The Ted Turner Memoirs Part V. - Ghosts of Atlanta's Past

[lilbiggio]

Speaking of that 2014 All-Star game, it is that magical time in which we take a break from the pursuit of a world championship and play a slightly meaningless midseason game with the best players in the world.



Ah, hell yes... Freddie Freeman made the f'n cut!... it was quite the back and forth battle to earn this spot, the fans were being very fickle with their votes, but my friends, he has had made it out from that gutter, that Drake like bottom, and is now on the mountain top!


His first appearance at the All Star game thanks to a measly .299 average, 24 jacks, and 67 RBI's all numbers that put him in the upper echelon of players in the league.





... and of course by being one of the top home run hitters, he got the good invite to take part in the State Farm Home Run Derby. A chance on the big stage to assert himself as the best power hitter in Atlanta as Mr. Heyward a former champion in his own right would be in the HR Derby lineup just behind him...






If you've ever been up to Target Field you'd know that the brick wall by the scoreboard is in that specially advertised territory of distance that we like to call stupid far. Like the hill in Houston, or the Polo Grounds centerfield wall. You don't hit em to that brick wall in a regular season contest every other at bat, so for Freeman to jack one to that wall in round 1 was nice.

Oh you want to try to hit one out there too and achieve a stupid far playstation medal? No worries we'll wait..



And so during that period of time... the contest proceeded on through 2 rounds of thrilling moonshots, player taunting, backwards hat wearing, A drunken Chris Berman slurriing through most of the contest, and Big Papi walking around with a **** eating grin carrying a camera taking pictures as if he hadn't been to the contest 100 times before.


All and all It was the typical ESPN presentation that you'd come to expect for a Tuesday Night Derby. And at the end.. left standing were two Atlanta Braves. We'd CPU vs. CPU this to get an unbiased result and the winner of the 2014 Homerun derby is:

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Jason Heyward outlasted Freddie Freeman in the championship round to acquire his second HR Derby championship. (Last won in 2011 down in KC). Heyward hit 10 homeruns to Freeman's 6 but everyone in attendance felt that it was Freddie's 17 HR 2nd round that stole tonight's show.

[lilbiggio]

We move now to Wednesday night..



All bull**** aside, it's time for the game that determines who holds HFA for game 7 of the world series. Seeing as how our Braves have just as good a chance as anyone to be in that game, that makes this game outcome an important one.


My bad brehs, ain't nothing slightly meaningless about tonight.



Coach Gonzales would be the NL's manager, congrats to him making it to his second All Star game, and of course even with Heyward struggling for the Atlanta Braves, coach G felt that he could help the NL All Stars just by his presence, so there would be no lineup hiding for J-Hey.. he'd bat in his natural 3 hole for tonights game.



Ryan Braun would help us jump out to an early lead as he took JV deep on a pitiful excuse for a change up. Verlander as good as a pitcher as he is, just simply throws too straight to be of any use in a game like this where every batter is batting in the area code of .280 - .300.

Take that weak *** pitch with you up to Pittsburgh or something bro...


The AL would bounce back slowly as Robinson Cano got a piece of Greinke, yarding him in the second cutting the lead down to 1. Coach G went to Kershaw to hold the score as long as he could... but just like JV, these guys are too good to throw junk pitches, and young Clayton served up a Grandslam to Carlos Santana.

The **** outta here with this... Carlos Santana?

Who?



I guess... The Cleveland backstop got him one he could handle, and next thing we'd know, the World series game 7 will be held in an American league ball park.

Thanks Clayton...

[royals19]

It's always the Indians messing things up... I swear they're up to no good.

[lilbiggio]

Quote: Originally Posted by royals19

It's always the Indians messing things up... I swear they're up to no good.

I f'n hate Cleveland. Not just the Indians, the city of... the smell, the local cuisine.


Now granted the Indians did make the World Series back in 2010, damn near won it... that lil piece of history still is not enough for me to think back on the All-Star game like damn... this dude has no business hitting a grandslam off of Kershaw. Lord knows the Indians aren't anywhere close to punching another post season ticket:




Alright so at the halfway point in this season, the game decided to update us on how our awards are shaping up. A few interesting notes on here:

Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman are dancing their way into the final stages of the MVP race. However, New York's David Wright is holding them both back, due to his insane .358 average. Should a MVP be on a losing team like the Mets tho?



Reminiscing on his times in Arlington over a MD 20/20, A-Rod says yes... I say hell to the no... The Queens bound squad is in dead last, and 18 games out of first place...sooo, I don't care what his numbers are, that should be a NO for Wright's MVP claim.


Other Notes
Prince Fielder triple crown watch... we'll monitor this one in August. Don't want to jinx it just yet..
Josh Tomlin of those damned Cleveland Indians is pulling a Pacquiao like streak and is now 13 and 1.



We pick things back up in the Queen City. Actually I think almost every state on the east coast has a city that is in reference to the Queen, so not sure why cincy is so damn special, but regardless friends, it was here where the Braves started a 9 game in 9 night road trip.



The first leg of the road trip saw the Braves take 2 of 3 from the Reds. Jason Heyward had a splendid game extending himself away from Freeman by going yard twice this evening. Freeman would likewise go 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts.

[xboxxerx]

Wright should at least be 2nd in that MVP race in my opinion.

[lilbiggio]

As part of the excruciatingly long roadtrip, we would next hop on a late night 3AM charter flight, push the seat back and zip on west to Arizona. A rather boring stadium to play in for the most part but a place that always seemed to be full of Atlanta fans for some odd reason. In recent years this phenomena had grown even more with the two ball clubs trading players back and forth like cards at a high stakes Go-Fish table.

Chase Field, a safe haven to meet and greet Atlanta Brave nation out west... Chase Field, home of the VCH pitch.. a pitch no one in our lineup had seen prior to this season. (Remember we skipped last version of the game).



Ian Kennedy ran that Vulcan changeup at us, and he ran the 4seam fastball. That's all it took tonight. Through 6 and a third, he had only allowed 3 hits with a strikeout to thrown controller ratio in the high 10s.



Dude...The **** is this pitch?! it takes forever to get to the plate, and when it does it drops out of the zone right on the black. You can't take it.. cuz you'll get caught looking. You can't swing at it because duh... it's out of the zone. And if you sit on it, well then hell son... the 4 seam fastball is coming.

Quote:

Ian Kennedy dismantles the Braves with one pitch - MLB.com Diamondbacks skpper Kirk Gibson breaks down Ian Kennedy's effectiveness tonight vs. the Atlanta Braves at Chase Field.

The Diamondbacks would take 2 of 3 from us. Meanwhile Washington has won 7 straight and closed the gap to 8 games. Not really anything to write home about, but we should take note that our lead is going to be valuable once the head to head NL East games begin for the 2nd half.

[xboxxerx]

Love how you have incorporated Gibson's press conference with Kennedy's performance. Great job as always.

[lilbiggio]

The next ballgame would feature the Braves going against the Washington Nationals.





Stephen Strasburg on the mound. Yikes! He always gives us fits. Over the last couple of years, the Strasburg/Hanson matchup usually looks great on paper, and Hanson usually collects the L because he receives a goose egg for run support.



Tonight would be an excellent example of the "Strasburg Rules" coined by hitting coach Greg Walker.

The Strasburg Rules

Quote:

The first time through the order, take every pitch up to a 2 strike count. the second time through the order, take every pitch until Strasburg throws a strike. Contact controlled, defensive swinging when behind in the count.

The past couple of starts this has forced Strasburg to waste valuable pitches early in the game, rather than getting to breeze through 7 with us swinging at everything under the sun. Once again, the Strasburg Rules allowed us to weaken him just enough to drop 6 runs on the board and chase him from the game. This would be punctuated by a Jordan Schafer 3 run shot to right that "just" cleared the outfield wall.



Tommy Hanson continued to lower his ERA and looked to be cruising along and then Bryce Harper took him deep not once, but twice, including a what the hell 3 run shot in the top of the ninth and next thing you know the good pitching performance is out the window, and Venters and Co. are in the ballgame trying to salvage the pieces to preserve the win.



I usually hate when this happens, the starter is doing work, looking flawless and then he gets tired and can't do anything regardless of confidence. Yes, confidence shouldn't outweigh talent, but sometimes you just don't want to see a guy leave with 8 and 2/3 of work because he can't get one groundball out.