So I said there would be fewer game threads this season, but I never said there’d be none. Opening Day, the day that starts the Braves 162-0 season, is special. (I mean honestly… if the Braves go 162-0 every post on this blog is going to be of historic interest, so we might as well start out properly.)

In recent years, the Braves have been scheduled into some terrible weather for opening week. I don’t think this has crippled their chances (it’s a really long season) but I’ve been to San Diego, and the weather there is always perfect. (The park is nice too, and is adjacent to an organic nighttime area rather than a club-curated one.) Every day is going to be mid-60s with no rain. But an even better part of this is that the mandated day off day that we usually get on the day after Opening Day has disappeared. The Braves start with seven in a row: 4 against the Padres and 3 against the Dodgers. These are two good teams (obviously the Dodgers are far and away the best team on paper) and taking them on right at the start of the season is a no-lose proposition: either you swagger home with rightful optimism or start making the adjustments you need to make with plenty of time on the schedule.

These winter-weather starts of the last few years has seemingly meant that Atlanta didn’t have to come up with a fifth starter until about May 12th. The Dodgers, somewhat oddly, have a Sunday off day before facing the Braves, so they will have their fourth starter available — and their fourth starter is Tyler frickin’ Gasnow. This gives them a pretty big advantage in game 1, ceded back back when the Braves give Sale his second start in Game 2. But that’s next week, and this is the Opening Day thread, right?

Chris Sale, unsurprisingly is the Opening Day starter: last year’s Opening Day starter is, for the moment, still unavailable, but that shiny Cy Young Award pretty much slots you in the #1 spot. The Padres counter with Michael King and will follow him with Dylan Cease. But Yu Darvish is currently shut down with elbow inflammation, so things drop off pretty quickly for the last two games.

Recappers Needed

Monday-Wednesday are taken by our old hands cliff, AAR and tfloyd. Ryan will take as many as he can and I will recap (perhaps a little brusquely) anything not otherwise taken. BUt we definitely have openings for the rest of the days. I fully understand that you might not want to commit to a day of the week for a whole season. So don’t. If you want to try to do some Braves Journal-style recapping, even just to try it out once or twice to see if you like it, let me know in the comments and I’ll start a private talk about what you’re willing and able to do. And don’t worry about needing to know a bunch of WordPress crap. You can just send me a recap and I’ll format it for the site. This is Braves Journal: we privilege amusement over competence.

Meetup

We’ll start talking abut a possible meeting in Truist soon. In the meantime, in an attempt to prove Braves Journalers can meet anywhere on short notice when they need to, Ryan, ububba and I had about one too many on Monday. And I have proof.

JonathanF, Ryan C and ububba with no obvious proof that we were even drinking beyond the somewhat goofy facial expressions

Enjoy the season, and enjoy life. It passes all too quickly.