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Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
1,690 comments Add your comment
Jimmy
February 29th, 2012
3:17 pm
I was just thinking back to the days of the NBC Game of The Week. Joe Gargiola and Tony Kubek. Normally 2pm on Saturdays.
Then came along ABC Monday Night Baseball. So, you had two chances a week to watch MLB, unless you lived in a city with MLB a saw it live.
As a kid, I didn’t miss the NBC game with Joe and Tony. Great Saturday afternoons.
I also remember afternoon playoffs and World Series.
I would imagine many on this blog don’t remember daytime World Series games. My, how things have changed.
OK, now back to the regularly scheduled blog about OPS and such.
MFin04
February 29th, 2012
3:25 pm
You should only have a wild card playoff game if teams are tied.
Now we are going to have a 90-72 team playing a 86-76 team to see which team should make the playoffs? Absurd.
This will probably most likely end up killing any end of the year drama. Basically the Braves could have tanked more games and still had a one game playoff with the Cardinals.
Just keep the system how it is. If teams are close down the stretch good, let them battle it out over the last 2 weeks or so. Don’t ruin the 2 weeks, but automatically having a playoff game. It makes the last 2 weeks meaningless.
kenhotlanta
February 29th, 2012
3:27 pm
Michael Nesmith was by far the most talented member of The Monkees. He made some great country-rock albums in the 70s and 80s, was a pioneer with music videos, and actually sold his video company to Warner’s who turned it into MTV.
kenhotlanta
February 29th, 2012
3:33 pm
Jimmy: Great memories of how we used to watch Baseball. I remember even earlier with Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese and in High School in the 60’s, the World Series was played through the school speaker system to all of the classes. I heard Mazeroski’s series winning walkoff home run in a school classroom.
Hugo Z Hackenbush
February 29th, 2012
3:34 pm
I was amused by a quote from Davy Jones awhile back, where he stated that Nesmith now looks like “a German banker.” And so he does…
http://www.zimbio.com/Michael+Nesmith
Murph
February 29th, 2012
3:34 pm
The Braves are in the WC game and are facing a balanced L-R lineup… two pitchers are available with equal rest.
Mike Minor or Randall Delgado… who do you send out there?
Shaun
February 29th, 2012
3:35 pm
I can’t wait until the second-best team in the league plays the fifth- or sixth-best in a one-game playoff. You don’t want to play in that one-game playoff, if you are a second-place, second-best-in-your-league team? Well, have the foresight to realize you are the second-best team, have a different city across the country build you a ballpark, and move to that city so that you are in a different division. Shame on any second-place team that is better than other first-place teams for not doing this! They deserved to be punished by MLB in the postseason if they are not willing to go through this process and are not smart enough to realize when, down the road, they will be a second-place team and one of the top two teams in the league.
kenhotlanta
February 29th, 2012
3:36 pm
The only MLB.com at Bat I can find in the Verizon app store is the Lite version which is free. I am downloading it now, anyone know the difference in this and a full version?
BravePack
February 29th, 2012
3:36 pm
Ease
February 29th, 2012
3:06 pm
Yeah, kinda feel bad for the Phillies
What!? Those words should never be said by a Braves fan.
BravePack
February 29th, 2012
3:39 pm
Murph
February 29th, 2012
3:34 pm
The Braves are in the WC game and are facing a balanced L-R lineup… two pitchers are available with equal rest.
Mike Minor or Randall Delgado… who do you send out there?
Ask me this in September. Can’t answer this question this early in the season. If I had a hypothetical gun pointed at my head forcing me to(which I hope Murph wouldn’t do) I would say Minor based on experience.
kenhotlanta
February 29th, 2012
3:40 pm
Hugo: have you listened to any of Nesmith’s albums from the 70s’? They were excellent country rock and really good.
kenhotlanta
February 29th, 2012
3:41 pm
The MLB.com at Bat app I was referring to is the Android version.
Mixxo
February 29th, 2012
3:42 pm
Jimmy -
I remember watching the Game Of The Week on the Stars & Stripes channel in Germany….in the mid 60’s. It (the game) was always a week late but, still…….
Good times!
CB
February 29th, 2012
3:43 pm
I believe Ease is full of sarcasm today.
Bravofan
February 29th, 2012
3:43 pm
Kenhotlanta: I was having the same trouble earlier. Go to your browser google MLB at bat 12 and pull up the webpage on MLB.com for it then go Down tito the android section and click on market and it will take You to it.
Hugo Z Hackenbush
February 29th, 2012
3:44 pm
Amidst the heavy-handed sarcasm, Shaun has a point at 3:35.
Bravofan
February 29th, 2012
3:45 pm
Basically the difference in the paid in free version is the paid version gives you pitch by pitch tons of stats, one game free a day I believe, free audio for the home or away team. It’s worth it trust me !!!
DWW
February 29th, 2012
3:46 pm
“Now we are going to have a 90-72 team playing a 86-76 team to see which team should make the playoffs? Absurd. ” Mfin
Is it any less absurd that a team loses its division and still makes the playoffs. ie the current system.
Hugo Z Hackenbush
February 29th, 2012
3:47 pm
kenhotlanta, I listened to one of the “First National Band” albums (whichever one had “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” on it) but that was it. Sounded like he was veering more towards hardcore country & western, as opposed to the country/pop he had been doing with the Monkees.
Bravofan
February 29th, 2012
3:47 pm
I have asked earlier this week but does anyone have suggestions on obtaining autographs at the Yankees spring training facility? I bought tickets last night for the Game Sunday against the Phillies.
raleighbravefan
February 29th, 2012
3:48 pm
ken – Nesmith and Peter Tork were actual musicians. Davy and Micky Dolenz were both child actors who could sing. Davy was on Brittishtv, then the original Artful Dodger in Oliver on Broadway. Dolenz started out as Corky on Circus Boy TV show in the 50’s.
Bravofan
February 29th, 2012
3:49 pm
No telling when the Phillies will get Ryan Howard back he had an infection cleaned out today where his surgery was. Good news for the Braves.
Anyone read the piece in McCann and the collapse.
raleighbravefan
February 29th, 2012
3:50 pm
ken – I enjoyed Pee Wee and Dizzy as well…Yankee Game of the week every Saturday (CBS owned the Yankees).
Billy
February 29th, 2012
3:51 pm
MEMO to NL East teams: Win your division, after all, isn’t that the reason teams play the games? Of course, as we have seen in the past, winning the division with only one wild card team, didn’t guarantee advancement deeper into the playoffs. Nothing has changed.
JRW
February 29th, 2012
3:51 pm
Atlanta Sports Wins?
http://now.msn.com/now-plus/0229-miserable-sports-cities.aspx
Bravofan
February 29th, 2012
3:53 pm
Here is the link for Howard story http://m.espn.go.com/mlb/story?storyId=7629323
raleighbravefan
February 29th, 2012
3:53 pm
Too much old f@rt reminiscing today…guess I’ll just shut up for now. Carry on.
CB
February 29th, 2012
3:54 pm
Dang,lot of old timers on here today.
Bravofan
February 29th, 2012
3:55 pm
Mike Stanton of the Miami Marlins no longer wants to be called Mike he wants to be called Giancarlo Stanton http://m.espn.go.com/mlb/story?storyId=7629838
Bravofan
February 29th, 2012
3:55 pm
Cb: I know it’s great!
Billy
February 29th, 2012
3:57 pm
St. Louis in 2011, Boston in 2004, Florida in 2003, Anaheim in 2002, Florida in 1997. Those are the wild card teams that won a World Series. Wild Card sucked for the division winners.
kenhotlanta
February 29th, 2012
3:57 pm
Bravofan: thank you for that info.
Bravofan
February 29th, 2012
3:58 pm
Ken: no problem I was very frustrated early today I feel your pain.
Billy
February 29th, 2012
3:58 pm
Is anyone over 25 an old timer?
McFann :Ô: :Ô: :ô:
February 29th, 2012
3:58 pm
Bravofan Anyone read the piece in McCann and the collapse.
I did!…
kenhotlanta
February 29th, 2012
3:59 pm
CB: That’s because us old timers are retired and living on SS and can’t afford to go anywhere, so we depend on this blog to keep us awake and entertained. It’s time for my nap.
Mixxo
February 29th, 2012
3:59 pm
lol @ JJ Burnette fouling off a bunt attempt into his eye.
That’s why they practice!
CB
February 29th, 2012
4:00 pm
I hope the 2nd wild card teams face off in the World Series this year so I can see Shaun go ballistic here.
CB
February 29th, 2012
4:02 pm
kenhotlanta,count me in that group also. I have a RV sitting in the parking lot that would cost $150 to fill up. LOL
Jimmy
February 29th, 2012
4:04 pm
CB – I’m not that much of an old timer.
Nearly Old Timer, you could say.
Here another question: How many remember when the home plate umpire had that “baloon” for protection? (stay out of the ditch)
I remember them well. I wonder what year those were replaced.
And here’s one I need a “old-timer” to answer. What was the reason Brooks Robinson wore that short billed batting helmet? 74-75 timeframe.
DAP
February 29th, 2012
4:06 pm
billy St. Louis in 2011, Boston in 2004, Florida in 2003, Anaheim in 2002, Florida in 1997. Those are the wild card teams that won a World Series.
add to that the rockies in 2007, astros in 2005, mets in 2000 as wild card teams that won their league.
kenhotlanta
February 29th, 2012
4:07 pm
CB: I understand. I have a ‘93 Mustang convertible I bought new and it was caught in a hailstorm a couple of years ago and needs some restoration (my insurance deductible was too high), but I just can’t do it right now. It’s frustrating.
ncscoots
February 29th, 2012
4:09 pm
Mike Stanton of the Miami Marlins no longer wants to be called Mike he wants to be called Giancarlo Stanton
Obviously has attitude. Trade the roublemaker.
Billy
February 29th, 2012
4:10 pm
I forever want to be known as Guillermo
Guillermo
February 29th, 2012
4:11 pm
That was easy
ncscoots
February 29th, 2012
4:12 pm
I forever want to be known as Guillermo
I’m already known as “scoots”. Only a fool would think it could get better than that.
And I’m no fool, brothers and sisters.
LJ
February 29th, 2012
4:14 pm
Guido Staunton will have a good year.
CB
February 29th, 2012
4:14 pm
ken,tough times for sure. I have nothing to complain about when I look around.
Murph
February 29th, 2012
4:17 pm
If we’re picking new names I’ll take Francisco. It’s just so darn fun to say.
Francisco…. Francisco…
ncscoots
February 29th, 2012
4:17 pm
Nearly Old Timer, you could say.
Challenge on the “nearly”!
Guillermo
February 29th, 2012
4:18 pm
Oh the memories the name scoots brings me and a moist tear to my eye. I had a dog named scoots because it had worms and would scratch its butt across the room on the carpet
ncscoots
February 29th, 2012
4:20 pm
Guillermo, then I submit you made a bad choice of names for your pooch, LOL. I imagine it’s because you were not privy to the full, true etymology of “scoots”.
BravePack
February 29th, 2012
4:20 pm
I’ll take Luigi. Always loved saying that name with an Italian accent….try it.
BravePack
February 29th, 2012
4:21 pm
Hey it’s a Luigi…I’ma here to maka da pizza.
raleighbravefan
February 29th, 2012
4:21 pm
Jimmy – I can’t tell you about the bill, but most consider him the greatest defensive 3B of all time, and he could hit, as well. If I hadn’t sworn off reminiscing for the rest of the day, I would tell you about the time I saw him (on TV) commit 3 errors in 1 INNING…astonishing for such a great 3B. BTW, Orioles had 4 (FOUR) 20 game winners in 1970. In those days, you went with a 4 man rotation, but it was still quite a feat.
Guillermo
February 29th, 2012
4:22 pm
Scoots I was only 5
haggard
February 29th, 2012
4:22 pm
kenhotlanta
While out of town again and logged on at the university library, I’ve enjoyed your comments on The Monkees and the NBC Game Of The Week. While in high school, I’ll never forget Mr. Adams letting us watch the Braves afternoon opener against the Reds in 1974 during English class. Here I am,( with tickets to the first seven home games of the season bought with a fourteen year old’s hard earned money spent painting houses), sweating it out when Aaron hits number 713 off Jack Billingsley. Of course, Bowie stepped in and Aaron pleased us all opening night in Fulton County.
And Mike Nesmith–he of the knit cap and the benefactor of a tidy sum made by his mom, the inventor of White Out.
ncscoots
February 29th, 2012
4:24 pm
Scoots I was only 5
Ah.
MFin04
February 29th, 2012
4:24 pm
So you can be the 2nd best team in the NL and still have a 1-game playoff? That’s just absurd. It ruins the regular season. There is no reason you should be penalized for having the 2nd best record in the NL, yet not winning your division.
Shaun
February 29th, 2012
4:27 pm
MFin04, what? You shouldn’t be penalized for playing in a tough division? That’s news to MLB.
raleighbravefan
February 29th, 2012
4:28 pm
scoots- Definitely a fact that you are “no fool”, my friend.
Luigi (fomerly known as BravePack)
February 29th, 2012
4:28 pm
Hey did the Braves take their photos already? Those are always fun to look at.
Guillermo
February 29th, 2012
4:30 pm
raleighbravefan 3 errors in one game for Brooks was unusual, but if a 3rd baseman did that today there is a group of fans that would immediately rush, and I mean rush, to at least 4 blogs and 5 stat sites to crunch numbers to support their announcement that they have unrefuted evidence Brooks Robinson will never be able to play 3rd base at the major league level. Whew, all in one breath!!!
haggard
February 29th, 2012
4:30 pm
Mitchie-sand
I was just catching up on some back pages and saw your post concerning your dad.. I had the same feeling about baseball when I lost my father in 1974 as I was entering ninth grade. You’ll be in my prayers and continue to let us know how you’re doing.
ncscoots
February 29th, 2012
4:31 pm
There is no reason you should be penalized for having the 2nd best record in the NL, yet not winning your division.
Sure, there is. Unbalanced schedules weighted towards the teams in your own division puts each of the teams on an equal competitive footing with each other. The team within the division with the better record builds that record more than fractionally on the bones of its division rivals. Thus, that team should be rewarded for its primacy. The lesser team, regardless of its overall record, failed to do what another team could, while given the same competitive opportunity. That’s why they call it second place. And that team should not enjoy an equal post-season footing.
You want ot change that, dump divisions and unbalanced schedules. Until then, no amount of whining about 95-win second-place teams being martyred with a play-in game is worth hearing.
raleighbravefan
February 29th, 2012
4:33 pm
Mitchie – Again, sorry to hear about your dad, but also, thanks for your service to our country. My Dad is a 93 year old WW II vet.
Kat
February 29th, 2012
4:34 pm
For those of you in the south that like to admire winter from afar… it’s finally winter here in NY. My current view from work…
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/4374/imag10631.jpg
raleighbravefan
February 29th, 2012
4:36 pm
scoots @4:31- I totally agree, EXCEPT… the stupid interleague play messes that up. Check out the Braves interleague schedule this year vs other teams in our division.
haggard
February 29th, 2012
4:36 pm
David O’Brien
Thanks so much for the link to the Glanville story on Chipper.
MFin04
February 29th, 2012
4:37 pm
“You want to change that, dump divisions and unbalanced schedules. Until then, no amount of whining about 95-win second-place teams being martyred with a play-in game is worth hearing.”
Well I agree that the unbalanced schedule is ridiculous as well. But the problem I have is that, while you didn’t win your division, you still were better than every other team in the Wild Card Race, by 4 games. Therefore, you shouldn’t have to play 1 game in order to prove that you are better than that team, when clearly you are already 4 games ahead of them.
Otherwise the 4th best team in the NL is going to be sitting around in purgatory waiting for their play in game, even though they are 4 up in the Wild Card, and 4 back in their division? What does the team have left to play for? There is no excitement to that at all.
raleighbravefan
February 29th, 2012
4:37 pm
Kat – pretty cool! Seems to be a lot of churches out your window.
Soph
February 29th, 2012
4:37 pm
Great view, Kat and beautiful picture.
John Adcox
February 29th, 2012
4:38 pm
Quoth Random: Internal evidence (viz, the tortured syntax) compellingly suggests that the above caption was penned by our own Crusading Everyman, DOB.
I assume you mean “suggests compellingly” to avoid the split infinitive?
kenhotlanta
February 29th, 2012
4:40 pm
haggard: good memories, my friend and good to hear from you. I bought my first Michael Nesmith albums in the Cut-out bins for about a quarter apiece and was hooked on his music throughout the 70s and 80s. The cut-out and oldies bins used to be a gold mine for collecting albums real cheap…I used them to fill in my collection and try new or obscure artists I was not familiar with.
haggard
February 29th, 2012
4:41 pm
Kat
We’re still waiting here in the sunny South, thogh not ruling anything out just yet. A couple of years ago, on a Sunday in mid-March, we got eight inches up in northeast Georgia–an accumulation which shut down schools and gave the power company fits for four days
raleighbravefan
February 29th, 2012
4:41 pm
JA – Ah yes…English grammer corespondence school, I see.
Kat
February 29th, 2012
4:41 pm
raleighbravefan @ 4:37 pm
Kat – pretty cool! Seems to be a lot of churches out your window.
————————-
Albany’s an older city (if my memory serves me 6th oldest in the nation?). I think settled in the early 1600s so we have a lot of historic buildings include churches, many of which aren’t used as churches anymore but their architecture is still pretty. I actually lived in an old brownstone downtown when I first moved here which was very cool.
haggard
February 29th, 2012
4:44 pm
kenhotlanta
As I was headed down Peachtree St. in Atlanta a few days ago, I passed the “population of Atlanta” sign and was flooded with memories of Peaches Records, which was just down the street. Remember? They were open late, held in-store concerts, a had all the vinyl laid out in peach crates.
How are you settling in?
Kat
February 29th, 2012
4:44 pm
haggard @4:41 pm
————
Wow 8 inches for GA.. that’s surprising..never knew you guys could even get that much snow.
raleighbravefan
February 29th, 2012
4:45 pm
ken – I had forgotten about the “cut out bins”. in the 50’s, we had a store that sold 45’s (a new invention…much better than 78’s) which came out of juke boxes. They sold them used for 25 cents, or 7 for $1.
Nesmith’s First National Band was great. I love “Joanne”.
ncscoots
February 29th, 2012
4:46 pm
Therefore, you shouldn’t have to play 1 game in order to prove that you are better than that team, when clearly you are already 4 games ahead of them.
Really? And if the team with the better record built that through beating up on a weak division, while the lesser record was compiled against a stronger division, you’d auto-assume that the former team was the better?
haggard
February 29th, 2012
4:46 pm
Kat
I had the same feeliing as raleighbravefan when vierwing youir photo. Save for the modern cars–and because of the almost sepia-black and white look–your picture looks as if it could have been taken a long white ago; perhaps somewhere in Europe.
coastalbrave
February 29th, 2012
4:46 pm
haggard
that wa March 1993
raleighbravefan
February 29th, 2012
4:48 pm
Kat – Very cool, indeed.
Gotta go. No more old guy stuff from me today. Later, my friends.
ncscoots
February 29th, 2012
4:48 pm
to avoid the split infinitive?
Maybe it was the split infinitive that led to Freeman’s sublux. Nearly.
cabravesfan
February 29th, 2012
4:49 pm
Kat-
Pretty, but it looks cold
It’s freezing here right now. View out the bedroom window… (not quite as attractive 
)
cabravesfan
February 29th, 2012
4:49 pm
http://i51.tinypic.com/mabct5.jpg
MFin04
February 29th, 2012
4:50 pm
“Really? And if the team with the better record built that through beating up on a weak division, while the lesser record was compiled against a stronger division, you’d auto-assume that the former team was the better?”
Nope, but you play the schedule you are dealt. If I win more games then you, I should be in the playoffs. We didn’t tie, therefore, we shouldn’t play each other in a 1-game playoff. Otherwise, this is just going to kill Wild Card races. Those two teams who are going to play in the “playoff” should just start resting their players the last week of the season.
Bat Masterson
February 29th, 2012
4:50 pm
Kat_
Really nice picture, thanks for sharing it.
Soph
February 29th, 2012
4:51 pm
I see trees and GA Tech.
haggard
February 29th, 2012
4:52 pm
Kat
Sure enough; mother nature gives us a taste of what you simply shrug your shoulders at, I’d imagine.
And the eight inches fell during a six hour period, a lot of it as I stood a hotel room without power watching like a kid, and enjoying the quietness.
Soph
February 29th, 2012
4:52 pm
cab – pictures can be deceiving then because it looks beautiful outside where you are. Pretty blue sky.
Kat
February 29th, 2012
4:52 pm
cabravesfan @4:49 pm
http://i51.tinypic.com/mabct5.jpg
———-
Not fair ha.
DWW
February 29th, 2012
4:52 pm
Mfin,
The excitement is being shifted from that second wildcard team to the first wild card team which needs to win its division to avoid the one game playoff.
haggard
February 29th, 2012
4:53 pm
See ya’ raleighbrave
Kat
February 29th, 2012
4:54 pm
haggard @ 4:46 pm
Kat
I had the same feeliing as raleighbravefan when viewing your photo. Save for the modern cars–and because of the almost sepia-black and white look–your picture looks as if it could have been taken a long white ago; perhaps somewhere in Europe.
————————————————–
If I took a picture from the other side of my work’s building you could see all the new architecture. The side I face is more of old downtown.
MFin04
February 29th, 2012
4:54 pm
If you look at the final Wild Card Standings of 2011. Both the Cardinals and Braves and Rays and Red Sox would have clinched with a week left in the season, and all the drama of that whole week would have been wasted…due to the inevitable “1 playoff game.”
kenhotlanta
February 29th, 2012
4:55 pm
haggard: I’m settling in good and it’s great to be back home. I’ve met with several of my classmates that I had not seen in many years…good times catching up.
Yes, I remember Peaches, Turtles, and Tracks, all huge record stores. I was a manager a The Record Bar all through the 70’s, without a doubt the best job I ever had.
haggard
February 29th, 2012
4:56 pm
coastalbrave
You’re right. That was also the year of “Snowjam” in the Atlanta area, right?
ncscoots
February 29th, 2012
4:57 pm
Otherwise, this is just going to kill Wild Card races.
Whaddya think wild cards did to division races, LOL? If you’re two out of the division and two up in the wild card, and playing the div leader in the final series of the season, do you really care whether you win that series? No. Well, now you better care or suffer for the lack.