AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2008 > April > 11
Friday, April 11, 2008
Time for a turnaround
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Blogging it to you live from 30,000 feet today, high above Greensboro, then Richmond, and so on, or so the pilot tells me. Hard to see what’s down there through the clouds. ….
Actually I’m not exactly live. I started this on my flight up to DC but I will push the “send” button once I’m back on the ground in a hotel room. I’m not sure what would happen if I stuck my wireless card in the laptop and got on the Internet now, whether a Delta flight attendant would come and smack me up side my head for interfering with the plane’s navigation system, as they say.
Probably wouldn’t, but hey, I’m a wimp about breaking rules. I never liked being sent to the principal’s office. I never was, in fact.
Anyway, I’m sitting next to a guy who’s reading his Sports Illustrated baseball preview as he’s been intensely reading about the Kansas City Royals. Either this guy is a totally legit fan, or the Royals are on to something. Somebody call Dayton Moore! (Not to belittle their 6-3 start…They are, apparently, on to something.)
Too bad I pick up the Braves on this trip with a little less excitement going on, by comparison. But time for a turnaround. (Maybe I’ll actually be a boost to the luck of team this year. I’m 1-0. There, that’s my scientific study.) But hey, all reasons for concern aside — Soriano, Schafer, Hampton — how can you not like a Nats series with Tim Hudson, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine going, at sea level (basically), against a team all three have pitched well against? Oh and a team that has lost seven in a row.
So they’ll be going without Rafael Soriano. I’m beginning to think my brother was right to be a little worried about this bullpen. But we’ll see how the closer-by-committee situation works out.
Interesting to see how swiftly the Braves acted on Chuck James yesterday. Wild. Ineffective. Lasted only three innings. Send him to Richmond to figure it out. Last year he would have made eight more starts. See how this pitching depth stuff works? (Or I should say starting pitching depth.)
Anyway, I’m anxious to see what Nationals Park looks like and glad that I won’t be quite as frisked as DOB was when he came here for the opener a couple of weeks ago with the Prez and all.
After beating the Braves that night and winning the next two, the Nats have fallen back to earth - 0-7 since. Also hear attendance hasn’t been so good. Only half-full stadium since the sell-out for opening night. Wow. And these are the people who were filling up my inbox for years with why baseball needed to come back to the nation’s capital? And they’ve got this beautiful (I hear) new stadium and only half filled it up in Game 2! Hey I’m all for getting baseball back here. But geez, that’s lame.
That’s the kind of thing that should only happen after 14 years of winning divisions….hm. I know. It’s hard to throw stones from the ATL. And some of the excuses given by our friend Stan Kasten were sounding a little familiar.
He blamed the weather, and at one point the NCAA basketball title game. Hey, it’s not like Georgetown was playing Villanova or anything. At least he didn’t say it was because school was in session.
So, as I head to meet the team, and without a whole lot of access to the players for four days, let me turn to our baseball notes network to fill you guys with a few tidbits, before I get out to the stadium. (And land on the ground. So does this make me an official member of the mile-high blogging club? … Not quite the same, is it. Hmm.)…
Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos is apparently playing a little nicer with the Nats these days. Apparently he’s not quite so threatened anymore. And actually he’s now in business with them through their local TV network. He actually said golly gee, it’ll be OK if Oriole fans go to see a few Nats games.
“There’s no law against visiting the other franchise,” Angelos told the Baltimore Sun. “One’s a National League city and one’s an American League city….We definitely want them to succeed. We’re partners in the MASN baseball network, and we have an excellent relationship with the Lerner family [the Nationals owners] and with [team president] Stan Kasten, who is an old friend of mine.”
And from Tracy Ringolsby with the Rocky Mountain News who writes that Rockies manager Clint Hurdle asked Bobby Cox to be an assistant coach on his NL staff for the All-Star game. Cox politely declined, but tells you something about what Hurdle thinks of Cox.
Here’s what Ringolsby’s wrote:
Atlanta manager Bobby Cox was tempted by an offer from to be on Clint Hurdle’s coaching staff for the All-Star Game, which will be the final played at Yankee Stadium. Cox played his two big-league seasons with the Yankees, managed in their minor league system and coached at the big-league level. Cox, however, declined, the invite. Cox, who turns 67 on May 21, has managed five NL All-Star teams, and the Braves conclude the pre-All-Star portion of the schedule with a West Coast trip, adding to travel demands in getting to New York
’’It was really intriguing because of Yankee Stadium and because of Clint, but I need the three days at home,’’ said Cox. ’’It’s a good time for a break.’’
And for those feeling a bit concerned about Mark Teixeira’s .167 batting average? Nick Cafardo from the Boston Globe writes that David Ortiz is batting .083. Bingo!
Hey, at least Matt Holliday isn’t here for the weekend. He finished that three-game sweep of the Braves, by the way, by going 6-for-13 (.462) with three runs, six RBIs, a double, a triple and a game-winning home run.
Back on land now, by the way. Funny what can happen in the course of a blog….And FYI, guy on the plane turned out to be an Orioles fan, grumbling about them, even after I pointed out their 6-3 start. See, starts do not necessarily maketh a team. And yes, this guy was a true fan. He actually told me he was going to miss seeing games at RFK.
With that, time to go to Nationals Park.
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