Atlanta Braves @ Cincinnati Reds - 04.26.09 Photos

Over the weekend, I made a day trip to Cincinnati, to explore the city for a little bit, but more importantly, catch our Atlanta Braves take on the Cincinnati Reds.  This would be my first trip to Great American Ball Park, and I can say, that despite the loss, it was a fun day trip overall.

I did a huge write-up on Red Reporter, the Cincinnati Reds SBN blog, so if you're interested you can read it there.  But as is customary, it's heavily catered towards their likes, so I create something here for us Braves fans, and try to cater to us.

Since I'm more or less expecting you to go over there for the brunt of all the photos and words, because I know how bored some of you get, what I write here only is a total of 13 images, some of them being duplicate of what I posted there, for the sake of good material.

Arriving at the crack of dawn at CVG airport, I have to ride the tram to the terminal.  I can't help but feel like I'm on the set of Star Wars while riding the tram.  I pick up a rental car, since I didn't realize that airports no longer have rent-a-lockers, because of the ongoing threat of like, you know, bombs.

The outside of Great American Ball Park.  Out of all the names of the parks out there, I don't think any one of them has a cooler name than "Great American."

I found the area where players and staff walk into the park, and I had apparently missed out on a chance to get something signed by Brian McCann.  So I hung out in the area, hoping to try and get Yunel Escobar to sign the one baseball that I had on my person, but he never passed by before I lost interest in waiting.  Guys who did pass were Javier Vazquez, Jeff Francoeur, Jordan Schafer, Eric O'Flaherty and Peter Moylan for the Braves, and for the Reds, Johnny Cueto, Edwin Encarnacion, and Bronson Arroyo, who blew off a fan holding a portrait/card frame of him, saying he couldn't sign because he pitched the day before.  I thought it was a lame excuse.

Outside the park, I ended up running into Chipper Jones who was going through a separate entrance which was normally reserved for the visiting squad.  I caught him right before he went through the doors, and noticing my Jones #10 shirt and Braves cap, he didn't hesitate to sign the ball I presented to him.  I already have his autograph on a ball, but it was one of those "why not" situations, where I figure I could do something fun with an extra.  Besides, the opportunity to have Chipper sign a baseball with a Hooters pen?  Priceless.  He didn't even notice.

I met up with gondeee, and the two of us walked around looking for something to eat.  We walked across the bridge into Kentucky, and walked around this schwanky outdoor mall in Newport, before deciding that it was a little too artificial, and to look for something more off-beat.  A few blocks later, we stumbled upon this.

Since there are no White Castles in Georgia, gondeee and I felt that this was unavoidable.  A great opportunity to compare it to the Krystals of the south.  gondeee will disagree with me here, but I felt that White Castle > Krystal.  Which doesn't say a whole lot, but it's true.

For the fellas - Cincinnati talent.  Sure beats the outside-the-park save-money options in Atlanta.

Jo-Jo Reyes and Javier Vazquez taking their bullpens sessions.  I would venture to say that Jo-Jo was certainly throwing harder heat than Vazquez was, but just watching the control of both of them simultaneously throwing; let's just say the BP catchers, Jo-Jo's was throwing his arm around like an epileptic, while Javier's stayed pretty still the whole time.  Granted, this is not indicative to Jo-Jo's awesome control last night, but I'm just sayin'.

Kenshin Kawakami on the hill, before he got annihilated for the day.  It's like he stopped throwing the curveball after the 4th inning when he wasn't getting called for strikes.  Bad move, giving up on the pitch. 

Up in the booths, I spotted Boog staring down at the crowds.  So I photographed him to let him know that we're watching.

Chipper and Bobby discussing Pujols knows what as they wait for Buddy Carlyle to take the hill after Kawakami pretty much gets batted an entire round, including Jay Bruce's second homer of the day.

David Ross touching home after salvaging us from yet another shutout after hitting a GABP-homer to the shallow LF area.

Brandon Jones nearly killed someone with his broken bat-RBI single in the 8th inning.  Stretchers had to be called out, but thankfully nobody was seen on the stretcher as it left the premises.  Although gondeee mentioned seeing the person hopping aboard an ambulance at the end of the game, it showed how much they wanted to see out the rest of the Reds win before seeking medical help.

As a whole, I really liked GABP.  It's a well designed park, nothing too special or fancy, but solid in it's plain-ness.  I like this view from the top of the upper deck, and it makes me realize how closed off the back part of Turner Field, as well as many other parks I've been to really are.  This is without question the best view I've seen from within the grandstand of any baseball park I've been to thusfar.