AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2008 > May > 27
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Milwaukee’s not at its best
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let’s hope this road trip goes better than my landing this morning…Greetings from Milwaukee, where some winds coming off Lake Michigan had us doing a little less-than-smooth-sailing on my flight in. We landed with a serious thud.
A girl with a Georgia sweatshirt on the flight squealed, which gave us a way to break with the tension by laughing. But I’m telling you, the pilots didn’t even open the door to the cockpit to tell us goodbye and thanks as we got off the plane. Embarrassed, perhaps?
The flight attendant did get on the overhead thing and say “Everybody awake now?” Hey, good for her. It got a laugh out of me.
Well, surely the Braves got here a little more smoothly and slept soundly last night and woke up ready to break this ridiculous road thing. They woke up to temperatures today in the 40s, which I’m thinking isn’t such a great sign, though.
Yes it’s in the 40s still this afternoon. Didn’t we just celebrate the unofficial beginning of summer yesterday with Memorial Day? Won’t this weather just remind the Braves they’re a long ways from Atlanta and the summer-like weather they had on their 8-3 homestand?
I really hope they did what Jeff Francoeur was threatening to, bring a white jersey to hang in their lockers. Something they can laugh at - like the flight attendant gave us - to break up some of this tension.
And hey, it’s gotta (excuse me, Biff, I mean got to) be hard to get blisters in weather these next few days in the 40s (gulp), then 50s and 60s. Right? (It’s Jo-Jo Reyes, Jorge Campillo and now Jurrjens?!)
I’m pretty sure by now you’ve seen the home and road numbers fleshed out in every which way in all their glory, so I’ll spare you. Instead we look to the brighter side and dig around for some reasons for optimism that this terrible road run will turn around, as the Braves begin this six-game swing through Milwaukee and Cincinnati, other than surely the whole law of averages catching up thing.
Milwaukee enters this series having lost 15 of their past 23. Their closer Eric Gagne just went on the disabled list and their manager Ned Yost got lumped in today in a USA Today article today talking about managers coming under heat. Willie Randolph and Seattle’s John McLaren were the others.
The Brewers have had some road struggles of their own, going 4-6 on a recent road trip and losing 12 of their last 16 away from home.
The Braves took five of seven from the Brewers last year, including two out of three at Miller Park. Yes, that’s where John Smoltz’s trapezius muscle problems first surfaced. But from what I’ve been reading, Smoltz and Rafael Soriano both have a shot to be activated on this trip. Soriano is throwing a bullpen today. I’ll have updates on all that as it comes. (I’m not at the ballpark yet, as I type this, for those who’ll want instant answers.)
Meantime, the Braves will see some old pals this series….Russell Branyan, who played his high school baseball and Warner Robins and Stratford Academy (I know, I covered him in high school, thanks very much), signed a minor league deal with the Brewers this spring and just got called up from AAA Nashville this weekend. He of the mighty swing and the lack-o-fear of the strikeout will play some third base vs. right-handers, given Bill Hall’s struggles against them (.158 compared to .409 against lefties).
(Branyan was hitting .359 in AAA with 12 homers and 36 RBIs in 45 games.)
I coulda sworn Branyan played some with the Braves, but he’s not listed on the all-time roster and would have been had he played in one official game. So my memory fails, and he must have been cut right out of the spring training he spent with the Braves. Of course, I can’t remember what year that was either. Someone, anyone?
Also the Brewers are about to sign reliever Julian Tavares (pending a physical). Who could forget the tearful shots of him in the Cleveland dugout at the end of the 1995 World Series? He was just released by Boston, but the Brewers need some arms for their ailing bullpen.
And the good news on the horizon in Cincinnati? The Braves swept three from the Reds May 2-4, granted at Turner Field. It’s also supposed to be warmer this weekend. Meantime, let’s hope they close the roof tonight in Milwaukee. (Yes, I’m a wimp.)
If you haven’t noticed by now, and some surely have, I haven’t been around the team much lately to gather new stuff for the blog. DOB covered the last NINE games in a row, and is somewhere trying to work the carpal tunnel syndrome out of his hands and wrists, perhaps by cruising on his motorcyle.
For me to find blog fodder after so long away, I just had to dig a little deeper in the notebook. And this is what I came up with. When the Padres were in town, I went over the chatted with Maddux for a while and never used it. So allow me now.
Among the things we talked about was Bobby Cox and whether or not he might really retire.
I had been thinking Bobby might stick to what he’d said a year ago in spring training, that he was still thinking about hanging it up at the end of this season but didn’t want to say yet, because it would make everything harder on the Braves as far as trying to sign players, etc. I mentioned this to M-dog and he just gave me one of those twisted looks, like “what the heck are you talking about?”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” he said. Turns out he was right. Interesting news last week that Bobby’s sticking around at least through 2009. Congratulations to him. I know there’s one four-time Cy Young award winner, who respects him like no other.
While I might have been wrong this time about Bobby, I wasn’t wrong when I - unlike the Braves front office - predicted Maddux would accept arbitration in 2003 to play one more year for Cox.
Here’s what Maddux had to say about his former manager:
“There were no gimmicks. It was baseball. And he did whatever he thought helped his players win. The players never once thought he made a decision based on how it looked, or how it was perceived. All his decisions were based on, does it give us a better chance to win. I think players really appreciated that.”
And more…
“He always made excuses for me when I messed up,” Maddux said. “He always took heat off me and never put heat on me. He allowed me to enjoy the game both on and off the field, went out of his way to see that that happened.”
And, as I suggested, got ejected a few times on Maddux’s behalf?
“Just one that was my fault,” Maddux said. “I said something to an umpire that I shouldn’t have said and he got kicked out.”
And then he laughed. Just like Cox did when I told him Maddux said Cox got kicked out only once on his behalf. Maddux must have meant only one time that Bobby literally jumped in and took an ejection Maddux would have definitely gotten. Cause we can all think of a few more, can’t we.?
Catcher’s box in Milwaukee rings a bell. County Stadium. Eddie Perez behind the plate. Angel Hernandez umpiring. Broadcasters had been booted off the charter for pointing out a discrepancy in the catcher’s box drawn for Maddux at home. Or soon would be. Right?
Anyway… It’s Miller time. I’ll get you updated once I get to the park.
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