Baseball Smashed Pennies: ESPN Wide World of Sports

There is a smashed penny machine in the ESPN Clubhouse Shop at the ESPN Wide World of Sports (where the Atlanta Braves spring train).  The designs in the machine include the ESPN Wide World of Sports logo, one featuring Mickey with a variety of sports gear including a baseball bat, and one featuring sports Minnie and Daisy (possibly softball related).

Baseball Smashed Pennies: Batting Mickey

While staying at the All Star Sports hotel at Walt Disney World, we found the machine with a smashed penny featuring Mickey batting.  The design is in one of the machines across from the food court near the arcade in the main lobby building.

Kj's Baseball Collection: Braves Spring Training 2013

After being somewhat disappointed in the Nationals Spring Training ball option, which I probably would not have gotten if it was not my favorite team, I was really excited to find a cool one when we went to see the Nats play the Braves at Champion Stadium.  The ball features a Spring Training 2013 logo with palm trees and says Grapefruit League.  The Braves logo is kind of hidden in the logo, but as a non-Braves fan I do not mind that at all.

Mik's Mini Bat Collection: Brave Team Signatures

Before we left for the spring training trip Mik said he was not going to get any mini bats unless they were of the parks or really cool.  Apparently, this one with the signatures of several Braves players was a design he thought qualified as really cool as he just had to have it when he saw it.  It is actually a 2012 Braves mini bat design and his reasoning for getting it was that it has Chipper Jones on it, which is sort of special with him now retired.

Mik's Food Scrapbook: Champion Stadium

There were quite a few food items that appealed to Mik as we walked around Champion Stadium.  At first he was really into getting the brisket sandwich basket.  However, once he found out there was a cheese pretzel dog he had to have that, as he is a huge pretzel dog fan.  He really enjoyed it, although it ended up being quite messy with the cheese oozing out as he ate it.

The evening was a little windy and cool, so he also was glad that Dad found hot chocolate for him to warm up with.  He did not say what he thought of it, but it must have been at least okay or he was really cold because he downed it pretty fast (Dad taste tested to check it was not too hot before giving it to Mik).

Accessibility Review: Champion Stadium

Tonight we went to see the Nationals play the Braves at Champion Stadium located at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World.  We were staying at Disney World, so we could have taken the bus transportation they offer from resorts to the ESPN Wide World of Sports, but Mik does not particularly like riding on buses and there can end up being a bit of waiting for them at times.  Thus, we drove from the resort and parked at the complex, which is at least free, although you can pay $20 for valet.  The lanes are clearly marked for disabled parking as you enter the parking area, however, there are not that many rows of actual handicap spots and like our Disneyland experience they always seem to be full and it is just a close to park/tram section of the parking lot.  Since we need the handicap space to be able to unload Mik, we just parked between two spots like we normally do when handicap spots are full.


For the game we sat in section 104 along the first base foul line.  The wheelchair rows are nicely marked on the ground for each spot.  The ushers are good about bringing out chairs as needed.  They only allow you to buy one companion ticket and oddly our ticket for the row in front was for a space on the opposite end of the row and not right in front like we thought because the bleacher row starts with 1 on the right and the wheelchair row behind it starts with 1 on the left.  It did not end up mattering, though, as they had no problem bringing us two chairs and sitting together.  It is nice they enforce the one companion spot for the wheelchair rows while also being flexible to allow you to sit together on gameday when it is not crowded.


Overall, though, Mik quickly rated the accessibility low.  Mainly he did not like that the handicap section was not raised more than the typical row above the regular seating.  This meant that his view was easily blocked when people sat in that row.  Of course, he also did not like there being no cup holders, but that is something lacking at even some major league regular stadiums, especially when you sit in the bleacher sections.

Most annoying to him, though, was when there was a bunch of fireworks after the National Anthem.  He was totally ready for potential ones to go with rockets red glare, but he was pissed when there was a mini show of mostly really noisy fireworks after the anthem.  Between that and it being a somewhat windy and chilly evening, his opinion was tainted a little more than normal, so I think his low rating is not as low as he made it seem, although it really does make a big positive difference in enjoyment when the wheelchair seating at the top of a section is raised up more.