Monday Braves Ramblings....
So the NL West is supposed to be awful, right?
Well, it was all the Braves could do in back-to-back series to take 1 of 3 from the Dodgers, and 1 of 3 from the Padres! Wake up, guys!!! Had the Braves not rallied for five in the 8th inning, it would have been the first time any AL team had ever swept a season series from the Bravos. Ever. Thanks to Jon Miller and Joe Morgan for disclosing that fact on last night's Sunday Night Baseball. An ugly homestand to say the least, bringing the Phillies to within 3.5
Jeff Francoeur walked for the first time in 130+ AB last night. It was intentional.
I sulked a bit Friday because the Braves had a "10th Anniversary Celebration" for the 1995 World Series title. And I couldn't go. Former Braves Steve Avery, Jeff Blauser, Rafael Belliard, Charlie O'Brien, Mark Lemke, Greg McMichael, Mike Devereaux, Alejandro Pena and Dwight Smith and more were on hand. So was former third base coach Jimy Williams. Former Braves Lew Burdette. They all signed autographs in the course from 5:30-7:00. They had on-the-field festivities, etc. Bitter, bitter, bitter me.
Mostly, I was pissed that it was a Friday night. Screw the out of town fans who want to make the trip. Especially since the first mention I heard of this was last Tuesday...way to publicize this, Braves Public Relations. Make those out-of-towners scramble to make plans. HIRE ME, and I'll do a much better job of scheduling things like this.
I have already allocated the rest of my vacation time for the year (Boston, Arizona, and Christmas) so I couldn't take Friday off.
Looking at the Braves slideshow of Friday's festivities brought back some good memories. I remember Game 6 of the 1995 World Series like it was yesterday. Glav's gem of game. Justice's redemption homer. Jumping and screaming like a maniac with my mom when Grissom made the final out. It was a good night. Made my year.
posted by Emily @ 2:36 PM
15 Comments:
*waaaaaaaaaaah*
we can be ticked together. i *heart* steve avery and back before i decided i wasn't having kids, the plan was to name my first born "avery" regardless of whether it was a boy or a girl.
jeremie guthrie (pitcher for the bisons/indians) has a little girl named avery and she is adorable.
lemke... *sniffle*
blauser... *sniffle*
greg mcmichael.. did you catch that show a while back where he showed off his AWESOME basement/bar room with all the baseball memorabilia? it was way cool!!!
Well...
Last nights game was 'fun'...
I was so pissed at Larry...although K-Wood put that pitch in a good spot, Chipper just got ahold of it...
Crap.
That's because Chipper is just the man, and that's the end of it. ;) BTW, Kerry Wood is on my fantasy team, so it hurt a little! But not that much ;)
I had to admit, I wanted to see the Braves win that title in '95. What I remember about that postseason, however, was that it was broadcast by the atrocity that was "The Baseball Network". It was the most ridiculous concept in sports broadcast history, or at least since the pay-per-view "Triplecast" olympic idea. Switching networks back and forth in the middle of the World Series isn't cool.
But my favorite players from those teams, by far, were Steve Avery and Mark Lemke.
Cubs win, Cubs win...
gave that one away early!
Chipper can't be a man until he loses his childhood nickname.
I'm not much of a Mike Piazza fan, but I think he's right-- you can't help but laugh when you call a grown man 'Chipper'.
That's why the Mets have always called him LAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYY
STOP THE PRESSES!
Francouer just walked-- unintentionally.
Sam--YOU'RE KIDDING! Go Frenchie! I'm at work, so I couldn't see the splendid moment. Gotta win this one!
As much of a baseball purist as I am, the Wild Card IS one addition that I fully believe in. You can't argue it's relevance: the last three WS winners have been Wild Card teams. Look it as a redemption for all the sucky teams in the NL West, one of them will get a shot at the playoffs, whereas the NL East is stacked and someone would be denied otherwise.
And you're not THAT old. I, too, remember the Braves bad days...it wasnt that long ago. I grew up 3 hrs from Atl, and my how life has changed.
Thanks for the rec!
Freaking lose two of three...
did you not expect this?
I'm glad they finally decided to go back to the unbalanced schedule. The argument that teams have an easier schedule through an unbalanced schedule is a croc.
Think of it this way. The team with the best record in each league (for this exercise we'll use the White Sox and Cardinals) are going to have "easier" schedules as defined by winning percentage. Why? Because they don't have to play the team with the best record in the league!
And I'm tired of the Cubs bitching that St. Louis has an easier Interleague schedule than they do, because (until 2 years ago) they played 6 games against Kansas City. Fine, then the White Sox have an easier schedule than the Cardinals because they get to play the Cubs 6 times. It goes both ways... of course, MLB has stuck it to the Cubs-- last year, the second STL-KC series was replaced by a STL-SEA series (and at the time of the series, Seattle was worse than the Royals)
And the scheduling has gotten better-- no more of this one week play 3 in Pittsbugh and 3 in New York then the next week (or maybe 2 weeks later) play both Pittsburgh and New York at home... that was too sterile. As is the idea of having designated time on the schedule for Interleague play.
I see two solutions...
1. Contraction-- I am always against this, as it is not fair to take a team away from fans who show up (but would anyone notice if the Devil Rays were gone?) Bring the divisions to an equal number of teams. Drop two teams, and return to a 4-division with 7 teams each. This probably elimintates the wild card... or expands it to two teams from each league.
2. Realignment-- not of the radical kinda. Move Milwaukee back to the American League, or Houston to the National League West (Texas is alread in the AL West), and Arizona (as originally planned) to the AL West. 6-divisions, 5 teams each. This creates an interesting problem, where there must be an interleague series scheduled throughout the season. Hopefully MLB will be smart enough to make the opening day, and final day IL series non-rivalry series.
Just a couple thoughts.
I remember when the Blue Jays won the World Series when I was still in high school… (’94?, ’93 maybe?) – I had fallen asleep and woke up the instant before Joe Carter hit a home run to win it all. It’s still a totally memorable moment for me.
Post a Comment
<< Home