I had packed all my stuff. I had about eight bags in the airport. I put my house up for sale. For something like this to happen it was very, very stressful.

We had our bags packed, ready to go back to Atlanta. And all of a sudden, the rug is pulled out from under you. It's unfortunate. You go out there, lay it on the line for six hours, and 18 innings. To go home for the winter on a game like that is a bad feeling.

Mr. Allen saved this franchise. I was on the team in 1996 when we had basically packed our bags and moved down to Anaheim [California]. He stepped in when approached by city officials to put a bid up to purchase the team and take us in a different direction. That's exactly what he has done.

Politics is not bean bags. It's serious, tough stuff.

We haven't been to a bowl since 2001, so it's good stuff. It was a lot of bags, sweats, fleece.

We're expecting to be packed. We own Mattie's House of Mirrors next door, and we're going to open that up and rent some big-screen TVs in there to handle overflow.