Phillies vs. Braves: Game 1 (01 OCT 2010)

The last homestand.  Tickets in the nosebleeds (specifically section 406).  Philadelphia in Atlanta while we are riding high from sweeping Florida.  Philadelphia with their September call ups playing a weakened Braves (injuries?  check.  illnesses?  check.  fatigue?  check.).

Sorry if this post seems terse, but just thinking about the game gives me the "sick to my stomach" feeling.  We (Lauren and I) were coerced into sitting in the outfield next to the bullpen.  You could see that spirits were high at the beginning of the game... and then how a feeling of dread and impending doom started to settle in like a dark cloud.  What hope remained was soon crushed by a monstrous Jimmy Rollins grand slam that I thankfully did not have to witness (I finally could not take it anymore and got up to get something to eat...).  Of course, once I saw the score, I no longer wanted to eat, but I forced it down anyway.

Enough of that.  Let's discuss Batting Practice.  Braves BP was pretty short, and L and I weren't even that late (about 15-20 minutes later than usual).  I did manage a few fun shots.

Love the lighting in this photo...  

Just look at those shadows!

Picking on Freddie!!

Signing an autograph for a kid

Moylan plus unidentified Phillies player.
Anybody know who he is?  Please help!

Bye boys.

Phillies BP, on the other hand, ran a bit long.  And... I'm sure anybody who knows me knows that I adore Roy Halladay.  Yes, I know he's a Phillies pitcher, thanks.  I don't have to justify myself to you, unseen reader!  Doc is awesome, and a former Blue Jay.  That is all.  

Anyhow, I made poor Lauren sit there with me while I took photos of Doc.  And Cole Hamels (who, I grudgingly admit, is so pretty).  And Roy Oswalt.  And Brad Lidge.  And Joe Blanton.  (Can you tell I'm a pitcher's girl?)  At some point during all of this, Lauren was trying to show me something that was written on a card when I hear, "HEADS UP."  I looked up (from her bag) and notice that everybody is sort of looking up and also towards us.  My immediate reaction was, "OMG where don't hit my head."  Then I heard a WHOOSH! and then BAM!  The ball landed directly in Lauren's bag, which was in her lap.  Heart racing?  Yes.  Grateful it didn't hit her head and give her a concussion or send her to the hospital or any number of awful things that could have happened?  Yes.  But her phone took the brunt of it.  As in... it died a horrible crushing death.  :(  The Phils on the field all looked at us to make sure we were ok, and several people came by and asked if she was okay, and a few of the ushers told her to buy a lotto ticket, etc.  Consensus was that Jayson Werth had hit the home run ball that had crushed her phone.  We were displeased with Jayson Werth for the rest of the day, needless to say.

I have no interest in calves.  But Lauren does.  :P 

Phillies "Big Three"

Insert rant:  Nothing against Roy Oswalt.  He's a good pitcher.  Very good.  But really, Philadelphia?  Cliff Lee.  WHY in the world would you give up Cliff Lee so you can restock your farm system... when you just turn around and go get Roy Oswalt?  The Phillies could have had the Rotation of Doom:  Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, J.A. Happ, Cole Hamels, and Joe Blanton or Kyle Kendrick.  I mean... really, you guys?  I'm glad you were retarded and decided to do this, but come on.  Seriously.

Hi Doc.  :)

A half-smiling Doc

As mentioned before, we sat in the outfield (even though the game was sold out) instead of in section 406.  It's nice to make friends.  :)  [Also, surprisingly, there were a number of empty seats!  Crazy.]  However, this was not a very good vantage point as far as picture-taking was concerned.  Considering my "gimp arm," holding my camera steady is already rather hard.  Then to take into account the "super zoom"... let's just say it's hard to take non-blurry photos.  Aside:  Hey Meds... if you're not using your contraption anymore, can I have it?  My arm wants to fall off.

By the way.  I don't have that many great bullpen pictures.  It was hard to take them without feeling like a total jackass, I'm not going to lie.  Because they're all sitting RIGHT THERE.  Plus, with my lens?  It just simply wouldn't work.  But I did get a few....

THUMBS UP

GO BMAC GO!

Brandon Beachy:  Examination.

Ryan Howard is a huge man.
Jimmy Rollins is not so huge.

BRAVES BULLPEN!  Check out Scott Proctor being all fly.

Jayson Werth, steeeeerike!

Again, with the shadows.  Love it.

So I think I've mentioned a couple of times that I may or may not be in love with JC Boscan's eyes.  Oh, who am I kidding?  They are gorgeous.  I love the light eyes/darker complexion combination.  I don't know why, I just do.  I also stated that I was on a mission to take a good JC photo because almost every photo I have of him is... not good, blurry, looks awkward, etc.
I think I can safely say "mission accomplished" with the photo below.  (Ignore the blurry bits... just think of it as art.)

JC Boscan, Atlanta Braves catcher
(You know, the one with the nice eyes)

Mike Minor is in...

And so is JC.

So JC was, as you can see, in the bullpen when the phone rang.  Instead of a new pitcher, the call was for him to enter the game.  11-2, y'all.  It was brutal.  But, as Lauren very practically pointed out, "He gets to PLAY."  Finally.  After working for 14 years to make the bigs, he gets to play.  I misted up a little, I'm not going to lie.

Utterly failed to take any good/clear photos of JC playing his first inning in the Major Leagues as a catcher and his first Major League at-bat (no pressure, dude... we're down by 9 runs, there are 2 on, with 2 out in the bottom of the ninth).  But I did get semi-clear shots.  Did not manage any photos of him scoring from first base on a bases clearing Derrek Lee double; I was busy cheering as hard and as loud as I could.    Good for you, JC!

He has an interesting batting stance; couldn't quite capture it from where I was, though.  :P 

Phillies OF'ers waiting on their new reliever to warm up.

Braves lost, and they lost hard.  Demoralizing?  A little bit.  Especially for poor Lauren, with her phone getting demolished earlier in the day... on her last regular season game, too.  :(  

We stayed for the Friday night fireworks.  I'm going to reiterate that I do NOT like the Chik Fil A cow.  It is creepy and it stares at you.

Lauren's write up is at her blog, Braves Love.  She also has lots of links to photos and videos of the Braves celebration on Sunday.  :)
Full album photos are at Photobucket, as usual.  Not as many as usual in there, but like I said earlier:  outfield.  Oh, and!  I finally learned how to resize and/or compress the photos.  This is very exciting, I'll have you know.  :)