AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 20
Friday, April 20, 2007
They’re sure ready at old Shea
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just got off the 7 Train with more Braves players than I can ever remember seeing on that venerable old line from Grand Central Terminal. They must have finally gotten tired of getting stuck in traffic in cabs or the team bus.
Anyway, this Braves-Mets series starting tonight at Shea is big, folks.
No, not big enough to knock A-Rod and the Yankees off the front and back pages of the ever-understated tabloids _ “WOW!” and “A-Rod hits amazing 10th homer” on the front and “A-MONSTER!” on the back of the NY Post; “Deja Boom” on front and “RED HOT” on back of NY Daily News _ but it’s big nonetheless.
If you don’t believe me just listen to the first-place and defending NL East champion Mets, whose 10-4 record is the best in the majors (Braves’ 10-5 is third-best).
“It’s still early, but the Braves on a Friday night at Shea Stadium is going to be huge,” Mets catcher Paul Lo Duca told the Post.
“Met fans love when Atlanta comes into town,” Mets manager Willie Randolph told the Post (and he could have added that Met fans also love it when the Mets come to Atlanta, but that would have been a cheap shot).
“I don’t put a real lot of emphasis on early season stuff, but when you’re playing within the division, when you’re playing the Braves, it’s an early big series for us. The place should be rocking.”
No doubt about that. I just want to get through a few more Braves-Mets series here without the place crumbling beneath the din of foot-stomping, “Lar-ry” mocking New Yorkers who pack the place for weekend series against the boys from the South.
They’re building that beautiful new park with the unfortunate name “Citi Field” with two “I’s,” not a “y,” because CitiGroup or however it’s spelled is paying such an absurdly high sum that it can tell them to name it whatever they damn well please.
They’re building the thing as we speak _ or as we blog _ beyond the center and right fields of the current edifice, and it’s going to be nice. It really is.
Well, other than the fact it’s still going to be located in Flushing and presumably within a Carlos Delgado home run of plenty of chop shops (unless they force all those lovely “auto repair shops” to leave, which they’re probably going to do, I’d imagine, but for the sake of this blog let’s act like they’re not).
So how hot are the Mets? They’re hot. Very hot. They just won all three games on a rain-truncated road trip (I just said truncated _ yess!), two at Philly and one at Florida.
All they did was hit .377 with a 1.33 ERA while outscoring those guys 28-6 in the three games. That’s all.
The Braves, meanwhile, have hit just .229 and scored 27 runs in their past SEVEN GAMES, going 3-4 in that stretch. Yikes.
It’s warm here in NY, and it’ll be warm, of course, in Florida. So time to drop the cold-weather excuse and start getting some knocks.
Andruw has been bad early before: The Braves center fielder has looked pretty lost at the plate so far this season, but it’s hardly the first time Andruw Jones has struggled in April.
So I wouldn’t get too concerned. As anyone who’s followed the Braves for any length would tell you, he’s as streaky a productive hitter as there is in the game today, able to carry a team for several weeks, then become an out machine for two or three weeks at a stretch. He is what he is.
He’s hitting .170 with three homers, eight RBIs and a whopping 17 strikeouts in 53 at-bats over 15 games. He hasn’t had more than one hit in any game.
But remember in 2005? Andruw hit .182 with two homers, nine RBIs and 19 strikeouts in 21 games through April 26. Then hit .275 with 49 homers and 119 RBIs in 139 games the rest of the season. He hit nine homers that May and hit .317 with 13 homers and 26 RBIs in June.
Then there was last season, when he turned it around by starting out at .317 with eight homers and 23 RBis in his first 16 games. Remember what happened next? He hit one homer and struck out 30 times in 108 at-bats over his next 29 games.
He is what he is. A terrific defensive outfielder and a streaky hitter with prodigious power when he’s in a groove. When he’s struggling, he’s really struggling.
Oh, yesterday was pretty boring, huh? Riiiight. Between trying to find out something about the Gonzalez MRI and then having that very interesting conversation with Willy Aybar’s agent in late morning, it was a lot of work before noon the day of a night game. Thankfully, Ms. Rogers was covering the game itself. Or that 4:45 a.m. wakeup call today might’ve been even worse.
Haven’t heard anything yet, and might not hear much today, regarding Aybar’s scheduled meeting with MLB officials here in NY. I’ll try to reach the agent again, but I’m guessing he’s going to be unlikely to pick up the phone this time, after the avalanche of calls he got when our story was posted.
This stuff is generally kept close to the vest by both team and MLB officials, because of potential legal issues, etc. But we’ll try to find out what’s going on.
As for Gonzalez, that was obviously the best news the Braves and their lefty reliever could have hoped for yesterday, that MRI that revealed no structural damage. And with the weather warm here in NY, expected to be close to 70 Saturday and Sunday, and then 80 degrees in Florida, perhaps it’ll be easier for him to get back to being himself.
We’ll see. I agree that cold weather shouldn’t affect a guy’s velocity and location as much as he believes it did his, especially a guy who’s pitched in Pittsburgh for several years.
But I do believe that by June, if not sooner, Gonzalez will be a lot closer to his old form than he has been so far. Keep in mind, he didn’t throw at all in September and October, then started his winter program later than usual because of the elbow tendinitis that had him on the DL for the last five weeks of the season.
OK, gotta get down to the clubhouse.
Since we’re near Jersey, let’s turn it over to the The Boss. The real one.
”THE RIVER” by Bruce Springsteen
I come from down in the valley/where mister when you’re young
They bring you up to do like your daddy done
Me and Mary we met in high school/when she was just seventeen
We’d ride out of that valley down to where the fields were green
We’d go down to the river/And into the river we’d dive
Oh down to the river we’d ride
Then I got Mary pregnant/and man that was all she wrote
And for my nineteenth birthday/ I got a union card and a wedding coat
We went down to the courthouse/and the judge put it all to rest
No wedding day smiles no walk down the aisle/No flowers no wedding dress
That night we went down to the river/And into the river we’d dive
Oh down to the river we did ride
I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company
But lately there ain’t been much work/ on account of the economy
Now all them things that seemed so important/Well mister they vanished right into the air
Now I just act like I don’t remember/Mary acts like she don’t care
But I remember us riding in my brother’s car/Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir
At night on them banks I’d lie awake/And pull her close just to feel each breath she’d take
Now those memories come back to haunt me/they haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true/Or is it something worse
That sends me down to the river/though I know the river is dry
That sends me down to the river tonight
Down to the river/my baby and I
Ohh, down to the river we ride
