Damn It: Opening Day for the Atlanta Braves

March 30, 2008: Opening day. And my favorite baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, was kicking off the season. We had kind of a weird off season, notably picking up 42-year old P Tom Glavine and watching CF Andruw Jones walk away. However, we came out of it looking good, ready to attack the always lacking NL East. (Mets, Nationals, Pirates, Marlins - look out!) But seriously, I think this is a much better Braves team than we've seen in the last few years, and could go deep into the postseason.

So, yeah, we lost a star in Andruw Jones, but there's still the stud pitching staff of Hudson, Smoltz, and now Glavine, who can still throw a wicked fastball/change-up combo. Throw Mike Hampton into that mix and you got a great first 4. We have 1B Mark Texiera, who came in with a spark last season, just a little late to salvage the whole season, and he's batting cleanup. Hello RBIs. We picked up CF Mark Kotsay who should really close up most of the hole Andruw Jones left, assuming he stays healthy. And need I remind you, we have Chipper Jones... enough said there. Last season, the first game back from a groin injury, first at-bat, first pitch I think: boom, home run. He's my hands down favorite baseball player. And last but not least, with Bobby Cox in the dugout, it's locked up.

You also got to watch out for Yunel Escobar at short. That guy can hit, and he fits great in front of Chipper and Texiera. And hopefully RF Jeff Francour can keep improving, though he's pretty much a 100-RBI guy as it is, and C Brian McCann rebounds from his injury back to his old self. Anyways, on to the game.

We were facing the Washington Nationals in their brand new Nationals Park, and after President Bush tossed out the first pitch (amongst a shower of "boos," see bottom of post for video), we were off and running. We found ourselves down two early after a couple quick hits turned into a couple quick RBIs, but then Hudson locked it down. We played scoreless until the 4th, when Chipper Jones officially broke in the new stadium with a homer to left-center that President Bush called "a rope." He was in the announcers booth at that point. I guess Chipper's a Democrat. Anyways, it stayed 1-2 into the bottom of the ninth. We were down to our last out, and Texiera had doubled, then Prado, who came in to pinch run, moved to third on a Francour ground out. So with two outs, Nationals' C Paul Lo Duca giftwrapped a passed ball that Prado scored on, tying it up.

We went into the bottom of the ninth having sat down 22 consecutive Nationals' batters. Peter Moylan was on the mound. Struck out the first batter. "Looks like we're going to extra innings, sounds good." Second batter grounded out to third. "Okay, we have Diaz, Kotsay, and Hudson coming up in the 10th. Not great, but not bad." Two outs, first pitch strike. Second pitch, oh FUCK! Goddamned Ryan Zimmerman jacks a walk-off homer to center. Game over. "God damn you Zimmerman! I hate you."

So we came back in the ninth on a lucky pass ball, and I got all excited, only to have my dreams thrown on the ground and shit on with a 2-out walk-off homer. That hurts. I would have rather lost in the 10th, or maybe not have come back at all, than take that heart breaker.

Hopefully I can get over it by tomorrow, when the Braves take on the Pirates at Turner Field. I think we have a free preview of MLB Extra Innings this week, so I might be able to watch it. It's on at 4:10P, and since I don't have class on Mondays, I'll be there. Maybe before the game I'll hit up the mall and get a new hat. I'm not sure if these were the hats they were wearing today, but I really liked just the plain blue with the classic white A. I'm not too much of a fan of the classic blue with red bill, but if it has to come down to that, I'll take one for the team. GO BRAVES!

UPDATE: Bush getting booed throwing out the first pitch.