I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go to a baseball game again and sit in regular seats. Not after sitting in the plush *front row* seats at last night’s Atlanta Braves game.

Joe got a set of four corporate tickets for last night’s game, so we invited our friends Jon and Michelle and planned for a fun night in a corporate suite, which is where we have been when we’ve gotten other corporate tickets. Boy, were we wrong.

When I checked our tickets on our way down to the stadium, I noticed it said we had to park in a valet lot and enter through the Suntrust Club entrance. We arrived, waited until 6 p.m. when the stadium opens, and then were ushered down into the basement of the stadium, passing by the signs for the teams locker rooms to enter the Suntrust Club.

We were in awe when we walked in. When we walked down the steps, we first saw a chef standing by a station serving steak. The bar was to our left, and to our right was more gourmet food. Duck, yellow fin tuna, steak, calamari and lobster rolls were among the items served either on the buffet or on the menu. The chef made me a delicious veggie wrap and a veggie plate. We also tried a more gourmet version of nachos (and decided that would make a great Top Chef challenge!) and buffalo fries, which Joe said he would actually kill for. We spent the two hours up until game time eating. Then, when there was a rain delay, we ate some more! Our waiter, who was awesome, brought ice cream treats to each table as we waited.

Dessert was brought out after the game started, and the table was filled with mini apple pies, mini apple crisps, mini chocolate swirl cheesecakes, creme brulee and souflees, among other things. There were supposed to be homemade chocolate chip cookies, too, but we were too late for those. 🙁

Joe said he wouldn’t have been too disappointed if the game had been called because of rain, but we were all glad it wasn’t. Our waiter told us we had awesome seats, but awesome doesn’t even begin to describe them. We were Row A, as in the FIRST ROW. We were behind home plate perpendicular to the third base line. We were literally four people away from being in the camera shot each time a player was at bat.

We certainly weren’t upset about not being on TV, though. And, we did get on TV briefly, which we were able to tell from the TV screen in front of our seats! Yes, just in case we were too lazy to lift up our heads and watch the actual game, we could watch it on a TV screen.

We were closer to home plate than the pitcher, and we could hear all of the umpire’s calls. I told Joe it would have been a great night for Braves manager Bobby Cox to get ejected because we would be able to hear the whole squabble with the umpire. One player, shortstop Yunel Escobar, warmed up right in front of us rather than on the on deck circle. The first time he walked up, he nodded and smiled at us. I said, “Hey!” Yes, I’m retarded. Oh well. He was so close that I could have reached out and touched him (if the net hadn’t been in the way, that is!).

It was definitely one of the best and most fun games we’ve ever been too. We didn’t even mind the fact that the game didn’t end until 12:30 a.m.! I think Lucy had fun, too. I’m pretty sure she was doing the tomahawk chop in my belly!

I will leave you with a trivia question our waiter asked us, since I know I have a few readers who are baseball fans: What are the seven ways a player can get on base? Joe got the seventh one, which the waiter says no one is able to guess. Care to take a shot??