August Braves Notes

Thursday Aug 2nd Braves game: Pretty bad inning, the eighth. Saw Soriano come and thought that this would be a good situation to get his groove back, up four. Then one just out of Tex’s reach, Edgar gets hurt, Harris makes an error and runs into the wall twice, and Lamb hits a grand slam. I fell asleep going to the 11th, and woke up and saw we lost on the ESPN crawl. Getting ready the next morning I realized the score was 12-11, thought it had been 9 – 9 going to the 11th…meaning the Astros scored, then the Braves tied it up.

Saturday night the third I turned it over to the SF/SD game an inning after Bonds hit 755, and between dozing off I saw his other three at bats. Now he has to go homerless for three more games before we see him on Friday night. Ready for the SF trip…just need to do a few last minute things.

Sunday the fourth ESPN was listing great Wrigley moments so I got out my laptop. I thought Hank’s 3000th came there, but it was Crosley Field in Cincy, which also had the brick backstop. Did you know that when Aaron passed Mantle on the HR list that Mantle had been third on the all-time HR list? So I guess he had been second to Ruth before Mays passed him.

One stat that came out was Barry and one other player were the only ones to have more than 30 HR in over 10 straight years…Hank had 30 HR in 15 of 17 seasons, with the two other seasons with 24 and 29. Hank had 20 straight years with more than 20 HR, but Barry only had 15 straight.

680’s Perry L…seems guys like him will take a side on an issue just to incite reactions. I do like Rude and Dimino. Interesting to hear the Reds wanted Reyes and Escobar, which was too high a price. Buddy said he had this hyperextended elbow before, and it shouldn’t be a problem. Nice win last night…I was flipping over to the end of the Mets game. Though they won, the Brewers had the tying run at the plate when the game ended. And the Cubs beat the Phils on a walk-off wild pitch.

Couldn’t believe DOB said the Mets series would be crucial…most times the Chipper/Cox types don’t say one series is more crucial than another.

The Rowland’s Office blog published an informative article by Sac Fly reader Rob. I’m jealous! I hadn’t looked at the Office since lunch Tuesday, but had read where they were taking submissions. I had thought of him, but that comment on stats made me think they might not like his work. I just added a quick comment…thinking that if his post generated comments, they’d want more of his work. On the plane I was reading this year’s SI baseball issue from April, and was reminded SI listed the Office as a go-to site for Braves talk.

Think Wickman has anything left? He’s fine if he doesn’t fall behind the hitter. Only saw the end of Tuesday night’s game.

Interesting Glavine article, on how he reinvented himself as a pitcher after slumping as a Met…pitching inside.