AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 21
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
No need to remind these Braves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s 9:57 a.m. and the Bravos are bounding out of the dugout here at Dark Star Stadium, aka the Ballpark at Disney’s Wide World of Sports, with one, two, three … seven camera crews on the steps, chronicling this event for posterity (and also because the box of Dunkin’ donuts one of them brought to the dugout is empty, save for one with nasty pink frosting).
Actually, I take that back. The players are not bounding. Major leaguers don’t bound before 10 a.m., at least not before stretching. I do think I see one prospect bounding. He’ll learn.
OK, it’s sunny, brilliant blue skies, temperature already about 60 degrees. It’s freakin’ beautiful here, folks. But let’s go back an hour.
Me and another reporter were sitting in Bobby Cox’s office, just the three of us and a tempting, unopened box of Macanudo cigars a foot away from me on the manager’s desk. It was literally a couple of minutes before the manager was about to go into the clubhouse and address the squad before the first full-squad workout.
He looked at us and asked us what we’d say to the team. He was half-serious, I think. Cox sounded as if he honestly wasn’t sure what the speech was going to be this year, in the first spring after the Braves’ division-title streak was over.
But he also didn’t seem too concerned, as if this was one spring when he wouldn’t need to light a fire under the boys.
Players have always said Cox’s speeches before the first workout are gems, the first and sometimes only time he really addresses them at length, as a group, unless something atypical comes up later in the season.
But this year he won’t have to remind them about how everybody’s aiming to end their streak. He probably did remind them about the proud tradition and all the Braves who’ve put it on the line before them and all that.
But really, this group and Cox already seem particularly motivated, more hungry than they’ve been in some time. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.
Now, will that amount to anything once the games start, will it give the Braves an edge that might actually help them get off to a good start? I have no idea. No one does. Anyone who says they know is lying.
But it sure beats the alternative _ bored, taking things for granted, assuming this year will be like every other and the Braves will be in the postseason.
Don’t know how many of them may have felt that way in any past year, but none do now.
Craig Wilson has a sense of humor. Just met him this morning. Still got long hair, which I asked him about. Just asked him if any team official had mentioned it to him, if it mattered.
“What’s wrong with my hair?” he said. “Is it bad? I just got it cut last week.”
Seems like a good dude. For instance, someone asked him about Mike Gonzalez, his teammate in Pittsburgh. He thought a moment. “He’s left-handed. He throws hard.” Wilson looked around, smiled, and said, “His girlfriend’s hot.”
When I asked him about his decision to sign with the Braves, if they’d told him then what positions he was likely to play, he said with mock seriousness, “I heard center field is wide open. I figured with my speed….”
Edgar Renteria looks very fit. The shortstop was fit last year, looks even better this spring. Said he split his winter between his homes in Colombia and Miami, where he has a place on South Beach. I’ve known Edgar since he was an 18-year-old Marlins rookie. I told him he has a rough life these days. He smiled. I told him I saw his friend Shakira at the Grammys. “Yeah, did you go?” he asked. Then he realized what he’d just said, remembered I’m an ink-stained wretch and not a millionaire athlete from same country (Colombia) as Shakira.
“No, you didn’t go,” he said, smiling. “Did she win?”
Oh, she won, I said. Don’t know if she won any awards, but she always wins.
Chris Woodward is sick. No, not in a good way, like the kids say ‘sick.’ He’s actually sick, in a bad, painful way. The Braves’ new veteran utility man has a sinusitis, a very unpleasant condition, as those of you who’ve had it know. He’s not in camp today, and might miss a couple of more days….
Willy Aybar also has visa problems. The infielder is still in the Dominican, waiting for his visa. Bobby Cox didn’t know when Aybar would get here. Meanwhile, reliever Rafael Soriano had his visa appointment yesterday in the D.R. and could be here by tomorrow.
OK, that’s it. A newsy blog, without music. Gotta have some music. We’ll get back to some music later. Listened to David Allan Coe’s “I Still Sing the Old Songs” and Steve Earle’s “Mercenary Song” on that new Heartworn Highways soundtrack on the way to the park this morning, from the 1976 documentary, but with songs just restored and released as a soundtrack for the first time in 2006. That’s a real good album. A 21-year-old Earle, picking and impressing the oldsters with his talent, 10 years before his first album came out.
