The Astrodome
Bud Cort passed away back in February. He was best known for his eponymous starring role in Harold and Maude, a staple of countercultural 1970’s late night film venues, but I much preferred his starring role in the early Robert Altman film Brewster McCloud, which I probably saw 10 times in the old Ansley Mall Film Forum. (There was a discussion a few days ago about how everything is now happening earlier. Midnight movies, anybody?)
If you haven’t seen Brewster McCloud, it is murder/comedy/romance/social satire/ornithology lesson about a guy whose desire to fly mechanically leads him to create a set of wings. Even that is probably too much of a spoiler. In addition to Cort as the eponymous hero, it is the film debut of Shelly Duvall and features lots of Altman regulars like Sally Kellerman, Stacy Keach, Michael Murphy, and, in a memorable cameo, Margaret Hamilton, Wicked Witch of the West. It came out in 1970 very shortly after the movie that made Altman’s career: M*A*S*H. I can still recommend it today if you make allowances for the sort of dope-infused lassitude that the hippie filmmaking of that era exemplified.
The movie is entirely set in Houston, and the Astrodome is a focal point. Duvall works as an Astrodome guide. Cort lives there. There is a car chase in the parking lot. The final scene uses it as metaphor. I miss the Film Forum, and I miss the Astrodome, though honestly it didn’t look like a great place to watch a baseball game.
College Football
The Vanderbilt-NC State ending may well be the single worst beat I’ve ever seen in football. No number of Hail Marys or Kick 6’s come close.
My Yale Bulldogs overcame 8 months of rust and some real questions to beat Holy Cross 38-28. I know none of you care (or at least few of you do) but Yale’s first TD scored on an outstanding snag you might want to take a look at.
The Playoff Prediction Contest Continues
Still accepting entries in the comments here.
Consecutive Homer Records
The streak of 2-run homers was broken by a Ronald Acuña Jr Grand Slam. Because I already wrote the programs to calculate the longest streak of any-length homers, I’ll just show you the records:
| Consecutive Overall | Consecutive Atlanta | |
| Solo | 21: SF 2011 | 16: 2022 |
| 2 Run Homers | 18: Oakland 1982/3 | 8: 2026 |
| 3 Run Homers | 5: DET 1927, KC 1979, KC 2009 | 4: 2000 |
| Grand Slams | 3: KC 2021, LA 2000, MIL 1980, Yankees 2011 | 2: 1987, 1997 (twice), 2021 |
The Game
Holmes pitched well but gave up 2. We scored 6 late, including a RAJ grand slam in the 7th and a Yaz solo in the 8th. Lee got his first two in the 8th, but then started giving up hits again — three in a row to score one and bring the tying run to the plate. He struck him out, but another run yielded is on the path back, but not yet there. But, last time I did math, 6>3.
As tfloyd pointed out, in 2023 the Braves scored a ton of runs early and then hibernated their way through the rest of the game. This team is not very good at scoring a lot of runs, but are quite good at scoring them late. Through tonight, the Braves have scored 220 runs in innings 1-3, 233 in innings 4-6, and 248 runs in innings 7-9. That last number is even more amazing since they don’t hit in the 9th in a lot of games — they have about 150 less plate appearances in 7-9 than 1-3 or 4-6. [After I wrote this, I see JamesD makes some of the same points in the last post’s comments. The easy source here is https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=b&team=ATL&year=2026 towards the bottom, which will update tomorrow to include tonight’s game.]
Game tomorrow and then no games in Houston for a while.
When Ronald’s on a heater, this offense starts to look a whole lot better.
“College Football
The Vanderbilt-NC State ending may well be the single worst beat I’ve ever seen in football. No number of Hail Marys or Kick 6’s come close.”
Lots of us around here are thinking that Miami failing to take a knee against GT a few years ago comes pretty darn close!
I accept that that was in the ballpark. But this was worse, because he was trying to take a knee. Miami was a failure of strategy and a garden-variety fumble. NC State didn’t even have the wrong strategy!
Also, Tech had to drive down the field and score. That takes skill, or at least a lot more skill than dropping on a ball in the end zone.
Wasn’t there a late-1970s NFL game in which the NYGiants messed up taking a knee and fumbled? If that’s an accurate description, it might be even worse than what happened today. As a Vanderbilt grad, I was glad to see today’s result, but I really have trouble following CFB all that closely now that the players are basically professionals with better free agency (and sometimes higher salaries) than the real pros. I remember being a calculus TA for a football player, having the power forward who played on the Olympic team and played a dozen years in the NBA hit a LONG home run off me in a freshman intramural softball game and as a senior being in a marketing class with me, and showing the star point guard where a little-used computer lab was when he came to work on a paper a couple of hours after scoring 29 in a night game I attended. All three graduated in four years. Somehow I doubt that many students at P4 schools have that sort of contact these days with big-time athletes who are only at a school for a year or two.
For those who don’t want to read the whole thing, the tl;dr of my comment that touched on the same subject as Jonathan is that Roger was right, before tonight’s game this year’s Braves had averaged about 4.3 runs/27 outs in the first 3 innings, 4.5 in innings 4-6, and slightly more than 5.2 in innings 7-9, with OPSs showing a similar pattern. I had assumed that the Braves’ pattern wouldn’t be too different from that of the rest of MLB, but MLB teams as a whole had averaged 4.44 in innings 1-3 and 4.6 in innings 4-6 (a bit more than the Braves, but moving in the same direction), but dropped to only 4.38 in innings 7-9, with OPSs again showing a similar pattern.
You are thinking of the famous play in whoch Joe Pisarcik, leading late, attempted to handoff and the handoff was botched, leading Herman Edwards to return the fumble for the winning touchdown for the Eagles. That game is similar to the GT-Miami game. Yes — taking a knee would have worked, and doing something else carried a risk of error, and that error eventuated. This was the right strategy, nonetheless botched. That’s worse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_at_the_Meadowlands
Maybe the dumbest play in the history of college football.
You take the snap & just kneel before anyone gets close. Or you run to the back corner of the end zone & wait for the rush. When it reaches you, just step out of bounds.
If there’s any time left, big deal. They’ll still have to return a kickoff to beat you.
I went to the UGA/Arkansas game today & the Razorback faithful “protested” the state of football affairs by not showing up or tailgating. Seems like they’d already given up on their new coach after just 2 games. Never before seen an SEC game with entire sections empty. Very weird.
I sure hope we’re gonna get this ’23 version of RAJ moving forward.
BTW, I’m a big fan of “Harold & Maude” & I recorded “Brewster McCloud” a few months ago when it aired on TMC. Guess I better check it out. I’m partial, but the 1970s was the very best decade for movies.
I haven’t been back to Housron in a while (my brother still lives there) but I attended both a baseball game and a computer convention at the Astrodome (after it was no longer used for sports). It was once known as the eighth wonder of the world when it was the only domed stadium. I don’t really follow Houston sports any more but I was a big Oilers (now Titans) fan. I do like that the coach of the Texans is an old Bama player (DeMeco Ryans) and Will Anderson plays for them. For all you GA fans, I am still a Bama fan (have been since the 70s). I grew up listening to Braves baseball on CBS radio and watched religiously when TBS came along…..
I went to an Astros game in the Astrodome in 1997 and I really liked it. Really sad that it’s run down and can’t/won’t be repurposed or just demolished.
Robert Suarez starts his rehab assignment with Gwinnett today. Please, please let him be normal.
Phillies 85-70
Cubs 86-69
Padres 86-69
Somebody cogently explain my rooting interest this week… Padres are hot, Cubs score a lot of runs, Phillies have probably too much recent familiarity, although they’re clearly playing the worst of the three right now. Anyone have an argument that isn’t just vibes?
Maybe root for them to stay bunched together so all three teams want to finish 4th and get home field advantage for all three wild card round games, so they use all their best pitchers next Sunday. That and lots of extra-inning games between now & then. I’m too nice to root for injuries, but not too nice to root for tired arms.
I’m with jamesd; whatever keeps our opponent from firing on all cylinders. As to those three teams, all I’ve got is vibes. The Cubs lineup (especially PCA) is scary; the back end of Padres bullpen is the best; and the Phillies’ starters (when Luzardo is healthy) are tough to navigate. But the Braves rotation has turned into a strength, and this penchant for home runs with men on base is a great trend. I like the Braves against anyone.
Well, with 71 pitches through 3 innings, Brown might not get through more than 5 innings even if he keeps striking out everyone. 41 pitches through 3 for Perez looks more like he might get through 6.
Perez getting BABIP’ed, but that happens sometimes when you’re not a strikeout pitcher.
Yaz! He’s quietly having a good September.
Thanks for the statistical analysis but I also contend (like today) that the Braves cannot hit SPs but feast on RPs. It’s just that most RPs come in the 7-9th innings.
Yeah, the uptick in runs in the 7th inning and later is against relievers, but that doesn’t answer why they hit relievers better than starters. Any theories on that?
tfloyd, my theory is that SPs are better pitchers than RPs in general and since you have to use multiples, you are bound to find one you can hit……
AJSS was money in that relief outing. Was sitting 98-100 with nasty secondaries.
We are the champions, my friends
19 division titles in 32 years. We are fortunate to be Braves fans.
Recapped.