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Friday, April 4, 2008
Braves, Mets ready to go 15 rounds
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Yes, it’s April, and, yes, everybody in the major leagues remains a rest of the spring, a whole summer and part of an autumn away from the end of the regular season. Even so, this is a key time. If it ever stops raining over Turner Field this weekend, you’ll have two of the historically strongest teams in the National League East going cleat-to-cleat against each other.
The Braves and the Mets.
They both are expected to join the Philadelphia Phillies as sort of baseball’s Ali, Frazier and Foreman in the division, with somebody delivering a knockout punch somewhere near the last round.
Thus the question: Is this like boxing or something, where one guy tries to do enough stuff early to slip inside of the other guy’s head the rest of the way?
The answer is yes, but those in this situation have to say no for politically correct reasons. Then again, Braves pitcher John Smoltz was into The Straight Talk Express long before that other John named McCain thought about the Oval Office, and Smoltz shook his head Friday night at his locker after hearing the question.
“No, no, no. I don’t know what the gauge is, but nothing in baseball the first 25 games can make that happen,” said Smoltz, referring to the possibility of one team successfully using that head-games thing against a key opponent. He spoke before a storm blew away the opener of this scheduled three-game series. Added Smoltz, “The season is so long. If you were to do what we did in the expansion era… it will never happen again, when you [could dominate a particular team], that longevity can have that effect. You can’t have that in a series, and not even in two series.”
We are talking about the Braves, though, winners of 14 consecutive division titles before the Mets stopped that streak two seasons ago. Then came last season, when the Mets did much to push the Braves toward a second consecutive third-place finish in the NL East with five victories in the last six games between the two through early September. Just like that, the Mets were cruising toward another title, but they did the impossible by giving the Phillies the division after losing a seven-game lead with 17 games left to play.
So the Mets really want to show in a hurry that their choking is over, and the Braves really want to start along their way to a 15th division title in 17 years, and each team really wants to do well against the other for so many reasons.
With apologies to Smoltz, those reasons include that head-games thing.
“There definitely are messages that are sent, but most messages in baseball are sent on the field,” said Mets utility player Marlon Anderson, a veteran of 11 seasons. “It involves coming in, playing hard and taking care of what is your business. As far as talk goes, no. But, yeah, when you’re coming in here against the Braves, playing against the Phillies, playing against the top teams in your division or even against teams that aren’t very good, you have to set a tone early during the season. You have to do that so that you’re not passive.”
The Mets aren’t familiar with such a word, at least if you go by their aggressive move in the offseason. They acquired Johan Santana, a splendid left-handed pitcher. He was slated to face Smoltz and his Hall-of-Fame right arm Sunday in a tone-setting game for both teams, but the rainout forced Braves manager Bobby Cox to move Smoltz’s start to Monday in Colorado.
In case you’re wondering, the Braves also were aggressive in the offseason. They re-signed Tom Glavine, their star pitcher for 16 seasons before he left to spend the past five with the Mets. “Yeah, I’ve had a few questions asked of me [by Braves players about the Mets], just like I did for years when I was over there about some of these guys,” said Glavine, suggesting that he provided more than a few answers.
After all, Glavine wants to help his new team send the Mets sprawling against the NL East canvas by October.
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