We are rollin’..
2am this morning, storms finally passed through. 100 souls at an 18 hour all night open air fundraiser wrecked by the rain , 7 still to go -missed Friday’s game. Tired, wet, blah. Then the DJ puts this out. I never heard song/singer before. Transformed the scene, the people.. Fired up for the Brew Crew. WooHoo!
Home to find DVR screwed up – really wanted to see the Camargo/Swanson plays late as expertly recounted by tfloyd. Still, fresh meat this afternoon. My man RAD, i’m a fan, find him intense, committed, he cares. Not pleased Jace has reappeared – why? New haircut, inspired by Johan, won’t help. Brandon Phillips – what a deal. Best example I know of a massive reverse weight shift as he aims for the fences. Twist and turn.
Crazy first inning took 35 minutes, both pitchers combining for more than 50 pitches. Hits, walk, balk, caught stealing overruled, ejection. Ends 1-1, masterly at bat from Flowers gets us level. RA stayed cool, rewarded by 1,2,3 top of the 2nd. JS lobbed softballs by the Fox crew- people would give more credence to them if, just occasionally, there was a critique suggested, implied even, on something. Did i say Brandon at the top? 2 run homer, what are we going to do with this guy? 3/1 Braves after 3.
Top 4. 1,2,3 for RA, looking cool, in charge for now. We waste Camargo lead off double partly due to Jace, predictably looking overmatched. He is not a major league player. Have him manage the Fire Frogs. He proves me right in the top of the 5th with a poor throw to 2nd that costs us an out.Nil desperandum, RA strands him.
Top of 6, Dickey allows long single to Thames off the RF wall but leaves him there. Pitch count in the mid eighties, Garza at 90, retires 9 in a row. You still have the feeling at this number RA is still in control of the game. This is not a Garcia situation where around inning 5 the Prince turns into a frog. (Do i have that right?) Swanson playing good D but has not yet middled the ball. Same with Camargo. We want to hear that CRACK. Talk to Brandon.
Top7. Dickey 1,2.3. 7 strikeouts. It is now very clear, we are en route to our first complete game of the year. Seriously, why not? Pitch counts don’t bother him, he’s still in total charge and our bullpen has been half assed lately. THIS IS A FORMAL PREDICTION. I will not erase it!
I have just heard them say(!) RA is coming out. Absurd, totally stupid. Bill Hader, on for Garza, walks PH Lane Adams. Snit, jumping up and down, says – TOLD YOU ! Hader pretty unhittable, we waste a 2 on no out situation, 1 for 9 RISP. And…Ramirez and JJ warming up. Weak choice, no guts, the whole thing. Ramirez unforgivably walks Sogard after having him 0/2…gets next hitter, lifted for Sam Freeman to pitch to Thames , 1 out. Sam does a great job, his slider dominating Thames and Santana. Still 3/1 Braves going to the top of the ninth.
And there it stayed, miribile dictu. JJ, to his credit, allowed only a bloop single to close them out. He obviously benefited from his day off. Back to back, nice. RAD was our man of the match (Extend him , now! Why not?), followed by Brandon’s and his homers, Flowers and that big RBI to tie early, and Sam with that excellent hold.
Some final thoughts.
As Camargo’s defense at third passes the ordinary, so his bat declines. In Cinci he was squaring everything, hardly now. Talk to him.
Did you get a little, queasy feeling watching him defend the hot corner today? The way we will be structured soon Freddie must have watched that display with just a little twinge. A study in contrasts, particularly laterally and coming in?
Snit. If you get to interview him, go in hard.
If anyone needed and more evidence of how our NL East clearly outmatches the Central and West it was there today, on view. Forget the numbers, we have the mentality. We are the Braves.
The key to Dickey’s success for us was the way he battled through a very difficult first innings giving up just that one run. No others were to follow.
Saturday Saturday…that’s alright, that’s alright.
Rock me Momma, on a Southbound train…
Like the wind and the rain, blazon. Great job.
I share your affection for Dickey. For me, it’s because Phil Niekro was the only good pitcher for the Braves through my youth and early adulthood. Niekro was great. Dickey is not, but he’s been pretty good lately. I’d still trade him, though.
Really, you don’t know Hootie?
Darius Rucker
Now sings about adventurous truckers,
Having become country-ish,
Rather than a Blow Fish
I like him much better this way too.
Bowman says that the Braves are 67-54 over the last 121 games since trading for Kemp. Watching this team is fun again.
I have played music in not less than 3 different bars that have a strict “NO WAGON WHEEL” policy. Not coincidentally, these are my favorite places to play.
I do believe Camargo will stick as a major leaguer. Great glove and arm and positional versatility. Until he learns to take a pitch he probably won’t have the bat to be a regular. But if the Braves insist on playing Freddie at third, he could have a long career as a late inning defensive replacement.
Good one. R.A. and Blazon, two old men getting it done. Cheers to the Braves and Blazon.
@3
Well, it appears my mathematics need a little fine tunin’
$4
jjschiller
is obviously a pillar
of the musical community
allowed to play where Darius denied the opportunity.
@2
Really..I’m not a country fan in general, there are exceptions. I’m told this is country rock. Too old to remember anything specific about Hootie. Dylan, yes of course, but i didn’t know he basically wrote it way back. It was just a spontaneous thing – tired, wet, middle of the night inside an old barn we were sheltering in from the last of the storm and this thing suddenly exploded from the single speaker. I thought the voice was rich, the beat evident and the tune infectious. Good clerihew, more, cheers.
We’re not required to like everyone’s music. Some musically talented and knowledgeable people post here. I am not one. Darius Rucker’s fine by me, though I’ll always call him Hootie.
Wagon Wheel is awesome…the first 200 times you hear it. I kid. Music snobbery lessens as you age. I like the Rolling Stones and I like trap music. Its a product of having teenagers.
Before Hootie and every other singer/songwriter in North America (at least) covered Wagon Wheel, it was an Old Crow Medicine Show song, and before that, part of the chorus was an unfinished Bob Dylan song sketch. I think Dylan is credited as a co-writer on the Old Crow release, in fact. It was a pretty damn good song, but it got relentlessly beaten to an ugly death. I’ve been working in bars since before the song came out and I, too, have a no Wagon Wheel rule. Just, please. No more goddamn Wagon Wheel. I still like the Old Crow Medicine Show a good bit, though. Here’s a good song they do that’s at least 1/3 about baseball:
@10
I like all that. Aging culturally more slowly with teenagers around. Bereft of mine now – my teenagers are in their fifties – I tend to feel ‘out of it’ a bit but with some interesting exceptions -love good rap and hip pop, the beat, clever words. Started with Snoop parodies on Don Imus thirty years ago and continued through Hamilton today.
An interesting aside – about a year or more ago there was a brief flurry of activity on this Board demonstrating intense interest by some in what i would call ‘really’ modern music- techno etc Electronic and whatever. I can get nowhere close to understanding it, thus liking it.
Finally, you said ‘I like trap music’. Was that a typo or is there something real to trap? Thanks.You still have the teenagers to consult!
@11
I happen to think good music is analogous to baseball if your mind naturally frames that context. Everything is. Life is.
In the end we strike out. The perfect metaphor.
Johnson City, Tennessee
In the early 90s when I got my hands on Dylan’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid soundtrack outtakes, the unfinished marvel of “Rock Me Mama” really stood out. “What a clever little tune, too bad he never saw it through it could have been something.”
Then Old Crow took that rough composition and finished it out and I thought, “Wow! Now that’s something else! ”
Then everyone and their brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles started doing it, everywhere, at all times. If someone sneezed, some mousy little girl with a ukulele would say, “Hey, let’s do Wagon Wheel!”‘ and then start counting it off. Its now in “dear god make it stop” territory.
Anyway, Braves keep winning.
Baseball
What was the prevailing opinion around our world about Snit taking Dickey out?
False.
Johan Carmago reminds me of Martin Prado.
@ 15: IMO it was a good move. Seven innings is probably as far as any of our starters should go. It would be pleasant if they could all go that far, but I doubt anyone other than Julio and Dickey do. 104 pitches through five speaks against that for Folty, though he threw a fine five; and Jaime fades consistently the third time through the lineup. Newk’s still a baby and needs protecting.
Keeping the bullpen fresh may be challenging.
Dickey do, ahahaha.
@4 That’s a policy I personally enforce in any bar I play in.
@8 “Country rock”, like it’s even crappier cousin “Kid Rock”, is neither.
After finally summoning the nerve to click on the video I was pleased that his voice is still pretty good and actually well-suited to the material. Oy, but that material tho. Also he was playing a way cool and quite rare 30’s Gibson L-10.
I went to two Hootie concerts in Hamburg in the 90s. One of them actually had Dave Matthews join them for some songs. Remember the “I like the Braves in ’95” line from the Fairweather Johnson song? Go for the sweep tonight!
Medlen just gave up 4 runs in the first inning. I really want to see him back on the mound for the Braves.
@19
spike…i’m glad you overcame your fears and clicked the video…
what a rare talent it must be to look at a guitar player and know he was playing a rare Gibson L-10…impressive
Collecting vintage guitars has been my passion for almost as long as baseball. I currently have about a half a dozen vintage Gibson’s in my assortment.
// Edited to add – here’s a picture of a few –. https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/253862_2097253677356_6723375_n.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&oh=236e6e5ced821dcfeabafcb6be80dc2a&oe=59DF532D
Shaw’s home run should land in about an hour or so.
@24, It’s somewhere over Central Florida right about now.
Some absolutely beautiful arch tops in that pic…
To paraphrase a beloved announcer, Julio got hammered, and I’m thinking about it.
Now that Julio’s out, we can come back and win this one.
At 26, thank you – and yet that ratty old 53 telecaster is worth more than all of them.
I think I’ve seen vids of you playing a tele… Is that the one?
Joe Simpson is in get-off-my-lawn mode. Mad about the organist playing cheery music in a 7-0 game.
@31, heard him say that, too. What a moron he is.
30, Up until about three years ago yes, I recently retired it in favor of something newer that I can just beat on and not worry about it being broken or stolen.
@12, the quote of the day, credited to blazon: “my teenagers are in their fifties”. Yogi Berra grins.
Music snobbery probably doesn’t lessen as you age–I think it gets worse. What does lessen is the desire to put decent people down for enjoying popular music that isn’t up to your personal tastes. But narcissism dies hard.
@31 I laughed so hard at that. What does he want him to play? It’s his job to play something, and I don’t think the organization would like it very much if he started playing a funeral dirge every time the Braves are down.
@36, The organist should be sent home if the lead against the Braves gets too large. Of course, he should be told to come back if the Braves start to rally.
I was finished with Joe after the infield fly rule game
Teheran was rubbish today and would probably have lost to a HS team. But…
I have a thing about omens, if they occur early…as per Macbeth’s witches
We had a classic today with the first batter of the game, ground ball to short…
Did you shudder, just a little, when you saw where it was heading?
I’m ashamed to say i did, just a twinge.
The glove, tentatively tending down, left a significant air space to the ball arriving beneath…DOOMED
He came round to score, the first of many.
@26
what is an arch top, please…a cloud formation?
@34
JohnWDB…thank you…such exalted company! Like Yogi I did not plan it to be funny.
When Julio doesn’t have it, he is sure getting hit hard this year. No in between for him it seems like.
The Scroll says someone called Bonifacio has just hit their 11th Home Run for KC…
Surely not? What were we thinking? 1 for us, 10 for them?
His brother, blazon.
No, Chip…it wasn’t ‘today’s exciting action’ you will be recapping…you’re reading off a card.
@42…
This time i was trying to be funny! But i didn’t know they were brothers.
@31
The best thing about going to games at the park itself is not having to listen to Chip, Joe or what Jim and Don have become. The luddites are not only tiresome, but they do the entire Braves fanbase a disservice. While announcers ultimately must serve the broadcast, their first, most important job is as the daily, intimate connection between the team and its fans. That does not appear to exist with the Braves, at least, not since 2008 … and not as it still exists in plenty of other markets (Colorado, San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, just to name a few). I fret that Jim, who was so promising when he first joined the organization, has become tainted by his connection to the rest of the lot, particularly to Joe.
Which brings me to my rant, which everyone can ignore, but I have to get it off my chest, because I had a couple of drinks at the game today.
My 4-year-old considers baseball games her favorite weekend activity, along with watching “Star Wars” and “PAW Patrol.” The moment she leaves one game, she asks when she’s going to another. Her attention span is anywhere from four to six innings, depending on whether she had a nap or how well she slept the night before. But she adores the park because she gets to repeatedly time her runs to first base, step on the plate at the Henry Aaron statue, nudge the life-size bobbleheads, play the carnival games before first pitch, inhale a sundae. In San Francisco, she made repeated runs down the slide beyond left field during one inning before going back to the game. In Denver, she spends an inning on the playground beyond the left-field foul pole and always wants to walk up to the purple row in the upper deck that symbolizes being exactly 5,280 feet above sea level. Today, she sang along when Kaminski played “London Bridge” for Eric Thames. She bobbed her head at the “Peanuts” theme for Nick Franklin.
She started playing T-ball this spring. She takes bobbleheads off the shelf in my office and arranges them in the on-field positions. She shows all signs of being hooked on the sport for life. If Joe had his way, none of this would be possible because all of this is extraneous to the fact that during one Sunday during an otherwise enjoyable home stand, our “ace” got shelled, and we should all be in mourning because of it.
I know Those Who Know The Things have told us that WFF is totally NOT a hitter’s park New Launching Pad characteristics, but Julio sure seems to think it is.
1-5 at home. 0-5 on the road.
6.65 at home. 2.89 on the road. (43.x innings pitched in both splits)
36 runs allowed at home. 14 on the road.
11 HR’s allowed at home. 6 on the road.
Batters hitting 285/363/506 (869) at home.
Batters hitting 248/309/416 (725) on the road.
Putting your pseudo-ace with pre-existing gopher ball tendencies into a home park that lets fly the dogs of war may not be a good idea (for him.)
5-0 on the road. Not 0-5.
To be fair, Julio’s K/9, BB/9, and ground ball rates are all much worse at home vs. road. It’s not just that he’s giving up cheap HRs at a potential bandbox. He’s just an awful pitcher at Suntrust.
He’s nibbling and not attacking hitters because he’s afraid of the park.
Would also be interesting to see how many foul-outs he gets on the road and for his career, vs those in WFF.
Sam’s probably right about Julio. He does seem to pitch scared at SunTrust.
Blazon,
Arch top guitars have a sculpted, rounded body top with ornate, f-shaped openings cut out of it. They have a beautiful, distinctively old-school vibe to them. Having a hollow body as opposed to a solid one, they give a pretty good volume of sound even without an amplifier… I’ve always had a weakness for them. Spike’s collection is one of the most interesting I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a few.
Lotta musicians on this forum apparently–musicians and a few poets as well.
WFF is funny because it means the Braves are scared of black people! LOL! I like Things That Are Funny.
@45, I am glad your little girl is enjoying her time at the ballpark. Thanks for sharing that.
I’m told that we don’t have to worry about the sand in your PC hoo haw John.
It isn’t PC that gets my dander up, it’s the inequity in how “no politics” rules are enforced.
@52
sigmundc…thanks for taking all that trouble to set me right – i was a little off track with my cloud formations over STP, wasn’t i?!
What is really interesting is the uninformed last minute choice of a country song with a history has ‘brought out’ of this Board intense aficionados of the music scene at least two of whom are apparently playing in public on a regular basis.
For the love of…wff isn’t political, it’s freaking self deprecating humor.
And when you have older kids you’ll realize that some of their music is good. If you can’t see yourself liking anything but your own music, then congrats, you are Joe Simpson.
Recapped.
@56
It’s a job that is surely impossible by definition. We are,properly, appealed to, our better natures. Overall, we do a great job i believe.
@13
Smitty…reference please…i believe it may be your home town but what is it doing sitting there? Our best to your Barber, keep us primed.