Jazz Fest took place at the local horse track, where the infield is covered with booths, tents, stages and people.  Upon entering, I was surprised at home many different tents and stages were being used for music, all at the same time.  I think there were near 10 venues that you could hear live music at at any given moment.

As I whole, I really enjoyed my experience. Sure it was hot and the sun was beating down, but since you are allowed to bring in soft coolers with bottled water,I was very hydrated.  The crowd overall was very tame and chill.  Again, thinking back to the Kentucky Derby, I thought the infield of the track would be filled with drunks. That could not of been farther from the truth.

For me, the top three acts that I saw over my two day stay were the Eagles, Better than Ezra and the Foo Fighters.  All had songs I knew, and put on a pretty good show.

I can not comment enough about the food.  Absolutely outstanding!  So many options to choose from at different booths there was not enough time, or money, to try everything.

Being a big “event guy” this ranks very highly on my list. New Orleans is such an interesting city and has a different feel for me than most in the country. I recommend this for sure.  Now, as far as visiting Bourbon Street…Yes, I went…No you can not see pictures or hear stories…

Map of the grounds

Horse Barns surrounding the track

View of the clubhouse, grandstands

Thankfully, lots of toliets!

One of the many VIP areas

View from the track looking towards the main "Acura" stage

Acura Stage

Outside one of the huge tents

Inside the Gospel Tent

Watching Better Than Ezra

Big stages also had huge screens to watch the stage

Another side stage

Some Heritage and culture

Lots of Art booths with some cool items for sale

SOME of the food booths

Crawfish Monica on the left, Crawfish Enchiladas (best dish there) on the right

Alligator Pie on left, Spicy Crawfish Rice on right

Fried Plantains

Sugar Free King Cake Flavored Snowball

Feel bad for the people that must clean this stuff up

To be fair, this is Gregory’s first season at the helm of the Yellow Jackets and he was “given” most of what he has.  But to say he is “rebuilding” it putting it lightly and is a process that could take some time.  Georgia Tech was only able to score 37 points last night against the Tigers.  Clemson was a team that came into this game 13-13, so it is not like the competition was that outmatched.

Tech has a TOUGH time scoring the basketball.  There is not simpler way to put it.  To add insult to injury Georgia Tech is displaced from their on campus arena for the season while it undergoes major renovations.  After playing their non-conference schedule 40 minutes from campus, they now play their ACC games in Phillips Arena, home to the Atlanta Hawks. Even with the complete upper deck closed by curtains the building still feels empty.

I have watched Brian Gregory coach for many years while he was at the University of Dayton. I hope Tech fans give him a shot to prove himself one way or another and don’t totally disappear after this season.

Outside view of Phillips Arena

Never seen BOTTOMLESS SODA at a sporting event

Student Section

My seats were on the floor and closer to center court than the one I use to have on the bench while at the University of Cincinnati. It made for an awesome experience all around.  Sure would have liked to have seen a better showing from the fans, especially the students.  Phillips only sits a few miles from campus so that is not an excuse.

My courtside seat

View down the sideline from my seat

Tip Off

For the last few years, I have a tendency of looking past just the action on the playing surface and notice so much more.  Arena set up, game management and especially uniforms and equipment.  I have never been a huge fan of Georgia Tech and there Russell Athletic gear, but last night looked horrible. Here is Clemson in their nice Nike stuff, especially socks, and the Yellow Jackets had on plain white crew socks. Just made me laugh.

Tech Socks

Sock Differences

Scoreboard

Game Action

View from Club Level

Pre game stretch

Clemson Bench during a timeout

A minor league team by the name of the Macon Peaches played their home games at Luther Williams Field from 1929 under the early 1980’s.  Several other teams have also called this Field home, most recently the Macon Braves, a Single-A team for the Atlanta Braves up until 2001.

Many Major League players have played at Luther Williams Field including Pete Rose, Chipper Jones, Tony Perez, Vince Coleman and others. To me, it is very cool to visualize these guys playing on the same field that I was throwing and running around on.  So much history has taken place at parks like this. Only if the bricks could talk…

In 1976, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings movie filmed at Luther Williams Field.  This movie is famous for starring Billy Dee Williams and James Earl Jones (otherwise known as Lando Calrissian and the voice of Darth Vader).  Two other baseball movies, Trouble With the Curve and 42 are rumored to being filming there soon.

Being a lover of Baseball of any kind, and especially seeing stadiums and parks all over the country, I enjoyed this one. It is a nice change to step away from the current ball fields and see what the old ones use to be like. Enjoy the pictures I took.

Original Stone Entrance GateOriginal Brick Grandstand, new roof thoughView from 1st Base Line

Seats behind the plate

Looking down 3rd Base Line

Scoreboard

View of Stands

So much Foul Ground behind plate

Pressbox hanging from Grandstand...kind of scary up there

Luxury Suite?!?!?

View looking out towards left

Patio in left field

Dugout

Clubhouse

View from the field

I am proud to say that fad has died down. I still think it is a fun game, and play from time to time, but no longer on a regular basis. I am actually a little embarrassed to say I have NOT beaten every level of each game (regular, season and Rio.)

While reading Entertainment Weekly the other day, I came across something that made me laugh and I wanted to share.  The magazine was saying who would play each character if they were to release an Angry Birds movie. I have shared the article as a picture below. I thought it was pretty funny.

My blogging has been slow to zero for various reasons.  Hopefully this will pick up soon as I do miss writing.  Hope everyone’s 2012 is starting off as good as mine.

Tomorrow’s episode focuses on Cinnabon out of Sandy Springs, Georgia. (Atlanta)

Hope to talk more about it on here after it is done.

For now, please check out the website and enjoy the show!

http://www.cmt.com/show/top_secret_recipe/series.jhtml

I raced out of the gift shop and headed back to my car.  I cracked my second energy drink of the night as I inputted my next destination into the Garmin GPS.  Luckily, I-65 North was near by and I was on way to Birmingham!

A day early, I was headed to see the Barons play.  Quickly doing the math in my head, I realized I would be about an hour late.  I called the ticket office to make sure there was no delay or cancellation.  Rain began to come down again in sheets as I headed up the highway.

I arrived at the stadium in the top of the 3rd and missed a few runs of scoring. Home clubhouse manager Jeff Perro hooked me up with a ticket to get in and shortly meet up with me outside of the gift shop. He gave me a great tour of the facilities and I settled in to watch the rest of the game.

It was a crazy day of driving, but at least I was able to see some good baseball.  My biggest, but best surprise of the day came from the Birmingham Barons catcher.  His name is Jason Bour and he was a former player of mine with the Dayton Dragons.  It was awesome to see him and get to spend a few minutes catching up.

Something about visiting other towns and seeing minor league baseball really does it for me. This surely was an adventure, but well worth it!

Scoreboard View

view from RF concourse

Former Dayton Dragon and Current Baron Jason Bour

As you will see in some of the pictures before, the stadium is built on the site of an old train station.   Part of the building used is the actual station, giving it a very historic and old look. I think it adds tons of character to the park.

I arrived way to early to Riverwalk Stadium and could not find much around the downtown park to look at or do to pass the time.  A little tired from the early start on my drive, I laid the drivers seat in my car back and attempted to take a nap in the car.  You can tell by the temperature registering, it was a tough task.

Sweating while sleeping...

About 90 minutes before first pitch I walked up to the ticket window to claim my ticket from will call that was left by the home clubhouse manager.  I had another 30 minutes before the gates were to open, so I sat down inside the old train station on a bench and read my Sports Weekly.  What happened next I was not expecting.

The skies opened up and the rains poured down.  And I mean POURED.  Parts of the mobile concession stands blew across the concourse as I sat and waited. The gates were now open, but it made little sense to get wet, so I stayed try in the outside seating area.  Finally, about 25 minutes before first pitch the rain had stopped and I entered Riverwalk Stadiun.  As is my tradition, I did a complete walk around the park, stopping every few feet to grab pictures of various items.

There was a significant amount of standing water in short right field and around the warning track, but I was assured by the ushers that the field drains well.  The skies looked clear and no more rain appeared to be in sight.  The final stop of my loop around the park was at the gift shop where I continued my tradition of purchasing a team hat.  The Montgomery Biscuits logo is one of my favorites in Minor League Baseball so I was happy to add one to the collection.

I had just reached for my credit card when I heard the cashiers walkie talkie go off.  “Double Header tomorrow starting at 5:30. Game officially canceled.”  My heart sank as I had just driven two and one half hours to see some baseball.  What made it worse was that it appeared the rain had gone, but I guess the field just couldn’t hold all the water it had endured the past 45 minutes.

Thoughts and ideas raced through my heads as I tried to figure out my next move.  The quick decision I made was crazy, but people that know me would of expected it…

Riverwalk Stadium

Team Offices

Outside of the old train station

Inside old train station, just outside the gates

Love this logo...

Buckets of water

View with the tarp on

View down the left field line

Right Field Luxury Boxes

Area behind home plate

Standing water behind first in short right field

Standing water around warning track

Right Field lawn

Left Field party deck

After parking my car, I put money in the meter and happened to look down.  There I saw a “walk of fame” type stone of current Atlanta Braves pitcher, and former Auburn star Tim Hudson.

Tim Hudson

I then walked across the street to the famous Toomer’s Drug Store, that has been there for over 100 years. I ordered up a large cup of their famous freshly made Lemonade, and I can say I was quite happy.

Toomer's Drugs on Toomer's Corner

Directly across the street from the drug store is the famous tree that everyone toliet papers and parties around after big football wins. It is probably the most visited site that sits on the edge of campus.  There was a fence going all around it so you couldn’t get to close, probably after the idiot poisoned it last year.

The famous tree

Fence around tree

As you walk around campus, and throughout the whole town of Auburn, there are constant reminders that the 2010 Football team won the BCS National Championship.

National Champions

The thing I must do on all my campus tours are to see as many athletic facilities as possible. Some become very hard to get into, settling for walking around the outside, but at Auburn I had great success.  My first stop was at the very large football stadium.  I was shocked at the number of bleachers in the stadium, with very few actual seat backs.

Outside the stadium

Lots of Metal

Field is all ready to go, just needs lines painted

The next stop was to the baseball stadium, where I found an open gate.  As you can see from the pictures, the field is being torn apart and worked on.  Four former players have their pictures on the outfield fence, Tim Hudson, Frank Thomas, Bo Jackson and Gregg Olsen.  I have seen nicer college baseball stadiums, but this one was pretty cool.

View down left field line

Field kind of torn up

Tim Hudson honored on wall

Directly across the street from the baseball field was a fairly large arena. I figured this is where they played basketball and I wiggled my way into it.  Things inside were fairly old, and reminded me of many arenas I have been in.  I walked out onto the floor and took some pictures.  All the lights were off so I had some trouble getting good ones.

Old Basketball Arena

Walking back through campus I found a map at the student union bookstore.  On the map I spotted another arena, that said “new and under construction.”  Very confused I headed that direction.  I was greeted by a brand new state of the arena athletic facility for both teams to play in. This building was incredible with a build in Hall of Fame, gift shop, luxury boxes with outdoor patios and much more.

Setting up for summer graduation

Hall of Fame inside arena

Yes, that David Ross!

Team shop inside arena

Although I was melting from the heat, I enjoyed my visit to Auburn. I finished it off with some Fro Yo at a new place called Chill and continued back to I-85 to head to Montgomery, Alabama.

My parents drove from home in Cincinnati and picked me up in Atlanta following the most recent Braves homestand.  From there the wheel was mine as I drove them the rest of the way to Florida where they would vacation for a while.  And the rule is, if I drive, I stop when I want at whatever I want. What a mistake that deal was they made.

Being the home to many Major League Baseball Spring Training homes and minor league parks, I had plenty of options and opportunities to stop and visit fields that I had n

Scoreboard at Jackie Robinson Ballpark

Outfield Wall filled with Ads

Washington Nationals Spring Training, Viera Beach

Roger Dean Stadium...shared by Cardinals and Marlins for Spring

Backfields at Roger Dean Stadium

Traditions Field in Port St. Lucie, home of the New York Mets

ever seen before.

Never giving up and taking no for an answer, I snuck my way in to give a self guided tour to check out these stadiums.  Below are some pictures of what I saw.

Jacksonville Suns

Florida Marlins AA team, Jacksonville Suns

Scoreboard at Suns

Jackie Robinson Ballpark, home of the Daytona Cubs

Softball tournament being held in Daytona

Old park in Daytona

What we found was Hi Corbett Field, former spring training site to the Colorado Rockies from 1993 to 2010.  Starting this season, the team moved up North to Phoenix to be closer to the other Cactus League Teams.

The most famous thing about Hi Corbett Field was that it was used to film various scenes of the movie Major League.  This was the actual Spring Training home to the Cleveland Indians from 1947 until 1992 when the team moved to Florida.

The Tuscon Toros, and independent league team, also played the 2009 and 2010 season in Hi Corbett Field. Due to the Tuscon Padres, AAA for San Diego, moving into the area, the team decided to take a break from playing.

As usual, I found an open gate to sneak into and gave myself a tour.  I also found an open window in the press box area and helped myself to walking around.  The other former Spring Training site in Tuscon is where the Arizona Diamondbacks were playing before also moving  North. The Tuscon Padres call that stadium home and I plan to catch a game there soon.

Front of the stadium

More front view

Front Gate

Concourses where you can find some shade!

Stadium seats over 9,000

Sunshines beats down everywhere on Hi Corbett

Press box and "luxury" suites

Plenty of grandstands and bleachers

Inside the dugout

My Brother in Law Jason and Me on the field

Lots of foul ground

Scoreboard at Hi Corbett Field

My sister Jodi and Jason sitting in the dugout

Bullpens down the lines

view out towards left

Stands look so empty and sad...

Love Baseball Stadiums...even Hi Corbett

Inside the press box i snuck into

Independent League All Star Game was held there