No snickering, please, I'm going to try and ask this question as innocently as possible.

I want to say that more than a few instances, I've seen someone or someones mention that they lived up in Portland, and followed the Beavers.  Long story short, I like collecting Minor League baseball caps, and I want to get a Portland Beavers hat; no, I don't like ordering them online, because especially with NewEra caps, my hat size can be anywhere form 7 3/8 to 7 1/2, so I am adamant about the necessity to try them on before purchasing.

So what I'm asking is, are the Portland Beavers popular enough to have apparel being sold as far as two hours away, in Astoria, Oregon?  I'm going to be making a weekend trip out to the Northwest, and since I've been to Seattle a bajillion times, I figured I'd rather drive down into Oregon, and see the shore from the rocks.  And since the AAA season is since past, I can't exactly mosey on into PGE and catch a game, so I figured on trying to inquire about getting a Beavers hat while I'm out in Astoria.

It's a long shot, but I'm hoping someone can help a brother out here.

Sometime back in June, while I was sitting on a sweltering, miserable plane ride, leaving Myrtle Beach and heading up to Northern Virginia, it had crossed my mind that I had tackled three of four Braves minor-league affiliates.  So I asked myself, why not go for all four, and strive for Mississippi, where the AA-Mississippi Braves played?

So despite the fact that my first attempt at hitting up Mississippi resulted in an epic fail due to too many morbidly obese people on the small aircraft, I gave it another shot this past Sunday, and successfully got to Jackson/Pearl to catch a game between our M-Braves and the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx (AA-Seattle Mariners).

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This time last year, the Atlanta Braves were 16 games under .500, and hopes for the playoffs were pretty much gone after a really bad June and July, with the white flag of the season officially being the trade of superstar, Mark Teixeira.  It was no more obvious that the season was a bust than it was here at 'ol Talking Chop, where people stopped showing up, readership dwindled, and the overall morale here was completely demolished. 

And it's hard to blame Braves fans for such attitudes; after all this was a squad that had a zero power outfield, McCann, Chipper were both on the DL, and on the pitching front, Huddy was out, Glavine was out, Soriano and Moylan were both out, and the rotation was trotting out a fatigued Jair Jurrjens, and ironically of all people, Mike Hampton.  This was as bad of a patchwork roster of players as it could possibly get, and it showed in the results.

The 2008 Atlanta Braves fell out of contention in late-July.

The 2009 Atlanta Braves fell out of contention . . . well, they actually haven't yet. 

In fact, they're six games over .500, and they're mathematically alive in the playoff hunt.  There are several teams worse off, who are still alive, and there are several teams better off who aren't in, either.  The outfield is still a little spotty, but at least Jeff Francoeur isn't a part of it anymore.  There's suddenly power at first-base, and people are starting to notice that Yunel Escobar is actually pretty good at this baseball thing.  Chipper Jones is unfortunately mired in a bad slump, but there are lots of big leaguers would be feel blessed to have a .282 batting average, which good for them, is pedestrian for Chipper.  But hey, McCann hasn't been cold-clocked at home plate or had his fingers mashed in by a bad swing, and he's still in the lineup today. 

The starting rotation has had the luxury of consistently trotting out Derek Lowe, Javier Vazquez, Jair Jurrjens and Kenshin Kawakami, almost the entire season.  And Tommy Hanson hasn't missed a start since being called up, and has been dominating, to boot.  In fact, out of the 126 games played this year, there were only nine games, in which one of the five aforementioned names did not start (Reyes 5, Medlen 4).  Compare this to last year, where 11 pitchers started at least four times.

So despite the fact that the 2009 Atlanta Braves are a good baseball team, and hopes for the playoffs are still mathematically alive, with still an entire month of baseball (plus a few extra days in this month and early October), I have to ask - why are so many of you so gosh-darn miserable?

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