After watching the Rockies host the Pirates on Tuesday, on the morning of July 18, Ryan, Logan and I headed to Atlanta.  My former colleague Christine Genovese, a lifetime Denverite about to be transplanted to the Queen City of the West, had been kind enough to contact her nephew Matt who is working for the Braves.  The deal was if our flight was on time, thus enabling us to get to Turner Field by 5 pm, that we could be on the field for batting practice. 

SUCCESS!!  Flight on time!  Checked in to hotel.  Taxi to Turner Field arriving at 4:20.  Connect with Matt.  Nice young fellow.  Big black clouds in the sky.  Big lightning bolts.  Batting practice canceled.  Crap.  Nice try Christine and we are grateful.

So off to the 755 Club at the top of the stadium above the left field bleachers for dinner and to observe the storm.  When our allotted 90 minutes were completed there, we sat in the comfortable lounge chairs on the Suite level passing the time until the game was ready to begin about 8:30 pm.  From then on, a perfect night for baseball in Atlanta.

We saw a fun game from our second row seats in spite of our first rain delay of our fourteen Tour games.  While a 9 to 4 final with the Giants prevailing, it was actually a fine pitching performance for most of the game including a perfect four inning start for the Braves' starter.  Eleven of the thirteen runs crossed the plate in the extra innings including a Chipper Jones home run tying him with George Brett as the all time RBI leader among third basemen.  The negative was a 12:35 am finish.

It is extra fun to go to home games of franchises with a storied history.  In this case, the memories of Aaron, Mathews and the winningest lefty of all time, Warren Spahn, are posted around the property and inside the stadium.  We enjoyed our visit to Turner Field.  Our fifteenth game of our tours (and first indoors) comes Friday in St. Petersburg where Tampa Bay hosts the Seattle Mariners.