Good Day For Work Pictures

Yesterday was my first 9 hour work day and I was happy to see 5:30 roll around. The problem is that the type of work I do requires being on my feet all day. It was a great day, however, to take pictures since I was assigned several different areas to work and it wasn't a mob scene anywhere. My first assignment at 8 AM was at what is called the Hess Gazebo. This is an area where teams meet, and guests meet, to have pre-game meetings or enjoy a bite to eat. There are probably 15 fields adjacent to this spot:

and this was a lacrosse team getting ready for their first game. The concessions in the background didn't open until 9 AM which is why they were still closed. There were lacrosse, softball and baseball tournaments going on in the fields area - including the Penn State girls softball team, which I found out later, split 2 games they played. My responsibility here was to give directions to the various fields being used, making sure that the teams don't leave anything in the gazebo, and making sure that guests kept it clean.

I then was assigned a main turnstiles post where people were beginning to come in for the Spring Training game between the Braves and the St Louis Cardinals. This is what the main turnstiles area looks like:

It got busy in a hurry as the ballgame crowd arrived along with teams and spectators for the other events. I worked here for probably 2 hours before returning to the Hess Gazebo and working another 2 hour shift there. I took this shot of a girls lacrosse game while there the second time:

I then returned to the turnstiles and during this shift there was a small band, just outside the entrance, playing dixie-land music and "take me out to the ball game":

After spending some time as a greeter in one of the heavy pedestrian traffic areas, I wandered on back through the stadium to get my last assignment and stopped to take this picture of the game:

This shot was taken in the bottom of the 9th inning and there still was (surprisingly) a large crowd left. The Cardinals won the game 6-1, but there is a sad note. During the first inning, a minor league coach for the Braves - Luis Salazar - was struck by a foul ball that went into the dugout and was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries. This occurred while I was on my lunch break in a different area and didn't know about it until later. The last I heard was that he is in stable condition. That's a fairly normal work day for me at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex.

It is raining and very windy so far today. We have had over 1.1" of rain so far with lots of lightening and thunder. It looks like a stay home day, except for maybe a trip to the grocery store...