The Braves instruct players from the time they are minor leaguers to avoid sliding head-first whenever possible — at any base, but especially at home plate.
They go so far as to fine players $50 for the home-plate infraction in the minor league system because they want to avoid injuries such as the broken arm sustained by Texas Rangers star Josh Hamilton in a head-first slide at the plate Tuesday.
“The biggest news in baseball the last two days is Josh Hamilton breaking his [arm],” manager Fredi Gonzalez said, “and I guarantee you there’s a play at the plate today [in the major leagues] where you’ll see somebody slide head-first.”
He wasn’t sure if the Braves were instructed at spring training not to slide head-first, but he said it was drilled into them since they came up through the minors.
Still, those who usually slide head-first will slide head-first.
“I’ve had my share of head-first slides into home and $50 fines,” said Braves rookie Matt Young, who stole 112 bases over the past three minor league seasons and almost always slid head-first. He slid head-first at home plate in Milwaukee last week.
“I’m not very good [siding feet-first],” Young said. “I feel more in control [head-first]. I think if you go about it the right way, you’re good. You’ve just got to go hard.”
Last season, the Braves lost two of their more valuable players, Jason Heyward and Martin Prado, to stints on the disabled list for hand injuries from sliding head-first.
“It’s like Russian roulette,” Chipper Jones said. “If you do it long enough, it’s going to bite you.”
Long-awaited homer
Brian McCann has taken a little kidding in the clubhouse for taking 11 games to get his first extra-base hit.
“Singles hitter,” Derek Lowe uttered Wednesday afternoon as McCann walked past, continuing the teasing he started over the weekend when he told McCann: “What have you got, like 18 singles? Can you get a double or something?”
It was 13 singles, actually, when Lowe said that Sunday. On Tuesday, McCann homered off the Marlins’ Chris Volstad, ending the longest wait for a extra-base hit in his seven years in the big leagues.
From his rookie season in 2005 when he homered in his second game in the big leagues, he has hit his first home run of the season either in the first or second game until this year.
But McCann didn’t mind one bit. After Tuesday, he was hitting a team-high .350 (14-for-40) with six RBIs.
“I’m extremely happy where I am,” said McCann, who has won four Silver Slugger awards in five full major league seasons. “Some years you get it right out of the shoot; some years it takes a little longer. This year I feel extremely comfortable where I am.”
Record-low attendance
In a span of five days the Braves went from playing in front of a sellout crowd of 51,331 for their home opener Friday night against the Phillies to 13,865 on Tuesday night against the Marlins.
Tuesday night’s crowd was the smallest crowd in Turner Field history.
“It’s midweek. We haven’t played great baseball up until this point,” Jones said. “But the people that didn’t show last night missed a pretty good game.”
The Braves traditionally don’t draw well during the week until the weather warms up and school gets out of session. Jones and the other Braves are hoping their style of play will help encourage fans to come out.
“We’re trying to play an exciting brand of baseball so people want to watch it and make this place pretty intimidating for the opposing team to come into,” Jones said. “Last night was hardly intimidating.”
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