My World Series Experience

The World Series is the culmination of a season's worth of baseball games. Arguably the best teams in baseball come head to head in the Fall Classic. Granted, my team was FAR from clinching a post-season berth this year, but that certainly does not mean that I zoned out when October came around. Quite the opposite, in fact, as I stayed up night after night watching team after team face elimination, and eventually skidded to the end of their respective seasons. Two teams remained: The Philadelphia Phillies representing the National League, and the Tampa Bay Rays representing the American League. Who was I pullling for? Well, I can't actually like the Phillies since they are in the same division as my team, and the Rays were the classic "worst to first" story of the season. Having never had a season above .500, they managed to convincingly forge their way into the World Series. Who doesn't love a Cinderella story in sports?

Its always been a dream of mine to go to the World Series. A dream that seemed farther and farther away the more time I spent actively trying to manuever a way to make it there. After all, Philadelphia is only about two and a half hours away. The first game in Philly was on a Saturday night. It had all the makings of the perfect opportunity written all over it. When else can you just get in your car and DRIVE to the World Series? (Because sadly, I doubt it will be in DC or Baltimore any time soon.) Craigslist, eBay, StubHub, ticket brokers, and everything else I could think of became my nightly routine, hoping that somehow, some way, I would be able to find a screaming deal on World Series tickets. But to no avail, the cheapest ticket I ever saw was $465, for standing room only. Um ... the next day, they skyrocketed to over $500, and finally ended pushing $600. And that was just the beginning. People asking thousands of dollars for tickets was commonplace. Yes, I wanted to go, but there comes a time (price) that its just not worth it. Unfortunately, I wasn't willing to spend what anyone was asking.

A friend of mine suggested that we go up to Philly to watch the game at a bar near the stadium, since we could be IN Philly with the fans and could at least be a part of it all. Brilliant! I Googled bars in Philly and was reminded that there's a McFadden's actually AT the Ballpark. Perfect. That was the plan. Go up on Saturday afternoon to stake out our spot at the bar and enjoy the game. Wouldn't you know though that the three boys who were supposed to come, um, didn't come through. That's not going to change anything though - Jenny and I were still in. One of them tried to convince me to go watch it somewhere in DC and I said "yes, that would be fun, and I definitely think YOU should do that. But I'm still going to Philly." When I get an idea in my head, I kind of have to follow through with it, for better or for worse.

So Jenny and I got in the car around 3p on Saturday and headed up 95 to Philadelphia. Not without first stopping at the bank and securing some cash, with our price limit well in mind. We spent the entire drive trying to pretend that we weren't secretly hoping that by some miracle we would find ourselves in the Ballpark in a few hours. Talking about it seemed like it would only jinx the idea though, and I didn't want to get my hopes up for something that was a longshot anyway. We got to the Sports Complex (the Eagles football stadium, the Phillies ballpark, and the 76-ers basketball arena) around 5:30 and parked in the Eagles lot, and then made our way through the tailgaters donning their Phillies gear. It was a bit windy, but not really cold and I don't think we noticed the mist of rain because we were so caught up in the idea that we were actually AT the World Series. Well, at least at the physical location of the World Series, seeing all the fans that actually had tickets in hand anxiously waiting for the experience of a lifetime.

We walked around for awhile, soaking it all in. We weren't too thrilled about the prospect of McFadden's when we saw the massive crowd already in line, but give that much of a thought. Unlike regular season games, there were not scalpers following you around trying to sell you one of their many tickets. Rather, we walked down one side of the stadium without seeing any at all. So we went the other way. And there they were. Two men who were undoubtedly scalpers, who muttered "tickets" under their breath as we walked by. Both of us instinctively turned around, glanced at each other, and cautiously made our way back to them. I said "what do you have?" and one of the men told me that he had two standing room only tickets. We'd already discussed that we'd even do that - just to be there. And that was our best hope of getting anything, so we started talking. He'd just sold the other pair for $300 apiece, but he was really nice and offered them to us for only $250. Sorry, $150 was what we wanted to spend ... knowing full well after talking to a broker last week and having him practically hang up on me when I told him I didn't want to spend over $200! No way they were letting the tickets go for that price. So we worked our magic. We talked to them, we gained some confidence, and let them know that this was something we really wanted. A wink here, and a smile there, and before we knew it, we each forked over $160 and practically ran ... Citizen's Bank Ballpark, home to the Philadelphia Phillies, playing in their first World Series in 15 years, here we come!I handed my ticket over to the cute old man to scan it so I could enter the ballpark. When he handed it back to me to go through the turnstile, he said "This is your lucky day!" Boy was he right! This was the day I'd been waiting for as long as I'd been a baseball fan. The World Series. Unreal. We were there. We were handed rally towels and the plastic ticket holders as soon as we walked in.

Jenny and I were as giddy as I've been in a LONG time, and just kept looking at each other saying "we're at the World Series!!" I'm pretty sure we texted and called everyone we could think of, as we walked around and tried to soak it all in. The fanfoto employees were everywhere and it seemed like every time we turned around, one of them was asking us to take another picture.It was barely 6pm by the time we entered the stadium, and gametime wasn't until 8pm. Did we care? Absolutely not! We thought we'd be able to catch the tail end of batting practice, but quickly realized that the tarp was on the infield since it had been raining for the better part of the day. At the moment, however, it wasn't even raining, just a little windy. We enjoyed ourselves walking right down to the field and jealous that we weren't actually sitting there!
Standing room only - we had a lot of decisions to make about where we were going to plant ourselves for the biggest game of our lives. We concluded that about halfway between center and left field would be the best, so we stood there and made sure that no one took our spot. We bought our Diet Cokes, knowing that we would need caffeine to make it through the night, and also knowing that we needed the commerative cups to drink out of for the rest of our lives (and maybe try to figure out if we could really use those red nylon backpack bags as purses)! The weather had other plans in store for the foreseeable future, however. The rain had picked up a little, and we looked up to see the lights above the stadium shining on the ever-increasing rain. Then almost out of nowhere, it was literally like a SHEET of water came pounding into us. Immediately, everyone scattered as fast as they could to seek cover from the torrential downpour that ensued. It didn't matter if you had an umbrella, a poncho, rain boots, or none of it. Everything was soaking wet.I lost Jenny, and it wasn't for about a half hour that we finally met up again. I made my way through the crowd underneath a tent, which was covering t-shirts, jackets, hats, jersey, sweatshirts, baseballs and bats, and every other possible memorabilia you could imagine. All of a sudden, I found myself near the cash register, and right smack dab in front of my face were the World Series baseballs. The thought hadn't even occurred to me that I would be able to actually buy a baseball at the World Series. But there it was, and there I was, with nothing else to do than to pick one up for my collection! Done. Jenny came and found me, as we tried to figure out what was going on with the game. The unofficial word was that the game was postponed until 9:30 at this point, so we made our way outside and waited in line to buy our Philly cheesesteaks while we continued to wait. Twenty minutes later, and cheesesteaks in hand, we wound our way to a new spot - also underneath cover - and ate our sandwiches while we chatted with some new friends. A couple from Detroit, some from Philly, and all of them floored when we told them that we'd driven up that afternoon without tickets. They were shocked not only that we were able to get tickets, but at the deal we got them for. That made us feel pretty good! One woman, after hearing that I'd been to every ballpark, decided that the news crew should interview us. Right. We hung out there for quite awhile waiting for the storm to pass. It didn't seem to want to let up.So back to the cheesesteaks - they were huge. I couldn't even finish mine. And then all of a sudden, a guy (about my age) that we had NOT been talking to, looked at me and asked "hey, are you going to finish that?" Um...no. "Can I have it?" Seriously? Did a random stranger really just ask me if he could eat my sandwich? Yup. So I handed it over, and his dad said "did you really just ask her for her sandwich??" Whatever! After he finished eating, they left and he called out to me over his shoulder, "thanks for the cheesesteak!" People are so weird! And that's what I love about baseball games.

We continued chatting with everyone there, including a couple guys who tried to convince us that we needed to buy the hooded sweatshirts or something from the store. We weren't about to do that after we saw the $70 price tag on them though. We laughed as people tried to come into our group seeking cover, including a group of Rays fans. Interestingly enough, I heard about them before I saw them - it was hard not to when everyone started Booing when they walked by! Then everyone formed a wall and absolutely would not let them break through. Aahh, baseball fans uniting. It was starting to get a little chilly by this point, which was only exaggerated by the fact that every article of clothing on my body was sopping wet. No one knew what was going to happen. Were they going to play? Were they going to cancel the game? Would they really cancel a game when people had flown in from out of town, had travel arrangements that would have to be changed, as well as shifting all the other games in the Series? It was anyone's guess. And so we waited. We thought about what we'd do - stay the night in Philly and wait for the next night's game? Drive back to DC, sleep in our own beds, go to church and change into dry clothes, and head back up? Ugh. Then, a few minutes later, the rain let up, so we marched back to our self-designated spot. And wouldn't you know, another gust of rain came in and it was like de-ja-vu as everyone ran for cover yet again!?! We found our friends again, and our local Philly friend told us that this was the final push that they'd predicted (Not sure who "they?" was - because weather.com told me that by 7pm, the rain would end and it would be a chilly but dry evening - wrong!), and that we'd be set for the rest of the night. And guess what? She was right! You can't tell in this picture, but my jeans and shoes were totally soaked. We said our good-byes, and headed to re-claim what would become our home for the next few incredible hours. The tarp came off and here came the cheering. We were going to see a ballgame after all. And the excitement set in all over again! The starting lineups were announced. The Army National Guard carried a gigantic American flag out onto the field and Taylor Swift sang the National Anthem. Steve Carlton threw the ceremonial first pitch. Tim McGraw scattered some of his dad Tug's ashes over the pitcher's mound. And then ... "PLAY BALL!" The first pitch was at 10:06pm, the latest start to a World Series game in history.The Phillies boasted Jamie Moyer on the mound, a 45 year old pitcher. That's how it began, and the night was far from being over. The Phils scored in the bottom of the first inning, and it was nothing but incredible baseball from there. Stolen bases, home runs (including back-to-back home runs), double plays, strike outs, everything that good baseball is made of. And that includes tens of thousands of white rally towels being waved in the air. You've gotta love that!One of my favorite parts of the game was every time Evan Longoria got up to bat and the entire crowd would taunt him "E-va, E-va, E-va." He was hitless in the game. The fans are one of the greatest parts of baseball, in my opinion. Philadelphia did not disappoint. Sometimes you just wonder where they come up with the ideas that they do. Obviously not sober.There's always one dancing fan (who typically should not be dancing) somewhere in the crowd - and it always seems to be near me!And then there's the signs that people make. This guy was a few rows in front of us, with my favorite sign of the night ... "There's no cowbells in baseball." The home team was winning the game. 4-1 in the 7th inning. Then the Rays scored two runs. 4-3. And then in the 8th, the Rays tied it, 4-4. Crap. It was now already 1:30am and we would have to play the bottom of the 9th, and possibly face extra innings. We were definitely getting our money's worth this night! At the top of the 9th inning, everyone in our section turned around and started cheering. That's when we noticed that John Kruk and the entire ESPN Crew were right above us! Awesome. Then, in an uncanny turn of events, the Phils found themselves with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the ninth when Carlos Ruiz hit a walkoff infield hit down the third base line to score the winning run. And then the crowd erupted. Literally. Fireworks, jumping, yelling, screaming, dancing, high fiving, and any number of other celebrations! It was incredible. Positively one of the most exciting, adrenaline-filled moments of my life. So much for cheering for the Rays. After being innondated in such an experience, you are changed forever (though I'm not becoming an actual Philly's fan don't worry)! The game officially ended at 1:47am. We made it back to my car around 2:15 and were on 95 fifteen minutes later. Two and a half hours, and a lot of caffeine later (thank you Dr. Pepper), we walked in the door at 4:45am. I am actually not sure how we made it home! Completely exhausted, yet absolutely elated at the same time.

So there was a rain delay and once the rain (ie torrential downpour) stopped, the cold and wind honestly went right through every layer of our wet clothes (which were still wet the next day). My entire body was numb, I was on my feet for 9 hours (literally), my back hurt, our eyes were bloodshot, and every muscle in my body was frozen stiff. The game didn't start until 10:06p and ended at 1:46a. But who cares about any of that? We were there. We were a part of history, and I wouldn't change a single thing about it!! No questions asked, no doubt about it. It was unequivocally worth every penny, every minute of sleep we sacrificed, every sore and frozen muscle, and I wouldn't trade my World Series experience for anything!
I read an awesome article about the game, called "Night to Remember in Philly"which really sums it all up perfectly. (check it out!) I love what the Rays manager Joe Maddon said: "You had to love this game, I was sitting there in the dugout and thinking just that: if I'm a fan and a aficionado of baseball, it had just about everything. And it was a World Series game. What a night." I couldn't have said it better myself. What a night indeed. A perfect night. The Pinnacle of my baseball life (thanks CJ for coining the phrase). I can't believe I actually did it!!! You just don't get much better than this.

Best Saturday Night EVER. Period.

Gas from DC to Philly: $35
Parking at the Sports Complex: $12
Tickets from a Scalper: $160
Philly Cheesesteak & Commemorative Cup filled with Diet Coke: $14
Being AT Game 3 of the World Series at Citizens Bank Ballpark when the Phils beat the Rays in the bottom of the 9th: PRICELESS!!!!!

More to come :)

UVA-Maryland Football Game

Last night I went with some friends to Charlottesville, VA for the University of Virginia vs. Maryland football game. I haven't been to a college football game in a long time, and it was lots of fun. Despite UVA's less-than-stellar football team, they managed to beat Maryland 31-0! Its always entertaining to be at another college campus and see the quirks of their fans. One of our favorites: the school song that they sang after touchdowns, "The Good Old Song," followed by their chant - not just a regular "rah rah" chant, but this:
WAHOOWA, WAHOOWA
UNI-V, VIR-GIN-I-A
HOO-RAH-RAY, HOO-RAH-RAY
RAY! RAY! U-V-A!

The problem was that they did it so fast that we could hardly understand what they were saying, much less follow along! Entertainment, for sure.
I'd heard rumors of the "preppy" style of UVA students, but I didn't quite grasp the scale of it until we were there. Honestly, it was like J.Crew had a store on campus somewhere! During halftime, we walked around and I snapped a few pictures of unsuspecting fans ...

First, the bow tie ensemble:Next, the classic "preppy" look, sweater over the shoulders ... Now on to the student section ... this seemed to be the classic look of many of the UVA co-eds ... khaki shorts, blue or white shirt (or lots of gingham and pinstripes), an orange and blue diagonal striped tie, with a sportcoat ... (love the Boston Red Sox hat!)Here's a more casual version of the same thing ... hat backwards, sleeves rolled up, and seersucker shorts:And the dressy version ... full on suit.
I guess the moral of the story is that UVA exudes preppiness. J.Crew, take a look. Never discontinue orange chinos, because UVA Alumni apparently still wear them. We even saw khaki pants with tennis racquets embroidered on them. You would be hard-pressed to see anyone at BYU wearing that kind of ensemble! Either way, there's not a much better way to spend a Saturday night than at a college football game!

Birthday Dinner at Coyote Grill

Birthdays get trickier as you get older. Or maybe its just me. I didn't want to have a huge birthday party this year, so I decided that the perfect birthday would be dinner with a few close friends at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, right here in little Old Town Fairfax called the Coyote Grill & Cantina. My mom laughed at me when I started telling her who was there, because she didn't consider a group of 16 "small" ... but it was fantastic.

They had us all set up on the patio outside, and everything was perfect. Well, before everyone even arrived, the thunder and lightening seemed to be getting closer, and Charley (our waiter) kept going to check on the clouds. When they were definitely ominous, he strongly suggested that we move. Reluctantly, we did. We moved around the corner, still outside, but now underneath the cover of the roof. Sure enough, about 5 minutes after we moved, the rain came. It POURED. It was a typical Virginia thunderstorm, and it was actually really cool to be outside watching it, but under cover (although when the wind started blowing I think a few people got a little shower). Apparently the theme of anything to do with my birthday this year involved rain ... the Nationals game (which at one time I thought was what I wanted to do with everyone for my birthday - boy am I glad I reconsidered that!), the trip to Cooperstown (although it was beautiful while we were there, it poured almost the entire time we were driving), and now on my birthday dinner?

After we finished dinner, Jenny went to get the most amazing cake in the world out of the freezer ... a chocolate peanut butter ice cream cake from Maggie Moo's. Seriously, it was incredible. I think almost everyone had seconds (some thirds) and it was divine. And, you'd think with one little candle it wouldn't be a problem right? I think it was whoever teased me that I wouldn't blow it out that jinxed me ... because I don't know where I blew, but I really almost didn't make it! But, I did. I guess that wish has to come true now, right?! :)

And yes, those are Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on top of the cake. Thanks to all my friends who came to celebrate with me that night. It was the perfect low-key birthday that I wanted this year.

And the prize for the coolest birthday present goes out to Jimmy ... a baseball trophy. Not one that he'd swiped from a little league tournament, but one that he had inscribed on the plaque, "Shanna Lillywhite * 30 Ballparks Before 30 * MLB 1987-2008." I should have known there was a reason he asked me if I remembered when my first baseball game was! (And by the way, if you're going to get technical, it is actually 36 ballparks - 6 of which are old ones that don't exist anymore, starting back in 1987. Of the current 30, I saw my first one in Baltimore the summer that I moved to DC.)

Birthdays are the best when you have good friends to share them with. Sorry to those of you who got wet, who had to drive through a torrential thunderstorm after a long day of work or after a late class - I really have the best friends EVER. Thanks to everyone for making it such a great day!

Road Trip to Cooperstown!

I didn't want to have a big birthday celebration this year. I wanted to keep it small. I tossed back and forth a bunch of different options, and decided that it was finally time to go somewhere that I'd always wanted to go, but never had. Cooperstown. The Baseball Hall of Fame. I thought this year was especially fitting for this trip, since I just finished my baseball stadium tour. So (thanks to Christine for mentioning Cooperstown in the first place to jog my memory), I looked into it. And I asked a few girlfriends if they'd like to join me. Of course they did, I mean who would pass up an opoportunity to go on an 825 mile road trip with me?! ha ha, I'm kidding! With all of them on board, we started planning, and we left late on Friday afternoon for our weekend adventure. And what an adventure it was!

We stayed the night on Friday in Binghamton, New York, and got up and drove the remaining 80 or so miles to Cooperstown on Saturday morning. The very first thing we saw, before the actual town, was Cooperstown Dreams Field ... a complex with tons of baseball fields ... now THAT would be a fun place to play a little league tournament!

The sign said "Private Property - No Trespassing" but I don't really think it meant "No Pictures!" I don't think this baseball was meant to be walked (or sat) on either, but did that stop us? Apparently not.From there, we continued down the road until we actually entered the "Village of Cooperstown" - Population 2,032. I love that the welcome sign says "Home of Baseball" on it. Notice the trees behind us - it was absolutely gorgeous there with Fall definitely on its way!

Cooperstown ... here we come!

Cooperstown PumpkinFest 2008

After a quick stop to check into our Bed & Breakfast, we walked about ten minutes until we were right in the middle of the town. Everything around us was baseball this or that. The Triple Play Cafe, Doubleday Cafe, The Home Plate (where we had lunch), and a different gift shop in every direction, all boasting baseball paraphernalia at its best (or sometimes at its tackiest).

Before we made it to the Hall of Fame, and because we knew we would be there for the better part of the day, we stopped at the Cooperstown PumpkinFest. The Fifth Annual, in fact. We'd read about it online prior to our trip, and were very excited for it. Now I don't want to say that we were completely disappointed, but it certainly didn't live up to the expectations we had imagined in our minds. The festival was in the Doubleday Field parking lot, and consisted of a few tables set up under tents. There was maybe one or two tables with food - which was basically little loaves of pumpkin bread (not really sure, nothing looked enticing enough to taste). The "craft fair" was another little table with a few little items displayed (again, nothing that drew us in). I didn't see any roasted pumpkin seeds (sad). But, what we DID see was the giant pumpkins. They were, after all, very hard to miss ...

Seriously, these pumpkins were HUGE! Most of them were very deformed, and certainly nothing that you would carve a Jack-o-Lantern from, but WOW, talk about massive. We were there right when the judges were going around putting harnesses on each pumpkin, so that the crane could lift it up and weigh it. Really.
So how much do you think these pumpkins weighed? The largest one we saw on the scale was 420.5 pounds. However, I found some other pictures from the festival online and it looks like the ones we saw weren't even close to the heaviest ... Oh, but that's not it! The winner, weighing in at 1,248 pounds ... I guess that's what you have to do in a small town like Cooperstown. It certainly was a sight to behold though! Not one that I need to go back to, but definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The one thing that we did miss happened on Sunday morning after we left ... apparently they hollow out the giant pumpkins and have canoe races inside of them around the lake!! One guy at our B&B told us that last year someone got stuck - upside down in the water - inside of his. So this year, they had paramedics on hand. Wow!We did take a look around Doubleday Field, where they have games most of the time, however, since it was a rainy day, no games were scheduled while we were there (sad)! The seats inside are all wooden, and its definitely got a lot of character.Up next ... The Hall of Fame! This little statue of "The Sandlot Kid" helped put us in the mood:

The Baseball Hall of Fame

I know I'm a little (or a lot) weird that every time I go to a new baseball stadium, I get really excited and feel like a little girl on Christmas morning before I walk in - just seeing it makes me giddy. So why would the Baseball Hall of Fame be any different? It wasn't. From the moment I saw it, a huge smile spread across my face and I couldn't wait to get inside and check it all out. The guy at the ticket counter obviously didn't see it, because he asked what we were doing there. Um, hello, we are here to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame! Really? 4 girls came all the way here just to see the Hall of Fame? Of course! Why else would anyone go to Cooperstown?! Here we are, waiting in line to get inside ... We had our tickets, our hands were stamped, and we were each equipped with a map. Baseball Hall of Fame ... here we come!The first thing we did was sit in the Grandstand Theater, which had the makings of a baseball stadium all the way around it. The dark green stadium seats were just like the ones at Camden Yards in Baltimore, there were (fake, painted on murals) crowds in the stands, announcers calling out the plays, etc. My favorite part was when the soundtrack played welcomes to a number of ballparks, which reminded me of the trips I'd taken to each of them. Then it changed to a Baseball Tonight backdrop, a smattering of baseball's greatest moments were called out over the loudspeaker, and giant baseball cards of players appeared overhead. We watched and listened in awe to the little presentation, wondering what was in store for us in the next few hours as we explored the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. I usually don't have the greatest attention span in museums, but I had a feeling this one might be a little different ... and I was right. And with that, we were off ... off to start exploring through baseball's history, culture, diversity, controversies, and to see some of the greatest men to ever play the game. Who does it start with? None other than Babe Ruth, of course. I couldn't help but think of the Sandlot when I saw this sign ... "The Sultan of Swat."Did you know that Babe Ruth was a bowler? True fact. They had his bowling bag and ball in the Hall of Fame. What is his bag inscripted with? "The Babe" of course! One of my other favorites was a bat that he'd used that he later signed, along with his own written synopsis of his baseball career. Pretty cool. And you could actually read it, unlike many players' writing today!

In no particular order ... some other of my favorite highlights from the Hall of Fame ... they had a display that had a bunch of baseballs lined up and each one represented a no hitter. Some pitchers had more than one - and I believe the one with the most is Nolan Ryan. He really was an amazing baseball player. I'm a little annoyed though because on Sunday morning while we were eating breakfast, one of the other couples at our B&B asked us if we'd seen him at Doubleday Field. Excuse me? He was THERE, in person?? Yeah, apparently he was doing a private engagement that afternoon. So while we were eying his plaque in the Hall of Fame, we missed seeing him live. Crazy!

This next picture was something that I thought was really cool. I can't remember whose collection it was, but basically the baseballs are lined up and each have a batting average pinned to them - depending on where in the strike zone the balls were thrown, this guy assigned a batting average to each position. Of course we had to snap a few pictures by "our teams" and the home team, our Washington Nationals. I thought it was cool that they had the Virginia Tech hat in the Nationals locker. As a remembrance right after the shootings at Tech a couple years ago, the Nats all wore VT hats one night - and guess who was at that game? Yours truly.
There were quite a few random things in the Hall of Fame that I liked. For example, the wall of memos from the Baseball Commissioner to the clubs. I guess I didn't really ever think about the fact they that they really do have to spell out every little detail - including exactly how long pitching changes can take, and when music can be played between innings, etc. We did have to take a couple breaks to rest our weary feet from all that walking (boy we really are getting old!) - so here in the kid's corner. I decided Sharyn needed some story time ;)
During another break, we sat down and watched the classic Abbott and Costello's "Who's On First" - it cracks me up every time I hear/see it!



I couldn't leave without taking a picture of Ted Williams in his Red Sox uniform ... Carina, this one's for you, #9! :)
And finally, we arrived at the actual Hall of Fame. The rest is technically the "museum" part ... but the Hall itself was pretty incredible. I certainly don't proclaim to know everything about everyone in the Hall of Fame - there were definitely a good number of players that I didn't know, but that didn't take anything away from the awesomeness (is that a word?!) that was there. By far, one of the best places I've been!

The Braves at the Hall of Fame

I can't write about my trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame without paying respect to my team, the Atlanta Braves. It just wouldn't be right. So, here we go!

Let's start with the old school Braves ... a little walk through some of baseball's greatest history! I love the old uniforms and photos.

Who can forget the Braves "Worst to First" baseball comeback in 1991? This pretty much sums up the great run that the Braves had in the 90's. I love that it mentions Terry Pendleton, who is now a coach for the Braves. Ah, the good old days when the post-season meant that my team was actually still playing!

Here's the display that this tidbit came from ... including a nice shot of John Smoltz, which was fun since he was married to Katie's aunt, and she knows him (we won't talk about how we were suppossed to meet him in Boston a few years ago and didn't). Also shown: Greg Maddux pitching, Bobby Cox as manager, and Dave Justice as one of the greatest hitters (despite what he did to Halle Berry, he was an amazing baseball player).Back to the locker room ... here's a fun collection of things from Braves history that is displayed in the Museum (this was the part that had all 30 teams - one of my favorite parts of the day).So the Braves won their division 14 years in a row. Amazing, right? But what do they have to show for that? One World Series. Yup, just one. But one that I will always remember! And here are the rest of the World Series rings ... they have pins above for the two teams playing, and then the team that won boasts its big ring below. Its kind of hard to see, but it was pretty depressing to see so many Braves pins and only one ring! But hey, at least they have one!One of the greatest things about the Hall of Fame was remembering all of the history. The Boston Braves (known as the Boston Red Stockings - not to be confused with the Red Sox, different ballclub), the Milwaukee Braves, and now the Atlanta Braves. Hopefully they can get back on the bandwagon soon!