Anyone catch the Stanley Cup Finals Game #2 last night? Besides the game itself, the highlight of the night was Snoop at the game wearing a fake moustache; apparently, it’s some sort of fundraiser that the Ducks are doing. 

My original post for this game has vanished, so i’ll try it again…

Lang is thinking about writing a book on his TV relationship with Bobby Cox, so he called the Braves’ Front Office and let them know he would be in town for the weekend. They gave him three tickets, so he, Ismail and I went for this Saturday afternoon affair.

We parked in my Mechanicsville free spot that I use for day games and walked on over to Turner Field. After Lang had to wait an eternity at Will Call for the tickets, we found our way to the seats. The tickets were awesome- fifth row in the 200 level behind the plate. To make them even better, they were in the shade for the duration of the game.

In the next aisle, the Phillies players’ families were all together. A couple of beauties were in the house, also an older husband and wife that we figured might be Ryan Howard’s folks based on the father’s nose. Lang made a few “Howard uses Steroids”-type comments early on before we realized that this was the Phillies Family section, but I don’t think anyone heard them. In other words, Lang narrowly escaped pulling a Mike aka the Floydian Slip.

We were in prime foul ball territory, but nothing came close to our section. Ismail was predicting that a ball would come to his area and land in the cup holder. That would’ve been truly amazing.

Nothing too significant about the game; Braves lost 6-4, the second game of a three game sweep by the Phils. Every time the Braves would get within a run, Philly would score another the next inning to move their lead back to two. Frustrating game which was really the theme for the entire series.

5/30 Braves Update: Today, the Braves took the last game of the three game set vs. the Brewers, winning the series 2-1. Hopefully, this means that they’re back on track.

We went down to the Braves-Mets game to see Smoltz take on Glavine. The game had an added significance as Smoltz was going for his 200th career win. Janet went down to the box office earlier in the day to buy tickets so that we wouldn’t have to potentially wait in a long line again like we did when Maddux pitched earlier this month. The game ended up having an announced attendance of 36,000+, the same as the Padres/Maddux game, so we made the right move to buy tickets early.

The game was overall well-pitched as both Smoltz and Glavine moved quickly through the first five innings. The Braves were able to get to Glavine in the first inning, but only managed one run. Diaz hit a solo shot to right in the 2nd to make it 2-0. After that, both teams’ offenses were shut down. Glavine ended up pitching six innings, giving up 2 runs. Glavine got a smattering of boos when he came up to bat, but the intensity of the hatred has lessened since the first couple of years that Glavine came to town.

Smoltz pitched seven full, not allowing any runs and striking out seven. Soriano handled the eighth and Wickman came in for the save in the ninth. He got into a little trouble, largely because of a couple of bloop hits and a crucial error by Kelly Johnson while trying to turn a double play. While the Mets scored a run, the game ended on a Reyes popout and Smoltz had his 200th victory. With the win, Smoltz became the second pitcher in MLB history to have 200 wins and 150 saves; Eckersley is the other.

Glavine moved to 3-11 lifetime against the Braves since he turncoated. While he pitched better today than in the majority of his other losses, he still couldn’t overcome the Curse of Benedict Arnold.

After the game, everyone gave Smoltz a well-deserved round of applause and they had a tribute to him on the big screen highlighting his career accomplishments.

Last weekend, I was checking the Padres’ box scores to see when and if Greg Maddux, my favorite Braves player of the past 15 years, would be pitching in the Braves-Padres series. Two years ago, I saw Greg pitch in his first Atlanta appearance since he left the Braves to sign with the Cubs. For two years, i’ve been waiting to see him pitch again, so I planned on definitely making Wednesday night my first Braves game of the season. It wasn’t until Monday morning that I found out that Maddux’s opponent would be John Smoltz- a match-up of two future Hall of Famers. For the next two days, I had the kind of excitement and anticipation that a little kid has on Christmas Eve.

Janet, Ismail, Olivia and I headed down to the game and arrived about thirty minutes early. When we go to the ticket booth, there was a line from the box office all the way across Braves Plaza and through the outer gates that lead to Hank Aaron Drive. I was really regretting not buying tickets online, but it ended up not being a problem as the line surprisingly moved fairly quickly and I was able to get the tickets I wanted with no problem. The attendance ended up being over 36,000, about 15 K more than normal Wed. night games.

When we entered the game, Fox Sports South was pulling random people to interview and they chose me to ask a few questions about the Braves, i.e what brought you down here today, who’s your all-time favorite Brave, what do you think of this year’s team, etc. If it makes the cut, it will air during next Wednesday’s game during the 6th Inning.

We settled in to our seats in the upperdeck at the beginning of the 2nd Inning. When Maddux came up to bat, he received a standing ovation from the crowd, the same treatment he received the first time he pitched in Atlanta. This is very different than the reception Glavine has received every time he’s pitched with the Mets in Atlanta. This was a huge topic of discussion the next morning on talk radio. Most of the talk hosts felt that we owe more to Glavine for all that he did for the Braves. While I agree with that, I can’t forgive him for leaving the Braves because he needed to represent the Players’ Union and take the most money instead of considering how this would affect his family, the fans and his teammates. By the time you figure in NY’s high cost of living, there’s no way that he was making out better going to the Mets than staying in Atlanta.

Anyway, now that i’ve stepped off of my soap box, back to the game…

The game was as good of a pitching experience as I could’ve expected. Maddux cruised through the first five innings, but got into a little trouble in the sixth and was pulled, leaving after 5 1/3 and giving up one run. He left the game as the winning picher of record.

Smoltz gave up two early homeruns but settled in and gave the Braves seven strong innings (2 R, 7 Hits, 7 Ks). He was pinch hit for in the bottom of the seventh down 2-1. The Braves once again came through with timely two-out hitting from Willie Harris, Chipper and Andruw, scoring two runs to put us up 3-2. Gonzalez and Soriano came in for the 8th and 9th innings to seal the deal and earn Smoltz his fifth win. Maddux ended up with a No Decision.

As a Maddux fan but an even bigger Braves fan, the end result was just as I would’ve wanted it- good pitching performances from both and a Braves win.

I can’t help but think that this might be the last time that Maddux pitches in Atlanta. I’m happy that I got to see it and i’m glad that the fans came out to show their appreciation for the efforts he gave the city for over a decade.

What a waste of a #5 pick.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2864164

First Team
Brandon Roy, Portland (29) 58
Andrea Bargnani, Toronto (28) 57
Randy Foye, Minnesota (21) 48
Rudy Gay, Memphis (12) 39
LaMarcus Aldridge, Portland (14) 37
Jorge Garbajosa, Toronto (13) 37

Paul Millsap, Utah (10) 36
Adam Morrison, Charlotte (12) 35
Tyrus Thomas, Chicago (5) 26
Craig Smith, Minnesota (1) 21
Rajon Rondo, Boston (1) 10
Walter Herrmann, Charlotte (1) 10
Marcus Williams, New Jersey (1) 10

I’ll try this again (my original write-up didn’t save because of technical difficulties with the website):

The Experience: On Thursday, my dad called me and offered us four tickets to Friday’s Georgia Force vs. Orlando Predators Arena Football game. I accepted them as it had been two years since my last Arena game. I follow the games, but the last time we went in 2005 was not a good experience for Ismail. At that time, he was only three and the noise level at the games really bothered him. To “add” to the experience, they play really loud music throughout the game and have lots of other noises to “enhance” the experience. However, over the past few years, Ismail has gotten used to louder noise levels at Thrashers and Hawks games (not as loud as Force games, but still somewhat loud), so I figured he would now be OK with it.

Janet, Ismail, Olivia and I went down to Philips and when we found our way to the seats, we were surprised to see that we were on the third row in the corner of the endzone. We were so close to the field that a guy seated right in front of us caught an errant pass. If you know Arena policy, you get to keep footballs that make their way into the stands. Unfortunately, no more balls reached our section, but I would say at least ten fans walked away with game balls by the end of the night.

The noise level at the games is still absurdly loud and somewhat of a distraction, but for the most part, it was a great experience. Being that close to the field made a huge difference. Ismail had a great time and asked when the next game would be because he wanted to go again. I’m sure that if we return for another game, he’ll want to sit in the same section, but unless we get free tickets, I can’t see shelling out 40 bucks for tickets in that area. The tickets in the upper deck are only $10 and there are so many empty seats in the lowel tier that anyone could sneak down and sit where they wanted to without any problems. I’m sure Headlines would probably be the easiest route to take. 

The Game: Unfortunately, former Tech QB Joe Hamilton no longer plays for Orlando. He is currently back at Tech finishing his degree, but he has been linked to signing with a few teams now that the Spring Semester is over. Even though the Force appear to have made the right decisions in crafting this year’s team, it seems logical that they would’ve picked up Joe at the beginning of the season since he was already in Atlanta anyway. It might’ve been a salary cap issue since the bulk of their money is tied up in their Wide Receiver Corps.

The Force pretty much dominated from start to finish. The Force’s two best players- WRs Chris “Don’t Call Me Mahmoud” Jackson and Troy Bergeron made several phenomenal catches and scored a slew of  touchdowns. Bergeron tried out for the Falcons last year, but didn’t make the team. With the poor quality of the Falcons’ WRs, I can’t see how there was no place for him on the roster. He has great speed and tremendous hands- you have to great hands in Arena football with the coverage being so tight and the dimensions of the field being so small.

The Force ended up winning 55-34 and improved their record to 9-1 on the season, by far the best record in their division. It looks like they’ll return to the Arena Bowl again as long as they can continue their current form.

The one thing that I really don’t like about Arena games, besides the noise, is how long the last minute of the halves take. The Quarters are 15 minutes long and for the first 14 minutes of the 2nd and 4th Quarters, the time runs, even on incomplete passes and when the WRs are knocked out of bounds. However, in the last minute of each half, the play stops on every incomplete pass and out of bounds play. Plus, the teams generally save all of their timeouts for this time period and the teams seem to burn every TO on plays where the time doesn’t stop (catches made inbounds and running plays). The end result is that the last minute takes 12-15 minutes to complete-almost as long as the first 14 minutes of the Quarter.

The Spin: Yes, they have the wheel for Force games. However, the prizes sucked-no free ticket vouchers, no free drink tickets. I won a Hawks hat (yes, a Hawks hat-must’ve been leftovers from last season) and Janet won a Force Coozie

Last Thoughts: I’d go again since Ismail is now interested in attending the games. The tickets in the cheaper sections are reasonable and the action is pretty exciting.

The one really odd thing that Janet and I both noticed is there was an unusally high number of rednecks in attendance. I haven’t seen that many Tammys and Billy Bobs since they last had the Tractor Pull at the Georgia Dome at the same time as a Hawks game. I have no idea how so many of Georgia’s finest found their way to Philips, but there were more than just a few wife-beaters and perms (including males) in the house.

The biggest all-star of the night was a Sugar Ray lookalike that had a bandana tied around his forehead and his spikey hair stuck out of the top of it. He had a gray wife-beater on and at one point, he had ripped up a Force poster and had pieces of it protruding from the bandana. His shining moment of the evening was when he caught a ball thrown out of bounds and he did a celebratory dance that could best be described as a rap-rock white boy angry dance, complete with arms flailing and a lot of foot stomping. The best part is that it was caught on the big screen for all to see. What a tool.