AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > August > 17
Friday, August 17, 2007
Tex ditty goes big city
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m taking a sabbatical from the heavy talk today - the will it be wild card or will it be division - I’m too distracted.
This is just too good. Have y’all heard about this yet? The YouTube clip of a couple guys from Alabama singing their ode to Mark Teixeira?
The musicianship, the lyrics, the delivery. The fact that they do the entire song without busting out. It’s great. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.
But first, the link: It’s here.
Jeff Francoeur got wind of it and e-mailed the guys, offering them tickets to a Braves game and a meet-and-greet with Tex. Then the Braves went one step farther.
The Braves public relations folks, who’d been forwarded the link, invited these guys to the game August 31 (vs. the Mets, no less) to perform their song in the plaza. They’re also going to record the song in HD on the dugout, so the stadium folks can play it on the video board during pre-game stuff or a rain delay.
I don’t want to spoil it by sharing any lyrics. But the song is catchy. Try watching this video a couple times, then watching a Braves game and not have the tune in your head when Teixeira comes to the plate.
I just called the guys. They were great. Both are Auburn students from Alabama and longtime Braves fans. (They are, surprisingly, not regulars on this blog; I just know there’s some serious talent out there among you guys. Maybe they will be denizens now.) Let’s welcome the brothers in. We’re gonna light up their YouTube posting, right?
Andrew Hall is 23. He’s the one without the guitar, who does the Bobby Cox “Let’s go Mark T” line. He’s a masters’ student in physical education.
“All my teachers used to tell me I wouldn’t get anywhere goofing around,” Hall said. “At least I have for the last couple days.”
These are two guys who like doing some goofy stuff. Tyler Crawford, 20, a junior and a nursing student at Auburn - the one with the guitar - said the two of them once tired to break an egg toss world record at the Auburn intramural fields. They got to 90 yards, but alas - the record was 107.
They wrote the song sitting around the house watching the Braves the night of the trade. Teixeira didn’t play in the game that night, as you know, but when they saw him introduced, they felt the buzz all the way to Auburn. (And no, not any alcohol buzz, in case you were wondering.)
“We were talking about writing a song, and we had been talking about needing something to inspire us for some words,” Crawford said. “All of a sudden we saw Mark Teixeira, we’re like ‘Dude, Mark Teixeira tribute, we gotta do it.’ Thirty minutes later, we were writing the song. I picked up the guitar. We did the first line, and we were laughing hysterically. We couldn’t stop laughing. It just went from there.”
It helped that there’s lots to rhythm with Teixeira. (Scarlett O’Hara, no less.) The guys needed four takes to get the words down, and to stop laughing.
They first posted the video on facebook so their friends could see it. Hall and Crawford, who both work at the IT help desk at Auburn, decided to put it on YouTube.
“He’d tell me ‘Hey man, we got over 100 hits!’” Crawford said. “I’m like ‘Yeah, that’s awesome.’”
They thought that was exciting. The YouTube site was up to 9,000 hits by the middle of the day Friday. How ‘bout adding a few more now?
They were so excited when Francoeur posted a note to them, once they figured out it wasn’t a prank, that they called each other at the same time. And now they’ve got free tickets to the Braves game. And can meet Tex.
“Maybe they can talk him into catching some balls at first base for me,” said Hall, who pitched and played shortstop in high school and said he pitched a little bit at Auburn.
In the meantime, they’ve got some rehearsing to do. Crawford said the most people he’s ever performed in front of is maybe 300 kids once at a summer camp. Something tells me there will be a few more walking through the Turner Field plaza that night.
Too funny. And you gotta love how the internet connects people. I do.
How ‘bout a little replay, eh?
OK, and while I love the Braves’ reaction to this little Teixeira ditty, I have to gripe about one thing from last night at the game. I was there as a spectator, down there boiling with the masses, and I was sitting there with my jaw in my lap at the end of the game when I saw Rajai Davis go up and take that homer from Andruw.
Or I think he took a homer away.
I needed to see it again. I’m programmed to seeing it again. We all are from watching TV (or hey, at least sitting in the press box, where TVs aren’t far away). But either because it was the last out of the game or because it was a Giant and not a Brave doing the feat (more likely), we didn’t get to see a replay. And trust me, I wasn’t the only one in the crowd left wanting more.
Let’s make some exceptions sometimes and treat Braves fans like baseball people. Cause a ton of them are, you know what I’m saying?
The heat? Is on.
So tonight we have that totally lopsided-looking Brandon Webb vs. Lance Cormier matchup. Webb - he of the 33-inning scoreless streak - vs. Cormier of the 13.50 ERA. Webb hasn’t given up a run since July 20. He’s had back-to-back complete game shutouts in his last two starts.
Is there anything the Braves can do?
Well, that got me to thinking. It’s supposed to be 91 degrees at first pitch tonight and feel like 95. Last night it had to be in the mid to upper 90s until about the 7th inning. Heck, it felt like Arizona but without the retractable roof.
So how would an Arizona pitcher fare in that kind of heat?
Surely he’s conditioned to walking to his car and back in that kind of heat but what about pitching in it?
Webb’s last start against the Nationals was at home, inside, in the AC. Two starts ago in Los Angeles, game time temperature was 79 degrees. Three starts ago in San Diego, it was - what else - 71 degrees with a nice breeze coming in off San Diego Bay. The time before that was at home.
You get the idea. About the closest thing he’s had to a hot day was in Cincinnati on July 7. It was 87 at first pitch. He gave up four earned runs that day and the DBacks lost.
Grabbing at straws? Maybe. But dude, all I’m saying is, it’s hot!!! What do you have to say?
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