If you know me at all, then you know that my husband and I are die hard Cardinal fans. Actually, we just love baseball in general. One of the perks of this military life is traveling the country and getting to live all over. We decided to take advantage of this perk in regards to baseball and added an item to our ‘Marriage Bucket List’ (we each have our own individual ones as well). We want to visit as many Major League and Minor League stadiums as we possibly can, preferably when the home team plays the Cardinals or the Memphis Redbirds.
Living in Pensacola, we have the Blue Wahoos minor league team, but we‘ve yet to go to a game. Nick getting his schedule only the night before makes it near impossible to plan things. However, in just a week he will be finished flying and we’ll have a few weeks to complete our ‘Pensacola Bucket List’ which includes attending a Blue Wahoos game.
Pensacola obviously doesn’t have a Major League team but Atlanta is only a 5-6 hour drive from us so we knew we’d be visiting Turner Field. We got lucky enough that the Braves were playing the Cardinals over a weekend so we planned to attend this series. We had to hold off on buying tickets until the week of the game because with Nick’s flight training, everything is up in the air. Once we knew his schedule, we were good to buy tickets. Our original plan was to attend both Saturday and Sunday games but they changed Sunday’s game to a night game (7:05pm start time) which meant we couldn’t attend. We were a little bummed but seeing one game was definitely going to be better than seeing no game!
Saturday morning at 5am we headed to Ft. Rucker, Alabama with the pups. We dropped them off with my sister and Kyle and then continued on our way to Atlanta. We wanted to get there a few hours before game time to walk around the stadium and explore a bit.
We had a really great time at the game!!! Their stadium is really nice and the Braves fans were great. I was shocked at how many Cardinals fans were in attendance. I am not joking when I say half of the stadium appeared to be in Cardinals attire. Our fans are just amazing!!!! What’s even more awesome is that a “Let’s go Braves” chant was started and within two chants, “Let’s go Cardinals” was ringing throughout the stadium so much louder than the Braves fans! (Just another reason we’ve been dubbed the best fans in baseball! ;) )
The game itself was pretty freaking boring and we lost which didn’t help, but despite those two things, we had a great time! This was my first Cardinals game in another team’s stadium…heck! It was my first major league game outside of Busch Stadium and it didn’t disappoint! We had great seats just a few rows up in third base line/left field corner by the foul pole and we got to see a lot of our favorites before the game and in the bullpen.
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| Sexy Waino (Wainwright for you non-STL fans) |
A few people (Atlanta natives) had warned me that Braves fans can be rude and disrespectful but we didn’t experience any of that! Everyone was so nice and welcoming and there wasn’t any rudeness or disrespect. After the game, one Braves fan made a comment to me about losing the game (in a joking manner). I refrained from reminding him that (at that time) we were the best team in baseball. And that we’ve upset their beloved Braves in 2011 and 2012. Instead, I just smiled and reminded him we still have long way to go until October. But again, this was all in good fun!
{{Please excuse this rant: My only complaint would be that they tend to make fun of their fans a lot. They have two different “games” (for lack of better words) that they put on their jumbo screens. One is an “Oblivion Cam” where they zero in on someone (usually a larger person shoving their face full of food) and start a timer to see how long it takes them to notice they’re on screen. The other is a look-a-like game. They post a photo of someone/something (Snooky, Jabba da hut, Mama June (Honey Boo Boo’s mom), Duck Dynasty members, etc (basically, all unattractive people) and find someone in the stands who resembles them. I’m sure this is meant to be in good fun, but to me, it was cruel. Maybe it’s because I don’t find humor in cutting other people down and I’m a big advocate for ending bullying. And that’s exactly what this is. How do you know that person you just zeroed in on isn’t already suffering from severe depression or self-loathing? By putting them on the screen, publicly making fun of them to THOUSANDS of people, you just set them back in healing or recovery from their issues. Again, I’m sure the Braves staff think this is humorous but I think it’s just downright mean. But then again, our society thinks cutting down others is amusing and a great form of entertainment. Which is really sad. But I’m just not the type of person who likes to sit around and gossip or make fun of others. But this was my ONLY complaint and it obviously didn’t ruin my time so it’s not a huge deal. It’s just something I’d wish they’d do away with. Until we as adults stop things like this, bullying in children won’t stop. They’re learning from us. But I’ll get off my soapbox now.}}
The Cardinals/Braves game was definitely a great experience!!! I'm happy to put the check mark next to Turner Field! And excited to explore more stadiums! I'm so happy to have a husband who shares this same love of baseball with me. These adventures together are going to create a great scrapbook!
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