Since I was kind of sick at the start of the baseball season, I pretty much missed the entire opening homestand for the Braves. Which is kind unfortunate, considering the Braves won five out of the six games they played in Atlanta, but now they’re on the west coast, and will be out there for like another week, or so it will feel. Or maybe it’s just that I really relish the novelty in visiting ballparks I haven’t been to before, over my home park, who knows really. So the first baseball game I went to live this year would be a new one.
Despite having lived in Atlanta for the past nine years, I’d never actually stepped foot in the state of Alabama before. I’ve never had any reason to, and I can’t say that I’d never felt compelled to visit for any other reason than baseball. Living where I live, I’ve had my share of exposure from Alabamans, most of them less than positive. Too much Roll Tard and absurd loyalty to college football spawning irrational idiocy. But with Rome and Lawrenceville already off the list, it left me with few alternatives. And with the Braves’ double-A affiliates from Mississippi playing in Birmingham, it looked like good of reason as any to make my first ever trip into Alabama.
Aside from all the road construction, and seeing regular motorists seemingly frequently hop their trucks into the police shoulder to U-turn on I-20, it wasn’t as bad of an experience as I imagined it would be. Alabama seems to have way more foliage than Georgia does, as evidenced by all the trees and forest land I drove through to get to Birmingham, and it’s kind of pretty, to be honest.
The ballpark was nice, the weather was a little on the cool side but still beautiful. And the Mississippi Braves won, which was nice. Naturally, a Real Men Don’t Wear Small update will be soon coming, the first of 2012. Ironically, another trip to Alabama is on the agenda next weekend, but this time to Montgomery. For more baseball, obviously.
I took a ton of photos; with the new DSLR, I’ve been taking a lot of bursts. I pared 350 shots to half of that for this trip, but I don’t expect it to be the norm; it was mostly because it was Braves kids that I took so many pictures. But regardless, here’s the gallery.
