Kristen has been a busy girl, Part Two
I finally made it to Baseball 101, a baseball clinic for women the Braves have at Turner Field. It was held a few Saturdays ago, and Eva went with me. We had a blast!
They put us into four groups and we spent the morning rotating through four different stations. Our group’s first once, to which Eva’s initial response was to be insulted, was presented to us as a “cooking” session. What it actually was was a nutrition session in which they fed us a nummy spinach salad. We had Q&A with one of the Braves’ head trainers, Frank Fultz.
Next we got to go down to the batting cages (the ones the Braves use!) to do a hitting session with the Braves’ bench infielder Chris Woodward. He was super nice. We got to hit off the tee. I whiffed one, of course, but oh well. I was ridiculously nervous. Like, shaking. I also went last, so everyone was watching me for lack of anything else to do. I resisted the urge to do the Mary Katherine Gallagher “Superstar” pose after my swing and a miss.
Then we went out onto the field for the fielding station with Chad Paronto and one of my 2 favorite ballplayers, Matt Diaz (!). They were awesome. Super, super funny.
I have to break in here with some background information that I left out earlier, which is what I was wearing. Several of the people who read this are already aware of my sad, sad addiction to Threadless, where they have a virtually endless supply of fun, subtle, visual-humor tees. I have a hard time turning down tees that are funny but that only a few people get. Though I didn’t get it from Threadless, the shirt I wore to Baseball 101 belongs to that type of humor, in this case a (somewhat obscure) movie reference. I’m speaking, of course, of my Chico’s Bail Bonds tee. I wanted to see if any of the Braves that I got to meet would get the reference.
Guess which one got it? Matt Diaz, that’s right! When I first came to the front of the grounder-fielding line, he read my shirt aloud: “Chico’s Bail Bonds… Bad News Bears! Bad News Bears!” He was quite proud of himself, I think. I was henceforth known by Diaz as “Bad News Bears.”
I got called “Bad News Bears” by Matt Diaz!
Yes, I’m still geeking out about that.
Our last session was pitching, which was held in the visitors’ bullpen with Chuck James and Tyler Yates. Also fun.
After that, we got lunch, a tour of Turner Field, and came back later that night for their game against the Pirates, in which Chuck James pitched brilliantly, and which the Braves won after a 90 minute rain delay (during which we departed).
Eva is not a baseball nerd like me, nor a Braves fan, but she says she, too, had an awesome time. I think I shall go back next year.
They put us into four groups and we spent the morning rotating through four different stations. Our group’s first once, to which Eva’s initial response was to be insulted, was presented to us as a “cooking” session. What it actually was was a nutrition session in which they fed us a nummy spinach salad. We had Q&A with one of the Braves’ head trainers, Frank Fultz.
Next we got to go down to the batting cages (the ones the Braves use!) to do a hitting session with the Braves’ bench infielder Chris Woodward. He was super nice. We got to hit off the tee. I whiffed one, of course, but oh well. I was ridiculously nervous. Like, shaking. I also went last, so everyone was watching me for lack of anything else to do. I resisted the urge to do the Mary Katherine Gallagher “Superstar” pose after my swing and a miss.
Then we went out onto the field for the fielding station with Chad Paronto and one of my 2 favorite ballplayers, Matt Diaz (!). They were awesome. Super, super funny.
I have to break in here with some background information that I left out earlier, which is what I was wearing. Several of the people who read this are already aware of my sad, sad addiction to Threadless, where they have a virtually endless supply of fun, subtle, visual-humor tees. I have a hard time turning down tees that are funny but that only a few people get. Though I didn’t get it from Threadless, the shirt I wore to Baseball 101 belongs to that type of humor, in this case a (somewhat obscure) movie reference. I’m speaking, of course, of my Chico’s Bail Bonds tee. I wanted to see if any of the Braves that I got to meet would get the reference.
Guess which one got it? Matt Diaz, that’s right! When I first came to the front of the grounder-fielding line, he read my shirt aloud: “Chico’s Bail Bonds… Bad News Bears! Bad News Bears!” He was quite proud of himself, I think. I was henceforth known by Diaz as “Bad News Bears.”
I got called “Bad News Bears” by Matt Diaz!
Yes, I’m still geeking out about that.
Our last session was pitching, which was held in the visitors’ bullpen with Chuck James and Tyler Yates. Also fun.
After that, we got lunch, a tour of Turner Field, and came back later that night for their game against the Pirates, in which Chuck James pitched brilliantly, and which the Braves won after a 90 minute rain delay (during which we departed).
Eva is not a baseball nerd like me, nor a Braves fan, but she says she, too, had an awesome time. I think I shall go back next year.