The Mods can delete this if they would like, I'm not really sure where else to put this...

Greetings Talking Chop!

A while back I purchased Giants Game 2 NLDS tickets thinking it would be really cool to watch some post season ball. Lucky thing I did! Now I get to see my Braves take on the Giants Friday night! :)

Anybody else have tickets to Game 1, Game 2, or Game 3? I will definitely be at Game 2; however, I am trying to swing at least one more. Let me know what's up, maybe we can grab a frosty adult beverage!

Kind Regards,

Matt 

Most of you know that I have been trying to pull off a baseball trip to the east coast this summer.  Well the stars have aligned and I will be over there June 13th - 27th.  But I have several questions.

1) I will be in Baltimore on Saturday (6/13) and Sunday (6/14) for the Braves series.  Do you think that I should buy tickets now?  Going through mlb.com, I would get hit with service charges, handling charges, and whatever else they decide to charge me for.  Should I just wait until I get there to pick them up?  What is everybody else doing?

2) I will be in Philly for the game against the Blue Jays on Tuesday (6/16).  Same questions I had for Baltimore apply here.

3) I will be in New York to watch the Yankees/Natinals game on Thursday (6/18).  Would you suggest getting tickets on stubhub?  Ebay? Scalper? Somewhere else?

4) I will be in Boston for the Braves the weekend series (6/19-6/21).  Same questions I had for NY apply here.

5) I will be back in NY for the Cardinals/Muts game on Tuesday (6/23).  Same questions I had for Boston apply here.

6) Finally, I will end up in DC for at least one of the Red Sox games on either Wed (6/24) or Thur (6/25).  Same questions I had for Philly and Baltimore apply here.

I have never been east of Minnesota, so this will be a new experience.  Any other info/tips/things that are a must to do or see that you can think of would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you all for your help/advice with planning my trip in the past (especially the tip to stay in Alexandria for the DC part of the trip and the tip to take Amtrak for the ground portion). 

Likewise, I would like to extend an invitation to anybody who is in any of these areas to join me for a game.  Thanks again for your help, and sorry for clogging up the fanpost section!

Matt (The Californian Eskimo)

Here is part two.  Where do you live currently?? How do you keep up with the Braves?

Like I said before, I am currently in Sacramento trying to finish my stupid thesis and get my Master's Degree in Psychology.  I listen to the Braves at work on mlb.com radio, I watch them at home through the MLB Extra Innings Package, I try and see them whenever they play the Giants or the A's, and of course I frequent Talking Chop.

What about you?  GO BRAVES!

Vegas Aces mentioned this on another thread and I thought it would be pretty interesting to run with.  Where did you grow up?  And if you would like to expand, please leave a comment about  why you are a Braves fan.

I was born and raised in Alaska, became a huge Braves fan because of TBS, moved to the Bay Area, California for college, completed a stint in Arizona, then to Sacramento, California for grad school.  Besides my family, probably the most consistent thing in my life so far has been my love for the Braves.

How about you?

Heck yeah, we took 2 out of 3 from the division rival, world series champion, Philadelphia Phillies.  Would it have been nice to sweep them?  Of course, but I will take 2 out of 3 games in any series!  Our starting pitching was SOLID.  DLowe went 8 spectacular innings only allowing 2 hits, JJ and JV went out there and gave us strong efforts!

Our offense has looked good for the most part.  We scored 19 runs in three games!  I will take that!  McCann, Chipper, and Logan are raking!  Matty D was money today with a home run off Lidge!

Our bullpen needs to improve, but hey, they will!  Gonzo, Soriano, and Moylan will be clutch this year, you just wait and see!  We are going to hear some negativity from "fans" on here and from ESPN, but remember we are 2-1, and the Phillies are 1-2. We are opening up at home on Friday with DLowe (I believe), we are going to shut down the Natspos and take at least 2 out of 3 from them too!

Rejoice everybody, baseball season is back, and we do have a very solid team!!!  Things could be worse, it could be November!

I had been planning on doing this for the past week; however, I have been lazy and sick.  I know this kind of stuff isn't as exciting as the Braves at spring training, but for me it was a really cool and experience and I figured that some of you might find it interesting.

When I figured out that the Finals were in LA, just a short 5 hour drive from where I live near Sacramento, I knew I couldn't miss it.  So I called up my college roommate and we decided to make a weekend trip of it!  I went to all three games that were at Dodger Stadium in Los Angles, CA.  For those of you who forgot, didn't watch, or didn't care, that included Venezuela vs. Korea, Japan vs. USA, and Japan vs. Korea.

First some pictures of Dodger Stadium:

This was my first time in Dodger Stadium, I really liked it, it had good food!  However, the seats were kind of facing a weird direction (towards center field), probably a function of being an older stadium, so I had to look to my right in order to see home plate.  It was very difficult to see when anybody stood up in front of you.

Teams being announced:

Neat flag-carrying thingy:

Carlos Silva, do you think he knew he was about to get lit up?

Who is ready for some baseball???

Sad Carlos, Happy Korea:

After the top of the 1st:

Magglio!

Korean Player:

All-in-all the Venezuela/Korea game was by far the worst of the three, it was over pretty quickly and there wasn't much to cheer for if you were a Venezuela fan, but I guess a 10-2 score will do that to you.  One thing I though was great was the passion of the Korean fans.  Chants, cheering, thundersticks, there was never a quiet moment.  I really dug it, it was unlike any US game that I have ever been to, with the exception of maybe the playoffs.

Korean Fans:

Team USA:

BOOOOOOO!

New and Improved Brian McCann!

Team Japan:

The USA/Japan game was much better, Brian Roberts led off the game with a Bomb, and Oswalt was solid for a while.  Dice-K struggled throwing 69 pitches, 39 for strikes, through 3 1/3 innings, I really thought we were going to get to him.  However, Japan got to Oswalt first in the 4th inning with 5 runs.  Team USA fought back with a 2-run triple, then Derek "I kick small animals" "I am horrible at fielding" Jeter screwed up allowing Japan to tack on some much needed insurance runs.  Why wasn't J Roll playing defense??  Yu Darvish came in and closed us out with the USA losing 9-4.  Again, I noticed the difference in passion between the Japanese players and fans when compared to the USA.

Japanese Fans:

I heard that these folks also make it rain in the club!

Self Explanatory:

Cool Looking Trophy:

Korean Fan Booing Ichiro:

Teletubbies like baseball too!

Signs Galore:

Our old friend pitched, and pitched well!

Darvish gave away the lead, but Ichiro to the rescue!

Hopefully I don't get in trouble for this being to long, but the final game, Korea/Japan was intense and ridiculously loud!  Probably the best game I have ever been to, neither group of fans really sat down all evening long, you could feel the tension, you could see how much the fans wanted this game, there was tons of chanting, noisemakers, and signs.  After attending the WBC, I would highly recommend the experience to any baseball fan.  Yes, changes need to be made to the format, and I have went into that else where on this website so I won't go into it again.  Experiencing international baseball for the first time was a treat for me, hopefully Team USA will eventually show the passion of some of these other teams and be able to bring home the trophy to the birth place of baseball!

Greatest sign I saw at any game:

However, the best sign I saw while in LA was at a used car dealership near the field:

We were happy campers after the weekend!

Please let me know if you want to know more, or if you are planning a trip to Dodger Stadium and you need some info.

Matt

Dang, they got used.  Tomorrow (Sunday) they play the Netherlands, if they lose they go home.  Do you think they have what it takes to make it to the Semi-finals in Los Angeles.  I hope they do because I just found out I get to go down there to watch all three games!!  I am hoping for USA, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Japan to make it through to the next round.  What does everybody else think? 

I am jonesing for Baseball so badly that I stayed up last night and watched most of the Japan vs. China game despite having to work this morning.  All in all it was a good game, some notes:

Sadaharu Oh threw out the first pitch, it is sad he couldn't coach Japan this year, especially after they won it all last time!

Japan won 4-0

Ichiro went 0 for 5

Japanese 3rd Baseman Shuichi Murata hit a 2-run bomb

The Chinese team is small! Only one guy was over 200 pounds.  Most of their players are slap hitters.

Yu Darvish = Really good.  He threw four hitless innings.  Why isn't this guy in MLB?

I am thinking about going to the semifinals in LA.  Do you all think I should go?

Full article:

Here

So first off I would like to apologize for the length of this post and the fact that it doesn't directly deal with the Braves, but it does deal with baseball, so I thought I would give it a shot.  T

This last year has been pretty crazy for me and I really want to take a kick ass baseball road trip during the summer of 2009. 

My original idea was to drive myself, leaving Sacramento the end of July and hitting up Denver, Kansas City (and the Negro League Hall of Fame), St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Cooperstown, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC, Boston, and then back to New York.  In New York I would sell my car and fly back to California three weeks later in the middle of August.

My second idea was to fly into Kansas City, rent a car and do the exact same trip, returning the car in New York when I am done.

Now with both of these options I would have to budget for food, gas, hotels, whatever other crap I might buy, I would have to buy my own tickets (which might be hard with the new New York Stadiums and in Boston), plus I would have to drive myself (because I cannot seem to find anybody who wants to go).  Basically I think it would be relatively hard to know what I am going to spend before going on the trip

The other option I have would be to go on a tour through this company, Broach Sports Tours.  Has anybody heard/used them?  If you have what did you think?  This trip would be shorter than mine from August 13-29th.  I would fly into Cincinnati, then travel to St. Louis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, DC, New York, Boston, New York, and finish in Baltimore.

Now this option includes: Deluxe Motorcoach, Hotels, Game Tickets, Tours (Chicago, Washington, NYC, Boston and Philly), Admission to the Louisville Bat Factory and the Cooperstown, and a tour of Fenway.  This would cut down on most of the things that I would have to arrange, I would not have to drive, and I would know what I am going to spend (except food and whatever crap I might buy).  However, I don't know how good the tickets are, I don't know who I would be traveling with, and I would be on somebody else's schedule.

On the trip I put together I would make it to 16 stadiums (I could not schedule Detroit). On the tour I would make it to 15 stadiums including Detroit (but not Denver or Kansas City) plus I would not get to see the Negro League Hall of Fame, but I would get to go to the Louisville Bat Factory.

I am asking y'all because I value your opinions as knowledgeable baseball people, and I know that some of you have lots of experience planning these types of trips.  Which option would you choose?  Why?  Is there an option that I am not considering? Last question, does anybody else want to go???

Thanks for your help!

Good Evening Everybody,

If you frequent this site you probably know how excited I was when the MLB Network went on the air on January 1st.  To tell the truth, I have pretty much been watching it non-stop since it went live, I think I am addicted.  I am creating this FanPost because I love baseball, not just the Braves, but the sport as a whole.  I love everything about it the history, the home run, the strikeout, the double-play, the smell of a leather glove and freshly cut grass, the sound of the bat hitting the ball, to me baseball it poetry in motion and beauty defined. 

I am also creating this FanPost because I am tired of reading about/posting about the same hot stove topics and I am hoping that this will cause some discussion/friendly debates.  The MLB Network has a show where they run down the Nine Greatest _______ of All-Time.  For example, tonight, they ran down the Nine Greatest Center Fielders of All-Time as well as the Nine Greatest Home Runs of All-Time.  I am assuming that the follow list takes all aspects of the game into consideration since the show wasn't titled the Nine Greatest Fielding Center Fielders, or the Nine Greatest Hitting Center Fielders.

MLB Network's List:

9. Kirby Puckett

8. Jim Edmonds

7. Duke Snider

6. Ken Griffey Jr.

5. Joe Dimaggio

4. Tris Speaker

3. Mickey Mantle

2. Ty Cobb

1. Willie Mays

What do you all think of this list?  Does Andruw Jones belong anywhere on this list?

I personally think that they underrated Griffey Jr., overrated Willie Mays, and my list would not include Kirby Puckett.  Just missing the list was Richie Ashburn, who I believe is the only center fielder in baseball history to have over 500 put outs in at least four seasons.  Some food for thought, none of the players who ended up making the list have ever had a 500 put out season.

Was anybody left out?

I thunk the Barves shuld trade Frenchy for Josh Hamilton str8 up.  AfTer that we sing Many to 10/$2M contrct to play left feild 4 us, and trde corky Miller to the Der Sox for Jonothon Papleybon!.  how come we resinged Notron, he is the worse player ever!!Alongf with this we shold call up schaffer and hayward to pitch for us. THen we wuld be set!!! OMFG, how culd Franky WRen not hav thought of this b4, he is teh worse GM ever, I wuold do a beter job then him!!.

Jesus, I feel like I read the same stuff on here every day.  Doom and gloom and SSDD for sure.  I can't wait for the season to actually start: game day threads, funny nicknames, true fans posting while at work, ahhhhh memories.  Who else is with me??? Rant over.

Good Evening and Happy New Years Eve to everybody.  I just wanted to remind anybody who might have forgotten that the MLB Network launches tomorrow, January 1st when they will televise Don Larsen's perfect game from the 1956 World Series.  I have been waiting for this for months and I am extremely excited that there will be an alternative to Baseball Tonight on the Red Sox/Yankees channel (also known as ESPN).  I am especially stoked to watch "30 Clubs in 30 Days," in which the MLB Network will travel to every Spring Training site and produce a one-hour special on each team.  Now I have something to watch from the end of October until Spring Training, HOORAY!!!

I was also hoping that some of you Stat Heads could help me out.  Sometimes I feel lost and sort of ignorant when reading some posts on this site, so are there any books that you all would recommend as an introduction to sabermetrics.  I know there is The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball, Baseball Prospectus, and The Bill James Handbook, as well as numerous websites dedicated to this 'new' way of looking at baseball.  However, what book/website/etc would work best as an introduction.  I mean I already watch a great deal of baseball and I feel like I understand the game quite well through playing for many years.  I just would like to learn a little bit more about the game and these new statistics.  Any suggestions??  Thanks for your help!!!

From the Braves website:

While recording a franchise-record 154 saves for the Braves from 2001-04, Smoltz regularly exited the bullpen's doors to the sound of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck." Like in San Diego, where Trevor Hoffman enters to "Hell's Bells," this became a staple sound in Atlanta and something Jeff Francoeur and many Braves fans were looking forward to hearing.

Francoeur even called Smoltz Monday morning and said, "So, are we going to hear 'Thunderstruck' in the ninth inning tonight?"

But instead of the potentially intimidating song reverberating as Smoltz made his way toward the mound, the large video board in center field was displaying an interactive game called Braves Pict-o-Word. Only after this was complete did "Thunderstruck" begin playing.

"That was the first time all year that I've had goosebumps in the outfield," Francoeur said. "Well, they came after they finally got it right and were done with Pict-o-Word or whatever."

My Thoughts:

THE PUJOLS-DAMNED SOUND PEOPLE JINXED US!!! THUNDERSTRUCK NEEDS TO BE PLAYING WHEN SMOLTZ COMES OUT OF BULLPEN!!! SCREW PICT-O-WORD, THAT COMES SECONDARY TO SMOLTZIE!!!

Would Trevor Hoffman be the career save leader if the Padres sound people delayed "Hell's Bells?"  Would Mariano Rivera be the most successful in post season history if the Yankees sound people delayed "Enter Sandman?"  And most importantly would the Cleveland Indians have won the pennant if the sound people would have delayed "Wild Thing" until Ricky Vaughn was already on the mound? 

I think we know the answer to all of these questions is a resounding, "HELL NO!! OF COURSE NOT."

So I beg the Atlanta Braves sound people, for the sake of the Braves season, and for the sake of our collective sanity (as die-hard fans), get it right.  Please do not jinx John Smoltz again!

                            IP      H      R      ER      BB      K         HR      Season ERA
B. Webb           6.0      9       3        3         2        7           0               2.31

                                IP        H      R      ER      BB      K      HR      Season ERA
J. Smoltz               7.0       5      1        1         0       10       0             0.78

I understand that Webb is a great pitcher and about 10 years younger than Smoltz.  You all can call me crazy, but tonight, and so far this season, I take Smoltzy over Webb.  If our offense would have scored some g-damn runs!!  Happy 3000 K's!!

and I have been pulling for him to snap out of his funk all season, but his elbow is really hurting him and I think a trip to the 15-day DL would help both him and the team out.  We could move Willie to center let him and Matty D play everyday for a while.  Hopefully, that elbow will heal up a little bit and he can come back swinging at the end of August and help us win the division.  Just an idea.

That was a heart-breaker tonight, man I hate Joe Morgan...anyways, I'm pretty confident we can beat up on the Giants.  Anybody on this website live in the bay area of Northern California??  I live in Sacramento and I am going to the Braves games on Wednesday and Thursday!!  It'll be a great time, especially when the Braves win!  I'll take lots of pictures and maybe I can post some of them on here.  If anybody is going to those games write back and maybe we can meet at the park and grab a beer.  GO BRAVES!!!