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Thursday, September 11, 2008
Remembering the events of 9/11
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Long time no blog, denizens. It’s Carroll making a cameo today while DOB gets ready for the final Braves trip to Shea Stadium.
It just so happens it’s Sept. 11 today, which always conjures up old memories, especially after turning on the TV this morning to see remembrances in both New York and Washington.
It got me to thinking about where I was that morning - at home, about this time, getting ready to cover a Braves-Phillies game that night, waking to multiple phone calls from friends and family telling me to turn on the TV.
I did a quick little search on the story I wrote that day, and thought you guys might be interested to remember too what the raw reactions were from players that day. Here are a few excerpts.
(If not, just scroll down. No harm, no foul.)
The future of the Braves’ biggest series of the season was unclear late Tuesday, but nobody seemed to care.
Several players said the cancellation of Tuesday’s game with the second-place Philadelphia Phillies was a no-brainer.
“It’s very petty to even think about playing a baseball game at this point, ” said Chipper Jones, who watched televised reports of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington from his home in Alpharetta. “It’s the most important game of the year, and it pales in comparison to what’s going on. Thousands of lives have been lost. I’d imagine we’ll take swift action to find out who did this. I think everybody is focused on that and not something as unimportant as a few September baseball games.”
The Braves, 3 1/2 games ahead of the Phillies in the NL East, were supposed to play the first of a three-game series on Tuesday night. But Major League Baseball canceled all games and commissioner Bud Selig said decisions on future games would be made on a daily basis….
John Burkett, who was supposed to start Tuesday, is one of a handful of players who were stranded at their respective homes. Burkett was scheduled to fly from Dallas to Hartfield International Airport on an 11 a.m. flight but never left his home in South Lake, Texas, after flights were grounded.
“I’m trying to get a (rental) car, ” said Burkett, who was planning to make the 14-hour drive to Atlanta. “I want to do what I can to pitch. I don’t see there being any way to fly in the next two or three days. I don’t know if I want to fly in the next two or three days. When I get there, I get there. At least I know my family is safe.”…
Braves players in Atlanta were notified that the game had been canceled around lunchtime.
John Smoltz first learned of the tragedy on the radio while dropping his kids off at school.
“I’m at a loss for words, ” he said.
“It just doesn’t make sense to go out and play something as meaningless as the game right now, ” Jones said. “First of all, people are scared to walk out of their homes. It’d be hard for me to go out and concentrate on a game, having seen what I’ve seen today. I saw, in slow motion, a 757 fly into the World Trade Center. That’s disturbing. We stay (in Manhattan). Two weeks later and we’re right in the middle of it.”
The Braves stay at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in midtown Manhattan, which is where they are scheduled to be for a three-game series with the New York Mets, beginning Sept. 21….
DEEP POCKETS: Anyway, back to what’s going on now. And what lies ahead. With millions to spend this winter - we’re estimating about $40 million - the Braves are about to go on a shopping spree this winter, via trades and free agency.
My brother asked me the other day when the last time the Braves signed a big free agent was: Greg Maddux? In December of 1992? Well, I knew that was the biggest, but I knew it wasn’t the last. But the question was a good one. There haven’t been a ton of free agent splashes in this organization in recent years. Mostly big moves have come by trade.
So I did a real scientific study. I rummaged through some transactions lists from the last 16 years since the Maddux trade and I came up with only a handful of multi-year, at least semi-big free agent signings. The whopping list?
Walt Weiss signed a three-year, $9 million deal on Nov. 17, 1997.
Andres Galarraga signed a three-year, $24.75 million deal on Nov. 20, 1997.
Brian Jordan signed a five-year, $40 million deal on Nov. 23, 1998.
John Thomson signed a two-year, $7 million deal on Dec. 10, 2003.
Is that it? I think so. The rest I came across were fringe-type players or one-year deals, like Tom Glavine’s of last winter. Please fill me in if I’ve missed anybody. It needs to be multi-year and not somebody like Robert Fick, Raul Mondesi or Darren Bragg, know what I mean?
Now that list looks mighty thin. So yes, it’s pretty obviously this hasn’t been the route the Braves have gone, especially in recent years of tight budgets. (Edgar Renteria, Tim Hudson, Mike Gonzalez, Mark Teixeira all came via trades, as did Mark Kotsay, Jair Jurrjens and hey, even Mike Hampton and Russ Ortiz).
But this winter, the Braves probably need to get into some free agent stakes twice over for their rotation - say, going after Ryan Dempster and Derek Lowe.
With left field, they might try trading since free agent pickings get thin after Adam Dunn and Pat Burrell. But regardless, they need to make a splash. And they haven’t done that in quite a while on the free agent market, eh?
BALK-OFF: For anyone who’s curious what Taylor Buchholz was thinking when he balked in the winning run on Tuesday night, this came in the notes group from Tracy Ringolsby of the Rocky Mountain News.
“I took the sign,” Buchholz said. “It’s something I’ve done a thousand times this year, pretty much. It was supposed to be a curveball, and I got the grip and just kind of juggled it in my hand, and then just kind of froze out there. Stupidest thing I’ve ever done, pretty much.”
MAPLE BATS: Things have been a little quiet on the maple bat front as major league baseball’s “safety and health advisory committee” continues to huddle. They have been gathering statistical information, hiring experts on wood, getting together with engineers and statisticians and consulting with bat companies on quality control, etc, etc, etc.
Curious what kind of information they’ve been gathering? This is what they said in a release the other day:
“Since its initial meeting in New York on June 24, the Safety and Health Advisory Committee has carried out a number of measures in the data collection process. Since July 2nd, MLB Authenticators have collected every bat that has broken during Major League games. To date, more than 1,700 broken bats have been collected for analysis.
“The Committee has compiled relevant information for each broken bat, including its manufacturer, the model, its dimensions, the situation of the game when it was broken, the area in which the bat fragments landed, and video footage from MLB.com of each broken bat incident. The bat collection concluded on September 7th, based on the experts’ determination that a sufficient number of bats were collected, but the Committee will continue to review video footage daily of each broken bat incident.”
Hey, no anecdotal evidence for these guys. And not sure what the point was of getting data from clubs around the league last year if they just wanted to re-do it themselves. But hey, this release tells me something right there: there have been 1,700 broken bats in a month and a few days.
Let’s just hope no fans get hit in the eye with a flying shard while these guys finish their math.
