Take me out to the ball park!

This is the fourth season in a row that I’ve been the lead operator on the Friday Night Fireworks for the Atlanta Braves down at the Ted. Usually, its 14 Friday nights (with an odd weeknight or saturday thrown in) which is long enough as it is. Most other Pyro guys in the Atlanta area (IE: Georgia) get one or two shows a year with the 4th of July making up the bulk of the work. I’ve been averaging 20. Not bad for a boy from Kennesaw, but this year got a lot busier.

The Atlanta Braves, along with their sponsor Gas South, have decided that they are now going to be doing Strike Out Pyro. Thats right, every Strike out the Braves Pitchers throw, will be met with a three shot barrage of 10×15 stage gerbs (think sparklers). Its not a bad gig, the only problem is the height at which the product actually sits.

First, I have to climb an 8 foot folding ladder to a platform. From there, I climb another 25 or 30 feet up a ladder thats welded to the back of the Gas South Sign to the platform. The platform itself is at the top of the Gas South sign and is *just* big enough to stand and work on. The bad part of all this is the fact that the sign itself sways in the wind or when I move. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been in the catwalk of the Ga. Dome, Phillips Arena and on the roof here at the Ted. I’ve gone rock climbing before, done the Ropes courses at several Boy Scout Camps, and even made it to the top of the Tooth (if you have to ask what the Tooth is you don’t need to know). But I. Hate. Heights.

I don’t know if its the height (which I seem to be ok with) or the idea of falling (which it probably isn’t because I want to go parachuting) or the hitting the ground with a thud that I dislike most, but something about it is just not right. I’ll do it though. Don’t get me wrong, its a good thing they have AEDs around the park just in case. I’ve been down here 5 of the past seven nights already and my season is just starting. I don’t know how these ball players do it.

Any way, back to the pyro. Like I said, 10×15 Gerbs, that are wired three in a series. We have 12 shots for a total of 36 gerbs. It looks ok, though personally I think there needs to be a whistle or something to let people know whats going on. The first couple we had exploded, the noise was good, but they weren’t supposed to do that… Oops.