Baseball is Back

While I was keeping up with spring training, I hadn’t really started to get excited about the season until the last few days. Ceil wanted to watch the Wednesday night replay, and got to see many of the regulars bat, and a Tex interview. Then the SI Baseball edition arrived, which I read during Will’s practice last night. That always gets me going. No surprize that the Mets and Phils were picked to finish ahead of Atlanta.

From DOB’s blog about the #1 draft pick…”I mean, watching his raw swing in BP, you’re amazed that he can hit 450-foot homers using practically nothing but hands. He doesn’t get his hips into the swing at all, doesn’t use his lower body. Really, it’s all hands and wrists.” He played East Cobb baseball…shouldn’t those coaches have taught him how to hit?

Two Braves items from Uni-Watch…”A little birdie tells me that the Braves’ long-rumored blue alternate jersey may make its debut in the team’s very first game of the season, this Sunday against the Nats. “GM Frank Wren wants it to be a big surprise,” reports my source. “The Braves have delayed putting out their merchandise catalog this year solely because the road alternate jersey is featured in it. The feeling is that by unveiling them in this fashion (nationally televised game on ESPN), sales will be through the roof as soon as the catalog is sent.” Nice to see uniforms reduced to nothing more than a sales gimmick.”

“I was going through some old files and came across a bit of info sent my way five or six years ago by SABR researcher Maxwell Kates. At the time, there was no such thing as this blog or even the Uni Watch News Ticker, so I had no place to publish little tidbits. But now, dear reader, you get to read the following: “Is it true that Wayland Moore was high on acid when he designed those uniforms worn by the Braves between 1972 and 1979? I’ve heard that story once before, but I can’t vouch for its accuracy. When Moore first designed those uniforms, the Braves were actually supposed to have worn red on the road. Hank Aaron took one look at the uniform and said, ‘I’m not wearing that. Take whatever is red, and make it blue.’ Moore complied and later altered the Braves’ road uniforms according to Aaron’s wishes. Aaron and Eddie Mathews were the only ones shown the red uniforms.” Hadn’t heard the acid trip part of the story, though it seems implausible.

Things are getting a little better at work, but there’s still a lot to work through to get things running smooth. No telling what kind of mess my temp is creating doing a lot of what I used to do…especially since my boss cast her off back to the other building.