So, this was the culmination of my incredible weekend in Atlanta.  I traveled with my wife from Kansas City, Missouri to attend my first ever games at Turner Field.  My last baseball game in Atlanta was in 1991 at the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.  We flew in Friday for all three games against the Phillies.

Despite suffering through the two losses on Friday and Saturday, Sunday provided a gutsy win by Tim Hudson and an incredible celebration after the San Francisco Giants win over the San Diego Padres.

These pictures are from the celebration on the field following the Giants win.  For those 200 or so that stayed in the cold, anxiously waiting but hopeful, you saw these images firsthand.  For those who were unable to be there, here are some of the images.

I have many more pictures from the entire weekend and the celebration if you want to see them.

Continue reading this post »

As some of you may know, I am actually an emergency medicine physician.  Although I cannot attest to Chipper's injury by examining him, an evaluation of his comments and the replay demonstrate concerns for a tear of his medial meniscus and a lateral collateral ligament strain (LCL).

Chipper stated that he has pain  in his lower knee, specifically the lower left side. 

Chipper in an AP story: 

"I've got a very distinct pain on the lower left side of my knee," he said. "I don't know what that means. Hopefully it's just a sprain. (We) just got to wait for the MRI."

The lower left portion of the left knee is directly over the medial meniscus.  Tenderness that is reproducible only over this area is often associated with a tear of the meniscus.   (Keep in mind, the below image is the right knee - reverse it for the left knee)

via www.arthroscopy.com

The meniscus functions to distribute your body weight across the knee joint. Without the meniscus present, the weight of your body would be unevenly applied to the bones in your legs (the femur and tibia).   The meniscus also has a large area in the center of that has no direct blood supply (avascular). This presents a problem when there is an injury to the meniscus as the avascular areas tend not to heal.

It is not uncommon for the meniscus tear to occur along with injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and the medial collateral ligament (MCL)-these three problems occurring together are known as the "unhappy triad,"  which is seen in sports such as football when the player is hit on the outside of the knee.  However, this is not how Chipper hurt his knee...

Chipper landed on his left leg with his leg bent slightly and landing on the outside of his foot.  This forced the entire weight of his body (plus the force of gravity from his jump) to land on the medial (inside) portion of his knee.  This drove the end of his femur onto the medial meniscus - and also stretched the outside part of the knee (lateral collateral ligament - LCL)

So, what does this mean.....

The MRI tomorrow will likely identify any meniscal or ligament tear (although some meinscal tears are only visible on a endoscope.  An example is below (the arrow is pointing at the torn medial meniscus of the left knee)

via img.medscape.com

Treatment of a meniscus tear depends on several factors including the type of tear, the activity level of the patient, and the response to simple treatment measures.  If a non-operative approach is chosen, he is looking at 4-6 weeks MINIMUM of rest/elevation and brace with physical therapy to follow.  Injectible steroids ("cortisone shot") has been used but is only temporary at improving the pain - and likely can lead to worse damage to the meniscus.

If the non-surigcal option is chosen, keep in mind that some studies state that as many as 1/3 (33%) will require surgery due to lack of improvement via a conservative ("rest") approach.

When surgical treatment of a meniscus tear is required, the usual treatment is to trim the torn portion of meniscus, a procedure called a meniscectomy. Meniscus repair and meniscal transplantation are also surgical treatment options.

I hope I'm wrong, but don't expect Chipper back this year if the above is correct....

Today was my 9th wedding anniversary, and my wife surprised me with the best gift ever....

I received a trip to Atlanta from Kansas City, Missouri for the final home series of the Braves vs the Phillies!!  We are flying down on the Friday morning, and we have tickets for Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon for the farewell to Bobby Cox weekend (sec 119, 103, and 119 respectively).

Now, this post is not about my bragging about my beautiful and thoughtful wife.  No - I need some advice.

Despite being an avid Braves fan since 1982, I have never had the opportunity to go to Turner Field - my last game in Atlanta was 1987 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.  I need some advice from my Talking Chop brethren about my trip.

1.  Where should we stay?  Downtown hotels?  Buckhead?  We will rent a car, but I wanted some advice as to locations.  Price is not a major issue for this special trip...

2.  I want to entertain my wife with some non-baseball stuff during the days before batting practice.  Other than lunch at the Varsity, shopping in Buckhead, Stone Mountain, and the Coke museum, any other advice?

3.  Any other Atlanta hot spots/cool stuff to do?

4.  Any other TC'ers going to be there?  Anyone want to meet some midwestern braves fans?

Thanks in advance,

DM4HOF

Okay, so I stirred up a hornets' nest with my post on worst Braves trades...Maybe we can be more civilized with the post on the BEST Braves trades (Top 5 IMHO).

1.  August 12, 1987

Traded Doyle Alexander to the Detroit Tigers.  Received John Smoltz.

2.  December 16, 2004

Traded Juan Cruz, Dan Meyer and Charles Thomas to the Oakland Athletics. Received Tim Hudson.

3.  July 18, 1993 

Traded Vince Moore, Donnie Elliott and Melvin Nieves to the San Diego Padres. Received Fred McGriff.

4.  January 15, 2002

Traded Andrew Brown, Brian Jordan and Odalis Perez to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Received Gary Sheffield.

5.  October 29, 2007

Traded Edgar Renteria to the Detroit Tigers. Received Gorkys Hernandez and Jair Jurrjens.

I was thinking that since we are approaching free-agent signings and hot stove league time that we should list the trades that the Braves have historically made that you feel set the team backwards.  I have my top 3.

3.  December 13, 2003.  Atlanta acquired J.D. Drew and Eli Marrero from St. Louis. The Cardinals, who were looking to reduce payroll, received the Braves' top pitching prospect in Adam Wainwright, as well as Ray King and Jason Marquis

2.  July 30, 2007.  Braves get Mark Teixeira and Ron Mahay from the Rangers , while Texas acquired C/1B Jarrod Saltalamacchia, SS Elvis Andrus, and three pitchers: Neftali Perez, Matt Harrison, and Beau Jones in the deal for Teixeira.

1.  August 28, 1983.  Brett Butler and Brook Jacoby were sent by the Braves to the Cleveland Indians to complete an earlier deal (the Braves traded players to be named later and $150,000 to the Indians for Len Barker).  This trade greatly affected my youth and was the first time I was made at the Braves (as a 9-year-old boy).

Thoughts?  What are your worst Braves trades ever?

If you guys like this topics, we can always doe the best trades next....

Okay...a little math...

Braves are 81-70.  11 games to go (1 @ NY, 3 @ Wash, 3 home vs FLA, 4 home vs Wash).

Rockies are 86-65.  11 games to go (2 home vs San Diego, 3 home vs St Louis, 3 home against Milwaukee, 3 @ LA).

Braves sweep NY, sweep in Washington, 2 of 3 against FLA, and sweep Wash in Atlanta.  A stretch of 10-1.  Record becomes 91-71.

Hypothetically, Colorado loses 1 against SD, 2 vs St Louis, 1 vs Brewers, 2 at LA (I think this is a reasonable expectation).  A stretch of 5-6.  Colorado becomes 91-71.

A tough stretch, but not unreasonable....right?  So, tie for wildcard and one extra playoff game....maybe?

Okay, I can't even convince myself....

So, after the incredible walk-off tonight, the Braves are now 77-68 , 9 games over .500.  This is our best record thus far this year.  As a point of comparison, last year at this time, the Braves were 63-82.

Think about this record...we are already 14 games better than last year....

In addition, let's think back just to spring training.  The Braves were scuffling around attempting to piece together a starting rotation.  There was an outcry at Frank Wren for releasing Smoltz and Glavine - "we have no pitching."  We took the scraps of the free agent pitching market - Derek Lowe and Kenshin Kawakami, and traded a top prospect in Tyler Flowers (and others)  for an aging Javier Vazquez.

How far away that seems now...

Sometimes, I just need a little perspective....

Hi guys!  Long time lurker, first time poster!  Love the site...

I thought I would give a report on my trip from Kansas to St Louis for the weekend series against the Cardinals.

Game 1 (Friday)

Jair Jurrjens was incredible!  Pujols held 0 for 4, tremendous shutout.  Soriano was a little shaky, but he got the job done.

Game 2 (Saturday)

Huddy hit better than he pitched, but still kept the Cards in check.  Franklin imploded.

As for some personal interactions, Derek Lowe signed for me before the game, as did Vladimir Nunez.  Tommy Hanson stayed in the dugout after BP to sign for about 50-75 people.  Tremendously polite and cool about the whole process.  Frank Wren was hanging out before the game behind the dugout.  Got to meet him and see the Marlins World Series ring on his right hand.   Told him we need another one with Braves on it!

After the game, I waited outside for the team to walk across the street to their hotel (The Westin, in case you were curious).  I met Buddy Carlysle's parents in from Omaha - he's doing well from his new diagnosis of diabetes, according to them.  He came out and was really nice as well.  Boone Logan walked by with a leggy girl - wouldn't give me the time of day.  Matt Diaz signed as he walked - except for the guy who couldn't pronounce his name right (Word of advice - at least know the name of the player you want an auto from).  Glenn Hubbard, Terry Pendleton, Chino Cadahia all signed as well.  Bobby took a golf cart over to the hotel, as did Tommy Hanson, sharing one with Kris Medlen.

Finally,  we got to see Boog, who signed and took pictures.

Sunday (Game 3)

Ready for the sweep!  Tommy Hanson still signed for another 25-30 minutes - what a great guy.  Vasquez was dominant, causing all the Cardinal fans around me to talk about how they came to see a Cy Young performance (Carpenter) - but just not from a Braves pitcher!  Despite no Chipper or Brian, we had a dominant 3rd inning.

Overall, since I live in Kansas and never get to see the Braves live anymore, it was a tremendous opportunity.  Also, perhaps best, I got to take my 2 year old son to his first Braves game! 

I'll post pictures in the next few days if you guys want them...

Thanks for letting me blog a little on this great site....

Cole