AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 06
Friday, April 6, 2007
This series feels bigger than April
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s only the first week of the season, so it’s silly to make too much out of a one series. But this three-gamer with the Mets does feel a little more important than just any April series, doesn’t it?
There are reasons, of course. The fact that the Mets snapped the Braves’ string of 14 division titles last season and ended up running away with the NL East, finishing 18 games ahead of the Braves and 12 ahead of the Phillies.
That’s a big one, no doubt.
And the fact that plenty of folks believe these two teams will take it to the wire this year, the Braves with their beefed-up bullpen and the Mets with their same juggernaut lineup but an injury-riddled pitching staff.
Each of them swept their opening series, the Mets destroying the Cards 20-2 in St. Louis and the Braves taking three in Philly, including a pair of extra-inning games. The Braves only had 16 hits there, but six were homers, including four in late-and-close situations.
Then there’s the little matchup on tap for tomorrow, Smoltz vs. Glavine on national TV, the first time the close friends and longtime Braves rotation mates will square off in Atlanta and only the second time they’ve faced each other anywhere.
They each pitched seven innings of one-run ball in a July 2005 matchup in New York, with Smoltz getting the win.
After Glavine considered returning to the Braves this past offseason, before deciding to re-sign with the Mets when the Braves couldn’t make trades fast enough to clear up payroll and make him an offer before the winter meetings.
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of response Glavine gets from the Turner Field fans, who haven’t been very kind in his previous return visits. Folks, far be it from me to tell you how to act, because you pay for your tickets and have a right to boo anyone you damn well please.
But seriously, for what this guy did for the Atlanta Braves, isn’t it time to perhaps put aside feelings about his union stance or his decision to take a better offer from the Mets when he left five years ago?
If all of us knew exactly how the negotiations transpired that time, and how late it was before the Braves raised their initial offer (which was far below the Mets’ initial offer), well … oh, nevermind. I’m just saying, who cares about all that at this point?
Or, rather, who cares enough to let it continue to override what he did for the Braves, night-in, night-out, never missing a start, and pitching some pretty great games for the Braves in the postseason (and no, I’m not talking about his last Braves postseason vs. San Francisco, when he was bad, without question. I’m talking about a couple of rather huge games years before).
But like I said, far be it from me to tell you how to act. Just seems like a guy that is going to win 300 games and go to the Hall of Fame, almost certainly with a Braves hat on his Cooperstown bust, might eventually get polite applause or no worse than indifference. The booing? I don’t get that. Not this many years later.
OK, I’ll get off my soapbox on that one. If you boo, you boo. You’re well within your rights. You’re paying enough for the tickets that me or no one else should be able to tell you who to applaud and who to heckle.
But the series. That’s what we were talking about before I got sidetracked.
You folks coming out to this weekend are going to dig the new video montage they’ve put together. It’s about time the Braves showcased all their tradition and utilized that ginormous video board to its fullest potential.
Something about seeing Hank’s homer and Sid Bream’s slide and all the other highlights on that huge board.
Bundle up and enjoy if you’re coming out here. It’s gonna be chilly but sunny, and the field is as green as you can imagine. And hopefully if you’re coming tonight, you want have to go through the traffic snarl I just encountered.
Amazing how we just came from a city that’s bigger than Atlanta, but doesn’t have nearly the traffic. I think people in Philly know how to drive a lot more aggressively in traffic.
Van the Man is coming: Van Morrison is playing Chastain at the end of the month, tickets on sale tomorrow. Yessss…..
Kings of Leon rule: These Southern boys have put out another outstanding record, Because of the Times. Only listened to it twice, once driving in Philly and once driving today. And given that I wanted to scream (actually did a couple times) at fellow drivers in the traffic snarl, yet still enjoyed the CD, that’s a great sign. Don’t know if it’s as great as their first two full-length CDs, but it’s close. And a little different.
Alright, gotta get down to the clubhouse. I’ve been up since 5 a.m., working on fumes. But it’s the home opener. Let’s do this.
“GRAND TOUR” by G. Richey, C. Taylor & N. Wilson
and sung by The Possum, George Jones
Step right up,/ come on in
If you’d like to take the grand tour
Of a lonely house that once was home sweet home
I have nothing here to sell you/Just some things that I will tell you
Some things I know will chill you to the bone
Over there/ sits the chair
Where she brang the paper to me
And sit down on my knee and whisper, Oh I love you
But now she’s gone forever/And this old house will never be the same
Without the love that we once knew
Straight ahead/ that’s the bed
Where we lay and love together
And lord knows we had a good thing going here
See her picture on the table
Don’t it look like she’d be able
Just to touch me and say, Good morning, dear
There’s her rings/ all her things
And her clothes are in the closet
like she left them when she tore my world apart
As you leave you’ll see the nursery/Oh she left me without mercy
Taking nothing but our baby and my heart
Step right up, come on in
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