A few months back, the Bristol Pirates of the Appalachian League announced plans for a Dale Murphy night, where the former Braves slugger would come to Bristol and sign autographs along with a few other promotional events during his stay.
As soon as I saw this, I asked Ryan, if he would like to go as his birthday present and to my mild surprise, he immediately agreed.
The surprising part wasn't that he wanted to go, but it was more surprising that he agreed so quickly to keep his schedule open for that long.
Ryan works and travels a lot, so for him to make that commitment well in advance showed me he wanted to attend.
The added bonus was Cherie wanted to come along with us.
This wasn't surprising that she wanted to go (She watched plenty of Dale Murphy games on WTBS when we were first married), but she's never been a smooth traveler and the distance on a day trip (5 and a half hours each way) would have normally made me doubt her likelihood to do that type of trip.
However, she wanted to do it and she was a champ all day long.
I had worked all night and crawled into the car just an hour or so after getting off, so I spent much of the round trip "Sleeping" or as close as one could get to such in the backseat of a car.
The drive down was pretty uneventful, lots of fun chatter and a tip for a restaurant stop on my next road trip in Staunton VA before a stop at Shoney's in Dublin, Va for a decent meal before the rest of the Bristol trek.
I stopped into the nearby Pulaski County visitors center to try to find some pocket schedules, but no such luck.
We hit Devault Stadium with an hour to spare before our required arrival and there was a decent sized line that we would wind up being around the middle of by the time we were ushered into the stadium.
I even was able to grab some wi-fi and watch some of the pre-fight of the WBSS (Next post on the results) as I waited.
Now, I have been critical in the past of teams that handle events wrong and botch things that should be easy- BUT I also believe in giving credit when due and let me tell you- The manner in which the Bristol Pirates planned and executed this event was terrific and maybe (I can't think of another, but memory fades) the smoothest I have ever attended.
The team sent out multiple emails with tickets, directions to the stadium, times to arrive and if you did something wrong, it's because you didn't read closely.
At the stadium, there was a table with a large sign telling you where to check in and the employees were friendly-Imagine that!
The line moved reasonably quickly and the team had an employee waiting with Dale Murphy that asked you if you wanted a picture and if so they would take it for you- again keeping things running smooth and not taking time away by each person's fumbling around.
There were thunderstorms in the forecast and the sky was quite gray as we moved through the lane that leads to the actual stadium, so the race was on- Would we reach Dale Murphy before the rain began to fall?
The answer was yes, but barely as we each were able to meet Murph, have pictures signed, and told him how far we drove to meet him with it being Ryan's birthday present.
Ryan was pleased to have his favorite player wish him a Happy Birthday!.
We weren't even able to make the short jaunt to the field to try to get the few cards that I had for the Bristol Pirates to sign before the skies opened.
Dale Murphy was a success, but there would be no more on this day.
We waited through the rain and the announced delay before I threw in the towel.
I really wanted Shane Baz on his top 100, but it would have been at least an hour before they hit the field and with a long drive home, I didn't want to do that to Ryan, who had to drive.
First, though, it was time for dinner at Cootie Brown's.
You may remember Fred Landucci and me hitting the Johnson City Cootie's last year and loving their Key Lime Pie!I still wasn't super hungry, but the road home is not filled with places to eat for the late night traveler, so I had a Reuben without any sides, so that I had plenty of space for a piece of pie, which each of us had.
The sky cleared as we left Bristol and I was starting to question not sticking around for the few cards that I had, but about ten minutes or so, the rain began to fall again and I felt better!
They would eventually play with the game going extra innings, but the time spent waiting would have meant a long time added to getting home and we wound up arriving at one AM as it was.
It was a great time and one that was a bit of a throwback for us with one more "family" trip for the three of us.
I'm so glad that I was able to do this for Ryan and Dale Murphy might be the nicest player that I've met and certainly the nicest player of his caliber that I've met, so that made it all worthwhile.
I still have to make time to watch the weekend's fights (I've watched one of the three so far) to post the boxing challenge, so look for that soon.
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