2Hole, but Number 1 in our Hearts: The Dan Uggla Story

Time to make amends. In case you missed it, Dan Uggla hit a 9th inning grand slam to give the Braves the win in Philadelphia last night. This was after the Braves gave up a four run lead in the 8th to fall behind by a run. Hey, that's good on him, because Lord knows Uggla has struggled mightily this season in Atlanta.

I've given Dan Uggla plenty of grief over the past couple of years. I'll not justify it with stats and stuff, because he gave us this:

Seriously, go view the whole video in the link above. Props to Tim Burke for the production. Just beautiful. 

TD

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Home of the Braves, Part 2

When I posted my thoughts yesterday, I honestly thought I'd not have more thoughts on the issue. I was wrong. Assuming the city wouldn't play ball with the Braves on control of the facility or possible improvements to the area/transit issues, why would the Braves not look at options?

• I don't get the uproar over downtown losing the Braves. Downtown Atlanta, absent specific events going on, is a ghost town after 6pm. It isn't like NY or Chicago, which has a vibrant dining/shopping/entertainment/residential scene close in town. That is Buckhead/Midtown and a half dozen other places. 
• Look at that list. Assume downtown isn't an option for a second. Which of those places is the best place to build a ball park? Which will encounter the least amount of resistance? Which is going to have existing, though overburdened, infrastructure, to support a 45K seat stadium? Which is going to have the tolerance, political or otherwise, to not fight it to death?
• That being said, I have long thought the area over by Atlantic Station is a more ideal locale for the Braves than the current location. Too bad they decided Ikea is more important than a stadium.
• I also don't buy the Chattahoochee River as a magical dividing line between Atlanta and something else. Yes, Cobb is a different political subdivision. So is Brooklyn. And the Bronx. If that location were in Sandy Springs or out at Charlie Brown Airport (and still in the Atlanta City limits), would it be any more tenable?
• The location is 8400 feet from the Atlanta City Limits. That is about the same distance that Hartsfield-Jackson's South Terminal is from the Atlanta City Limits.

Finally, there is this (from homeoftheBraves.com):

I'm truly agnostic about the move. I get to a few Braves games a year. Getting to Cumberland Mall is as much a pain in the ass as getting down town. The upside is that this gives the Braves the flexibility to make spending time in the area of the stadium more enjoyable. Think grabbing a drink before hand or post game. If they haven't figured out how to capture that at the current location in 50 years, they just aren't going to now.

TD 

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Home of the Braves

I don't get all the uproar. I definitely understand the impact it has on the neighborhoods around Turner Field, but it isn't like The Ted is a true downtown ball park (like Camden Yards or Petco) or in a historic locale like Yankee Stadium. If they were building somewhere closer in town, would that change anything about the move?

What am I missing, other than the obvious, which is the stadium isn't old enough or out dated enough to be obsolete?

TD

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Go #VoteFreddie now

If you are a twitterer, simply use the #VoteFreddie starting now and going until 4pm to cast a vote for Freddie Freeman and America. Stick it to ESPN's open shilling of a player.

Oh, and MLB is on board with it to. Notice the open hashtag, thus if you simply copy and past the hashtag, it won't count as a vote, on Freddie's name in the NL List:

National League

1. Freddie Freeman (ATL) - #Vote Freddie (N2)

2. Yasiel Puig (LAD) - #VotePuig (N5)

3. Hunter Pence (SF) - #VotePence (N4)

4. Ian Desmond (WSH) - #DesiIn13 (N1)

5. Adrian Gonzalez (LAD) - #VoteTitan (N3)

I'm, by no means, a conspiracy brother. But this has is really crazy.

TD
simply click the link below, if you want to #VoteFreddie, as the hashtag is in the title of the article

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#VoteFreddie

Because #VoteFreddie.

Also, you can tweet #VoteFreddie tomorrow between 10-4 and it will count as a vote for #VoteFreddie. In case you were wondering, you can simply retweet this article, since the title is #VoteFreddie, and it counts as a vote.

Because screw ESPN openly shilling any player. What a joke.

TD

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Things I Don't Understand These Days

This offseason has been a confusing one for me.  People have been screaming at me to just get some things through my head, but I've not yet seen the logic behind some of their conjectures. So here's a little list of things that I don't understand and that keep bugging me.

1. The Alabama Hype - Alabama's going to have a good defense.  Any Nick Saban coached team must be respected as defenders.  My trouble is on offense.  The Tide lost two of the best offensive lineman in the country off last year's team.  It's difficult to replace one of those guys, much less two.  And those losses are at the most critical line spots, left tackle and center.  Just look at the two games Smith didn't play in last year and what happened to Bama's production - Tulane, 172 yards of total offense, and Utah, 208 yards of total offense. Add to that a new quarterback, and I don't think the sum of those subtractions equals the number 5 team in the country.
   
2.  "Sliders" or Mini-hamburgers - Why would I want three small things when I can get one big thing, roughly equivalent in size to the three small things, for a lower price? 
3. The Credibility of Preseason Polls - This has been covered a thousand times by much better writers than me, but I'd just like to mention one game that beautifully illustrates my confusion.  An LSU friend of mine recently argued that all you need to judge the credibility of preseaon polls is to look at the LSU-Auburn game last year.  Both teams were in the top 10 in the country and ESPN Gameday was there.  LSU finished the regular season 7-5.  Auburn was an ugly 5-7 and didn't even get invited to the PapaJohns.com Bowl.  In retrospect, it was a highly-ranked average team against a highly-ranked bad team.  Why do we keep doing this?  To sell newspapers?  Who is buying newspapers?
4. The New SEC Digital Network Deal - There's been a load of discussion on this in the blogosphere.  The Senator and David Hale had some rational and sound thoughts about the new video restrictions on highlights and replays of SEC games under the new online media rights deal, which have subsequently been revised.  My concern is if the delivery platform will be reliable.  The online deal is with XOS Technologies who, through JumpTV, has administered GXtra.  During my time as a GXtra subscriber, I'm not sure if I spent more time fuming over the technical difficulties or actually following the game.  Whatever the SEC online media center looks like, it better run better than GXtra or every SEC fan, not just the reporters on the beat, will be squawking loudly.
5. What the Braves are Doing.  This is usually the time of the year when I figure out if I am going to keep following the Braves through the start of football season or cut them loose.  For a while I thought it was going to be easy, but the past couple of series have given me a little bit of hope for the wild card.  They've got the arms, but if the increased offense is relying on Adam LaRoche, I'm concerned.

Quinton

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Thanks Skip

I looked around yesterday, and I couldn't find the video. What an awesome, awesome moment. When I think back to the most amazing sports watching vibes/moments of my life, a few really stick out. The '96 Auburn 4 overtime thriller, the '97 Cocktail Party and Michael Johnson's catch on 4th and 15 were all amazing.

But that slide by Bream was as ridiculously euphoric as anything I've ever seen football or otherwise. And Skip Carey nailed the hell out of that call.

My only regret involving Skip was not making it onto his pre-game call-in show to ask him about the In Field Fly Rule. Nothing set him off like a stupid question about that singular topic. Total comedy.

PWD

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MLB Draft Hurts Perno and Richt

Bye, bye, Brett.

Jason Eller has proved a fantastic recruiting coordinator for David Perno and the baseball program. He's made UGA the place to play for all those elite East Cobb prospects and has cherrypicked some great out-of-staters. How can you tell? The best recruiting class in recent memory was raided yesterday by the MLB draft.

I haven't poured over the draft boards yet, but I know the results weren't good for the baseball team. Signees Brett DeVall and Zeke Spruill got drafted by the Braves at spots 40 and 70 respectively. Those were the two best pitchers we signed. Chase Davidson, a huge first baseman, went to the Astros at 88. But, it could have been worse. Michael Palazzone and Cecil Tanner, two highly touted pitching prospects, are still undrafted and I'd hope they'd be in Athens next year. All of the guys mentioned are top 100 national prospects according to Rivals.com.

Not all those drafted prospects may sign with their teams, but I'd imagine the three guys mentioned above are going to be tough to get on campus. We'd love to get them, but we still have some good players without the drafted guys. Brennan May, Jonathan Taylor, and Tyler Maloof are all talented athletes who should be on campus next year. Losing guys to the draft is routine and the coaches know not every signee is going to suit up for Georgia.

Speaking of great athletes, don't expect to see Xavier Avery between the hedges. Avery, who signed with Coach Richt back in February, went to the Orioles at pick 50. He's made no secret that his dream is to play major league baseball. Avery was recruited as an athlete for football. Sanders Commings, another two-sport star, wasn't drafted yesterday and is likely headed to Sanford Stadium rather than a baseball diamond.

Lastly, congratulations to Gordon Beckham, who went at #8 to the White Sox, and Joshua Fields, who went #20 to Seattle. Those high picks are well deserved for two of the best baseball players UGA has ever produced. Both will be impossible to replace next year.

Quinton

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Life in the Big Boy Media Markets

Being a pro athlete in the Atlanta market is about the easiest gig around. We're a big enough city to have many of the financial / endorsement opportunities without the brow beating local media.

In fact, I would argue that pro sports coverage in this town is the land of soft pitches and cuddles compared to big boy markets. Only in Atlanta can guys like Pete Babcock and Billy Knight run the Hawks into the ground for 12 and 6 years respectively without media leading the charge to run them out of town.

If you really want to see the difference between how the Atlanta media covers sports and how it happens in markets with aggressive sports columnists, check out today's column in the LA Times about Andruw "Tubbo" Jones. It's a blistering piece in which Jones shows his true colors, and the writer shows why jocks hate journalists.

I'm not pointing to this piece as the standard bearer for quality journalism or columns. However, there's a happy middle ground between what we get from the AJC in terms of columnists like Bradley, Moore and Schultz vs. a brutal piece like the one linked above.

It's also hard for me to read a piece like the one in the LA Times linked above and take Buzz Bissinger serious when he applauds the dignity of the print media and abuses the tone of bloggers.

Bottom line for Atlanta Pro Athletes: You have it REALLY easy.

PWD

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