Friday, August 1, 2008

Game Day Pictures: Braves vs Cardinals 7-31-08


First, thanks to royhobbs over at Talking Chop for sharing the tickets to last night's game. We had a great time!

Since I've been a bit under the weather this week, I didn't stay "under the weather" (har) for the full game. It thunderstormed most of the afternoon here in Atlanta, and I assumed they wouldn't take outdoor BP. Of course they did, and I missed it. Boo.


Hey, did you know it was Wild West Night? I totally didn't. The Wild Bill's girls were dancing and someone very authentic-sounding sang Frenchy's former intro song, "Watching Airplanes", in Fan Plaza. There were mechanical calf-roping games for the kids and wagons and the hay bales up there. Hey, Skip & Pete's BBQ fits right in! Also, all Teix stuff was 50% off. He's 100% not here, so shouldn't it be free? ;)

Some of the pitchers did some throwing on the field before the game. Here's Charlie and Buddy, Gonzo and Jeff Bennett, and...I took more pics than necessary of those two. ;) I love it when they play pitcher-catcher. pic 1 ~ pic 2 ~ pic 3 Love that JB used his hat as a makeshift home plate. :)

Royce Ring signed autographs forever. This was about 15 minutes later, he was all the way down the row. I know he's kinda been sucking lately, but I'm still a fan. I mean, he's cute! He reminds me of Scott Caan, minus the ears. ;)

Tony LaRussa, the manager of the Cards, was in the outfield during BP. He hits the infielders practice balls and chats up his players. From all accounts he's a "weirdo", but he really seems connected with his team. I just like that he wears his sunglasses at night.

Pre-game! Clint stretches out; Corky is always laughing. Gregor stretches by himself. He spent most of the game stretching, actually. And here's KJ, stretching and running.

Cameras followed Hammy closely everywhere -- almost like they were...expecting...something... :D

One of the last things before the game starts is the Tomahawk Team shooting t-shirts into the crowd. I loved watching the guys watching the girls... Braves, more Braves, Braves still staring... and a Cardinal totally forgot he was stretching while he was gawking. Hee.

Jewel sang the National Anthem. From a post-game chat with Jennifer:

Lauren: also, Jewel sang the national anthem
Lauren: veeeeerrrrrrrrry sloooooooooooooowly
Lauren: but well
Jennifer: heh
Jennifer: what happened to her?
Lauren: she's stuck doing mid-year national anthems for teams with losing records
Lauren: she's living in her van again.
Jennifer: exactly
Jennifer: LOL!
Lauren: ;)
Jennifer: down by the river
Lauren: with matt foley!
Lauren: I have to sleep.
GAME ON. The guys signed baseballs for kids on the field. I like it when the guys bend down or squat to talk to the kids. Frenchy did, but Kots didn't need to. Look how tall his girl is! I liked her; she took her shoes off to run off the field. I would have done the same, chica. Great idea!

The Wild West theme extended to the big screen. Here's Greg White's pic. None of the others came out because of the angle, but you get the idea. :)

This was our in-game entertainment:



I left at 9pm, when it began raining harder. Didn't want to get sick again so soon, you know? And I missed this by two batters: Clint Sammons' first major-league home run! Congrats, Clint!! I can say I was there that night, right? ;)

A tip for the rest of the season, team:


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

sounds like a fun time. our power went off at like 8:30 and didn't come back on until like 11:30 so we missed Clint's homer! thanks for posting

Allee said...

Love the pictures...as always. =]
Royce Ring is always signing autographs, he signed some things for me when I went for my birthday...very nice guy. Love, love, love the picture of the Cardinal forgetting he was stretching...you've got to be able to enter that into a photo contest somewhere, right? Haha. And, I think the last picture says it all forreal. =]

CABravesFan said...

Thanks for the pics as always Luaren:)

That last one made me kinda sad- I'm still clinging...

Clint's homer was great! For those of you that didn't get to hear it on TV- Joe made a couple of not-so-subtle hints that he would love to see him backing up Mac rather then Corky- as in THIS year

Anonymous said...

Ok, people like the "try not to suck" guy bother me. I mean, yes, I get that they haven't played great lately, but where's your loyalty, dude? Say stuff like that when your home, alone, in front of your TV. Don't broadcast it to our poor boys who, I'm sure, are already feeling down as it is!

Lauren T. said...

Aww, another cute pic of Royce Ring.

As for loyalty, I saw a whole lot of red last night and the cheers for the Cardinals were louder than the cheers for the Braves. No one wants to pay that much money to see AAA players / a losing team. I love my Braves and will support them till the end, but not all fans are as forgiving. Women, in particular, are generally more forgiving. ;)

jrm04g said...

That last picture is hilarious! :D

I don't think it was meant to be mean, just a ploy to get on TV or get some other kind of attention. Obviously it worked.

Jennifer said...

That "Try Not To Suck!" sign is the funniest thing I've seen all day.

Because, clearly, they're all trying to go out there and suck as much as possible, and doing it while getting paid a lot of money. Professional athletes do that all the time. They suck on purpose, collect big paychecks for it, and don't feel the least bit ashamed. **sarcasm**

And, Jewel was there to see it all. :D

Lizziebeth said...

Great pics!!

Yeah, the "suck" guy was on the visitor's side. Sigh, I guess we have to let them come to the games, too. :)

Anonymous said...

Remember in 2005 the guys who were wearing bags over their heads? The suck sign isn't so bad compared to that, right?

Yiyiyi..when do we play the Mets and Marlins again?