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I am a BRAVES FAN DAMN IT (well after Mets, of course...)

mlbaseballtalk Oct 08 2005 01:18 AM

This is a good story Its 1988, that Tom Seaver retirement celebration weekend. Braves pretty much shut the Mets down all weekend thanks to two guys pretty much making one of their first few starts ever. The Seaver Day game (and I was there) was some guy, clearly a no-name, and on Sunday a fellow picked up from Detroit the previous fall for Doyle Alexander Well anyway after the Sunday game I hear Steve Levy (yup, one of ESPN's hockey guys) on WFAN rip the Mets for losing to a guy with a name like "Smoltz" Basically not making light of the fact that the Mets lost to some unknown hurler, but making light of John's name as if it was meant more for a different profession other than sports. Flashforward to 1991 and Smoltz and the Braves are riding high in the old NL West, seeing that way back in 1988 the Mets had no shame in losing to a "guy named Smoltz" I adopted Smoltz as a favorite opponent and the Braves as my third favorite team (behind Mets and Reds for reasons I will go into at some other point) Well clearly since 1994 the Braves and Smoltz have been in our division I of course am rooting for the day we finally are looking down at them and Shea Stadium (or whatever) is the home of the multiple time NL East champions But I still have a soft spot for Smoltzie, one of the more "underappreciated" stars of today's game, probably hurt his HOF chances by going back to being a starter (cancels out the Eck route) but no one has been better in the postseason during this era Smoltz also is the reason for the most drunkest I have ever been at a Met game before a game. 1999, Game 4 NLCS. Basically drinking myself into a depression, walking the corridors of Shea wondering just how we could pull off a win, down 0-3 with one of the greatest money pitchers of all time on the mound, and pretty much wanting to pick fights with every Braves fan I saw So for that, now that the Met season is behind us, and the Reds LOOOOONNNNNNG since over, I can turn my attention to the Atlanta Braves. Its been 10 years since winning their one title in the run, hey sometimes all you need is a little luck... Steve

MFS62 Oct 08 2005 10:23 AM

About the Levy comment: One of the most respected (as being knowledgeable) sportscasters in New York history was Bill Maser. He was also one of the pioneers of sports talk radio. I remember one broadcast of his when he was making a point that anything can happen in a baseball game. He said (and this is close to his exact words ), "Last night Koufax pitched a two hitter. One of the hits was by a guy names Tolan. Who's Tolan?" Bobby Tolan went on to be a pretty good outfielder for a number of years. But even the best sportscatsers can't be expexted to know everything about every prospect on every team. That knowledge is reserved for fans. Later

mlbaseballtalk Oct 08 2005 10:37 AM

MFS62 wrote: About the Levy comment: One of the most respected (as being knowledgeable) sportscasters in New York history was Bill Maser. He was also one of the pioneers of sports talk radio. I remember one broadcast of his when he was making a point that anything can happen in a baseball game. He said (and this is close to his exact words ), "Last night Koufax pitched a two hitter. One of the hits was by a guy names Tolan. Who's Tolan?" Bobby Tolan went on to be a pretty good outfielder for a number of years. But even the best sportscatsers can't be expexted to know everything about every prospect on every team. That knowledge is reserved for fans. Later True, but I was 11 at the time of the Smoltz comment. I since learned about that through the years, many, many, many, many times! By the way, great example with another Tiger pitching prospect, Jeremy Bonderman. Jim Rome made an absolute joke about him and Mike Maroth when they were "going" for 20 losses couple of years ago and killed the Tigers for taking Bonderman out of the rotation before he could even pitch for a 20th loss, basically saying stuff to the effect of just because a bad pitcher doesn't have 20 losses doesn't change the fact that he's a bad pitcher Well guess who's one of the better pitchers in the AL? Jeremy Bonderman! Now the even more funnier fact is, that if you call a broadcaster out on, saying how can a no name beat you with the added fact that said player is a highly touted prospect in that team's chain, the broadcaste will probably give you riddicule for being too much of a rotissere nerd or something! You just can't win! Like I said in another thread, I may just start an A-P So You Want To Be A Sports Talk Radio Host thread to compliment our sports writer one! Steve

MFS62 Oct 08 2005 02:42 PM

Start that thread. Posting all the crap we hear from them shoud make it one of the longest threads ever to grace the CPF. Later