AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 22
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Braves, Mets will separate from field
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Go figure this: Here we are at Shea Stadium in Queens, masses of people coming over the walkover bridge from the 7 Train, and Edwin McCann is standing behind home plate playing an acoustic mini-concert.
Yes, Greenville, S.C.’s own McCain. He just sang “I Could Not Ask for More” and got a good round of applause from the folks already in the stadium, most of them still on their way to their seats.
Anyway, big game today, Smoltz vs. Glavine, Round II (not counting their 2005 matchup). Just did an interview on Baseball Tonight where they wanted to know how the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry plays in Atlanta, the idea being this Braves-Mets series is big but getting overshadowed by Yanks-Red Sox.
What I wanted to tell them was, yeah, it’s overshadowed because you guys at ESPN pump up the Yanks-Red Sox rivalry beyond all reasonable proportion and ram it down everyone’s throats until they submit and buy into the notion that it’s the biggest rivaly in the history of the planet.
But I settled for telling Karl that I thought Yanks-Red Sox was overdone and that in Atlanta, Carolina-Duke is bigger (I would’ve said Georgia-Georgia Tech and Auburn-Alabama were bigger, but didn’t want them thinking I’m some myopic regional rube who can’t put things in perspective on a national basis _ but of course, we know those two rivalries are indeed bigger, don’t we?)
Anyway, today’s game: Big because of Smoltz-Glavine, but more so because the Braves would obviously much prefer to leave New York leading the division by a half-game than trailing the Mets by 1-1/2, since the Braves won’t see them again until late May and won’t be back at Shea until August.
Talking to venerable NY Times scribe Murray Chass before the game, and we were in agreement that these two teams seem a good bet to both make the playoffs. And I was telling him how I’ve changed my view of that since the start of spring training, when I doubted that the wild card would come from the NL East.
At that time I thought the East teams would beat each other up too much during the season to allow any of them to win enough games to win the wild card. But at that time I thought there would be at least three and probably four very competitive teams in the division.
Now, I believe the Braves and Mets are clearly the best teams and will separate themselves from the others. The Phillies are the Phillies _ they can’t get out of their own way, year after year after year, no matter what moves they make.
And the Marlins, as I suspected and wrote, were too young to expect all those first- or second-year guys who met or surpassed all expectations last season to stay healthy this year and continue to progress. Some were going to get hurt, some were going to take a step back.
They had no key injuries last year, and have already had several this season. Now Miguel Cabrera has a strained side, and without him their offense is lackluster. Braves really need to win at least two of three in that series, though they’ll have to beat either Dontrelle Willis on Monday or Scott Olsen on Wednesday to do that. (Rick Vanden Hurk is pitching the middle game).
BOOM _ first pitch Kelly Johnson homer: As I was writing that last sentence Kelly Johnson just hit Tom Glavine’s first pitch over the right-field fence. Wow. 1-0.
Now they’re booing Chipper Jones like crazy. A few minutes ago they cheered like crazy when Tom Glavine was introduced. They love the guy here now, apparently more than willing to look past his fall flirtation with the Braves _ of course, if he wasn’t 3-1 with a 2.70 ERA before today, they’d probably not be quite so willing to forgive.
Alright, I’m gonna keep this blog short. Just wanted to get something new posted so you guys would have a clean slate to fire away during the game.
Lance Cormier makes his first rehab start today for Rome, at home vs. Columbus. That game’s at 2 p.m. I’ll let you know when I hear anything.
He’s tentatively scheduled to make three rehab starts, but that could change depending on how he feels, of course.
One other thing, on Andruw: Maybe he decided that his first two-hit game was reason enough to skip batting practice, because he didn’t take it today. Neither did Chipper, but Chipper’s hitting a bit better, if I’m not mistaken.
Hey, B.P. usually isn’t mandatory for these Sunday day games (it was optional today), and Bobby lets his veteran stars have a lot of leeway anyway.
I’d just think that with Andruw struggling as much as he has this season, and with that batting stance looking so particularly awkward right now _ I mean, can a hitter possibly get his legs spread out wider in a stance? _ you’d think Andruw would want to get in their and try to work it out.
But hey, what do I know? He’s hit 92 homers the past couple of seasons, right?
But between you and me, I think all the home runs have had almost a negative effect on Andruw’s overall offense. By that I mean, there’s no reason that he can’t be a more complete hitter, who hits for closer to a .300 average than a .260 average, and who can hit .300 or better with runners in scoring position instead of what he’s done in those situations in recent years.
But again, he’s done alright for himself and he’s going to break the bank as a free agent and probably hit 500-600 homers in his career. And I guess that and 15-16 Gold Gloves and a deserved rep as the best CF in the game ain’t too bad, right?
I guess. But you just wonder just how much there is there that could still be tapped.
“CARL PERKINS’ CADILLAC” by Mike Cooley (Drive-By Truckers)
Life ain’t nothing but a blending up of all the ups and downs
Dammit Elvis, don’t you know/You made your Mama so proud
Before you ever made that record, before there ever was a Sun
Before you ever lost that Cadillac that Carl Perkins won
Mr. Phillips found old Johnny Cash and he was high
High before he ever took those pills and he’s still too proud to die
Mr. Phillips never said anything behind nobody’s back
Like “Dammit Elvis, don’t he know, he ain’t no Johnny Cash”
If Mr. Phillips was the only man that Jerry Lee still would call sir
Then I guess Mr. Phillips did all of y’all about as good as you deserve
He did just what he said he was gonna do/ and the money came in sacks
New contracts and Carl Perkins’ Cadillac
I got friends in Nashville, or at least they’re folks I know
Nashville is where you go to see if what they said is so
Carl drove his brand new Cadillac to Nashville/ and he went downtown
This time they promised him a Grammy/He turned his Cadillac around
Mr. Phillips never blew enough hot air/ to need a little gold plated paperweight
He promised him a Cadillac and put the wind in Carl’s face
He did just what he said he was gonna do and the money came in sacks
New contracts and Carl Perkins’ Cadillac
Dammit Elvis, I swear son I think it’s time you came around
Making money you can’t spend/ ain’t what being dead’s about
You gave me all but one good reason not to do all the things you did
Now Cadillacs are fiberglass, if you were me you’d call it quits
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