Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Thursday, July 19, 2018
A Brave New World
It's been a while - been doing other things. But here's a post about the Atlanta Braves who this year are a much improved team over previous years in the post Bobby Cox era.
Since building their new stadium - SunTrust Field - and moving in they have had a difficult go of it but this year esp. they are doing much better. In fact for most of this season they have been in first place in the National League East. As of today they are in second place closely behind the Phillies (The Braves at 52-42 while the Phillies are 53-42 - about as close as you can get). This record finished off the first half of the season going into the All Star Break and in that game Freddie Freeman, Nick Markakis, Mike Foltynewicz & Ozzie Albies all participated.
If the Braves can repeat their first half success they will end up in great shape with over 100 games won - the most ever was 106 games won in 1998 to finish 1st in the National League. April, May and June they were very good but so far in July they are 5-8 - not up to par with how they fared previously. They will need to improve & get more wins than losses to have any chance at the post season. Still, even if they fall short, they already have had a great year.
Since building their new stadium - SunTrust Field - and moving in they have had a difficult go of it but this year esp. they are doing much better. In fact for most of this season they have been in first place in the National League East. As of today they are in second place closely behind the Phillies (The Braves at 52-42 while the Phillies are 53-42 - about as close as you can get). This record finished off the first half of the season going into the All Star Break and in that game Freddie Freeman, Nick Markakis, Mike Foltynewicz & Ozzie Albies all participated.
If the Braves can repeat their first half success they will end up in great shape with over 100 games won - the most ever was 106 games won in 1998 to finish 1st in the National League. April, May and June they were very good but so far in July they are 5-8 - not up to par with how they fared previously. They will need to improve & get more wins than losses to have any chance at the post season. Still, even if they fall short, they already have had a great year.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Defoe vs. Carrey
Thursday, September 1, 2016
The Braves As Of Sept 1st
It's been a grueling season so far for Atlanta. As of today they are 51-83 & nearly the worst team in baseball (beaten out only by the Minnesota Twins who are 49-84). Next year they will get a new stadium to play in. I only hope they have a new team playing for them because much of their current team is not up to the task of getting us to the post season.
Rumors are that Atlanta is working on this & maybe they are. Time will tell. If I can I plan on visiting the new stadium & grounds around it. I'm actually excited to see it. Progress is always necessary - you can't expect things to stay the same forever. In Birmingham, AL. where I live sits Rickwood Field, the oldest surviving professional baseball park built in 1910. Each year the local minor league team plays a throwback game there for nostalgia sake I guess. It wouldn't be practical to play there every game. So they play in Regions Field instead which was built in 2013.
Rumors are that Atlanta is working on this & maybe they are. Time will tell. If I can I plan on visiting the new stadium & grounds around it. I'm actually excited to see it. Progress is always necessary - you can't expect things to stay the same forever. In Birmingham, AL. where I live sits Rickwood Field, the oldest surviving professional baseball park built in 1910. Each year the local minor league team plays a throwback game there for nostalgia sake I guess. It wouldn't be practical to play there every game. So they play in Regions Field instead which was built in 2013.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
A Big Sucking Sound
I've been an Atlanta Braves fan for years & am looking forward to the new stadium next year. However, at the moment there is an awful big sucking sound coming from their city in the form of horrible baseball.
Currently this year the Braves are 4-16 and looking to be probably the worst team in baseball this season. They have very few really good players on their team and some pretty awful ones. Worse yet they don't even seem to care. I was at the Monday game vs. Boston yesterday & Teheran pitched a pretty good game giving up only 1 HR & only one run was scored in the whole game. Atlanta failed to threaten to score & this seems to be one of their failings - their lack of offense. Defense isn't much better esp. with Pierzynski who has a bad butterfingers problem, dropping a pop up and fumbling a ball sitting right in front of him. He also has an issue of showing his disappointment by flipping his hat & bat when things don't go his way (one time he did this he failed to notice he could have been running to 1st base as the Boston catcher dropped the ball - but Pierzynski was in his own world).
If the Braves win 50 games this year I'll be shocked considering how badly they are playing. A friend of mine keeps saying they'll win 22 games cause he heard the Taylor Swift song of the same number, but I can't see them doing that badly - though they are sucking quite badly atm.
I've never seen this team in such a situation and I have to wonder why it has to be this way. I can only make assumptions as to why & my only guess is that they need to save money due to spending it on the upcoming new stadium & that in a year or two they will try to get better players. So now they can't spend any money. Is this why?
It's very frustrating for the fans and the players & managers. Fredi Gonzalez seems unmotivated to even try to argue anything on the field either. There was several times he could have argued calls but instead did practically nothing. Bobby Cox would have exploded under these circumstances & got himself thrown out of the game. I'm not saying that is better. But at least it shows you care & that you're trying to fire up your players.
Yes, there's a big sucking sound about 100 miles east of where I live. I just hope it's not a black hole opening up permanently that's so hungry it will devour the team I'm a fan of & make me change allegiance to some other franchise like Cincinnati, the Cubs or St. Louis. Because I really don't want to do that if I can help it.
Currently this year the Braves are 4-16 and looking to be probably the worst team in baseball this season. They have very few really good players on their team and some pretty awful ones. Worse yet they don't even seem to care. I was at the Monday game vs. Boston yesterday & Teheran pitched a pretty good game giving up only 1 HR & only one run was scored in the whole game. Atlanta failed to threaten to score & this seems to be one of their failings - their lack of offense. Defense isn't much better esp. with Pierzynski who has a bad butterfingers problem, dropping a pop up and fumbling a ball sitting right in front of him. He also has an issue of showing his disappointment by flipping his hat & bat when things don't go his way (one time he did this he failed to notice he could have been running to 1st base as the Boston catcher dropped the ball - but Pierzynski was in his own world).
If the Braves win 50 games this year I'll be shocked considering how badly they are playing. A friend of mine keeps saying they'll win 22 games cause he heard the Taylor Swift song of the same number, but I can't see them doing that badly - though they are sucking quite badly atm.
I've never seen this team in such a situation and I have to wonder why it has to be this way. I can only make assumptions as to why & my only guess is that they need to save money due to spending it on the upcoming new stadium & that in a year or two they will try to get better players. So now they can't spend any money. Is this why?
It's very frustrating for the fans and the players & managers. Fredi Gonzalez seems unmotivated to even try to argue anything on the field either. There was several times he could have argued calls but instead did practically nothing. Bobby Cox would have exploded under these circumstances & got himself thrown out of the game. I'm not saying that is better. But at least it shows you care & that you're trying to fire up your players.
Yes, there's a big sucking sound about 100 miles east of where I live. I just hope it's not a black hole opening up permanently that's so hungry it will devour the team I'm a fan of & make me change allegiance to some other franchise like Cincinnati, the Cubs or St. Louis. Because I really don't want to do that if I can help it.
Sunday, April 24, 2016
The Forgotten Detroit
This is weird. Today I was thinking about MLB teams and their stadiums - those I have been to (old & new) & those I have yet to visit. I could come up with 29 teams. I knew there were 30 but I just couldn't for the life of me remember that last one.
So I looked this up on my home page search engine - BING - and typed in "mlb teams". They immediately came up with a scroll graphic showing the team names & icons (ex: The Cardinals has the red bird on the bat). What was really, really weird was they only had 29 teams too. Not 30! Where was team number 30?
As it turns out BING had forgotten to show one of the teams & it was the exact same one that I couldn't remember. Looking further I discovered the missing team was the Detroit Tigers. I sent feedback to BING about this so that they might rectify their error.
Okay, so both me and BING both forgot the same thing. I guess that is plausible. But I find it pretty weird that this is the case. That I could remember exactly the same 29 teams that BING did (or whomever programmed the graphic scroll).
Just one bit of weirdness for the day I suppose.
So I looked this up on my home page search engine - BING - and typed in "mlb teams". They immediately came up with a scroll graphic showing the team names & icons (ex: The Cardinals has the red bird on the bat). What was really, really weird was they only had 29 teams too. Not 30! Where was team number 30?
As it turns out BING had forgotten to show one of the teams & it was the exact same one that I couldn't remember. Looking further I discovered the missing team was the Detroit Tigers. I sent feedback to BING about this so that they might rectify their error.
Okay, so both me and BING both forgot the same thing. I guess that is plausible. But I find it pretty weird that this is the case. That I could remember exactly the same 29 teams that BING did (or whomever programmed the graphic scroll).
Just one bit of weirdness for the day I suppose.
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
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