AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2006 > July > 27 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USUgly baseball on pretty day
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Say this, it was a perfect day for baseball. The sun was bright. The blue sky was high. It was a fan kind of day, the kind of fan they give you at funeral homes. Everything about it took you back to spring training, the players brightly imaged against the grass-green background. Unfortunately, the Braves played like it.
Just another day at Lake Buena Vista, except it was July and the temperature at Turner Field was 92 degrees — at the coolest — and the Braves were 11-1/2 games out of first place in the NL East. It was no reflection on the Braves pitcher, little known to all of us. Jason Schiell was just doing his duty, answering an emergency among the starters. He’s a Georgian, born in Savannah, now living in Guyton, which makes him an almost neighbor of Macay McBride.
Schiell is average size, about six feet, 180 pounds, and wears his baseball trousers knicker-length, a compact fellow with a compact delivery. He has been around the block and this is his second tour with the Braves, coming after two seasons in drydock while his arm recovered from surgery. He was another one the Braves had located pitching in one of those independent leagues, the Somerset (Mass.) Patriots in the Atlantic League. His first performance in St. Louis had been adequate. Now he faced the Marlins, who are looking over the Braves’ shoulder.
If there had been no second inning, Schiell would have had a lovely day. His first inning was perfect, then Cody Ross, a crusty little guy who can hit — two homers the first night — singled, Josh Willingham singled him home and the most unlikely thing happened next. Matt Treanor, the backup catcher who hits a home run about every Leap Year, drove one into the left-field stands, scoring two runs, and neither the Braves nor their 34,498 guests knew it, but their day was over.
Oscar Villarreal was Schiell’s successor, and no worse fate could have befallen a reliever. Ross, the rascal, singled again. Jeremy Hermida, the lad from Wheeler High, singled behind him, and comedy hour was next. Treanor again, and this time he hit into what should have been a forceout, but Wilson Betemit — any way you pronounce it — bobbled it, Edgar Renteria and Marcus Giles got mixed up around second base, and frankly it wasn’t easy to see what happened next, but the bases were loaded, then the pitcher, Scott Olsen, dropped a blooper into center field, Dan Uggla doubled, and when the inning was over, the Fish had scored three more times.
It was a terrible way to turn a lovely day for baseball into a catastrophe. At this stage of the season, losing is no way to go, and this one was especially damaging. The Marlins left town just a half-game behind the Braves, who’d lost the series on their own grass, two games to one, and only a barrage of home runs had salvaged the game they won.
Funny thing, during intermissions a film of “bloopers” was flashed onto the monstrous screen above center field, car crashes, human calamity and that sort of stuff, which seemed rather awkward intermission fare, considering that the Braves were putting on a blooper show of their own.
There is a segment of the population that feasts on daytime baseball. Looks forward to a game under the sun. This was one of those days, miserably hot to expose oneself to the blistering sun, and what they got for it was a bumbling disappointment. The Braves have reached a point of the season at which defeat is not tolerable, if indeed, they do harbor any shred of a hope of making the playoffs. Next chapter, down to the nuts and bolts. The Mets are coming to town with a comfortable hold on first place in the NL East. It’s a little premature to be saying “this is it,” but say this: Losing becomes more disastrous with each passing day, and this was one of those days.
Permalink | Comments (14) | Post your comment | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Comments
By ChopTalk
July 27, 2006 09:27 PM | Link to this
Thanks for your tired old sentiments. The Braves have been playing really good defense. Yes, it is a shame to lose the series at home but like you said the Mets are coming….
By Blake
July 28, 2006 12:45 AM | Link to this
have to correct ya man…olsen didnt bloop one to center…he hit one sharp to Renteria who made a nice sliding play but bobbled it and flipped to Giles late…Giles then turned and fired one toward the dugout letting 2 runs score…
By Head Coach
July 28, 2006 02:44 AM | Link to this
Ditto Furman , ditto……. I did some quick math and it is ugly. 61 games left and we stand at 48-53 , the last ten years of wildcard winners have averaged 92 wins and the least amount of wins(88)that the Braves made it into the playoffs with was in 2001. That means thay have to win at the very least 40 out of 61 games remaining in order to have any hope at the wildcard. Thats two out three game for the next two months , thats a monumental task and more hope than reality. So I will go ahead and say this: IF we are swept and only if we are swept this weekend I fully expect Schuerholz to put out the for sale sign first thing monday morning because they will be all but mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. As Marcus Giles so eloquently put it , its gut check time.
By MARK
July 28, 2006 08:21 AM | Link to this
This was a ugly game and it really shows this is no playoff team..just a team of hot flashes.Soon another season will be over and at least we want have our hearts broken during the playoffs.
By Dave nockahomer
July 28, 2006 08:59 AM | Link to this
Mark: you are SO right! We won’t have to go through the agony of defeat in the playoffs cause we aren’t going to be there. Still, yes, Still……the Marlins have owned to Braves or so it seems to me. This weekend will tell whose tail is wagging who…..so let us pray the Braves tails are wagging and the Mets tails are tucked between their knees!
GO BRAVES……. Would rather the Marlins end up in playoffs and do a number on the Mets! They do have a shaky, elderly :) starting rotation. Marlins have got some hungry young guns! Remember when we had some of those during the early 90’s—-Glavine, Smoltz, Avery…..ah, the good ole days
By Jeff
July 28, 2006 09:05 AM | Link to this
I’d be surprised if any wildcard team in the NL won 92 games this year. But let’s say the wildcard has to win 85, minimum. Means the Braves would have to go 37-24 (.607) the rest of the way. Possible, yes, but they’d really have to play consistently good ball the rest of the way to just make the minimum.
By Dave nockahomer
July 28, 2006 09:17 AM | Link to this
Mark: you are SO right! We won’t have to go through the agony of defeat in the playoffs cause we aren’t going to be there. Yesterdays game was pitiful; hard to watch!
Still, yes, Still……the Marlins have owned to Braves or so it seems to me. This weekend will tell whose tail is wagging who…..so let us pray the Braves tails are wagging and the Mets tails are tucked between their knees!
GO BRAVES……. Would rather the Marlins end up in playoffs and do a number on the Mets! They do have a shaky, elderly :) starting rotation. Marlins have got some hungry young guns! Remember when we had some of those during the early 90’s—-Glavine, Smoltz, Avery…..ah, the good ole days
By Head Coach
July 28, 2006 10:52 AM | Link to this
Jeff , I can appreciate your optimism and I could only wish 85 wins would be enough. However , nobody has won the wildcard the last ten years without at least 89 wins. I know thats only 4 games but considering the average has been a consistent 92 games it kind of give you a rough ballpark number of 90 wins or more just to be in the running for the wildcard. Now , the first year the wildcard was in effect in 1995 The Colorado Rockies won it with 77 wins but that was the abbreviated 144 game season following the strike season of 94.
By kent
July 28, 2006 12:47 PM | Link to this
What’s a crusty little fella
By Tazer
July 28, 2006 01:20 PM | Link to this
The key to winning MLB games is, and always has been, having better pitching than the other team. Who would you rather have?
A 40HR, 125 RBI player OR… A 20 win, 3.25 ERA pitcher?
OR a 45 saves guy, 2.50 ERA out of the bullpen?
Pitching beats good hitting and the Braves need to move NOW to shore up their arms or continue their slide into the mediocrity abyss in 2006.
By Dave nockahomer
July 28, 2006 01:53 PM | Link to this
okay, good pitching beats good hitting……UNTIL one gets into the playoffs, right? We have one ring out of 14 attempts… we NEED BOTH good pitching and good hitting. We got the latter; we a LONG way from the former. I really get sick and tired of hearing about good pitching is THE thing. Well, what happened when we had Glavine, Smoltiz, Maddux etc? Got whipped in the playoffs or the series. So can the ‘pitching is the thing’ ……. what it boils down to is that the Braves can’t succeed much after regular season. It is wonderful to get those 14 division titles BUT
By Dave nockahomer
July 28, 2006 01:58 PM | Link to this
sorry….. my computer is having some glitches. It watched yesterday afternoon’s game and aint recovered yet. Now let me finish what I started
BUT with all the hitting and pitching we had, we came home empty. We should have been a dang dynasty but we also have a great regular season manager who could screw up the best team ever assembled during any playoff/series.
As Jim Rome would say:
I’m outta here!
By David
July 28, 2006 04:33 PM | Link to this
I know that we need good pitching, but there is more than adequate hitting out there available with the likes of Jose Canseco and Sammy Sosa; huh? If were able to lure those two slobs off of their couches and into Braves uniforms can you imagine how powerful our lineup would be? Sammy and Jose are both headed for the hall of fame; and they can both still play major league baseball at a very high level. Why not invite those two gentlemen to training camp next spring and see if we can significantly upgrade our ball club. It’s not like those two guys are wasting away in a prison cell. They are both great players and we are short of good hitters right now. I hope John Shuerholtz can contact those guys because they would really help our team immensely; not to mension how those two would favorably impact attendance. We’d probably sell out every game.
By gotigers72
July 28, 2006 06:48 PM | Link to this
Hey David - Let’s not forget Raffy Palmeiro. He’s not in prison yet either! We could trade for Bonds, then we’d have not an All Star team , but an All Steroid team. How cool would that be? And Sammy could bring his corked bats for all to use. Remember the show he put on during Home Run Derby when the All Star game was played here? Would that team score some runs or what? Attendance would go through the roof.
David, you are a freakin’ genius.