So now that the Phillies have taken the lead in the East, is there a team between those two that you would prefer makes the playoffs? It looks to be a huge choke-job if NY can’t win the next two (and even that may not help). I can’t imagine too many of the Braves fans would be rooting for the Mets.

 I’m glad to see that TBS has the Braves finale scheduled tomorrow. One last chance to see Biggio suit up for Houston. I believe he is catching a few innings tonight for old time’s sake. Unfortunately, no local broadcast here in the greater DFW area.

Todd made his way to the Dallas area to attend the big match between FC Dallas and his favorite MLS team, the Chicago Fire. He got a ticket hookup from a fellow Fire fan that was driving in from Oklahoma City but we weren’t sure if the guy was expecting payment or if the tickets would be free. Anyhow, we made our way to Frisco, which is a northern subarb about 25 miles away which meant over an hour during the rush hour drive. Once we made it to Pizza Hut Park, we took a lap while waiting for the ticket guy, Ted, to show up. Once he did, we quickly found our seats just in time for kickoff. The tickets were good and very free. It was my first visit to Pizza Hut park and I must say it was quite nice. We didn’t move around much but the site lines looked really good. The game was scoreless in the first half. We missed a good portion at the pizza stand as they ran out of pies. Not good considering the name of the place.

Chicago scored to take a 1-0 lead early in the second half and it looked like they would cruise to a win. The ref added 4 minutes in stoppage time, which seemed a little excessive. Sure enough, Todd’s favorite Dallas player, Carlos Ruiz, scored the late goal that produced a 1-1 tie. For the sixth consecutive year, the Brimstone Cup would remain in Dallas, although it has lost a bit of meaning since Dallas gave up their nickname, which was Burn. Overall, it was a good game although the result was not too great for the visitor from Atlanta. The traffic getting out of there after the game was atrocious as the Tollway leading to the park is not complete so we had to go on service roads for the last 5 miles and they were congested before and after the game.

The father of my high school team’s Goalkeeper is a chef at East Lake, so my ‘keeper scored Ismail and I two Clubhouse passes to the Tour Championship. We headed out there late Saturday afternoon because Ismail had a T-Ball Game earlier that day (2-2, HR, 3B, 4 Putouts including an unassisted double play). It took forever for us to get to the Course from the Turner Field shuttle site because the shuttles were all backed up with people already leaving for the day.

We finally arrived at the course almost 45 minutes after leaving the Ted. We first came across the putting green and Jim Furyk was taking some putts, so we watched him for a bit. Ismail decided that he wanted to get some autographs, so we hung around there for 30 minutes or so and he ended up getting Ernie Els and Robert Allenby. He could’ve picked up a few more, but he got antsy and wanted to go elsewhere.

We briefly went into the Clubhouse just to see what it was like and then we walked around back and found a spot to sit down in the shade and see Vijay Singh taking drives on the practice fairway. Next, we made it over to the 17th hole and watched a few groups come through, including Sergio Garcia. Lastly, we made it to the 16th hole where we saw Mark Calcavecchia’s group play and then Tiger’s. The gallery to watch Tiger was at least five deep all the way around the green. As a Social/Cultural Geographer, I found it very interesting how many African-Americans were walking the course with Tiger. When I was a kid, I almost never saw many non-whites at these tournaments. Of course, Atlanta is 70% black, so I was wondering if African-American crowds are anywhere near as large at other tournaments in lily-white communities as they were at East Lake. Over at Oakland Cemetery, Bobby Jones is probably turning in his grave.  

After watching Tiger hit from the 17th, we made our way back to the Shuttles. Although we were only there two hours, we were exhausted from the earlier T-Ball game and all of the waiting, walking and riding that were required. I wasn’t quite sure if Ismail would be old enough to have a good time there; now I know that it probably will be a few more years before I take him again.  

We signed Byron Leftwich today. Do you think that he’ll end up being the starter before the year’s over and if so, will he be successful? I don’t think that there’s any way that they brought him in here for $6 million just to have him back up Joey Harrington.

Any predictions on the multitude of games this weekend?

Will Tech beat BC? I think so.

I think the season ended on our Riseup outing in early August when the Braves lost to the Astros; not because we lost the game in extra innings (although that didn’t help), but because we lost Edgar Renteria for a month (and what seemed like two months). He was the most consistent hitter on the team all year and losing him made a huge difference in our ability to consistently score runs. With the way Teixiera hit in August (1o HRS, 32 RBIs), imagine having another clutch hitter like Edgar in the lineup- we might be looking at a Wild Card lead at the very least.

Of course, the pitching has been atrocious, but Schuerholz’s plan to win games by outhitting teams rather than outpitching them might’ve worked if not for the Edgar injury.

We’ve all made thousands of them, but it’s time to compile our all-time favorites.

My favs:

1. My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance
2. Mike Golic

3. Jeff Garlin

Why did he get this stupid nickname? It’s not like he’s an old man. It seems like “Ol’Ball Coach” should be Paterno or some other fossil like that.

BTW, between watching the Braves and the USC/UGA game, I haven’t seen so many Cox/Cocks since Dave tricked me into that airport bathroom with Sen. Craig last year.

Which athletes do you feel have really given the Atlanta Sports scene a blackeye over past decades?

1. John Rocker- Didn’t do much for promoting a new South, did he? He is the epitome of the dumbass redneck that closed-minded Northerners think of when they describe Southerners. I guess his career washing out was Karma.

2. Michael Vick- Maybe all of this will be a blessing in disguise as we will get rid of that albatross of a contract. While he was exciting, it just seemed like he was never going to take us to the next level. It’s not surprising that he was involved in something so stupid; his decision-making on the field wasn’t very intelligent at times either.

3. Kasten/Babcock- The effects of the ‘Nique trade are still haunting us; just plain stupid to trade away your best player when you’re in first place with less than two months left in the season. Jon Contract was another of their disasters and it seems to me that this deal really started the ball rolling in terms of mediocre players getting huge contracts. Way to be trailblazers, boys!

4. Dave Braine- No AD should ever admit that his Football program can’t be expected to compete and should basically strive for 7-8 win seasons. How could anyone be that stupid to utter something like that to the media? So much went wrong under his (mis)direction, including of course the Gailey extension after another 7-5 finish and a blowout loss in a third-rate bowl. Now, because of Braine-Dead’s 11th Hour dealings,  new AD Radkovich is stuck with this loser for four more years.

5. Otis Nixon- I really believe that we would’ve won the 1991 World Series had Nixon not been suspended for drug use right before the Playoffs. His speed and defense would’ve made all of the difference and I think that we would have won in Atlanta and wouldn’t have had to return to Minnesota in the first place. Imagine if we win that first one…who knows what might have happened after that? Maybe 4-5 World Series?