Author: Greg

Just a few things that are on my mind over the last few days and hours.

1. The Federal Government must be really bored if they are going after Barry Bonds for perjury, there can’t be that much going, never mind that little “war” thing going on in Iraq and soon to be Iran or the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui… It’s just like those congress hearings on steroids in baseball last year, completely pointless. When the government tries to interfere in sports, nothing good happens, ever!
2. Jeff Francoeur, you son of a bitch, no sooner had I bitched at you for your lack of production than you go yard. TWICE! Pity the Braves still lost after a disappointing first few innings and an inability to move runners on in the 9th. Sounds like history repeating, or same shit different day.
3. Again on the Braves, it deeply saddens me that they have dropped the vertically arched lettering on the back of the jerseys this year. ESPN’s Paul Lukas agrees with me. No really, it’s sad for two reasons… 1) it just looks nicer (example 1 of vertically arched lettering) (example 2 of plain arched lettering) and 2) I spent most of Monday’s game trying to explain the concept of vertically arched lettering to Robyn… On the plus side, my Sunday alternate Smoltz jersey now matches the on-field version, score!
4. Has anyone else set “Bonds on Bonds” as a season pass on their TiVo? Man, it’s like the trainwreck you can’t but help watch, and with todays goings on, you KNOW next weeks episode is going to be juicy (maybe in more ways than one).

As you might have guessed, Robyn and I went to the second Braves home game of the season last night, and it was a pretty mixed night, it could easily be split in two, the first three innings and the final six… After going to Mondays game, we were able to trade in our ticket stubs for free tickets to last nights game, the downside, they were in the second to last row closest to god, way past nosebleed and into “need an oxygen tank and a band of sherpas to get there” territory.

So I went down early as Robyn had a long day at work, I soaked up the atmosphere, as it was the 40th anniversary of the Braves coming to Atlanta, they wheeled out the 1966 team, a nice touch, especially the ovation Phil Niekro got. Once the game got underway it was a bit dsappointing, Jorge Sosa gave up 4 runs in the second as Robyn joined me and she was unhappy as I was with the seats, so we went looking for new, closer ones…

$20 later and we were in the outfield bleachers, and then the fun began, for us anyways… We’ve sat in a lot of places over the years at Turner Field, we prefer the Lexus Level, we have season tickets for there, we’ve also sat on the lower levels, even the front row once, but the outfield was a different experience altogether. For one, the fans were a lot more vocal, also the infamous wave always starts out there. Last night’s started in our section. So there we were, yelling at fans to throw back Phillies home runs, danced with delight when Brian McCann homered in the 4th with the ball landing close to us, jumping around like maniacs when Brian Jordan got a double and Pete Orr got a triple (Pete Orr!! Triple!!!), but alas poor hitting and the inability to move runners on cost the Braves dear, 14 hits and only 5 runs and the Phillies took the game 7-5. Jeff Francoeur has been disappointing, he might have got a hit last night and scored a run, but his batting average was like .035 before it, pitiful compared to his stunning start last year, his fielding is suspect thus far too… Shame, I wonder how much his benchwarming act at the World Baseball Classic had to do with it.

And finally, here is a panorama from the “need an oxygen tank and a band of sherpas to get there” section, puts it all in perspective…