Comment
Print
Thomas Melton wasn't the only Rutherford County fan at an Atlanta Braves World Series game last week, but he just may have been among the most excited.
"It was definitely an experience of a lifetime," Thomas, 28, said Sunday afternoon following Saturday night's game which he attended with family members.
Thomas, his father-in-law Craig Sims, his grandfather-in-law Grant McGinnis and brother-in-law Mike Ridgeway all of South Carolina, traveled to Atlanta on Saturday for the fourth game of the World Series against the Houston Astros.
"It was a little sketchy at times," Thomas said of the game he and his family watched from their seats behind home plate. He said the seats were about mid-lay up in the stands.
They arrived home Sunday at about 3 a.m. and had first thought about heading back to Atlanta Sunday afternoon for the fifth game.
"But tickets skyrocketed after the game and we just decided to watch it on television," Thomas said. "But we had a blast. It was everything I thought it would be and more." (Sunday's night fifth game forced game six to be played in Houston keeping the World Series alive for the Astros).
Thomas, who owns Slim's Bar & Grill in Forest City said from his restaurant last week that being able to attend a World Series game was a lifelong dream for a lifelong Braves fan.
"It's on my bucket list," said Thomas, a Rutherford County native, who was a baseball stand out for the Chase High Trojans while in high school.
Melton and his wife Emily Sims Melton live near Lake Bowen and he travels to Forest City to cook burgers and other food items at his restaurant.
When he first thought about going back to Atlanta for Sunday night's game, he admitted, "I'll have to cook a lot more cheeseburgers."
The road to the World Series game began as Thomas was watching the final baseball game with the Braves against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday night, Oct. 23 that ultimately put the Braves in the World Series. It was the first World Series for the Braves for the first time since 1999.
When the score was 4-2 with the Braves leading that night, Thomas said his family members who were watching together decided right then and there to order World Series tickets.
Thomas wouldn't say exactly how much he and his family paid per ticket but it was more than $1,000 per ticket, he said.
"We decided to go ahead and call for tickets. They could have lost that night but we wanted to make sure we could get tickets," he said. "We were hoping."
Thomas and his family was told if the Braves had lost that last game, "they told us we could get our money back."
Just a couple days before heading to Atlanta on Saturday, Oct.30, as Thomas was cooking chicken fingers at Slim's he could hardly contain his excitement.
"I'm excited. Real excited. This is a lifelong dream," he said.
Regardless of the final outcome of the World Series, Thomas is just glad for the game he saw in person and checking that off his bucket list.
