Ballplayer

Stay up and watch the Braves? If you were like me you changed the channel when they fell behind. All those wild pitches looked like passed balls to me. Flowers was on one knew, and not shifting his body to block the pitch. What was Dickey supposed to do, stop throwing knuckleballs? He gets shelled when he throws his fastball.

 

In his book Chipper said he thought Maddux kept playing until Roger Clemens retired to make sure Maddux was the winningest pitcher of his generation. Jones said once Leo came out and told Maddux to walk Louis Gonzales to set up the double play. Maddux never wanted to walk anyone (less than one thousand in his career, perhaps the lowest K/BB ratio in history). Maddux told Leo he would get Gonzales to pop up to third. And that’s exactly what happened.

 

In his second season Chipper asked Barry Bonds to autograph two balls. Bonds refused. Years later Bonds reached third base and asked Jones why he didn’t talk to him anymore. “Are you serious?” Chipper thought. Jones said David Justice was like a big brother to him, helping him master the mental part of the game.

 

Left work at 5:50 and drove straight to dance class, our last. We had a special class made up of married couples we know, all recruited by Ceil’s friend Nancy. Seems like most of the people who frequent that studio are singles looking for dates. After the class everyone went over to Nancy’s. I was tired and didn’t want to go hang around a bunch of people I didn’t know well, but I did have a good time. Didn’t get home until almost ten. Too tired to go to bed so I crashed on the couch for an hour.