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Thursday, August 14, 2008
No more dreaming, it’s reality time for Glavine
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Any dream interpreters out there?
I dreamed last night (yes, it’s safe to read on, don’t worry) that Charlie Morton, skinny-legged rookie pitcher Charlie Morton, has been pitching with prosthetic legs, from the knee down. And the Braves have been hiding it.
Guess those long pants on the baseball uni come in handy.
I knew I had a big story on my hands. And so the dream was spent tracking it down. Though there was one other reporter who was on to it. (Charles Odum, welcome to my dreams too.) So I was a little frantic.
So what’s to take from this? Perhaps we now have a reason for Morton’s inconsistencies, and I need to have a closer look at his legs today? Or I need to get a life and dream about things other than my job?
Who knows? You tell me.
This is how I welcome myself back to the blog after quite a while away? Hm. Weird, I know. Guess you guys have to take me as I am.
So back here in reality, today is Tom Glavine’s day. He’s headed back to the mound for the first time since June 10 and he’ll be testing out that partially torn flexor tendon.
He’s gotten himself back to this point just as he aimed to - he said he wanted to be back by mid-August, and here we are about as mid as you can get - Aug. 14.
But from his comments yesterday, it sounded like he really didn’t know what to expect. He sounded pretty cautious. So I guess we’ll have to see. You hope for his sake - and for the sake of this ridiculous stretch of bad news for Braves starting pitchers - that he’ll continue to work his way back.
If he’s like the Glavine that we’ve come to know over the years, it might be hard to tell. He’s got one of the best poker faces known to man. The guy pitched with a broken rib and kept his usual stone-face expression. Shoot, he pitched for five weeks this season with this elbow pain, and we didn’t know it until after that start he made June 10 at Wrigley.
He doesn’t throw all that hard anymore, so it’s not like hitting 84 on the radar gun will mean a whole lot. If he gets hit around, that would be an indication something, like his location, is off. But mostly, we’ll probably just have to hear from him afterward, unless something really bad happens and he has to leave early.
He’s got a pitch count of 85 pitches. It’d be nice to see him get through all 85.
Whether or not he actually ends up here again next year is yet to be seen. But this is the first step he has to take to prove to himself and to the Braves that he has a shot at it.
I have to say, seeing Glavine in the Braves clubhouse this year, and around the team, he seems to be the happiest I’ve ever seen him. He laughs a lot, hangs out just chatting with the media quite a bit, seems to really enjoy his new younger teammates, like lockermate Brian McCann.
Not that he seemed unhappy before, but there’s a different level of comfort this time around. I guess that’s what comes after you’ve been gone for five years with the Mets, living away from your family much of the time, dealing with New York media, and then get a chance to come back home.
It was obvious he loved playing here and for Bobby before, but it’s just human nature to go away and come back, and appreciate it all the more.
Anyway, tonight will be interesting to see.
CUBBIES: I got a little more insight into the whole Alfonso Soriano episode from the first game yesterday from my cousin Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune, who is on our notes group.
Soriano took a pitch nearly to the head from Francisley Bueno as likely retribution for when he’d stopped to admire what he thought was a homer but turned into a single by watching on a ball off the left field wall.
Phil says Soriano apologized to manager Lou Piniella and his teammates.
“I said to them that’s not going to happen again,” Soriano said.
Piniella did his part to prompt the apology by having a few words with Soriano.
“I told him he’s one of our leaders here and there’s no need for that,” Piniella said. “He agrees and said it won’t happen again. Over.”
And this little nugget in case any of the Cubs fans who invaded Turner Field this series are invading the Braves/MIB blog. After yesterday’s doubleheader sweep, winning 10-2 and 8-0, it was the first time the Cubs have swept a road doubleheader by margins of eight or more runs in both games since 1908. And yes, that’s the last time they won the World Series.
TEX VS. KOTCH: OK and what the heck, maybe it’s apples to oranges but just thought I’d see how Tex was doing vs. Kotchman at this point since the July 29 trade.
Tex: .340 in 13 games (17-for-50) for the Angels with two doubles, four homers and 13 RBIs.
Kotchman: .173 in 14 games (9-for-52) for the Braves with two doubles, one triple and 5 RBIs.
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