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Dec 18, 2023

The view from up there: Meet the fans who pack the Plainsman Parking Lot

Watch Independence the Auburn Raptor Center bald eagle make her pre-game flight

Watch Independence the Auburn Raptor Center bald eagle make her pre-game flight at Plainsman Park from the view of the Stadium Parking Deck, ahead of the second game of then-No. 19 Auburn baseball's series against Missouri on May 19.

STADIUM PARKING DECK — It's been nearly an hour since Auburn and Missouri baseball postponed their series opener, but you couldn't tell it from up here.

The cars are still parked, and the lawn chairs and sticker-covered coolers are still out and full of ice, beer and seltzers.

Plainsman Park is still fully lit. Rain patters on a tarped infield and barren bleachers. There's seemingly not a soul in the ballpark. The last remnants of a game day atmosphere are four stories up, though, at the top of a covered staircase on the stadium parking deck. There's a handful of fans still going strong after waiting out nearly three hours of weather delays for a night game that isn't happening.

A half dozen faces are nestled away from the rain, sharing laughs, drinks and stories. One of those faces belongs to Kevin Ives, a man with rounded black glasses and a bushy orange beard who's at heart of a group that's been taking in the view from up there for the past decade.

Kevin Ives chats with other fans atop the Stadium Parking Deck next to Plainsman Park during a baseball game between Auburn and Missouri on May 19 in Auburn.

It's been almost 15 years since the first time Ives took in a game atop the deck. He was working behind the camera for WSFA 12 News in Montgomery at the time, and found his evening commutes home to Auburn often ended up there during baseball season.

He's been an Auburn baseball fan since before graduating from the university in 2005. The Opelika native didn't start going to games until he was in school there, often sitting in the student section with his fraternity brothers. But the Tiger devotee found that, despite being a season-ticket holder, he didn't come off the deck much post-commute.

"Once I kind of settled in and started watching the game, I’m kind of superstitious, so I just kind of would stay in that spot if we were doing well," Ives said.

Eventually, friends tagged along to have a drink and take in a ball game, and then the steam picked up. In the time since, he's taken in hundreds of games from above, weather be damned, enduring rain and even snow. He's made several friends on game days. He met his wife watching from up there. And while writing about the program for a handful of fan blogs, he picked up a social media following, with a Twitter account — @AUPPL — that has nearly 8,000 followers and still posts live updates and keeps a scorebook for every game.

"You have that camaraderie, and you can come and go," Ives said. "It's just kind of grown from there where people recognized us; didn't necessarily recognize who we were, but recognized that there are people up there watching."

A parking deck crowd varies in size from game to game. It's gotten as big as hundreds of people craning their necks over the side of the cement barricades on multiple levels. But Ives and his group have been in the midst of most, if not all, of those crowds. That includes postseason games with hundreds of parking deckers and midweek tilts with nameless opponents and no one but them up top.

Their rock, as Thomas "Murph" Murphy put it, is Ives.

"He is the all-welcoming parking decker," Murph, a longtime parking decker and friend of Ives, said. "The fact that he can tweet, he can talk to people, he can have a beer, or two, or three, or four, and do all the things that he does — he's just a magnificent person, man. It all starts with him."

As the crowds picked up, the parking deckers established a set of rules. Five of them are actual rules, enforced by event staffers:

The rest are five simple commandments invented by Ives: Respect the event staff. Respect the parking deck (e.g. pick up after yourself). Respect your fellow parking deckers. Respect the privilege of getting to take in a game from the deck. And respect the kids taking the field.

"How we’re watching up there, I very much understand that it is a privilege and not a right," Ives said. "So I’m very thankful to the university, to administration for allowing it to keep going. … It's something that could easily be taken away."

Ives’ superstitious spirit also comes through on the deck, most noticeably with jAUbu. An Auburn spin on the enshrined voodoo doll that belonged to the character Pedro Cerrano in the 1989 film Major League, jAUbu is a lot to unpack.

An Auburn shrine is erected on the top floor of the Stadium Parking Deck during an NCAA baseball game between Auburn and Missouri on Friday, May 19, 2023 in Auburn.

jAUbu himself is an Aubie doll, but that's understating it. He's enshrined in a wooden crate that sits vertically, with an orange-and-blue shaker and rubber talon sitting atop it. He wears a pair of sunglasses and what looks like five pounds of Mardi Gras beads. He's also got an Aubie sticker, an Auburn button, and a medical mask made from a baseball-covered fabric.

There's a Mad Lib of items surrounding him, all of which have their own story as to how they’ve become good luck. Those include: A DVD copy of the 1992 movie The ButterCream Gang; a CD of the soundtrack from The Bodyguard; a signed Ike Irish ball; a Daniel Sprinkle baseball card; a half empty bottle of peanuts — "the rally nuts," as Ives calls them; a pterodactyl puppet named Terry the Rally-dactyl; Ives’ father-in-law, Richard Pierce's, prosthetic Auburn logo-covered left leg; and a shot glass filled with whiskey, which Ives may knock back from time to help get a rally started.

Ives has seen folks come and go from the deck over the years, but Murph and Ashley Reid are among the longest-standing members.

Reid began coming up to the deck in 2014 when she was roommates with Kevin's wife, Lindsey Ives. Murph estimated he started doing the same within a year of that. Like Ives, both are also season-ticket holders, and they’re not alone in that.

There's multiple regulars enrolled in classes at Auburn, like Thomas Dunnam, with a student season ticket package. Graham Brooks, who's become a regular in recent years, is working on getting a hold of his own season tickets. Reid estimated that about half of the group's regulars are season ticket-holders.

Tom Dunnam reacts to a strikeout from atop the Stadium Parking Deck next to Plainsman Park during an NCAA baseball game between Auburn and Missouri on Friday, May 19, 2023 in Auburn.

So why keep heading up to the deck when you’ve got a seat inside?

"The friendships that are formed, the good times that are had," Reid said. "It's mainly about the game, but it's also about those relationships."

Reid, Murph and Ives, who still take to the stands from time to time, all added it's one way they try to support the program. Most of their tickets go to friends, family, or anyone who may be in need, free of charge, if they don't find themselves in their seats.

But the group, as much as the views, keep them coming back. It's like an extended family.

There's celebrations for holidays. There's been graduation ceremonies for the regulars who are getting degrees. Watch parties happen for road games. Most seasons end with a joint birthday party as well, celebrating Ives and Miss Dana, the event staffer who works every game right next to the group, as the two have birthdays less than a week apart.

Celebration is at the root of it for this bunch. There's a lot of other fans who have occupied the deck. Some are there for the free ballgame. Others are there just to drink, or to heckle, or do both. But for the group that's always in the first few parking spots right off the staircase, it's about celebrating this program in the company of like-minded fans.

They’ll be there for this weekend's Auburn Regional, which will see the Tigers square off with Penn at 6 p.m. CST Friday. They’ll be there long after it, too, whether that's deep into the night or when they return in the chill of February for next season.

And for anyone who might want to join them?

"Honestly, just give it a shot," Ives said. "It is an experience. You’re always welcome to come find me, and I’ll talk to anybody about Auburn baseball, and baseball in general. I try to pride myself (on) being welcoming and open to folks, and really just experience it."

The sun sets behind Plainsman Park during the fifth inning of the Auburn baseball game against Indiana on Feb. 17 at Plainsman Park.

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Auburn Athletics Writer

Adam has been covering Auburn athletics since March 2022. He graduated from the University of Missouri in May 2021 and has appeared in multiple publications, including the Kansas City Star and Omaha World-Herald, among others.

Watch Independence the Auburn Raptor Center bald eagle make her pre-game flight at Plainsman Park from the view of the Stadium Parking Deck, a…