"Jo-Jo, shhhh...I'm looking at that cute curly-haired girl up in the stands..."
I left work early to get to the park in time to watch the Braves batting practice. I've never done that by myself before, so it was kinda creepy to be sitting there in the outfield, watching the guys horse around while I waited for my friends to arrive. My "Summer Boyfriends", as I lovingly call them, did not disappoint.
I usually hang out in the left-center stands during batting practice. If I get there super-early (as in, gates just opened), I'll go down and sit on the front row, but I move up if it starts getting busy or if I see some little kids sitting behind who want to get close to the action.
As I made my way down the stairs, I immediately spotted my Aussie walking over to Baby, Matty, and KJ.
Much as I wanted to go and sit right behind them, I didn't. Can't be StalkerGirl, you know? But I did sit a couple of sections towards Center and amused myself by narrating the on-the-field action to a couple of friends via cell phone. So here are some fun things I saw:
- Baby inspected Aussie's tattoos, which seem to be growing more abundant by the day. Baby even pulled up Pete's sleeve to see the band on his left arm; I'm very sad that was the side turned away from me. ;)
- Buddy Carlyle played toss with a kid in the stands, who looked like this was the best day of his life.
- Chuck James tried to wrestle Buddy Carlyle to the ground; Buddy was not amused. They stood right in front of me and talked for a little while, and Chuckie even turned around and posed for a picture after an overeager fan (read: loud, fat girl who was asked to go to her ticketed seat by the usher) taunted him.
- Willie Harris flirted with some pretty Air Force officers in uniform, and tossed a couple of balls up to them. They were trying to get Buddy to talk to them but I heard him say, "I don't have time for that," and walked away.
- Buddy spit a LOT of tobacco juice. There's not much more disgusting to see than a perfectly cute man with a stream of brown liquid flowing from his lips.
- Peter Moylan and Kelly Johnson talked for a very long time -- probably 15 minutes -- and KJ looked extremely depressed. I heard that one of the players' engagement was just broken off (heard it last week from a very reliable source, but don't know which engagement). Based on body language and on-field cut ups, Baby and Frenchy seemed perfectly fine. KJ seemed on the verge of tears. That's all I'll say about that.
- Thor didn't appear to have any friends after Matty left for his round of BP.
- Huddy was turning double-plays at second base with Yunie, Martin Prado, and Pete Orr. That was really fun to watch, and he appeared to be giving some tips to Pete Orr.
- Guys who threw balls up to the kids in the stands: Willie Harris, Tyler Yates, Chuck James.
- Guys who tossed balls straight up by the wall to watch people lunge for them, then threw the balls back in to the ball boy: Buddy Carlyle.
- Guys who never seemed to notice people were in the stands: Peter Moylan, Scott Thorman, Brian McCann, Matt Diaz, Kelly Johnson, Jose Ascanio, Ron Mahay, and Octavio Dotel (who was throwing the ball like nothing was wrong with his shoulder).
The Marlins turn to do BP came far too soon, and my friends were coming in the gates, so I went to Fan Plaza and talked to a couple of the Cheerleaders...er..."Tomahawk Team". They gave Jen a shirt for her birthday, and it says "Welcome to the Bigs" right across the chest. Excellent. They also gave us packs of baseball cards. I don't know that I've owned any baseball cards since the early 90s, so that was weird and kinda fun. We bought a Braves Yearbook (look for some posts on that sucker soon) and headed to our seats, located just on the right field side of the dugout. Good job, kids, for getting us Scalper Seats for what we would have paid for Upper Box!
The game was fine. Matt Diaz knelt down and said a prayer before doing his on-field warmups with Teix, Yunie, Frenchy, and Edgar. I love Matty. I really don't understand why Bobby doesn't seem to care for him.
Jo-Jo got his first major league win, and we won 4-3. Go Braves!
See all the game's pictures here. The "Ladies..." may have given the Best [Butt] Award to Pat Burrell of the Phillies, but as you can see, there are more than a few of our guys who could challenge that title. ;)
2 comments:
Aww, if that's the case, then I hope Kelly and his woman work things out. They are a cute couple. And the more I read about Yates, the more he kinda creeps me out too. I don't think I've ever seen a picture of him smiling, he's always got that wierd stare going on!
Well, we don't know for sure that it's KJ...and I hope it's not any of them, and that was just a bad rumor. But his spirits were WAY down that night. :/
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