We pulled over in Lake Park, Georgia to wind down and I figured it would be a good place to watch the Finals of the NIT Men's Basketball Championship direct from Madison Square Garden in New York. The Iowa Hawkeyes were taking on the athletic Baylor Bears. That should say enough, athletic I mean. My Hawks looked pretty pathetic, I must say. They didn't have a good shooting night and the long Bears frontline made life very uncomfortable for any short range shot. It was a complete Baylor blowout.....74-54.
The next morning we hit the road bright and early....in the rain of course. Still comin down. And traffic was the same as it had been the day before. Everywhere. I was driving the U-Haul truck and my brother-in-law was in his pickup. Cars and trucks were in front of us, beside us, behind us. Everybody going lickity-split.
For four more hours we faced this test. Then came Atlanta.
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| A city with a whole lot going on....especially in the Sportsworld. |
Ever since we left Florida, I'd been envisioning our path through "the city in a forest", for its abundance of trees. National Geographic named it "A Place of a Lifetime". The reason for my concern and excitement had to do with Atlanta being at the center of the Sportsworld the next few days. We rolled in around 11 a.m. I figured it would be gridlock to the utmost. Why? Over 5 million people live in the Atlanta and surrounding area. That's one thing.....and.....
The Chicago Cubs had arrived in town late Thursday night to play the Atlanta Braves a weekend series. Cub fans will show up just about anywhere and the Braves were receiving notice as one of the favorites in the National League. Over 33,000 fans went through the turnstiles in seeing Atlanta knock off Chicago 4-1. Saturday night, another 38,000 fans attended a 6-5 Braves win. On Sunday, almost 46,000 were on hand for another Atlanta victory 5-1.
In another part of town Friday evening, the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA were hosting the Philadelphia 76ers. Over 17,000 fans were on hand to see Philadelphia ride off with a 101-90 victory...and then of course there was the NCAA Final Four crowd. Louisville, Michigan, Wichita State and Syracuse fans had invaded the south to see their teams fight for the 2013 Championship. And if that wasn't enough.....the Masters Golf Tournament was due to tee off on Tuesday with two days of fun leading up to the Thursday beginning.
Let's see....33,000...38,000 and 46,000 for baseball, 17,000 for pro basketball....75,000 for the Saturday games of the Final Four....74,300 for the Finals Game on Monday night...and the Masters. The prestigious Masters has never announced their attendance figures, but estimates are figured at 35,000 a day. Was this the place to be if you loved sports? Ahhhh, ya.
A friend of mine told me this past week of some insurance buddies of his that made it to two Cubs games, the Final Four semi's and the Finals and the first day of the Masters on Tuesday. What a couple of days for them, huh?
So, you can see I had some apprehension about traveling through the city.....but no worries. Traffic was heavy, but manageable, at least for us at the time I mentioned. Did it get crazier later on in the day and into the weekend? I'm sure it did. But from my vantage point. Atlanta-well done. You are without a doubt one of the meccas of the sports world.
Oh, by the way, we got home that next morning about 2:30. Drove 19 straight hours. Thirteen of those 19, we fought traffic, tooth and nail. It wasn't until we hit Clarksville, Kentucky that things began to slow down and the white knuckle driving ended. It was a trip worth remembering....
Thanks for reading,
John
****Who will be triumphant in Atlanta this weekend at the Masters? Tiger Woods was in a pretty good position until Saturday morning when he was assessed a 2-stroke penalty for a ball drop. As of this writing, Woods is -1 through the tourney, trailing the leader, Jason Day, by five shots. I'll go out on a limb and pick Angel Cabrera to win it all. He's been very consistent thus far. But Tiger lurks and who knows how mad the penalty made him. We'll see...
And lastly, I couldn't let this day go by without passing along a quote from SS Jose Reyes from the Toronto Blue Jays, who severely sprained (or fractured) his ankle Friday night. When asked for his feelings, he said, "Sunny days wouldn't be special if it wasn't for rain", he tweeted. "Thank you guys for all the love and prayers. I put everything in God's hands for he is the one that got me here".
I know what you mean about the rain.....and with sunny skies today....Amen!!!
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