Thoughts on Atlanta this weekend:
It's a perfectly cromulent ballpark. Modern, good sightlines, open concourses, all that stuff. Nothing really exceptional about it, IMO. (I did not spend any time at "The Battery" shopping/dining complex next door.)
That transportation situation, though. I went to the Saturday night game, and my local friend drove. I considered going Sunday (and given the outcome of the games perhaps I should have), but he couldn't go that day, and the idea of taking a train and TWO buses to get to the stadium was just not doing it for me. Parking wasn't too bad, though, and we got away after the game pretty readily, even with 40K in attendance.
Concessions seemed a little cheaper than Nationals Park, but still expensive--like $10 for a beer rather than $12, $12 for a big sandwich rather than $14. I got an H&F burger and it was quality. Aside from Terrapin Beer Company (which has a taproom in the ballpark), there didn't seem to be a big local beer presence.
We sat near the Nats' dugout, past the end of the netting. I had TWO balls go off my hands that were thrown by Nats players. One in particular was from Rendon and I'm pretty sure he was trying to throw it to me, but it was just a tad short and I couldn't come up with it.
Obviously frustrating to come up short (Saturday was the 5-4 loss which included scoring one run in an inning where we drew four walks), but it was an exciting game, and the Braves fans were certainly into it. A smattering of Nats fans present, but much less of a visiting fan presence than we typically get in DC. I genuinely expected to get more smack talk from Braves fans, but there was really very little. However, they did put me on the big screen, by myself, at the end of the Kiss Cam segment. I played along by looking bewildered and waving half-heartedly.
