Day 1
Flight, hotel get trip off to a bumpy start
Houston -- The trip did not get off to a good start. When we were coming into Houston on the plane, it seemed the pilot was trying to flip us on our heads. I really wasn't thinking about the TWA accident, but I know my wife back home was. She worries about things like that, but I fly so much it doesn't really faze me. I always call her when I get to a town to tell her everything is OK.
We got to the hotel and I get up to my room on the seventh floor and my key, one of the computer cards they give you, didn't work. So I get on the elevator to go back down to get another key and what happens? I get stuck between the fourth and fifth floors. Terrell Wade was on the elevator with me and I was sweating bullets. We kept waiting for something to happen. About 15 minutes later they finally got us off and I got my key, and this one worked.
I went back up to my room and ordered a club sandwich and watched "Happy Gilmore," the movie with Adam Sandler about golf. I really don't like the hotel [J.W. Marriot] here because there is always something going wrong.
I took a cab over to the park with Ed [Giovanola] and I like getting to the clubhouse early to relax a little. I really like playing cards. It's a great way to make the time go faster. Players are always playing cards.
I have a pretty good friend here in Houston -- Ralph Garr Jr., who I played rookie ball with in Bradenton. His dad, of course, played for the Braves [still scouts for the club, covering Texas], but Jr. is out of baseball. We'll hang around some here, and I always leave him tickets. Talking about tickets. In most cities I have to leave a ton of them. But not here. The Astrodome is really not such a bad place, and we win a lot of games here [29-7 since 1991.] There is no way you could play Never really knew a lot of people from Houston.
outside here. It's way too hot, the bugs are bad and there are always storms rolling in. It rained here today.
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