Play Ball! (the last two words of the National Ant

[jjmcgr]

The Braves are playing the Red sox tonight and this weekend in Atlanta. The Sox are coming off a rough set with the Twins in Minneapolis where we couldn't bring runs home and our pitchers kept loading the bases on wlaks and HBPs then giving up grand slammers.
Well Varitek hit three runners home just now finally. Ironically he was an All American at Georgia tech, which, if I remember correctly, is in Atlanta.

The dig cable feed I have is the Atlanta broadcast and the announcers seem amazed at home many Red Sox fans are there.
what they do not get it that that is a new phenomenon- since about 2003 everywhere. There are tons of Sox fans at all Red Sox road games these days. Last night in Minnesota when Youkalis got a hit the characteristic Fenway YUKYUKYUK chant was clearly visible.
When I went to games in KC, Chicago (White Sox), Minnesota and Baltimore, at least half the fans were rooting for the Red Sox.
I don't know if these are all Boston people flying out or locals that have latched onto the team or people who got jobs away from home (like me). Back home the games are all sold out way in advance. But in KC I do not meet many people from back home yet when I went to the sox game, the play was full of Red sox fans and cult favorite (at least in Boston) Jerry Remy was mobbed by people outside the stadium.

BTW, I applied for a job in Monterey. If I get it and take it, I'll use the opportunity to research the case on weekends. (But I probably won't take it).

[ista]

We're 16 out of 18. But, I'll watch. I was there when we went from last to first.

[ista]

For any Red Soxs fans out there, just go ahead and gloat I can take. I've been on both the losing and winning side. We have 2 more games to go this weekend!

[ista]

Okay, okay . Well, if we're going to lose, glad it's to your beloved Reds.

[jjmcgr]

naturally the Red Sox are from Boston and the Reds are from Cincinnati, but the names and the Braves are connected.
The original all pro baseball team was the 1869-70 Cincinnati red Stockings. The team was broken up in 1870 but many of its players went to Boston in 1870, becoming the Boston Red Stockings in the first professional league, the National Association. This team then joined the National League in 1876. It eventually was renamed the Brives and moved away from Boston in 1953. The Braves are the oldest continuous baseball franchise. When Cincinnati got a team back they originally named them Red Stockings after the original team but this ultimately got shortened to Reds. The Red Sox, Boston's American League team, did not start until the beginning of the 20th Century but was not called Red Sox until about 1907. The team took the name as a tribute to the old NA/NL team which had dominated baseball in the 1870s, 80s and 90s.

The Braves have dominated the Red Sox in years past, so it is good to see the thing shifted a little this year. The Sox have gotten good starting pitching the last two days as well.

[nickg]

Ista - I grew up in Atlanta in the 1960s and early 1970s, watching hank Aaron and the gang. For years I watched them struggle, and watching the 1991 season on Turner TV was a glorious year! They didn't win the World Series but they went from worst to first and I will never forget the announcers yelling Braves Win Braves Win Braves win when they won the pennant. I even lived briefly next door to Eddie Mathews in 1972 when he was their coach.

Now I have to be a Rays fan, and one day they are going to turn it around like the Braves. I am going to the Braves-Rays game this Saturday night.

[jjmcgr]

Nick and Ista,

I remember the 1991 World Series distinctly because I was living in Khobar, Saudi Arabia and the games were on Armed Forces TV in the middle of the night.

Naturally being from Boston, I really did not care for either team (Minnesota and Atlanta) and would not be up until the wee hours watching it (athough I normally worked late anyway at the Dhahran Airbase). I did want Atlanta to win although I am an American Leaguer because I felt Minnesota was a terrible team that did not deserve to be in the WS and only got there because of the unique aspects of their home field, the Homerdome (a place I actually went to last summer!).

Anyway I liked in a suite overlooking the Persian Gulf where I shared quarters with two other officers. One was in my section. The other I never met in person because he was always in bed when I got home. Anyways this third guy was from Minnesota and wolud have the tv on late at night watching the games. And he had some girlfriend he met there and the two would be cheering. Once I went to take a leak and the girl was standing there and I was all in my underwear. That was fun.

That guy left soon after. for a while I had the whole suite to myself. Then I was moved to smaller quarters as they closed down whole sections of Khobar Towers. I did not come home until the end of December.

In 1991 the Red Sox lost the division on like the next to last day to the Blue Jays and they fired the great manager Joe Morgan to replace him with druggie Butch Hobson.

I also remember 1982 when the Braves won the division because I was at Fort Benning at that time. As I recall, they had a big lead but almost blew it, while in the american League the Orioles had to win a bunch of games in a row to catch up to the Brewers and they won all but the very last one. (Of course they then won the next year).

[ista]

Well, boy's, we're telling our age here. Dan Driesan was a customer of mine, to those that know, Dan was with the Cinn. Reds in the big Reds in the '70's with Johnny Beach, Pete Rose, Regional Jackson.

Hammerin Hank Arron and Phil Niekro along with Dale Murphy and Terry Pendleton were with the Braves.

Nickg, I was at every pennant and series game. And, I Tommack chopped, and paid for it the next day.

You want to talk Gant, Justice, Galvine, etc., with me???

Nickg, are you even remotely familiar with John Marshall Law School?

[ista]

Nickg, That's where you study real law and where it's applied. Otherwise, apply at Harvard, Yale or Oxford.

[nickg]

ista - not following the law school remarks, but I went to law school in Florida and undergraduate school at Vanderbilt

I'm going to see smoltz pitch for the braves - that is a blast from the past - yeah I miss the days of glavine and gant and justice - pedleton came along a little later than aaron and then murphey - poor dale was the only good brave for years

the players from the early days I remember were Felix Milan at short, Felipe Alou in rightfield, Hank in center, Rico Carty in left, Niekro or Denny Lemaster on the mound...Joe Torre catching....

Eddie Mathews' daughter and I fell in love at age 16 while she was visiting her dad next door (she lived in Milwaukee) and then I moved to Florida and we wrote letters for a while

I'm rooting for the Rays these days! just a few more good pitchers and look out Boston and NY!!!!!!

[jjmcgr]

back from Boston. my flight was delayed so I got stuck in Revere, MA, overnight. (I hate airlines).
good to be back home where I know where everything is.
got my car back today too.

[jjmcgr]

forgot to mention the Sox are on a 9 gmae winning streak and play the Mets tongiht. Ortiz won two games over the weekend for the team in extra innings. Every 2d person of both genders back home was wearing a sox cap or shirt (it used to be only about every 5th person).

[jjmcgr]

The Sox have now won 12 in a row for the first time since 1995, a year Cleveland swept them 3 straight in the playoffs...

hope this bubble doesn't burst.

[ista]

I had a good friend from L.A. when the Dodgers were on top in the 80's. When the Series rolled around I was cheering Tommy D. The '90's I cheered the Braves, still have the t-shirts, banners, Championship and World Series ticket stubs, etc.

Would be nice to know someone who is in the Pennant Race and Series this year. NY, well, everyone in the Country was rooting for them in the first part of the new century.

[jjmcgr]

well Nick G will be happy. after the Red sox went 15-1, the Devil Rays beat them two in a row.

Just back from visiting Little Bighorn and Mount Rushmore. Long drive but good sites.

[jjmcgr]

I have to admit that I was taken aback when I saw a picture on multiple sites and in newspapers of some Atlanta Brave fans sitting in the stands with paper bags over their heads with sayings on them like:
8 Game Losing Streak
Last Place in the NL East
Why Are We Here?

These fans really disgust me! They have zero sense of proportion. Atlanta fans have long had a bad reputation because they seem to have no understanding or appreciation of how good the team they rooted for has been for so long. They've won 14 division titles in two different divisions in a row and these ingrates are wearing paper bags after one sluggish half season!
Unbelieveable! People in many cities would love a single division championship in the last 14 years let alone 14 in a row. Ask Tampa fans... ask Milwaukee fans...
Why are they there? I say- leave---go home and watch boring soccer instead. Such stunts are bush league.

[nickg]

I think the Rays have beaten the Sox three in a row now (I think- I have been watching soccer) Kazmir pitched an excellent first game against the Sox.

[jjmcgr]

yes Nick they did beat us 3 in a row before Ortiz hit another grand slammer to cement the 4th game... now we play the white Sox...

[metalhalide]

wayne rooney on his way back to everton???