Catcher’s Blog

This is my review of the day game in Atlanta on June 25, 2008. It was good trip, it was a very, very hot that day, and we played a good game. I got decent footage and pictures below. The footage is a little shaky and I apologize for that. That would be from me not being able to hold my camera still hardly at all. I can’t sit or stand still, so that’s probably why. The footage was clearer on my computer before I uploaded it to photobucket, so know that it wasn’t my camera. The only bad thing about that day was that it felt like it was 100 degrees, literally, with no shade hardly at all and the seat digging into my leg the whole time, resulting in my leg becoming almost numb when I did finally get up around the 8th inning. I’ll save the rest for the review. The review is under a cut for length purposes.

We arrived in Atlanta around 11:00 am, after leaving shortly after 8:00 am. We drove by the stadium and headed to The Varsity, which is a really great place to eat for those who have never heard or been to it. This was probably only the second time I’ve been to The Varsity since I don’t really go to Atlanta that much, except to games or to go through it to get to another destination. We left The Varsity fairly quickly, probably about 11:40 am or so. We found a really close place to park right across from the gates to the stadium, so that was really nice and not as bad as we had thought it might be.

Once out of the bus and across the street, we entered the season tickets gate because we already had our tickets with us and they allowed us to do so. We got our bobbleheads, which I’ll divulge on more toward the end of the post, and proceeded to go our separate ways. A few of us got souvenir programs or yearbooks if you will, which I think the portraits in last years’ program were better, but that’s just my opinion. This years’ program is still worth buying, though. We then walked to our seats, which were in section 146, row 23 and 24, which is almost in center field, probably more so left center. Not the best seats in my opinion, but they could have been worse. The view was all right, but not that close to the players except in the outfield, of course, which is one reason I dislike sitting in the outfield. But I didn’t really choose to sit there either.

Once we got settled into our seats and what not, we decided to go on over to the bullpen, since neither team had batting practice because of the temperature, even though it was still early and no one was even out there yet, with the exception of people waiting on the players to mosey on over and the ones trying to find their seats nearby. I didn’t get a picture, but the only Braves player on the field at the time was Jeff Bennett, who was socializing with some of the Brewers’ players that were out on the field throwing and what not. We stayed over by the bullpen area until the lineup was called, but I think it was worth it. I got some good pictures and great footage, which I’m going to get to below.

At first, I had no clue if Mac would play that day since Bobby usually has a tendency of giving Mac the day off before an off-day to give him more rest and because Corky usually catches Campillo, but low and behold, I see Mac walking with his catcher’s gear, along with Corky, to the bullpen. Naturally, this excited me to no end because I really thought he wasn’t going to play that day.

Mac and Corky set their stuff down and Mac began to stretch a bit. Eddie P. joined them shortly after. Mac really stretches his legs a lot before a game, but I guess he should for as long as he’s squatting and what not for nine innings. I just don’t remember him stretching that much before a game last year, but maybe it’s just my bad memory. He also jogged a bit last year and didn’t this year. Might have been because it was so hot that day. He also stretched his arms a bit with the help of Eddie P. Here comes in part of the footage that I got while at the game.

After a few minutes, I went down to one of the lower levels to take some closer pictures, which came out really nice, then headed back to my spot above the bullpen. Mac put his leg gear on, got his glove and began throwing with Corky while waiting on Campillo to make his way out to the bullpen. See below for video.

I could see the new Chik-fil-A cow from here and snapped a picture. We couldn’t see it from our seats because it was behind us, as well as the huge “Braves Vision” screen, but it didn’t really hurt my feelings that I didn’t actually get to see the cow chopping. By this time, Campillo had come out there and proceeded to do his stretching on his own. Mac and Roger made their way into the bullpen room or whatever you call it. I didn’t really look to see where they went, but I’m sure we have a pretty good idea.

After a few minutes, Blanco had come running out to his spot on the field to do his stretching routine. Teixshy, Gotay, Infante, and Bradon Jones soon followed. Campillo started throwing with Corky. KJ joined in on the field warm-ups. Frenchy half-jogged out to center field once and proceeded to stop and talk to one of the Brewers’ players. KJ and Teixshy started to do their jogging, jogging backwards, grapevine, and arm exercises.

Mac then emerged from the bullpen room and put the rest of his gear on so he could warm-up with Campllio. See video below. You can see Corky being supportive in the video as well, he was doing this throughout the whole warm-up almost. Of course, I stopped recording when the National Anthem was being sung and you see a little bit of that from my not able to get my camera to stop.

I snapped a few pictures of Mac catching after the National Anthem was over, before heading back to our seats. The lineup was being  called out on the “Braves Vision” screen as we got an ice cold water and went to our seats. We sat down as the players were running on the field. I have a good bit of pictures of KJ during the game, since he was almost right in front of me the entire time, and some pictures of the others as well. We have Frenchy, who looked to be somewhat depressed, Blanco, who looks really little and cute in person, and Brandon Jones, who was pretty good in left. KJ had a good day, as well as Blanco, and Campillo exceeded my expectations, much like Lance Cormier did last year when I saw him have a quality start against the Phillies’ Jamie Moyer on September 3rd. Campillo really had only one bad inning and Boyer gave up a triple, but the Brewers’ couldn’t captilize in key situations either.

We got up at the end of the 8th inning to go to the clubhouse store before leaving, in case there would be a crowd, and I don’t think there’s a time I’ve been in that store when there hasn’t been a crowd of people in there, but this time it wasn’t that bad. The lines were very short even after the game was over. We watched the end in the clubhouse store on the TV. I didn’t even think about seeing Gonzo in the 9th, I was just really ready to get out of the bad heat. He clinched the save and we won again. That makes two games in a row that I’ve been to that we’ve won.

On our way home, it took us a really long time to get home because around Newnan there was very a bad wreck on I-85. We heard it was like an eight car pile-up and traffic was slow and backed up for a long time. Some people were turning their cars around and going back the other way, which I believe they were instructed to do eventually. We finally got off on an exit and went around the wreck. We got back on I-85 before we got to Columbus. The ride home was somewhat annoying since there was a bunch of boys who were tired and bored on the bus. I hate riding anyway, so I was annoyed. We got home around 8:30 pm or so and I was so tired.

My purschases from the clubhouse store can be seen here and here, my laptop not included, of course, and I was given the Braves towel for entering a contest to win a Corvette. I also opened my Mac bobblehead and took pictures of it, as well as the box: here, here, here, and here. I even made a short, up-close video for you guys that didn’t attend the game and didn’t get a bobblehead. Forgive my deep, southern voice and my shaking the camera yet again.

Thanks for reading this review and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much I did writing it. if you’d like to view the rest of my pictures from that day, please here.

* Don’t mind the time on this post, I couldn’t get it to change to pm. It was posted on July 1, 2008 at 5:00 pm.