opening day 2006

if you've ever dealt with or even known a model, you must know how damn crazy it is to manage twenty of 'em. that's what i've done for the past two days as an event manager for a promotion for the weather channel. whew... three 'fors' in one sentence.

anyway... one of the models told me she'd need to leave early because she was a braves girl and had to perform at the game tonight.

oh shit!, i thought. i forgot all about it being opening day. that was around nine a.m. in each moment my mind was sane, i ran through my head about going to the game. then i remembered that we didn't finish until 6:30. bah. i probably wouldn't be able to make. if so, it'd be late.

meanwhile, tim called and talked for a while. he'd posted on here earlier, which leslee had told me about, so we discussed that and the goings-on his life and mine. nice conversation.

so, when he called back less than an hour later, i thought... hmm. why is tim calling back?

'there are tickets for you at will call. find someone to go with you and get your butt down to the game!'

what?!

yep. they're there, he said. get down there. it's after six at this point (we ended up finishing early today so i was back at home).

i quickly called brad who had just got back from the gym and gave him no choice but to shower and get his ass to midtown to go to the game (he's taking me to the thrashers game on thursday - a first for me - so i figured it'd be fair to ask him.

ugh. traffic was a bitch. thirty minutes til first pitch and we were surrounded by idling motors instead of peanuts, cracker jacks and a baseball game.

we decided to park at his place and take the shuttle from marta. so did half of atlanta. we decided to walk instead. i'd already missed the first pitch when i reached will call for the tickets. brad asked where they were; i had no clue but told him tim always got great seats. i handed them to him while i removed items from my pocket to enter the stadium.

damn good seats!, he said. row three. it was right there right up under his finger where he pointed. season tickets, he asked? i don't know. but i'm glad i'm here.

it was for this guy that i made brad stop before we reached our seats. y'all remember him from last year... jeff francoeur. number seven. almost my hero.

we were around section one-twelve when i heard his name announced and walked briskly, almost ran out to see his first at-bat for his sophomore year.

it was a pop-fly to right but when i turned around to head to my seat, i got tears in my eyes. why, i don't know. i really don't. but i did.

i joked after taking this picture with brad that they hired extra security to keep my away from him. haha.

ya know... he's fine as hell. but it's his personality and his life story that i beg. it's amazing. each time i read about him or see him, i'm amazed. if i've ever wanted to be someone, it's jeff.

anway... the seats were incredible. the pic of jeff there is taken with no zoom lens at all. he's in the batters box less than twenty feet away from my seat. wow. i barely spoke the whole game. i was mesmerized. the warning track that i thought was dirt is actually pebbles. not only could i see the players very, very well but i could even make out the imprint of their batting gloves shoved in their back pockets.

i was wide-eyed again going into turner field. i noticed so much. there are many changes and it was neat to be able to notice them. i even noticed the bathroom signs were different. how cool is it that i've been so often that i notice something silly like that?

anyway... better than bathroom signs was the neighbors i had for the game. while they're certainly noteworthy, believe me when i say they were secondary to the field.

president and mrs. rosalynn. georgia senator saxby chambliss and representative john lewis.

oh. and some guy named cal ripken. you might know him, too.

all of them were sitting ten seats to my right. brad counted them while i watched the game. (i have pictures i took between innings but the blogger is being a bitch right now. i'll e-mail them or something or put them online somehow...)

oh shit... i forgot someone else. baton bob! hell yeah, he was there. totally in costume, one of his many. frilly skirt. cowboy boots. some kinda top and an indian head dress, which he changed to a more conservative sunday hat with feathers for the sake of those around him.

don't think he didn't get up and twirl that baton when the crazy dance song was played... unfortunately he didn't make it onto the jumbo-tron.

i had only one beer, too. that's a change. haha. just thought about that as i was thinking about all that went on.

tim... thanks. after the past week and even few months, i needed that.

i'm so effin glad baseball is back. it's my heartbeat, sometimes, i think.

by the way, the braves won!