AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2008 > March > 14
Friday, March 14, 2008
You missed Dinosaur City … Soriano to pitch!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Clearwater, Fla. _ With visions of Maria Bartiromo (see early morning comments on previous blog) now mercifully squeezing into brain space previously cluttered with spring-training baseball immersion, we come to you live today from beautiful Bright House Field.
If you haven’t been here or seen pictures, it’s the best ballpark built in Florida in, oh … when was Dodgertown built? Well, since then. Great little park, and Francoeur just hit one onto the thatched roof Frenchy’s burger joint above the left-field corner during batting practice. Seriously, he did.
The drive over from Dark Star used to be absolute hell, but now they’ve finally finished I-4 construction and it’s not bad at all, only about 75 minutes.
Love the scenes out the windows on the drive over, a mix of trailor-park trash culture, kitsch tourism, agriculture, old Florida and industry (distribution centers and such).
Had the Band of Horses’ great second CD blaring, then some Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers live (from a show at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco when they opened for the Dead) and finally, as I rolled into Clearwater, the terrific new John Doe album, his most rockin’ and best solo work to date. Great rock record.
Anyway … driving along, trying to avoid the many Polk County cops in marked and unmarked vehicles handing out tickets in bunches around the Lakeland exits, and I saw this guy enjoying what looked like absolute heaven to me at this point in the six-week spring grind — he was sitting in a bass boat on a huge lake along I-4, looked like his feet were up on the edge of the boat, a line in the water, and not a ripple on the lake or another boat in sight. I doubt he much cared if he got a bite.
What a slice of Americana that road is out there between Orlando and Tampa. A half-dozens RV sales centers, acres and acres of huge gas-guzzling tourist machines for sale, and one place had huge old Airstreams buried nose-down in the ground, their ends sticking straight up in the air, like the famous Cadillac Ranch in Texas.
There’s Dinosaur World just outside Tampa (with a huge sign you see as you drive past, “You’ve just missed Dinosaur World at Exit …” )There’s the Hooters that had the short-lived Hooters Motel behind it, which is now a Hooters with a big weed-filled sandy lot behind it, after they demolished both that impossibly tacky concept and the structure itself.
There’s Plant City, where they still have great strawberries, but no longer have major league spring training (the Reds moved a few years ago, to Sarasota).
And Ybor City in Tampa, the trendy, bar-filled neighborhood with restored buildings and the huge “Home of Cuesta Rey Cigars” sign over the warehouse you see from the road. Love it. So does The Hold Steady, apparently, since that great band has included Ybor City in several of its great songs over the years.
OK, enough with my travelog. I know some of you hate anything not related directly to the Braves, so I’ll stop now.
Smoltz Q&A:Had to go over to Dark Star this morning, opposite direction than Tampa from the rental house, because I needed to do a Q&A with John Smoltz that I’d forgotten about — it’s running tomorrow, should be posted online later today or tonight.
Got lucky and Smoltz was pulling into the players’ lot just as I was (and just as the Braves’ buses were pulling out, headed over here). Did the Q&A with John as we walked to the Braves’ clubhouse over there, then turned around, went back to my car and sped over here.
While I’m thinking about, sorry to those autograph-seeking fans who were standing at the fence by the batting cage at Dark Star when I walked past interviewing Smoltz. I ruined your opportunity. My bad. Had to get that interview done, though, and get on the road.
So now we’re here, and I just got back from the field/dugout, where Braves left field when it started raining. Oh, I didn’t mention that — rain. Thunderstorms expected later. Don’t know if we’ll get all or any of this game in.
As I walked past in the tunnel to the clubhouse, Cox was talking to Hudson about alternate plan if he can’t pitch today because of weather. Heard him say he’d prefer to pitch tomorrow if that’s the case.
Speaking of tomorrow, we have a Rafael Soriano appearance on the docket. Yes, release the pigeons, for the Braves closer is set to make his Grapefruit League debut tomorrow. He’s not pitched all spring because of a sore elbow (and a stomach virus of some kind).
That means Soriano and Smoltz will likely make their spring debuts in the same game, assuming Soriano pitches in the home split-squad game vs. Tampa Bay instead of the road game against Houston. (Jair Jurrjens is scheduled to start against the ‘Stros.)
Smoltz is scheduled to go five innings against the Rays, his first start after three simulated-game sessions (you might have read or heard something about those…). Said he feels great and that he actually threw more in those sessions than he probably would have thrown if he’d pitched in actual games.
”SIN CITY” by Gram Parsons and Chris Hilman
This old town is filled with sin,
It’ll swallow you in
If you’ve got some money to burn.
Take it home right away,
You’ve got three years to pay
But Satan is waiting his turn
This old earthquake’s gonna leave me in the poor house.
It seems like this whole town’s insane
On the thirty-first floor, a gold plated door
Won’t keep out the Lord’s burning rain
The scientists say
It’ll all wash away
But we don’t believe any more
Cause we’ve got our recruits
And our green mohair suits
So please show you ID At the door.
A friend came around
Tried to clean up this town,
His ideas made some people mad.
But he trusted his crowd,
So he spoke right out loud
And they lost the best friend they had
On the thirty-first floor, a gold plated door
Won’t keep out the Lord’s burning rain
