Head to Tuscaloosa

ed. - bumped from the fanposts.

If you're anything like me, you usually wait until the last minute to make plans for the weekend.  Then, Friday rolls around and you wish you had thought ahead because you would love to go out and have a little fun after a long and tedious work week. 

Whether you're flying solo or keeping the kids, there's some relatively cheap entertainment to be had at the Capstone this weekend, and tonight is the biggest night for fun.  Plus, you get to cheer for the Tide.

And you might even get to see Coach Nick Saban.  Details after the jump.  Check it out.

Alabama head football coach Nick Saban will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Crimson Tide’s 2010 Southeastern Conference series opener against the Vanderbilt Commodores Friday night at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

The Crimson Tide and Commodores will meet at 6:35 p.m. at Sewell-Thomas Stadium and tickets will be available at the Sewell-Thomas Stadium box office beginning at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.  Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for youth (12 and under).

That's right...not only can you see two top-25 teams clash on the diamond, but our own beloved CNS will be throwing out the first pitch.  The weather is supposed to be perfect, and there's nothing like kicking back on a nice evening and watching a little Bama baseball.  My favorite part:  you can get the whole family in for less than $20 (unless you've got more kids than you need -- there's a procedure for that, you know).   Anyway, these are the top two teams in the SEC.  If you can't make it Friday, they play again Saturday and Sunday, and you can go to rolltide.com for further details.

But wait...there's more.

The No. 1 ranked Alabama Gymnastics team closes out its regular season slate this Friday at 7:30 p.m. with a home meet against No. 10 Michigan.

Tickets for Friday's meet are available through the Alabama Ticket Office (205.348.2262), at Tuscaloosa Toyota on Skyland Boulevard, and online at RollTide.com. The Alabama Ticket Office, which was closed for UA's spring break the last few days, will be open at 9 a.m. on Friday.

In case you missed it, Alabama is ranked number one in the country in gymnastics, and their final home meet is against top ten foe Michigan.  Some of you may feel the need to stop reading now, but let me tell you, if you've never seen a gymnastics meet at Coleman, you're missing out.  Really.

When I was a student at Alabama, we used to win national titles like Coach Bryant's football teams.  Even though we were an elite force, I never gave much thought to actually attending a contest, until my niece was in town and needed a chaperone.  She was thrilled that I would take her, and I thought I was just doing my good deed for the week...until the meet started.  My jaw dropped, and it must have stayed that way until we left.  I've seen incredible athletic feats on the football field, but few gridiron collisions have left me wincing like the thought of one of these athletes having a collision with a balance beam or 'horse' while attempting the acrobatics that were on display.

Anyway, the emergence of Georgia as a national power helped to keep us as only a top five team in most recent years, but we won the SEC last year, and the Bulldogs have a new coach.  In short, Alabama Coach Sarah Patterson smells blood.  And she's looking to take it out on Brian Cook's girlfriends tonight.

So, you can order a pizza and stare at the big blue box, or you can hit campus and watch one -- or both -- of our nationally ranked teams at their finest...and catch a glimpse of CNS in the process (that's right..."The Process").

Roll Tide.