Tim Drew‘s Autograph
So it’s Alumni Weekend (or whatever they call it) at Truist Park this weekend. And if you can’t get a Chipper Jones or Andruw Jones autograph, the lines were fairly short for Tim Drew autographs. Just to be clear, I’m not even interested in his brother’s autograph.
In the booth they interviewed Will Smith, who didn’t slap anybody — I have no idea where that reputation came from.
Then Paul Byrd interviewed Julio Franco, who will be in the home run contest tomorrow, and is barely younger than me. This is clearly one of the profound unfairnesses of life, if he didn’t attribute to a lifestyle that I would sooner die than follow — plenty of sleep, healthy eating and plenty of exercise. We all make choices.
Brian McCann and Frenchy had an inning of jocular reminiscence — or is it jockular?
The Game
Dubón made a Little League fielding error that led to a run. I have to say this is one of the more egregious examples of the supposed “rule” in which you don’t credit an error to a fielder who doesn’t touch the ball. I want to be clear: this is not even remotely a rule. From the rulebook:
“It is not necessary that the fielder touch the ball to be charged with an error. If a ground ball goes through a fielder’s legs or a fly ball falls untouched and, in the scorer’s judgment, the fielder could have handled the ball with ordinary effort, the Official Scorer shall charge such fielder with an error.”
Scorers have no problem calling a ball through a second baseman’s legs an error. Bill Buckner made an error in the 1986 World Series. Dubón made an error which for literally no reason at all was called a double, the only run Chris Sale yielded. When he was done after 6 innings, it was another night in the presence of greatness: no actual earned runs, no walks, 9 K’s, 108 pitches.
On the other side Brandon Pfaadt was making the one run lead hold up. Unless you are one of the fans who remember William Pfann on the 1894 Reds, he is the only Pf player in MLB history. But he has had a really good season. The Braves looked pfeckless against him, and it began to look like getting to him was a pfantasy. Two singles through pfive innings. And then two more innings.
Walt Weiss gave Fuentes the seventh inning, but then went the B-Team route, with Kinley giving up a 9th inning homer to make it 2-0. That’s where it ended. You don’t have to be Roger to note that scoring at least one run is a requirement for winning a game. Maybe they should have let Julio Franco bat.
Fox game tomorrow night. Go get ’em.
Remember Price Pfister, “the Pfabulous Pfaucet with the Pfunny name?” No matter.
Does anybody remember Bob Horner coming to an Alumni Weekend? Was there some bad blood between him and the Braves?
Iirc Horner last came just after COVID and spent an inning in the TV booth. He was already sick although the nature of the malady has never been disclosed.
Thanks. I either missed that or forgot.
I remember that time Horner was in the booth. My memory is he was quite gracious and positive about his time with the Braves.
He did get screwed by the owners’ illegal collusion when he became a free agent, but that was all of MLB, not just the Braves. And he did get a multimillion dollar settlement.
Pfredi Gonzalez would say we sometimes we have to tip our caps.
Random 10-5 rule facts:
-No Brave has 10-5 rights.
-Next year, Matt Olson will have 10-5 rights
-At the end of next year, if I’m understanding it correctly, Acuna and Ozzie would have 10-5 rights if they remain with the team.
-In 2 years, Chris Sale and Austin Riley will have 10-5 rights. That could get interesting with Riley.
Bad Grant tonight. Gonna be a long one.
Holmes is trying to make the decision easier about who goes to the bullpen to make room for AJSS.
Even not considering tonight, he has the worst FIP in the rotation and has trouble facing the lineup multiple times.
Wild that a team with Holmes and Elder in the rotation somehow entered the day 8.5 games up. But it feels like hitting on 19 with those two, hoping they can sustain it.
I would rather see any pitcher hit than AA’s Folly at the bottom of the lineup.
Recapped