Hotlanta! Saturday/Sunday Report

Saturday morning actually brings the final indignity, as housekeeping inexplicably knocks on the door at 9 AM (two hours before checkout, and even though I had put the sign out) and pokes their head in to ask if I’m checking out today.

The game’s at 4:00, so I have some time to kill. First I head over to check into the hotel I already paid for the previous night. In my head I am contemplating the worst complaint letter in the history of the world, it may well topple the whole hotel chain. In the end, I decide not to be so negative, and not tear someone a new asshole when I get there. I calmly inform them of what happened and they agree to refund the previous night’s fee.

This room’s better than the Econo Lodge (in that it’s not 80+ degree), and it even has internet! ESPN’s showing some car auction or something, so there’s no reason to stick by the TV. I decided to make a driving tour of downtown Atlanta. Not sure if I even saw the downtown, but I did see the other sports arenas and some Olympic stuff.

I decided to park in the same spot I had the previous night for this game, and once again walk it. The official box score says that the game temperature was 95 degrees. That was taken at 4:00 PM. I walked to the park at about 3:00 PM, when the temp was a few degrees higher, the (somewhat high) gauge in the car was reading 104. The pads of my feet were burning by the time the 10 block walk was behind me. The pavement was so hot from the sun that the layer of rubber wasn’t enough to fully shield the high temperatures. It was definitely Hotlanta that day. As promised, here's some pictures of the sketchy walk to the park:

There was only standing room seats for the game, Justin Verlander, two starts removed from a no hitter, versus Kyle Davies. I made my way into a batch of open seats on the first base side, but was thwarted by bad luck, as the next people that came had those exact seats and I got booted. Thus, I spent the first several innings standing, which really wasn’t a bad thing, seeing as I was directly behind home plate.

Verlander was mowing them down. The Tigers scratched out a run in the 2^nd, and another run in the 4^th on a Carlos Guillen solo shot. Chipper Jones answered with a solo shot in the bottom of the 4^th and the score sat at 2-1 frame after frame. Verlander ended up striking out 11 (which I didn’t realize until after the game, the Ted doesn’t give you a pitchers cumulative in-game stats besides pitch count).

It was a nailbiter, and the Tigers’ up and down bullpen certainly put a few men on base, but they got it to “Roller Coaster” himself, Todd Jones in the ninth. I got to see history, as Jones struck out Brian McCann to start the 9^th. McCann argued the call, Bobby Cox came out as well and got thrown out for the 131^st time in his career, tying the all time record for ejections. He locked it down and the Tigers were winners again, this time 2-1.

It was an uneventful night. Next day I got on the road early, making a brief stop in Auburn, AL to take a picture of their massive football stadium.

On the return back I decided to skip the Biscuits game. I passed through Montgomery around noon, and didn’t want to kick around until 5 waiting for the game to start. Plus, game three of the Tigers/Braves series was on ESPN, and I wanted to see it on TV, having been to the first two games in person. Turns out to be a good thing, as I had misread their schedule, and they were actually on the road that day.

So I just headed back to Mobile. On the way I heard Andy Gresh who I used to hear on Rhode Island sports talk, on EPSNradio which was weird. Once I got back into town I got myself a Hardee’s Thickburger and called it a weekend.