Welcome to the Bigs!

The other morning I was laying in bed unable to reach my phone when it was ringing. I rolled back over and went back to sleep. This was at 9:30am. I got up about an hour and a half later and checked the message. Who was it from? It was my brother. He was calling me at 9:30 in the morning? You must understand that I never have known him to be up before 10 or 11 unless it involved school, so I figured this must be important.

The message went a little something like this (with my thought commentary in the parentheses):
I was watching Sportscenter this morning and the Angels/Astros highlights came on(why do I care about that game?) and the announcer is talking about Terry Evans (wait, who?) hitting a homerun for his first major league hit in his second at-bat (*confusion* wait, did he just say ... no ...that can't be right). You can try and catch it on Sportscenter or the video is on the Angels website (what just happened here? I need to go to the Angels website ... like now!). Thought you would want to know. Talk to you later. Bye.

You see this first major league hit for a homerun is particularly more important to me than any other homerun ever hit by a major league player. Terry Evans and I grew up together in the same town and played Little League together up through middle school. He was one of my best friends growing up who I kind of lost touch with when he transferred to a different high school. I did have the pleasure of seeing him again while I worked at the newspaper in Dublin and got to write a story on him while he was playing JUCO ball in Georgia. I see his parents still on rare occasions when I am at home (his dad coached me more than any other baseball coach growing up). I continued to follow him as he went to play in the minors and worked his way up.

I had no idea he had been called up. It was a complete surprise. I clicked on the LA Angels site and there it was. Terry Evans going yard off Astros starter Wandy Rodriguez in the bottom of the second in Los Angeles. I say, good for him. I am excited. Most others reading this might not be, but this for me is watching someone's childroom dream come true and it is fun.

To read more about it, go to: http://losangeles.angels.mlb.com/

Taking a Time Out at "The Ted"

This past Monday, I had the opportunity to return to a stadium that I had not been to in some time. As it was, it was the third stadium I have visited this baseball season. Raegan was with me for this game since we were making a pit stop at the game on our way back to Kentucky from my hometown where we had been at a party in our honor over the weekend.

My beloved Braves were playing host to the Florida Marlins. The Braves have been struggling of late and it was very evident in this game. A pair of bobbled ground balls by outfielders allowed a pair runs to score during the game. Plus, a ball squited away from the catcher on a third out strikeout allowing the runner to reach and a subsequent two-run single to occur. It was a long game for Braves fans as they lost 6-4.

There was a plus or two about the game though. I got to go to the game with Raegan, which I always enjoy. She has taken quite a liking to keeping score of the game (or at least I think she has). It is a lot of fun to be with her. We also got there early enough that we could walk around most of the stadium and eat before the game started.

We did have to leave a little early because we still had an hour plus to our stopping place for the night but overall it was a great visit to Turner Field. I felt like I had not been there in so long. It was good to see the Braves play in person again. If any games, new stadiums or teams get added to the list I will be sure to pass it along.

For those keeping track, here are the new season totals:
3 Stadiums (Minute Maid Park in Houston, Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, Turner Field in Atlanta)
6 Teams (Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, Colorado Rockies, Atlanta Braves, Florida Marlins)