Pittsburgh -> Atlanta -> Portland flight report

[jdl22]

As some of you know I'm a grad student at Pitt. Yesterday, I flew back to Oregon to be home for thanksgiving and to watch the civil war. My flight plan was Pittsburgh -> Atlanta -> Portland. First flight was uneventful except that I have a sinus cold so the descent was horrible.

I got to the gate for my second flight just as it was boarding. When they called my group I went in and sat down in my aisle seat. It was a plane with 3 seats on each side of the aisle in every row of coach. The seat next to me was empty and there was a girl in the window seat. Soon after, a guy sat in the empty seat. He asked the girl in the window seat if she wanted to move up to first class. She said yeah but like me was clearly confused. He told her that his friend is up in first class and will switch with her so that they can sit together. She should just go up and tap the guy with the white Atlanta Falcons cap on and tell him that (insert name I can't remember here) told her to switch with him. She asks what the guys name is, and the guy whispers it to her. She says "are you serious?" and he nods. So she goes up to first class and a guy comes back. The guy whose seat was originally next to me moved over to the window so the first class guy sits next to me.

Since these guys both were pretty young and friendly we had the usual stranger on an airplane banter. They were from Atlanta and going to Portland on business. When I told them I'm from Oregon they asked about the rain. We talked about Pittsburgh for a bit, just the usual stuff. The guy that came from first class was clearly very well off. He had a watch that was loaded with small diamonds all around the face. Could have been fake, of course, but that seemed less likely because he was flying in first class. Based on their conversations it seemed like the guy must of been fairly famous at least. Throughout the flight, these two guys were getting a ton of free drinks from the flight attendants. They were talking about a lot of traveling and at one point the guy next to me was talking about flying with his son and how when he's flying to games they fly private instead of commercial and on those flights it's easier because you can use a car seat. Since baseeball is the only sport out of season and that he said he goes to Pittsburgh "once a year" I deduce that he's a baseball player and must be from the National league. However, I don't have the stones to openly say "hey are you a baseball player?!?!?!" At some point around here in the story, he used the airplane phone and had his credit card sitting on his leg, but I didn't want to obviously be scoping his credit card to get his name and I wasn't able to see it.

Later, my suspicion is confirmed when the two guys are talking about some people they knew from spring training. From this I finally grew a set and said to the guy "forgive me if I'm wrong, but do you play baseball?" to which he responds in the affirmative. I asked for what team and he said the Atlanta Braves. I then asked him about living in Atlanta year round, he said he does and likes it there. At this point the conversation dies off. I decided not to ask his name figuring if he wanted to tell me he would. His friend clearly didn't want to announce his name earlier having whispered it to the girl that got bumped up to first class. I start to get suspicious that I actually know who he is when he is talking about his shoes and confirms that he's actually going to Beaverton (which is where the Nike headquarters are). I asked him if they were ok with him wearing a reebok hat and he said it's ok since it's an Atlanta falcons hat. Later he says he's going to be playing in the baseball world cup, or whatever that's called.

A short while later he reached his hand out and asked me my name. I told him and shook his hand and he said "Andruw." Still thinking perhaps he doesn't want to broadcast that he's Andruw [censored] Jones I say "so I'm thinking you share a last name with a teammate" (really tough code to crack, I know) He says, "yeah thats right, Chipper Jones." At this point, I did the natural thing and informed him that I would have voted for him. This is probably even true, Pujols had a better season but Jones was more valuable. I think either winning would be a fair outcome. Anyway, he says that he thought that Pujols was deserving having had an excellent season, and also being rewarded for having 2 amazing years when Bonds had ridiculously good seasons. Later I ask him how many years in a row they've made the playoffs and what the Braves need to do to get to the next level. He said that they had a really young team this year and that they basically just need to mature. Also, winning the division 16 years in a row or whatever is a big deal and other than the braves only the yankees in recent years have been able to consistently win their division. He also added that they were obviously doing better since they were playing in the world series and winning some of those years. He feels the yankees problem now is that they have a ton of superstars but no team and you can't win like that. He also said that he would never play for the yankees. At some point, after he says that the Mets are jinxed and have a horribly bad stadium, the guy in the row behind us, who is a mets fan, joins in. For about the last 45 minutes of the flight the four of us just bullshitting about baseball and football as well.

When I got out of the gate there was a nike valet guy and a few local news cameras there.

[pryor15]

so...wait...you didn't recognize andruw jones after sitting next to him that long? i can see estrada or john thompson or someone, but hell...he's pretty easy to spot.

either way, that's pretty cool.

[mmbt0ne]

Did the accent never give it away to you? Even without looking at his face, I think I would've known within about 1 sentence who it was.

Either way, very cool story. I've been able to meet my fair share of Braves, but never Andruw, and definitely never randomly on a flight.

[jdl22]

yeah, I don't watch a lot of Braves games. He's probably the biggest player I wouldn't have recognized.

[cold_cash]

Cool story.

I hope he's not a Duck fan though.

Why can't andruw jones get his friend a ticket next to him in first class? And why is it that only quasi sports fans have things like this happen to them?

[RacersEdge]

Cool story. Amazed you know enough that you would have voted for AJ for MVP, but didn't recognize him. He's been starting for 9 years and the Braves get a decent amount of TV time. No autograph request?