Braves Bits

So good to see so many Braves caps being worn around town. Glad to see Will wearing his Braves home cap. These days there are literally dozens if not hundreds of various Braves caps for sale. I like to stick to the caps worn by the team on the field in games, batting practice, or spring training. Or a cap they used to wear on the field. The traditional red billed home cap brings back memories from my childhood. The navy road cap also looks good, and the white faced road cap worn by Hank Aaron in the 70’s is iconic as well.

Yesterday I wore my navy tomahawk A windbreaker, and received a compliment not only at work but at my 6 pm appointment.

You might like this article about the extreme use of relief pitchers in MLB. Anything to keep the Braves from repeating.

https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/11/10/relief-pitching-braves-astros-world-series-pace-of-play

Some people don’t realize that baseball awards are voted on at the end of the regular season. Right or wrong, what happens in the postseason isn’t considered. Otherwise players and managers from 3/4 of the teams wouldn’t have much of a chance to win. You’d have thought Snitker still would’ve been considered for manager of the year (and Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos considered for executive of the year). You’d have thought the northeastern media would’ve considered beating the heavily-favored Mets, Phillies, and Nationals as a major accomplishment.

When Jim Kaat congratulated Greg Maddux for breaking his record for most career Gold Gloves, Kaat mentioned that the only record he still owned was for being the oldest pitcher to steal a base. The next season Maddux stole a base, breaking Kaat’s record. Maddux stole five bases while playing for the Cubs, the last 18 seasons after the first. Maddux also has more sacrifice hits than any other right-handed pitcher.

There’s already talk about what the special gold-trimmed world champion uniforms will look like on Opening Day. Tomahawk or no tomahawk? Perhaps the Braves should wear special gold-trimmed 70’s era Hank Aaron feather uniforms, since it will be the 50th anniversary of Aaron’s 715th home run.

A few years ago I met Tony Schiavone at a Gwinnett Stripers game. In addition to his 40 years as a wrestling announcer, he hosted the Georgia Bulldogs postgame radio show on WSB AM 750 for years. Recently he’s been the voice of the Stripers for the past few seasons. A good article about him on SI.com. Tony has just come out with an autobiographical comic book style graphic novel about the ups and downs of his life. Schiavone lives a mile away from me, just down the street from my other friend Reid. I’m going to have to start riding my bike past his house.

https://www.si.com/wrestling/2021/11/10/aew-commentator-tony-schiavone-career

If my granddaughter marries Tony’s grandson, she’ll be Shivonne Schiavone.

A group of Native Americans in Colorado has filed a legal challenge to the state’s ban on Native-based team names, on the grounds that it prevents schools from using Native iconography in positive, honorific ways.

https://www.coloradopolitics.com/courts/native-americans-sue-colorado-to-throw-out-mascot-ban/article_4d7ca256-4d98-59ed-9951-f764c492c248.html

STAN MUSIAL  [SABR Bio] played in four World Series, winning three times. He went to the postseason with St. Louis in 1942, 1943, 1944 & 1946. They won all but ’43. No other player has hit more home runs in All-Star games. Musial homered six times in All Star competition in 1948, 1949, 1951, 1955*, 1956 & 1960b. The home run in the 1955 game was a *Walk-off  Musial is the only player to rank in the top 35 in career hits, singles, doubles, triples and home runs. He ranks 4th in hits (3,630), 19th in singles (2,253), 19th in triples (177) & 32nd in homers (475) – but ranked much higher when he retired, including second in hits. (Musial’s page in Baseball-Reference looks like someone spilled black ink all over it).