Card Of the Week 12/01/08

Ok, time for Card of the Week. This is a card I got two weeks ago on the 15th. That was Free Admission Day at the Braves Hall of Fame & Museum. Admission to the museum was gratis and there was a free tour of Turner Field included. Five minues in I really, really wished I had bought a cheap disposable camera because the tour was pretty fantastic. The first half of the tour was basically a sales pitch for tickets as out guide showed off the Coca-Cola Sky Field, the "Used to be Lexus Level but is now sponsored by a Casino" expensive seats and finally a $250,000 a year luxury suite. It was quite luxurious as a matter of fact. After that was the good stuff.

Once we were done with the seating, we headed to the press box. the radio booth was a pretty nifty setup with wires everywhere. The TV booth was about three times the size with all sorts of lockers and equipment. A very large picture of Skip Caray got me choked up a bit. From there we snaked down into the guts of the stadium past the ump's locker into the player's section. Right past the trainer rooms and a tabletop shuffleboard game were the closely guarded lockers. They apparently like games down there, there are supposedly very heated Connect Four tournaments going on throughout the season. The locker room looked amazing, everything is wood paneled. I think the guide said that the wood was the same stuff they made bats out of. Whether that's maple or ash is up for debate I suppose. Chipper's locker is on the right when you look in underneath on of the TV monitors that are installed in the walls. I looked for, but couldn't find McCann's. The guard gave you the stink eye if you leaned in too close and there was a line of people behind me so I got a good look at Chipper's locker and moved on. After that, we got to go out on the field and check out the dugout. We could do whatever we wanted in the dugout and wander around the dirt but the grass was verboten. The guide told us there were snipers up in the bleachers ready to take out anyone messing with the expensive grass. I'm pretty sure I caught a glint off of a scope up in section 316, so I believe him.

The museum is pretty amazing by itself. There's an actual Pullman car used by the Milwaukee Braves for traveling that you can walk through and sit in the seats. Part of the dugout from Atlanta Fulton County is in there too, which features the uniform Rafael Belliard wore when he hit his second home run. You can see in the postcard above the Championship Trophy, a display of Braves in The Hall of Fame and a row of lockers stuffed with memorabilia in the museum. The coolest thing in my opinion is a display of old style uniforms throughout the Braves' history. There's some really odd ones in there like the purple and yellow Boston Bees uniform and the shiny satin unis worn in the 40's. I've never actually paid to go to the museum and tour, but if you're ever in town it's well worth it. I'll be going again myself as soon as I get my good camera working.

You know I couldn't go do something baseball related without getting cards, right? Well, in this case, card. I got this lone 2008 Upper Deck Phil Niekro card at the gift shop. I almost went for the brick of random Braves cards but the 12 dollar price tag scared me away. I still paid way too much for this even though I got something else with it in the package.

Anyone recognize this card? The photo looks familiar that's for sure... The card is from Upper Deck and was released in 2008. Anyone want to make a guess as to what it is? I'll give you guys some time to chew it over and tell you what it came from tomorrow.

Ok, good guesses in the comments. Here's what it is:

Knucksie's got a Corvette! I paid way too much for it (and I didn't get two packs of Upper Deck) but hey, it was free day and I could afford it. Sadly, there was no Chipper Vette but they had Teixeira. Blech. Maybe Chipper will get a Mustang in '09.