Since I already used the TC group facepalm to tease upcoming stories and photographs, I'll have to say that if there's any other picture that sums up the group excursion, I would say it would have to be this one - cbwilk and I photobombing the Baltimore Oriole. The jerk actually had the audacity to shove me away, so the blur that is me, is me, forcibly making my way back into the photograph.

It's going to be tough to top the excellent fanpost cb wrote up, but I'll do my best.  And it most certainly looks like people here could use a laugh or two, a distraction for a few minutes, or anything to help take their minds off of the abysmal baseball that our beloved Braves are playing right now.  And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, it doesn't look like it's going to get any better, what with six games with the Boston Red Sox, three games with the New York Yankees, three games with the Philadelphia Phillies, and a make-up game with the Chicago Cubs to boot, all coming after we're done in Cincinnati.  I try not to tell people what they should be doing, but all I can really suggest is sit back, (try to) relax, and hold on to your butts, because it's June, and things might get a little bumpy around these parts.

Now before we begin, I must really warn you that this is going to be very photo-intensive, the largest photo post/travel story fanpost I've done yet.  With two destinations covered here, that means twice the photos and words.  I sure hope you have a high-speed connection...

Funny story is, it started with a friend and myself thinking about going to Miami to catch a game at Landshark (lol) Stadium, to see how empty of a park we could get in, opting for a Thursday afternoon day game to see the Marlins play either the Phillies or Cardinals, I can't remember at this point.  And from there, we'd drive to St. Petersburg to see the Rays play against my friend's Natinals, and then we would both fly back to NOVA from there, and I would still continue on my plan to meet up with whichever brave TCers showed up to the Saturday O's/Braves game.  Well, those plans kind of fell through, and I planned to just go up to Baltimore to catch multiple Interleague games.

"You should come," is what my roommate said to me one night while we were eating dinner.  To Myrtle Beach, that is, as she was going for some convention of some sort.  I had no interest in third-wheeling a convention of whatever capacity, but the light bulb went off in my head that this could be a perfect opportunity to see our High-A affiliates, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans at Coastal Field, another park I'd never been to.  So just like that, I was headed to the beach, to see the tail end of a Pelicans homestand as they'd take on the Kinston Indians.

I arrived at the Beach a little later than I had hoped, but I was still in good spirits.  My chances to possibly get some autographs from some of the more promising kids seemed dashed at that point, as I made a goal to set out for Jason Heyward, Freddie Freeman, and Cody Johnson.  Oddly, I'm sure someone here knows, but Jason Heyward was not only not there, but his name was not even mentioned in the program anywhere.  I knew he was nursing a sore oblique, but was that reason enough to striken his existence?  Freeman was nowhere to be seen, but Cody Johnson was still on the field, and he was cool enough to autograph a baseball for me.  I asked him how he felt about people comparing him to Adam Dunn, and he cooley responded "It's all good... Dunn's an awesome player... it's cool..."

lol at seeing a Pelicans Francoeur shirt.  One of my chief goals of this excursion was to acquire a Myrtle Beach Pelicans ballcap.  I have several Atlanta Braves hats already, and despite having gone to several of the minor league affiliates, I've never felt the need to get either a Richmond, Rome or Gwinnett ballcap - afterall, they're all still the Braves, use the same colors too.  But the Pelicans - I swear, I sometimes think that pitchers' park aside, one of the main reasons the Pelicans exist is so that it subjects the kids to have to wear really gaudy colored uniforms and high socks, to try to humble them a little bit, to realize that not everything is glitz and glamor about pro ball.

Now I see Freddie Freeman, the first baseman of the future.  I didn't realize just how tall he is, and he's kind of lanky too.

CJ Lee signing for young fans.  I actually feel bad because I jumped the gun when I arrived at the park and called out "Jason" to him before seeing a number let alone the back of his jersey.  He just lackidasically said "I'm not Jason," before walking back into the dugout.  Whoops

Michael Broadway, Lee Hyde, and Michael Mehlich hanging out in RF prior to the game.  In the distance is Erik Cordier warming up.  Gotta love the mohawk Mehlich is sporting, I wonder what bet he must've lost to have to go that route?

A more panoramic shot of the Beach.  All things considered, I really liked Coastal Field.  It's easy to get to, the layout of the park is easy to maneuver and not cramped, and it's a nice, spacious minor league park.  The Landshark Beach out in LF is cool; I just wish there was no private function going on there during the game, so I could've hung out there for an inning or so.

A shot of the second pitch of the game, as Erik Cordier pitches to Tim Fedroff.

Just my luck that I don't get to see Jason Heyward, but also Cody Johnson was taking the day off too from game play.  Instead, here he is, taking first-base coach duties.

Erik Cordier mid-pitch.  He gave up only three hits in his four innings, but WALKS KILL led to the only run being scored in the entire game.

One thing that impressed me a lot about Coastal Field was how well-attended the park was.  I know Myrtle Beach is a nice tourist destination, so they probably have their share of tourist attendees, and every now and there are season ticket holders, and then some die-hard fans like myself, but it was refreshing to see a nice and full-looking ballpark, even if it is minor league.  I asked an attendant if this was the typical turnout, and he looked at me and laughed:  "Son, it's because of the beer."

I looked at the two cups of Bud Light I was holding in each of my hands that I purchased for a dollar.  It was Thirsty Thursday at the Beach, and all Bud/Bud lights were for a period of time, available for a dollar a cup.  I guess it made sense.  But oh well, I was enjoying some nice cold beer on a humid summer night, watching the kids play.

That is, until the skies darkened quicker than burning bread in a broken toaster.  I knew rain was on the forecast, but the way the day was progressing, I thought at least an official game could have taken place.  At the top of the 5th with the Pelicans down 1-0, the skies turned into this.  I like the kid in the middle pointing at the sky as if Pujols or Galactus was going to emerge and cast down the fate of the world or something.

And just like that, the game went into a rain delay.  Players on both teams quickly left the field, and went into their dugouts.

I have to give credit to the excellent grounds crew at Coastal Field.  Play was suspended, the players removed from the field, and the tarp was on and unwrapped over the infield before the first drop of rain even fell from the skies.  Just look at the intimidating clouds of Mother Nature here.

The players from the dugout watching the people in the crowd running for shelter.  Except for me, who hung out by the dugout the entire time, despite some fat rain drops beginning to pelt me.  I didn't particularly mind; I'd come this far, may as well try to enjoy myself and get some interesting pictures.

The rain delay wasn't that bad.  I mean, I kind of stood around in the rain like Tim Robbins in the Shawshank Redemption, enjoying how refreshing the rain felt on a hot day, before making my way up into the bleachers where I hung out with these two attractive young girls for a few minutes, chatting about my travels, their choice of beers, where to get awesome park food, etc.

Mark Buerhle does the slip and slide, and gets fined $20,000.  A fan at a major league park jumps the fence and does the slip and slide, he gets his ass kicked, thrown in jail, and likely banned from the park for life.  At a minor league game?  You get your slip and slide, get up, and get escorted without any physical contact off the field.  Awesome.

Well, all good things must come to an end.  I didn't stay for the entire delay, because it had gone on far longer than I was willing to wait by myself after the two cute chicks bolted, but apparently after 90 total minutes after stoppage, the game was called cancelled due to the rain.  Regardless, I enjoyed my experience at the Beach, and if there's ever a reason to go to Myrtle Beach again, I'm all about seeing some more kids play ball.

A day later, I flew from Myrtle Beach (layover in Atlanta), to Northern Virginia where many of my family still live, and a few other activities planned before heading up to Baltimore.  I ran in a 5K marathon with some friends on Saturday morning, and after food, and cleaning up, it was up to Baltimore for Interleague, and for the loosely planned TC Meetup.  The best part was while I was driving up, the increasing amount of text messages I was receiving from bigjoe and Smoltz's Beard, which seemed to become more frequent with the amount of pre-game drinking they were doing.

Welcome to Baltimore.  Some might think, based on my previous strong opinions about this cesspool, that I might have went looking for this kind of picture to help justify my claims, but I swear to Pujols that this just happened to be right in my face, on my way to Camden Yards.

Now as much as I loathe the city of Baltimore, I will say that I admittedly am a fan of Camden Yards.  I've never been to the Trop, nor have I gone to old or new Yankee Stadium, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that yes, I think Camden Yards is the best park in the AL East.  Fenway might be Fenway, but it's still an old, ratty, rusty tomb with over-priced, everything, from tickets, beer, merchandise, and food.  Camden Yards might have less character, but it's certainly cleaner and nicer than Boston.  And this place is my favorite part - Pickles Pub, right outside of Camden Yards' CF gates.  Cheap food, and even cheaper beer ($1 Miller High Lifes and Rolling Rocks), and it's great place to mingle with fans of O's and away teams as well.

This is me, putting away one of my six pre-game Rolling Rocks and Miller High Lifes.  The Failcoeur shirt was a huge hit from fans of both teams, and I must've managed to finagle out three or so more orders of shirts from those who felt that they needed one too.

Pickles is kind of like a tailgate, without being too rednecky.  There are many street merchants peddling awesome grilled food for a fraction of ballpark costs, and this is the Italian sausage ($5), slathered in peppers and onions that I heartily consumed to help soak up the mounting beer quantities prior to even entering the park.

When I get tipsy, pictures like these happen.  Whatever, who am I kidding, I'm an ass-man, but being a little drunk certainly removed any apprehension at taking pictures of the local talent.  I'm sure sdp will enjoy this shot more than anyone else.

I would've stayed at Pickles longer, but nature was calling something fierce, and the seal demanded to be broken.  I took a glimpse at the packed house that the inside of Pickles was, and decided that it was probably best if I ditched my friends at the pub, and headed into Camden, where there were sure to be more readily available, let alone cleaner facilities to take care of business.  Besides, I suppose it was time to be fashionably late to meet up with my fellow TCers.

It didn't take long to find Smoltz's Beard, because he is the only guy I'd know who would be wearing a collared shirt underneath his Braves t-shirt, and I made sure to point that out to him.  I asked "where's Joe," since I knew they were hanging out prior, and then I turned around to the nearest drink stand, and there he was, getting his umpteenth drink of the afternoon.

No, these weren't fellow TCers (I think), but I certainly wish they were.  It was beginning to turn into one gigantic sausage-fest out in RF, and something of the fairer-sex would've been nice to have in our ranks.  C'mon, who wants to be the token (My Boys) girl to hang out with the boys that we all secretly lust over but won't make a move out of respect for the entire group? 

The obvious reason why these gals probably weren't TCers is because when I showed them the FAILCOEUR, the one with the Braves shirt huffly turned heel and got the hell out of dodge, with her Francoeur #7 shirt quickly disappearing from my sight.  Haha, I've pissed off my share of women before, but this one was amusing to me.  Oops

So yeah, there was a baseball game going on the whole time.  Here is your god now Matt Wieters, striking out to Kenshin Kawakami.  KK became victim to a typical KK game, where he surrendered early runs before settling down, and despite throwing a bajillion pitches, still did alright.  Thankfully the Braves captured the lead while KK was still on record, because KK, might like Javier Vazquez is probably going to lose his (crap) with all the inept efforts at earning wins due to the anemic-at-times offense.

Oh yes, there was a lot of Francoeur heckling.  We collectively agreed that we could say nothing until he did something detrimental, and in his first AB, he flew out, and its like the gates of hell disentigrated.  Here's a picture of my Myrtle Beach hat with Francoeur in the RF distance, and I was yelling all sorts of esoteric, locals-only kind of knowledge, that I was really hoping he'd hear.  I must disclaim (again) that I do not hate Jeff Francoeur the person, but Jeff Francoeur the player, I'm not too fond of.  Anything he does positive, is a bonus, but I'm convinced the Braves would be better off without him in the future.

After another inept inning of offense, bigjoe needs a refill, and Beard is right there with him this time around.  I had to drive back to Virginia after the game, so I had to cut myself off earlier than they did, which kind of sucked, but I'd rather not get pulled over on I-95 like Sidney Ponson.

Here's a nice shot of the park from my RF perspective.  Also keep notice that there ARE MEN ON BASE in this picture, and would prove to be the best inning of Braves baseball for the entire trip.

It was right around this time that our little group was joined by the most interesting character of the entire day (shown above).  I think CB hit the nail on the head, and drove it through the plank with how spot-on he was with the description of this guy:

Think of Shipwreck from G.I. Joe mashed with the gay sailor from The Village People, mixed with a leopard. And he says "cocksucker" a lot. The guy was brutal; he's the dude at the party who doesn't get the hint that you don't want to talk to him, even though you walk away every time he comes near you.

Please note the leopard spot tattoos on his left calf.  And the Crocs, those gawd-awful crocs.  Also notice the way bigjoe is leaning away from this guy.  For some reason, he had a particular fondness for bigjoe, and if I remember correctly bought him a beer at one point.

I think he did buy bigjoe a beer, because the look on bigjoe's face here is "shit, this guy bought me a beer now i have to stay here and listen to him ramble on about cocksuckers and dudes switching seats with girls so that he couldn't sit next to their girls."  Also notice the leopard trim around the collar of his . . . I can't even describe the 90s skater/punk vest with the lame patches embroidered on it.  This guy was golden.

AND HE WOULDN'T LEAVE US ALONE.  (Also notice the studden wristband he's wearing)  Bigjoe is clearly drunk, and beginning to think he's funny, but CB doesn't look nearly as enthused.

It was around this time that the Braves had the bases loaded on a rattled Rich Hill, and who comes up?  Given the circumstances obviously it means Jeff Francoeur.  We collectively sighed, fully expecting the rally-killing GIDP, and I took this picture to reflect just how quickly he fell into an 0-2 cound like we haven't seen that before.

And then something amazing happened - Jeff Francoeur crushes a ball out into left-center, which bounces on the ground and pops over the fence - ground rule double, two runs score.  By the end of the 4th, the Braves have taken the 4-2 lead, and all of us TCers are going ballistic, and screaming and goading the local fans, who are all throwing their hands up in the air, and groaning in exasperation.  A shift supervisor materializes to tell us to stop throwing things over the wall, when nothing went over the wall, but it was clear that she just wanted to come over and sass us for being Braves fans.  No matter, it was the single greatest inning of the entire day.

The next three innings were nothing short of awesome.  The Braves were holding their lead like champs, and we the TC faithful felt good about our chances of holding off the O's.  The best part was watching O's fans like this concede the game, and begin their walk of shame back through the mean streets of Baltimore.  Around the 6th, bigjoe mysteriously disappeared, and many of us, tired of standing, went up into the deserted seats high above RF.

With the typically reliable Eric O'Flaherty on the mound in the 7th, things were looking good.  O'Flaherty, then I was guessing Acosta and then Soriano/Gonzalez, and we would be a bunch of happy TCers.  But then another strange thing happened.  O's players were getting hits, and taking first-to-third baserunning on subsequent hits.  EOF was hanging pitches, and the O's were capitalizing.  What was going on?  After EOF gave up his first run, Bobby had no choice to go to the pen, and bring in Peter Moylan.  And then what seemed like the longest inning of our lives, Bobby rode Moylan until he got ONE out, but that one out came at the cost of about five or six runs, before Bobby pulled him in favor of Acosta, who was able to get the last out, as well as nail down the 8th, but at that point, it was all best described in the picture above.

CB and bigjoe, in the very real agony of a Braves collapse.  Let's face it, we've all seen how we can react via text during open threads whenever the Braves squander a lead or collapse like they did that night, but it's most certainly something else seeing it in person.

Either bigjoe is doing some P90X, or maybe he's had a little too much to drink during the span of the morning, afternoon, and evening.  The worst part about the last few innings was the weak heckling that some lame, possibly homosexual O's fans were directing towards our group that wasn't even worth dignifying with response.  What was going on on the field was nothing we haven't seen before - the Braves going quietly without any real fight, except for amazingly enough, yet another Jeff Francoeur hit, which brought him to a respectable 3/4 on the night.

I can't decide which picture best describes the aftermath, so I'll let you the viewer decide on your own.

Despite the outcome of the game, I would have to say that it was a fun experience as a whole.  Much like last year, a whole lot more people said they'd show, but were nowhere to be seen, so I wasn't the least bit surprised that it was just the five of us.  Hey, that's two better than 2008's attempt.  Had a blast with these fellow Mom's-basement dwelling losers, regardless.  Can't make anyone do anything they don't want to, but I'd love to meet more TCers in the future; we're not so bad in person, and we most certainly don't throw around the numbers like we do at the Chop.