My first major vacation of 2002! Nicki and I love baseball. We love Orlando, too. Braves and Orlando - how could we not pass this chance up! We chose St. Patrick's Day weekend because we didn't want to be in Beertown, USA (Savannah, GA) at the time. Nicki's friend, Jenni, rode a bus from Alabama to Savannah to join us on the trip.
We had good times and we had some fights. What do you expect of three 20-something girls spending the weekend together? We got to Orlando late Thursday night. All we wanted to do was rest and go to bed.
Friday, the three of us made our first trip to Disney for the weekend. First, the morning was spent finding a Southtrust Bank for Jenni. Then we went to Disney. The Dodgers were in town to play the Braves. Nicki and I sat in the 9th row behind home plate. Jenni sat on the lawn by the Dodgers' dugout. Unfortunately for Braves fans, the Braves lost to the Dodgers 3-1. The Dodgers were there with a split squad but Brian Jordan was there. Brian was an "the enemy" but he was a warmly welcomed "enemy" to the game. It was nice to see him play a game in person.
I hate to say it, but we have yet to get those photos developed from that game. In fact, we can't find the roll of film. We spent later that night eating at Shoney's and running across Orlando to find a friend of Nicki's who we never did find.
Saturday, Jenni stayed behind at the hotel while Nicki and I went off. We spent the morning at Downtown Disney shopping at the Virgin Megastore. I bought about $60.00 worth of CD's, mostly for Nicki's collection. I walked away with a few CD's, too. I walked away with the Natalie Imbruglia's "Wrong Impression" Australian Single, *NSYNC's European "Gone" Single, and Darren Hayes's "Insatiable" Australian Single. Not too bad selection for me.
After that shopping tour, we went over to the Wild World Of Sports. This day, Nicki & sat in the 4th row behind home plate. Both days, we were in the Scout's Alley. We had major league scouts to the left, right, back, and front of us. On this second day, there was this cute little 3-year-old boy we saw the day before. His parents came all the way from Myrtle Beach to watch the Braves and the child's favorite Brave, Marcus Giles, play.
An interesting thing happened to us during the game. I met current Braves scout and former player/manager Jim Fregosi at the Expos game. He was sitting in the row behind me. I didn't know it was him until I saw another person have him autograph a ball and I got a glimpse of the ring he was wearing. In front of him and next to me was a scout from the White Sox. They were talking and I interrupted to ask which teams they were with. The area I was at seemed to be Scouts Row. They asked me which team I was a fan of. I explained that Atlanta was my favorite team but that I love baseball in general. I was going to have him sign the back of my game ticket but he whipped out a card, autographed it, and gave it to me. I was impressed. I did put it up safe place in my card notebook as soon as I could.
However with my luck, this was my third Braves game in person the third one I saw them lose. The final score was 5-1 Expos. Nicki and I took photos of both the Braves and Expos. Jose Canseco was on the team at this point. He did hit a home run in the game off Albie Lopez.
Montréal Expos vs. Atlanta Braves - March 16, 2002
Later in the day, I met Lou Perlman at NYPD Pizza. Nicki always wanted to eat there so we found the place. It seems all the boybands from Florida eat there, even if they no longer work with Lou. The roots formed with Lou were partially developed at NYPD Pizza. Nicki and Jenni had a great time speaking to our waitress, who works with Natural and was just helping her boss with the pizza joint. I spotted Lou first, over Jenni, looking for Nicki to walk back into the place after checking on the car. After Jenni realized who I saw, she wanted to get a photo with him. After asking our waitress if it would be ok to get a picture with him, we went over. I was to take the photo. Basically the conversation I has with him was I told him my name when he asked. But still, I met him.
After pizza, we shopped at Downtown Disney some more, picking up the *NSYNC "Girlfriend" single and a few other novelties. We debated about doing into Pleasure Island but Jenni didn't want to go. We went to the hotel and swam instead. Swimming was fun but Nicki kicked herself for not going to Pleasure Island that night. She found out O-town, a group both she and Jenni love, happened to be at Pleasure Island at that time. Que Sera Sera!
Sunday was spent at the game at the Astros, leaving at the middle of the 10th inning, only to find out the Braves won, 8-6. It felt like this day was the hottest of the three days. I did get an autograph from Wes Helms on a ball I bought at the Astros complex. Nicki weaseled her way to get it. Jenni got a smile out of Eddie Perez and our little group got a smirk from Mark DeRosa. DeRosa seems to be the poster boy for all of Nicki's and Jenni's baseball jokes. At the Braves game at Disney the day before, Nicki goes "Look At DeRosa." He heard that and look at her. So he must have recognized us at Osceola and could hear us there. Nicki kept speaking about getting only rear end shots of him. So the next time he was on deck, he smirked at them, and then turned around at us. Oh, he knew what he was doing to them. We were laughing our head off at this.
Atlanta Braves vs. Houston Astros - March 17, 2002
Unfortunately, the weekend, as all good time must, had to end. We got home to Savannah by 9:30 that night. I had to go to work the next day. I had a great time to see at Spring Training!
