AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 27
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Are you ready for some baseball?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Something tells me that more than a few of you will be watching a game on ESPN Friday that will mean absolutely nothing in any actual standings that matter, and indeed will be all but forgotten in a week or less.
Yes, I get a sense that a lot of you folks are excited about watching the Braves play the Pirates on Friday night. And I gotta tell you, if I wasn’t covering the game I think I’d be watching it on TV myself. Seriously.
Not only will it offer the chance to see John Smoltz make the first start of what could be his final spring and season in a Braves uniform _ I don’t think it will be; I think he’ll be back _ but it will also feature one of the new Braves bullpen intimidators, lefty Mike Gonzalez, scheduled to make his Atlanta debut. Against his old team, to boot.
If I didn’t know better, I’d suspect Bobby Cox adopted some of the NFL’s schedule-making ways with that one, having Gonzalez open by pitching an inning against his former team. But I do know better, and can’t imagine that Bobby gave that any consideration. But we’ll ask him after today’s workout, if I remember to.
Anyway, back to the anticipation. Maybe I’m overstating it, but correct me if I’m wrong: For a team coming off a disappointing season, there sure seems to be a lot of anticipation and genuine excitement about these Braves from hardcore fans _ not to mention the players.
Bloggers here at Braves/Man in Black keep saying how offended they are that the Braves are only picked third in the division by many prognosticators, and Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones and other players have commented that getting their butts kicked last year and getting knocked off the pedestal, then getting little “respect” from the pundits entering this season, has them stoked.
(By the way, a belated happy birthday to the late, great, Man in Black himself _ John R. Cash would’ve been 75 yesterday. I bought his remastered old “Silver” CD for $8 last week at Virgin records here in my first couple days. It’s been played often since. Also brought the debut “Fabulous Johnny Cash” CD down with me, and the entire Unearthed five-CD box set; again, simply timeless, essential stuff.)
(OK, wait, just mentioned it was Cash’s birthday to the AP guy here, Paul Newberry, and we just spent 10 minutes talking Cash, about the fifth and final album in the American Recordings series produced by Rick Rubin, where you can practically hear Johnny dying, but still somehow sound larger than life with that once-booming voice cracking and fading…)
So that’s why this blog’s being filed a few minutes later. Sorry, but even deadlines can wait a few minutes for a Cash conversation.
Now, back to anticipation. I’ll bet most of you would agree that missing the playoffs last year was a lot better for this organization than getting there and probably losing in the first round (given the state of their pitching last year) would have been.
That getting out from under that 14-year division title streak _ I know, seems an odd way to put it, but it’s true _ and being able to refocus on the real goal _ a pennant and maybe a World Series _ and doing the necessary things to try and do that despite a restrictive payroll, that’s what Braves fans are pleased may have occured because of what happened last June, when the Braves went through a 3-20 stretch that ended an era, for all intents and purposes.
A very good era, mind you. Fourteen division titles is nothing to sneeze at, despite how hard it is to appreciate sometimes when you’re as close to it as the Braves and their fans have been, which tends to distort context and reality.
Believe me, having covered the Marlins for a lot of years, having talked to team officials and players in every other city in the majors, I’ve been repeatedly told that every team but the Yankees and possibly the Cardinals would’ve gladly traded places with the Braves and what they did over the past 15 years.
That’s nothing to do with my own opinion on the matter, that’s what I’m told by players, managers, GMs in other cities. Again and again.
But that’s the past now. The Braves won only one World Series during their run, so it’ll never be considered a true dynasty by most sports fans and history buffs. And I agree _ you’ve gotta win more than one big championship to have a dynasty.
So it was a very good era. There’s plenty to be said for longevity.
But now we’re here, about to start anew, no division-title streak to continue, nothing to look back and try to protect. And I think that’s been a weight off the players’ and the entire organization’s shoulders.
Now they can just look ahead, both eyes on the future. The moves they made this winter, trading for Gonzalez and Soriano, will help the team now and for the next couple of years, at least. These were not moves of desperation, but sound moves designed to shore up the most glaring weakness from last year’s team and to help assure that wouldn’t be a problem area again for the forseeable future.
Think about Gonzalez, and how the Braves, unlike almost any other team, have a proven commodity waiting in the wings to move into the closer role, and a guy who won’t be making a budget-crippling salary for a couple more years, at least.
Gonzalez told me this morning, only half-joking I suspect, that he likes it so much with the Braves that he was going to go to John Schuerholz and ask for a multi-year contract. He said once Soriano arrived a few days ago, the bullpen felt “complete” and everyone got even more excited.
The fact that a guy [Gonzalez] who converted 24 of 24 saves last season, then was traded to a team that plans to use him in a setup role, the fact that he’s happy in his situation says something. Don’t you think?
Anyway, they’ve got the tarp on the field, a storm headed this way from Tampa. It feels like baseball now, getting more humid, temp pushing toward 80. Time to play some ball.
But right now, got to get down to the clubhouse, because the workout’s ended by the pending rain.
At this time tomorrow, the Bravos and the Georgia Tech fellas will be hittin’ it and throwin’ it a little. Then on Thursday, Braves vs. Dodgers. And then on Friday, Braves vs. Pirates on the tube.
Ya’ll ready for some baseball? (Maybe we can get Hank III to record that for the blog, so when you click on the page, his reedy voice says that in his distinct twang?)
BLOCK EDITING: OK, I’M BACK. FALSE ALARM ON THE WORKOUT ENDING. THEY PULLED OFF THE TARP AND THE BRAVES ARE ON THE FIELD TAKING BATTING PRACTICE. CARRY ON.
