Along with everyone in the United States and all over the world, my heart pours out to the victims each and every time something happens.  I can never truly imagine the feelings and emotions to be in that situation, and I hope that I never have to.  But just last week, it hit closer to home and became more of a reality.

I was working as a production assistant on a commercial/promo shoot at a Southwest Atlanta middle school.  My crew and I were there to interview parents, teachers and current and former students about the school.  The goal was to turn all of the information we gathered into a short video for the school to use on their website and promotional material.  Our crew was divided into two teams, one serving as the interview station in the school auditorium and the other as a roving team shooting footage of the school and class rooms in action.

The day was going smooth as we were surprisingly on schedule and obtaining tons of great information for the video.  Shortly after our lunch break, a school administrator came rushing into the room apologizing for interrupting the interview but needed to speak to the producer for a second.  I overheard her say that there was a “situation currently occurring and not sure how this will affect your filming.”  She went on to say that there was a school shooting down the street and everyone was on immediate lockdown.

A sense of fear, panic, and rage quickly entered my body after hearing that statement.  Could this really be happening again and so close to where I was sitting? Are we safe? What should we do? Leave? Hide?

Luckily for us, we continued the business as usual with our interviews in the auditorium as the school around us was on lockdown.  Quickly and quietly a few men came in to survey the situation but left without saying a word.  After about an hour, the same school administrator popped her head into the room and gave us a thumb up, and whispered, “Everything is all good and clear.”

I later found out that there was a shooting just a few miles away at Price Middle School, south of downtown Atlanta.  A 14-year old student suffered injuries after being shot in the head following an argument.  From all the news reports I read, the situation was contained fairly quickly and the suspect was detained.

In reality, the crew was pretty safe at the school we were filming, but the immediate threat and situation still made my heart skip a beat.  My mind raced a mile a minute thinking horrible and scary thoughts.

Truth of the matter is these situations can happen anywhere and at anytime.  I pray for the day these alerts stop coming across my Ipad and people can stop living in fear.

The modern bobblehead, also known as wobbler, nodder or bobbing head doll, first appeared in the 1950’s.  The oversized head is usually connected to its body by a metal spring or hook, causing it to move or “bobble” with a slight touch or tap.

On May 9, 1999 the San Francisco Giants decided to give a Willie Mays bobblehead to the first 35,000 fans that entered the gates. This event would help re-shape and re-invent the bobblehead industry, as they begun to appear again everywhere.  Major and Minor League Baseball teams started to give out numerous variations of the doll, creating a new craze for the item.

Shortly after this date in 1999, is where I fell in love with the bobbing head doll.  I began to hunt day and night for them on Ebay, and ended up purchasing a few…Ok, ok, quite a few!  I became friends with my mailman, as he delivered package after package to my apartment with these rare and unique treasures.

Luckily for my pocket book, I decided to focus mainly on the stadium giveaway (SGA) dolls. This meant any normal bobblehead that you could purchase in a store was off my radar.  Quickly the shelves in my apartment filled as I had to purchase more to hold my rapidly growing collection.

When friends and coworkers caught wind of my new collection, new pieces showed up courtesy on them.  Some 13 years later, bobbleheads are still running strong as teams throughout the country are still giving them away to fans that enter the gates.  I am happy and proud to report that I have stopped buying these collectibles as I ran out of room and money to keep up.

A few months ago I had the privilege to visit Marlins Park in Miami, Florida.  The main goal was to keep my streak intact of seeing every current Major League Baseball stadium.  Although I was not crazy about the stadium as a whole (that is a blog for another day), I did love the Bobblehead Museum that they proudly display on the concourse.

The oval shape glass structure is located on the main concourse level between first base and home plate.  The display case allows fans to walk around 360 degrees to view the 609 bobbleheads that are displayed at one time.  The case is organized with American League on one side and National League on the other.  Lighting is placed throughout to allow fans to see each one clearly.  But the coolest feature is that each shelf has its own vibrating mechanism so the heads are constantly moving and bobbing.

Another great feature is that there is a touch screen, where you can type in a player name to see if it is in the case and where it is located.  Most of the bobble heads appeared to be SGA’s from Major League Teams, but there are some minor league ones located throughout the case.  Plastic signs also marked a few bobbleheads that were promised to the collection, but had not arrived yet.

I spent much time walking around this awesome structure admiring which ones I had, and trying to stump the case on some that I owned that were not in the collection.  Number for number, I may be able to compete with the Marlins collection, but there display case is next to perfection.

I have included below a few pictures that I took of the bobblehead museum and a few close up pictures of some of my favorites or ones that I also have.

View from above

Another view from above

Touch screen to locate a certain bobble in the collection

American League Side

NL Side

Cincinnati Reds Section

More Reds

Side View

Lit Up

Tag of a bobble that has not arrived yet

My Boy Jack Wilson

I would stay in my basement for hours playing with my rubber action figures of George the Animal Steele, Macho Man Randy Savage and Super Fly Jimmy Snuka.   Watching the Saturday Morning WWF program on TV was part of my routine, and I selectively created friendships with the kids I knew would be allowed to buy the pay-per-view events on cable at their homes a few times a year.

The following of the WWF was large, but the exposure was limited.  Magazines and merchandise flooded the store, but finding mass coverage on TV was small.  The World Wide Web was not in full swing and storylines among wrestlers remained at a minimum.  House shows popped up all over the country, but matches never meant much, as Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Ravishing Rick Rude and others would fight no name athletes, and NEVER lose.

I have great memories of attending these house shows with my parents at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio.  I usually walked away with a souvenir program and a foam item like Hacksaw Jim Duggan’s two-by-four or Brutus the Barber Beefcake’s foam clippers.  But the best memories were the pay-per-view events on cable TV.

As memory served it, the WWF had four major events a year, Summer Slam, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series and of course, Wrestlemania.  Those were it, but they were “can’t miss events.”  Every star was on the big stage together.

My memory cannot help me pinpoint the time when wrestling faded in my life.  I do not want to say I “outgrew” the sport, but watching College Basketball or Major League Baseball became more important in my life.

It has been years since I followed the sport of professional wrestling.  It has progressed light years, with the organization now being called the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.), and exposure is at an all-time high. From Monday Night Raw, Thursday Night Smackdown and Saturday Morning Slam, to over 12 separate WWE pay-per-view events, the sport can be found EVERYWHERE.  Wrestlers now double as actors, and actors now double as wrestlers.  Gone are the no name athletes, as every wrestler seems to have a gimic, a story, an identity.   Championship belts seem to be passed around like candy on Halloween and story lines seem harder to keep track of.  Watching a Monday Night Raw with a friend recently, it seemed the main attraction was the commentary, and banter on the microphones, with the actual wrestling taking a backseat.

A few weeks back I was in Columbia, South Carolina visiting my friends on the Men’s Basketball Staff at the University of South Carolina.  After watching the Gamecocks practice, a few of us headed over to the Colonial Life Arena for a WWE Smackdown House Show.  I was quite excited to check this event out, knowing that we would have good seats, and it was something I haven’t done in several years.

As we passed each usher in the arena, and showed our tickets to them, they continued to push us along, getting closer and closer to the arena floor and the ring.  When we finally reached the floor seats, an usher showed us to our seats, first row on the corner of the ring.  My jaw dropped as I could reach out and almost touch the wrestlers in front of me.  To be honest, I had to spent part of the show dodging their sweat as they were flying around the area.

The main event for our house show that night was Sheamus against the Big Show.  Clearly this was the biggest match of the night with the two biggest names performing. The crowd roared at each move as the match went on for about 30 minutes.  I closely watched the two fighters throughout the match, and was quite impressed with the action in front of me.  I do not want to bring up the scripted or “fake” parts of the match, as that was not how I was viewing it.  I was watching two athletes perform at an extremely high level.

I left the arena that night with a huge smile on my face.  I felt like a kid again watching grown men rolling around on the canvas.  I could just hear the voice of WWF commentator Gorilla Monsoon in my head proclaiming, “Hulkamania is here!”

Below I have included a few pictures I took at Smackdown.  Hopefully my story and these pictures will bring back some memories for you. I would love to hear some of your greatest WWF memories, so please click on the comments section below to write.

3 on 3 Tag Team Match

The Action on the floor got close

Wrestlers hitting the barrier that my feet were resting on!

Tag Team Action

In between matches kids flooded the barrier to try to get high fives

Tag Team Winners

The Big Show...he is BIG

Big Show showing off his championship belt

Sheamus and Big Show locked up in the ring

Big Show bouncing off the ropes

Arm Bar

No idea how Big Show climbed the ropes

Can't imagine how strong Sheamus is to be able to pick up Big Show

After being hit by a chair after match ended, Big Show laid on mat to try to catch his breath

This is not zoomed, Sheamus was a foot from my face

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