When I saw Chipper and the Atlanta Braves in person
When I saw Chipper and the Atlanta Braves in person
On June 1, 2, and 3 some friends and I went to Milwaukee to see the Atlanta Braves sweep the Brewers in the Braves’ return to Milwaukee. We were fortunate enough to stay in the same hotel as the Braves. And these are my experiences.
On June 1, we arrived at the hotel. To say I was nervous and excited is an understatement. Our hotel room was back in a corner, so we called the lobby and asked if we could move. They moved us to the eleventh floor. Little did I know at that time all the players were on floors 10-14 (there wasn't a 13th floor). Later in our mini-trip we saw that to the very right of our room was Tony Graffanino’s room, to the very left was my favorite pitcher, Tom Glavine’s room, and two doors down on the left was one of my friends favorite players room, Andres Galarraga. We arrived late, so we didn’t get to see a lot of the players leave for the ballpark. At 4:30 we left for Milwaukee County Stadium. When the gates opened, we ran down to batting practice and took tons of pictures. Greg Maddux pitched a wonderful game and the Braves won 5-2.
We had trouble finding our way back to the hotel, so some of the players beat us back. When we finally did arrive we found an area with a couch, two chairs, and a table to sit at. The area was right in front of the hotel’s sports bar, Knuckles, which Denny Neagle, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Jeff Porter (Braves’ assistant trainer), and Leo Mazzone were in. We sat there and tried to play cards. One of my friends went up to the hotel room, and on the way up she ran into Javy Lopez. She asked him if he could wait while she came and got us. Being the sweetheart he is, he waited and we all got our picture taken with him, he signed anything we wanted him to, and talked to us for awhile.
Before we went up to see Javy, Tom Glavine came out of the bar (I let out a little shriek, but he didn’t look at me so that was good), and went to the phone. When we got back to the lobby I was sure that he would be back in the bar, but thank goodness he was still on the phone. When he finally got off the phone, we asked him to sign some of our stuff (I got a picture, and his book signed), and I got my picture taken with him.
We decided to order some pizza for supper, this is at like midnight. While we waited for the pizza, Denny Neagle came out of the bar, so I had him sign a baseball for me, he is definitely one of the nicer guys on the team. Our pizza came, and Denny Neagle was walking back into the bar and said "Oh, you ordered us pizza!" I was like "Yeah!" When he got back in the bar, he told Greg Maddux we ordered them pizza and they both looked at us. They didn’t eat any, but I really wish they would have.
After all the players went to their rooms, we decided to go back up to our star surrounded room. We set the alarm clock for 8:00, so we could be down in the lobby by 10:00.
On Tuesday morning (June2), we went to the Grand Avenue Mall (connected to our hotel by skywalks). We were back in the lobby by 11:00. We got Tony Graffanino’s (another really, really nice guy on the team), Walt Weiss’, and Andres Galarraga’s autograph early in the day, but we were still waiting for Chipper. We also saw the one Braves player I can’t stand, Ryan Klesko. He was carrying around a dead fish in a plastic bag. Bob Uecker took him fishing.
There were four elevators all in a row in the hotel with glass fronts, so you could see everyone in the elevator going up or down. We waited and looked in every elevator that moved for Chipper, but he wasn’t coming. Finally, at like 2:30 he came, but he didn’t take the elevator he took the stairs. I looked over toward the revolving doors, and I saw the back of this gorgeous guy, and I’m like "That’s Chipper!" But I just paused. Everyone went running, and my friend was making the revolving door go so fast that I got stuck in it trying to get in. By the time we got outside, Chipper was gone.
Disappointed we went up to the hotel room. I had a big bruise and a cut on my wrist, and an even bigger bruise on the side of my leg from the revolving door. Luckily, it was cold in Milwaukee and I wore jeans the whole trip.
We left for the game at like 4:30 again, and the game started at 7:05. We ran down to batting practice when the gates opened. It was "Turn Back the Clock Night" at County Stadium. Both teams wore 1958 Braves uniforms, the Brewers in white, and the Braves in gray. Dennis "El Presidente" Martinez was on the mound trying to tie Juan Marichal’s record for most wins by a Latin-American pitcher. He suceeded and pitched a complete game shutout. The Braves won 9-0. The most exciting part of the game for Brewers fans was when a squirrel ran around on the field for about a half an inning.
We found our hotel easily that night. We stood in between the elevator entrances and the stairway entrance so we wouldn’t miss Chipper, again. The players all came in one big clump, but I made sure I found Chipper. I got his autograph on a picture but didn’t have time to get my picture taken with him. We sat in the lobby for awhile, and then went to the hotel restaurant. Who did we see? Dennis Martinez. Our table and his table were the only people in the restaurant.
On Wednesday (June 3), we were again in the lobby early. That was the day that the players had to check out, but Chipper left for the park before we were down there. Javy Lopez, Eddie Perez, and Andruw Jones stood in the lobby for awhile. Eddie went into the hotel gift shop, and every time someone walked in or out of the gift shop there would be this really loud, annoying beep, so Eddie decided to try and jump over it. At first he didn’t succeed, but eventually he was able to step over the beep. While Andruw was waiting I asked him to sign a picture that I had taken of him when I was in Chicago last year. He did, and wrote "Andruw Jones, Best of Luck." When we got to the game, we did the usual, watch batting practice. I got to see Tom Glavine pitch in a 5-2 victory. When we got back to the hotel all the players were gone, so there wasn’t anything exciting to do.
Throughout the trip, I rode on an elevator with Danny Bautista, Curtis Pride, Bobby Cox, Denny Neagle (he just got done golfing), and Greg Maddux who had just pitched and was looking really mad, so I didn’t talk to him or ask for his autograph.
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