escobar came to the plate in the third with another potential GIDP in place, I hoped he would just strike out as opposed to end another inning with RISP.  Thankfully, he did neither - he hit a 3-run home run instead.

Watching Escobar's violent swing and follow-through, I could tell that he was so tempted to launch his bat into the first row of fans, but somehow managed to keep his fingers curled around the handle long enough to instead violently fling the bat towards his own dugout.  The look on his face as he trotted back to the dugout was one of relief, happiness, and humor.

Apparently, the cast of Sex and the City decided to show up to the ballgame for some reason.  And did they get drunk, fast.  Often, they would stand up for no good reason and wave, or blab to someone over a cell phone, and people in my section and behind were getting quite agitated by the situation, and began yelling for them to sit down.  Carrie here kept standing the most, and I got to a point where I realized that I should stop being irritated by my obstructed view, and instead enjoy the view of the obstruction instead.

Despite the flip-flopping reports of the weather, Mother Nature decided to rear her ugly head, and bring her wrath upon us with enough rain to cause the inevitable, dreadful rain delay.  Maybe their legs were fresh, but the grounds crew was on top of this tarping, as they had that shit down real fast, like.

During those two-hours, this is how bad visibility got at one point.  The wind was whipping, and even under the comfort of the second deck, I could occasionally feel some rain sweep through.  The worst part was that it rained, stopped, but then started coming down real hard all over again.

This is the ocean in shallow LF that was borne from Mother Nature's wrath.  Looking at that, I wondered if it would be feasible to even consider playing in such conditions.  I worried for Yunel Escobar if he had to muddle through that.  But then Turner Field played a video package about how great Turner Field was, and its irrigation systems and quick-drains and ever-talented grounds crew.

And little by little, the bragged grounds crew parted the seas like Moses, and got the water off the field.  It was actually quite incredible watching how fast and efficiently they did their job, and got the field back into playable condition.

And the rest, you all know what happened.  I could only picture the vulgar words coming out of the TC users who cursed the bullpen, O'Flaherty's blown save, Moylan's inefficiencies, Gonzalez's blown save, etc, but just like that, all was absolved as Logan Schafer delivered in the 10th, and Kelly Johnson put on his hero cap and saved the day.  So much for those fears of lefties not being able to hit lefties.  But the most important thing was that our hallowed grounds were protected on Opening Day, and the Braves began their homestand with that crucial W.

SATURDAY - That's More Like It

Wow, I guess I didn't take as many noteworthy images as I thought I did, because it's pretty scant from here on out.

Thankfully, Mother Nature was done with her little tantrum, and Pujols intervened, and decided that there was to be some baseball to be played, and that Mother Nature needed to STFU and GBITKAMMSDB.

Apparently, my friend found some press clip on his blackberry that quoted Kenshin Kawakami stating that his goal this season was to go 28-1.  Even as a supporter of him, I had to lol just a little bit, because 28 wins with that few losses just seems a little absurd.  As much as I'd love to see that happen, I certainly wouldn't put money on it.

But regardless, I was glad to see him get the win (first of 28) in his American debut.  At times it looked like he was getting squeezed, and it definitely seemed like there was an inconsistent strike zone.  Speaking of which, maybe it has to do with Questec not being around anymore, but a supposed lesser-but-more-universal pitch-tracking system being integrated in ALL parks that might have something to do with it.

Watching baseball with noobs can be entertaining sometimes.  I was telling my friend about how bad Moylan was starting the season, and some smarmy jackass decided to invite himself into my conversation about how awesome Moylan was, because his ERA was reading 0.00 at the time.

If there was an infinite symbol available, I'm sure they would use it.  Any runs on 0.0 IP results in that infinity, and thankfully, Moylan was able to record his first third of an inning, and we watched as his ERA "shot-up" to 135.00, and then to 67.50 on his second out, and thankfully, he threw his first scoreless frame to bring it down to simply absymal.  I still have faith that he'll be able to claw it down to sub-3.00 by September.

This OPS guy lived up to his reputation all weekend long, as I think he walked like 7 times and struck out 4.  My friend and I love to play the prediction game, and OPS guy makes it real easy by pretty much only giving three options.  But for some reason, he hit a few singles throughout the weekend too, which baffled everyone in the stands.

Post-game fireworks on Saturday night's win, which should've been on Friday night, but since the game didn't end until like 3 AM, they were saved for Saturday night instead.

SUNDAY - Finishing the sweep

lol.  There's only one baseball-related image this day.  Goes to show how much I began to discredit the Nationals, and began entertaining myself by other means.  Especially imagining images to photoshop, taking the pictures, and then executing them.

The Nationals trotted out an old friend from Florida, Scott Olsen to face us on Sunday.  To his credit, he was effective until he ran into Baby Jesus who practically manufactured his own run by nursing a walk, stealing second, and then chugging home on Matt Diaz's eventual double.

This couple would never have drawn my attention if not for the fact that they decided to take their dear sweet time getting to their seats in my aisle, and holding my friends and I in a standing awkwardly while waiting for her to pass through pose for five miniutes.  And as I stared discreetly through my mirrored shades at them, I realized that something didn't quite look so right with this family.

And to my left - no ballpark experience is complete without witnessing some drunkness.  And in this case, it was an extreme case where the guy was passed out, hard.  I got right up in this guy's grill, and tapped him on the shoulder, and such, but he would not wake up.  So what other choice was there for me to do?  Take pictures.

If Turner Field sold their beers in cups, I'm sure it would've devolved to cup stacking on this guy, but instead, it turned into "pose-with-the-passed-out-guy" instead.  One lady nearby at first thought this was funny, but eventually became concerned enough to call an attendant to see if they needed medical attention.  It turns out that they didn't - he was just that drunk.

And finally, I managed to start paying attnetion to the game enough again, to look up and see that Rafael Soriano was closing out the game.  I was pleased to see that he was getting his velocity back up to the 92-93 range, and it looks like he's getting some of that pinpoint control back too.  This was a no-brainer, seeing him in this game, seeing as how many pitches Mike Gonzalez was entrusted with the prior two nights.  I actually thought that there was a chance that we'd get to see Blaine Boyer get a chance at a save, but realized that in a true-save situation, it was best to stick to someone with a little experience, over the one with the freshest arm.

So that about does it for my Opening Weekend experience.  I certainly hope that all you other Braves fans had pleasant weekends amidst this sweeping of a team we were expected to beat.

I do not know if I will manage to squeeze out 40 games this season, as I have more hobbies and engagements than I did a year ago, but I definitely will be trying to hit up as many parks and games as possible.  Not sure if I'll go to any of the Marlins series, but I do know and have my ticket, for the opening of Gwinnett Stadium, to see the Park Opener of the Gwinnett Braves as they take on the Norfolk Tides.