Comeback

Big crowd gathered in The Battery to watch the game.

Dansby had the huge two out RBI double

to keep the Braves in the game.

Former NL All-Star Adam Duvall collected his second clutch hit

in as many games.

The Braves rocked Cardinal closer Martinez

for the second time in the series.

Swanson also made several nice plays in the field.

Today was the first time in many months

that Dansby wore black cleats on the road.

The Braves need to see t-shirts and polos with this shot of Acuna,

kinda like Air Jordan merchandise. 

Saturday Sports

Braves: hard for me to watch playoff games. After Thursday I wasn't in a hurry to get home from work. Did listen in the car but missed chunks. Not sure if the heat was getting to Folty or if the Cards were starting to zero in on him during his last inning. After so many substitutions Thursday I was hoping for less on Friday.

Fried has done great in relief and I agreed with many - I'd hoped he'd pitch the 9th. But now it looks like Fried won't get to start game 4. Wish he could. Not a good plan to "give the game to the bullpen" in the playoffs. Snit seems to be making Bobby Cox-like moves. Didn't work out on Thursday but did on Friday.

Last night I got home right after the Braves made the third out in the bottom of the 8th and Melancon was coming in. I didn't want to go inside and watch. Ceil doesn't like Melancon because when they clinched he took took his kids out to Chattahoochee Falls in centerfield and made them watch him jump in.

Hopefully the team will just play so good going forward that there won't be any more tough decisions. Chipper made news again, finally relenting to appear on kiss cam.

Watched the Dawgs on a friend's outdoor TV.

Can't believe GT actually scored a touchdown.

Forget Geoff Collins' caps, Tech has worn a different helmet in every came. Different outfit in every game. When they're never the same you can't call them uniforms.

 UNC clearly had the best-looking uniforms.

Penn State wore their decent throwbacks again.

Dear SI: Cancel My Subscription

The last straw. I am cancelling my Sports Illustrated subscription. Had it for almost 40 years. The Braves win two straight NL east division championships and for over two years SI hardly mentions them. SI’s own NL East picks were wrong both years. Then the very day of the Braves first playoff game the SI baseball postseason preview issue is delivered. Big article on the Astros. Then finally an article about Braves Country – about the move from downtown, contrasting the whites leaving the city for the suburbs versus Atlanta United setting attendance records downtown – in the stadium the City of Atlanta helped build, while ignoring repeated proposals from the Braves organization. THE STORY IS FIVE YEARS OLD! 

 

Some of the actual details of why the Braves moved were buried halfway into five page article. Many facts were glossed over. Cobb County is as diverse as Fulton and Dekalb. Hillary won a majority of Cobb voters in 2016. An Inman Park college professor was quoted saying “The Braves are dead to me.” As for me: Sports Illustrated is dead to me.

 

Little did I know that yesterday afternoon while I read the article, in NYC many SI employees were called into meetings. A large percentage of employees were laid off, including Paul Lukas of Uni Watch fame. Hate it when that happens to real people. The print magazine and newspaper industry has been in decline for over twenty years. A couple of years ago SI went from publishing weekly to twice a month. Many middle Americans will also blame SI’s decline on their increasingly liberal content. A person or organization can espouse whatever viewpoint they wish, but if the majority disagrees, it might not work as a business model.

 

No wonder the TBS announcer kept referring to SunTrust Park being in Cobb County. The broadcast was so full of erroneous content that I turned on the Braves radio announcers – a first for me. My Monday morning second guess nitpicking: Not the best of games. Pulled Keuchel too early, though it was over 100 degrees on the field. Acuna needs to run out the balls he hits. Keuchel’s bunt may have been a missed sign. Didn’t matter. Still got the two run homer. Snitker should’ve known that reliever was going to hurt himself warming up. And that the Cardinals and Goldschmidt, among the best in baseball, might rock them Braves relievers. Those two big Cardinal doubles just inside the baselines were killers. It truly is a game of inches.

 

Many many things could’ve gone the other way for the Braves. Acuna shouldn’t have tried to steal off Molina in the first. Had he not been thrown out Acuna would have later scored ahead of Albies, and Freddies homer in the 9th would’ve tied the game.

 

Will and Joel attended the game. Also Charles and Deborah Light (not together). Joel was back tonight.  I will work past five, then go for a haircut.           

Chipper threw out the first pitch, then later caught a foul ball. 

https://www.mlb.com/news/chipper-jones-catches-foul-ball-at-nlds-game-1 

I have a Braves baseball on my desk. During the 2018 season when they slumped I would change the direction the ball faced in an effort to change the Braves luck. Finally the Braves got on a roll and won the division. Ever since then I’d left the ball facing the same way.

Lately I’d been thinking it was time to move the ball. Last night I thought about it more. Today when I was on the phone, outside salesman Jonathan came up to talk to me. While he was waiting he picked up the ball and started tossing it up and down. My coworkers were astonished – they knew better than to touch the ball themselves. We’ll see if the ball’s new direction will help out this weekend. 

 

Crazy busy at work. Trying to get adjusted to busy after a relatively not busy July and August. Going to be a busy October and November.

Tuesday: was going to get my hair cut then decided to wait a few days. Went home. Fixed chicken quesadillas. Fresh Off the Boat. Finally got going with my CPAP machine. Used it for the first two hours. It seemed to adjust itself, but the settings didn’t seem perfect. Will play with it more tonight. I didn’t wake up when Ceil came to bed, and seemed to sleep sounder. Ceil said I didn’t snore.

 

Wednesday night Ceil and I went to Pappasitos. I had Mellow Mushroom for lunch, and slammed down another piece of pizza at 5:15. Worked past six. Picked up Ceil and made the drive. Didn’t get our chicken fajitas until 8 pm but still I didn’t eat much. When we got home we watched New Amsterdam and Schooled.

 

Brought the leftovers today but I hear there will be sandwiches from Jason’s Deli. Tomorrow’s lunch meeting comes from Atlanta Bread Company. I ordered a Cuban sandwich.

 

Slept with the CPAP machine for 2-1/2 hours Wednesday night. According to my sleep app that’s when I did my best sleep. Gotta go the whole night but taking off the mask to go to the bathroom is a big production.  Man I wish my mask was attached by magnets. Thursday night my mask felt super tight so I loosened it. Big news: left it on the entire night. 11 pm to 6:30 am. Didn’t wake up early but did get up to go to the bathroom once (twice?). According to my sleep app it was the best night of sleep I’ve had since using the app back in July or August. I’ve slept long but never as much quality sleep 5 hours 15 minutes and deep slip 3 hours 3 minutes. Never had near that much of either. Now that I’m getting my sleep in order, I guess I’d better get back to exercising again.

 

Left work at noon yesterday for a 1 pm meeting. Went well but tough. Took off the rest of the afternoon. Watched almost all of the Braves game. I’m not crazy about playoff baseball. Afterwards we watched this week’s episodes of Chicago Med and Schooled. Anna made it home from a long day at work.

 

Mailed off another pair of Nikes that I’d sold. Also sold another pair of shoes, as well as one bobblehead for a whopping $130.00.

 

Cuban sandwich for my lunch meeting. Super busy again today.

Thursday in Pictures

Will and Joel went to game one of the NLDS.

The new pastor went to South Carolina and roots for the Red Sox.

Lives in Atlanta for two months then posts this.

A staff member gave it the thumbs down.

Fresh Off the Boat: young Evan gets put into detention

and quips "Goodbye Yale. Hello Georgia Tech."

 Did I mention that Will is getting rid of this old dinosaur?

 W&MC's dining room. Note the tile.

 Who wore it better?

A deer was spotted at Piedmont Park.

Back in Black Again

The Falcons wore their throwback uniforms Sunday against the Titans.

The Birds will wear them two more times this season.

Julio's cleats had the old Falcon logo on them.

Would've been nice if the Falcons had worn their throwbacks

against a team with a more traditional uniform.

The past few years I've posted photos each time

the Falcons wore throwbacks, so the tradition continues.

Good to have veteran kicker Matt Bryant back from retirement.

Is he not the second oldest player in the league,

behind Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri? 

This coming Saturday Florida is wearing throwbacks against Auburn.

The Lions wore throwbacks against the Chiefs.

A good looking game.

The Saints best uniform is their all white color rush uni.

Too bad the Falcons don't wear their throwbacks against New Orleans.

The Packers wore throwbacks as well.

Road Rage

Monday morning on the way to work I was driving east on Holcomb Bridge, in the left lane with a black car to my right. I try to drive in the left lane on this stretch because the right lane backs up with cars turning right, headed to Ptree Industrial south. Up ahead a white van pulled out in front of the black car. I figured the black car would slow down. Instead the black car started to pull left into my lane, still right next to me.

 

Luckily there was an empty turn lane to my left that I could pull into. This avoided the crash. Right there every morning a police car sits with its flashers on, at the top of a hill at a slight curve. Sometimes the policeman will stop traffic to let someone out. I was hoping the policeman would see what happened. Since there was a line of cars behind me, I was stuck behind the police car waiting to merge back into traffic. I never saw the black car again.

 

On the way home from work Monday I was headed down Spaulding, in the usual long line of cars lined up to turn right on Holcomb Bridge, not a half mile from where the morning incident took place. When I'm in this turn lane I try to stick close to the car in front of me, as a courtesy to all the cars behind me. Invariably a more important person will drive past the long line of cars lined up to turn, then wedge their way in at the front of the line. That's what happened to me yesterday.

 

There wasn't much space between me and the car in front of me, which was pretty much stopped. But sure enough a tan sedan came out of nowhere and tried to edge in to the small space in front of me. To show that I didn't appreciate their boldness, I pulled up close. The poor sap in the passenger seat looked back at my front bumper. Since I drive an old car I should've pulled up even closer.

 

When the light turned green the tan sedan wedged on in ahead of me. When it made the right turn it didn't turn into the right lane, but roared off into the left lane, accelerating down the hill even though the light a quarter mile away was clearly red. I could've gotten behind the tan car at the light, but stuck to my normal right lane. Things like that bother me.

 

Still reading Gary Sinise's "Grateful American." Not too long after Sinise signed on to star in the CBS network's CSI New York some network executives learned Gary would occasionally play golf with friends. Sinise was relatively new to the game. He's signed up for lessons but hadn't had many. CBS televises the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am, and likes to get actors from CBS to play. Ray Romano. Kevin James. So Sinise was strongly encouraged to play. It was three days of stress, slicing balls into the rough and into crowds. His golf instructor caddied for him, and he helped him hit a few decent shots.

 

Are any GT bball players good enough to go somewhere else? Guess it doesn't matter – these days players like to jump ship to go play somewhere else.

 

Sunday Snitker was trying to get everyone into yesterday's game, since they aren't playing until Thursday. Kept switching pitchers to get the lefty/righty matchup. Gave the Mets something nice for the offseason. Good to see Ortega and #24 and Duvall all homer. All will be on the postseason roster. Not Hamilton I hope, who got caught stealing on a pitchout.

 

Friday we had leftovers from the BBQ lunch. I took Brunswick Stew home for supper. Crashed on the couch. Finished season 5 of Fresh Off the Boat and started watching season 4. Also a new sitcom about a small church choir in Kentucky.

Saturday morning I went downstairs early for ESPN College Game Day. Did laundry and dishes. Cleaned out the garage. Folded clothes. Fixed quesadillas. Found ice cream in the freezer. Took out the recycling. Cleaned out emails. Trimmed hedges.

 

Anna came home from work and I went with her to Moxie Burger. I wasn't too hungry so I didn't get a sandwich. They brought out all these fries so we took home the leftovers.

 

Sunday School at JFBC. New pastor is a great preacher, but on his first official Sunday the 11 am service only saw a tape of the earlier service. Now in October and November he and Bryant Wright are alternating sermons on giving. Interesting start for the new guy.

 

Stopped by WalMart on the way home to buy a fan. Quesadillas for lunch. Trimmed more hedges and did more laundry and housework. Ceil arrived home from SC. Had Matthew, Anna, and Christian for dinner – Mexican with new kinds of sauces.

Finally made it home Monday evening. Ceil cooked a chicken stir fry dish. Anna and Matthew are with us. Watched The Neighborhood and Chicago Med. Ordered a cord for my car and some ambervision night driving sunglasses to reduce glare.   

 

Next Monday us Murphys are dining at Tacueria for M's 21st birthday. Might be the Cheshire Bridge location because I'm not sure Westside is open on Monday. I'll keep you posted. We might get our Christmas card picture taken while we are together so I'm trying to get everyone to wear Christmas outfits.  

 

Chuck Colson's wise words on impeachment

As the impeachment inquiry into President Trump continues to dominate the news, the Colson Center's John Stonestreet invites us to consider wise words written by Chuck Colson in 1999 after President Clinton's impeachment ended with his acquittal by the US Senate.

Colson noted that while 80 percent of Americans believed Mr. Clinton to be guilty, two-thirds did not want him removed from office. By not convicting the president, Colson believed the Senators made a decision motivated by politics rather than the facts of the case.

Then he observed: "Politics is nothing but an expression of culture. It is not enough to win elections, for political power alone cannot change how people live or change their values. It is essential to change hearts and minds as well. And that starts, not in Washington, but with our neighbors."

Colson concluded: "For all of us who are Christians, regardless of how we view this process, let us remind ourselves that we serve a God who rules over the affairs of men—whether they know it or not."

 

BURT SHOTTON  [SABR Bio] was the last person to manage a major league game in street clothes. Last game managed in civvies was Sunday, 01-Oct-1950. He earned the nickname "Barney" because of his speed. An extremely swift center fielder during his playing days—Shotton averaged 38 SBs over his first six full seasons—he was nicknamed after Barney Oldfield, the celebrated late nineteenth-century/early twentieth-century bicycle/auto racer. He was Duke Snider's first manager in the majors.Snider's debut was 17-Apr-1947, two days after Jackie Robinson's. Since Dodger skipper Leo Durocher had been suspended by Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler prior to the season for consorting with gamblers, coach Clyde Sukeforth managed the team's first 2 game before Shotton became the permanent replacement. So Snider's debut was also Shotton's first day as manager. He helped Branch Rickey solve a religious dilemma. Branch Rickey had vowed to his mother that he would avoid ballparks on Sundays. He sensed that he could trust Shotton and, in 1914–15, he became the Browns' "Sunday manager".