AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > September > 19
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Skip’s back, ready to return to booth
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With my apologies, but the blog isn’t going to be too extensive today. I spent much of the morning on the phone with Skip Caray and writing a story about his recovery from congestive heart failure.
It’s up on ajc.com if you want to read it, but let me just say Skip is doing very well. He is going to finish the season in the booth. It was serious and it was scary - and I’m no doctor so I’ll leave it at that - but it seems the worst is behind him. And if this happens again, he knows what to watch for and how to handle it.
He sounded very positive and funny as always and was especially touched by TBS’s gesture to have him and son Chip work the very last Braves broadcast on TBS. He will have worked the first and the last. Ought to be something special. It’s the last game of the season, Sept. 30 in Houston.
I see Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com just picked the Mark Teixeira trade as his No. 1 of the “starting 9” as the biggest dud move of the trading deadline, as in having little impact down the stretch. He writes: “It’s been a weird deal for Atlanta. Teixeira has been a terrific addition, with a 1.015 OOPS and 43 RBIs in 44 games as a Brave. But he can’t pitch, and as a result, his impact has been negligible.”
That’s a hard point to argue, but let me just say this. Let’s say the Braves had not made the trade, would they be any better off in this pennant race right now? Sure you’d like some of those prospects to build for the future, and the return of another division title hasn’t come, but if you had it to do over again, would you have not pulled the trigger? Just curious. And that’s also given that the Braves couldn’t trade for a starting pitcher. Trust me, they tried that.
Tex has been playing some great defense, hasn’t he? And let’s reflect for just a second on the defense as a whole that we saw last night. Wow. One e-mailer thought I didn’t heap enough praise on Yunel Escobar for the double play he made behind Peter Moylan and he’s probably right.
Some times things - especially defense - get a little lost in the shuffle of a game story. But it was quite a play. For him to bare-hand the feed from Edgar Renteria, and it was the only way he could get the ball, which was a little behind him, and in one fluid motion turn and fire to first. It was something special to see. And it was key in the game as well.
And of course, there was Andruw’s catch that saved the game 4-3 in the eighth inning. With 11 games to go now in the season, tell me you didn’t think it. That when you saw that, oh my, what the heck are the Braves doing if they give that up in center field. I know there are 3,002 (or .200) reasons you are ready for the Braves to part ways with him, but I, for one, would feel a little sick to my stomach to see him making plays like that in another city.
Isn’t that like breaking up with a boyfriend when you loved his family and friends? Or his spaghetti? Or his backrubs? Something. Work with me.
Here’s what Matt Diaz had to say about that catch, which happened a couple innings after he made a pretty terrific catch himself.
“The funny thing is, it was the most unbelievable catch you’ll see all night,” Diaz said. “It should be No. 1 on top plays, but the whole time he was going to catch it, I fully expected it. I was like ‘He’s got that.’ Sadly, we take it for granted, because that’s unbelievable.”
The reporter who asked the question said “We’re spoiled.” And everybody in that little scrum nodded, like yeah, we’re all spoiled.
And a couple things that didn’t make it in my notebook yesterday for whatever reason:
• The Braves dear and wonderful usher Walter Banks is going to be featured on a show on ESPN tonight called “Never Miss a Game” at 7 p.m. It’s a one-hour special highlighting some of the stars of the game like Cal Ripken, Jr., Bob Uecker, Bruce Froemming, Ichiro Suzuki and Omar Minaya, as well as some special baseball people you might not necessarily know like 4-year-old Orioles fan Ray Daughert and Banks, who has manned the Turner box for years. One of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.
Erin Andrews is hosting, which might be enough to make some of you watch anyway. Ahem.
• With his homer Monday, Andruw Jones became the 14th player in major league history to have 10 consecutive seasons of 25 or more homers. It was only his sixth homer in his last 51 games.
Chipper Jones needs seven RBIs to reach 100 for the ninth time in his career….He was named one of five NL finalists Tuesday for the Hank Aaron award for overall offensive production.
