Dueling Bullpen Implosions leads to Braves loss

Tommy Glavine posted a quality start giving up just one earned run in five innings but the bullpen once again wasted the effort of a Braves starting pitcher. This is a disturbing trend and one that hopefully will not be a season-long problem. The Braves were sloppy all around committing 3 errors. Perhaps the Doc Brown reference from this morning's post was not the best way to preview tonight's game. It appears Doc set his time machine to 1985 instead of 1995. I'm not going to get into the details of how bad the bullpen actually was because it makes my head hurt. Suffice it to say that Phil Neikro (even at age 68) would have been a welcome sight as even he could have limited the Bucs better than the ATL bullpen. Shout out to the Hall of Famer as tomorrow is his 69th birthday.

The Pirates bullpen was equally as poor as they walked four of the first 5 batters in the 9th inning and gave up five total runs. As bad as the Pirates bullpen was in the 9th it was the outfield debacle that took place between Jason Bay and Nate McClouth that allowed the Braves to tie the score. Bay has got to at least acknowledge that he has lost the ball because McClouth (as he showed with his catch to end the 9th) could have made an easy play to end the game.

Kudos to Chipper Jones for springing the 270 feet from 1B to home plate on what should have been a routine pop up.

There are a great number of players in the majors who would have trotted around the bases after seeing the weakly hit pop up. Were it not for the effort of Jones the Braves would not have tied the game.

The ATL bullpen once again squandered an opportunity as Blayne Boyer did his best Peter Moylan impersonation giving up a 3 run HR to Xavier Nady in the 12th. Despite a formidable rally by the Braves in the bottom half of the inning the Pirates closed out the win by inducing rally killing Corky Miller to fly out to center field.

Fantasy Baseball notes -
Brian McCann hit the ball hard for a second consecutive night. After just missing a HR in the season opener McCann led off the fourth inning with his first HR of the year.

Yunel Escobar is exactly what everyone thought he would be. He hits the ball well to all fields (including a two run triple on Monday night) but also turned what should have been an easy 6-3 putout into a run scoring error when he threw the ball about two feet short of Tex at 1B.

Bobby Cox shuffled the lineup tonight flipping Frenchy and McCann. McCann batted 5th and Frenchy 6th. If this is the norm it might help Mac's value a touch as he will get to the plate with runners on more often.


Also of note - Kelly Johnson left the game with what is being described as a knee strain. More on the injury as details are available. Unfortunately this might be the type of nagging injury that sticks with him all year.







By the way - This photo of Phil Neikro is the spitting image of my friend, and columnist for the Hard Ball Times, Brandon Isleib.

The Making of South Alabama Football

Wow, what a last few months it has been! It all started with a meeting of a small group of students last September. The cause for the meeting: force the administration to hear us out and reconsider the implementation of a football program at the University of South Alabama. Come to find out, there was no forcing required (as if we could've actually "forced" the administration).

In late August 2007, a student at the U. of South Alabama organized a group going by the name of "Students Who Stand". It's premise - "To Stand Together as a Student Body and Have Our Voices Heard in Support of NCAA Football at the University of South Alabama." The original idea brought forth at that first meeting of SWS was to get a group of students to "protest" at the next Board of Trustess meeting to let the board know that the students were serious about wanting football at USA. Well, the administration got wind of this and put forth an alternative to our protest. They would reopen the football investigation (our initial reaction being, "Wow, really? Just like that?) and we had to prove that the students did indeed want football, and were willing to foot a significant portion of the bill. Based on turnout for homecoming and student government elections, it was agreed that we were to obtain at least 2,000 student signatures by November 10th, the date of the first preseason basketball game which would also become the petition presentation for the implementation of football at USA. After two weeks of preparation, we began our journey.

Oct. 19 marked the first day of our petition drive. We were pretty sure that we had the support to realize our goal, but that small group of us on that first day didn't know what quite to expect. After all, when you see a complete stranger on campus, on the street, downtown, or wherever you may be, and they stop you to ask for your signature on a petition, what's your initial reaction? Exactly. Thankfully though, our support expectations were more than fulfilled. On that first day, we stood outside of Humanities for the 4 hours worth of early morning classes catching every class change as students walked into and out of the building. In those 4 hours, we obtained over 400 signatures and by the end of the second day we were up to 700. By the end of the month, we reached our goal of 2,000 and ended up with a total of 2,600+.

The Nov. 10th petition presentation went fantastically terrific, which lead to the next obstacle, the Board of Trustees meeting on Dec. 6. Turns out, the BOT meeting was no obstacle at all (man we were nervous leading up to it though). The board voted unanimously on December 6, 2007 to approve the implementation of a football program at the University of South Alabama, and history was made.

Stay tuned as we keep you up to date with the development of the South Alabama football program!

Braves sign part time rocker, full time drinker, Scott Spiezio to Minor League deal

In a move that is a bit baffling the Braves have signed former St. Louis Cardinal, Scott Spiezio, to a minor league contract. He is expected to start with AAA Richmond when their season opens on Thursday. Spiezio was released by the Cards back in Feb. following a 6 count arrest which included the following charges: driving under the influence, driving under the influence with a blood alcohol level of .08 percent or higher, hit-and-run with property damage, assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm, and assault and battery.

If you're keeping score at home (and I know you are) that's the baseball equivalent of hitting for the cycle as far as motor vehicle misdemeanors go.

Hopefully the Speiz has hired a driver for his late night runs to the Richmond Taco Bell. He can afford it as the Cards paid him $2.3 million just to go away.

Here's a description of his arrest. If this doesn't sound like a guy who was made to be a minor league ballplayer then you just haven't spent enough time around washed up ex-major leaguers.

According to a release issued by the Orange County district attorney's office, Spiezio attempted to drive home after having "several vodka drinks" at a bar in Newport Beach, Calif. The release charges that Spiezio sped, veered across several lanes and through oncoming traffic before driving over a curb and hitting a fence.

Further, the release states that Spiezio is accused of fleeing the wreck on foot, running to his condominium complex in Irvine, Calif., and visiting a friend's home. From there, per the statement, Spiezio vomited in his friend's room, grew angry when confronted about doing so and attacked the friend.

Here is Speizio rocking out with his band SandFrog.

One Reason Why Those of Us At SNS Love Baseball

This is a great story about one of the many reasons why America loves baseball so much. The story can also be found here.

March 31, 2008
Fathers, Sons, and BaseballBy Rich Galen
September 6, 1995 I flew to Austin, Texas to watch a baseball game on TV with The Lad who was then an undergrad at the University of Texas. The occasion was Cal Ripken's 2,131st consecutive Major League baseball game, breaking Lou Gehrig's record.
Baseball has been a bond between us.
When the Lad played Little League I rarely missed a game. In McLean, Virginia it was not at all noteworthy to see national leaders - Administration and Congressional, Democrat and Republican - working in the snack bar or helping prepare one of the fields.

It was not unusual to be watching a game, leaning on the centerfield fence with the head of the President's Domestic Policy Council on one side and a US Senator on the other, discussing the most important issue of the day: Shouldn't the shortstop (who was about 11-years-old) be playing a couple of steps toward second base with a left-handed batter up?
Over the years the Lad and I had gone to many baseball games in Baltimore; Washington, DC having been shut out of Major League Baseball since before he had been born. One night we saw Ripken make not one error, but two errors. The Lad was - literally - concerned that we were witnessing early evidence of the end of the world.
We had wanted to be together the night that Ripken broke Gehrig's record. We had dinner in Austin, went to my hotel room, ordered every dessert on the menu from room service, and sobbed in concert as, at the end of the fifth inning - making it a regulation game - Cal took a lap around the stadium in acknowledgment of the fact that the fans would not let the game re-start until he had done so.
Some 13 years have gone by. The Lad has gone from being a college student, to being a member of the President's staff, to making his own, highly successful way, in business and politics.
In 2005, after 34 years, baseball came home to Washington. Two different clubs which had been called the Senators had deserted the city, so the current team is called the Nationals which is a double entendre in that they are a National League team, and they represent the Nation's Capital.
According to the Washington Post, in the years since the departure of Major League baseball to last night the population of the region doubled from less than three million to around six million; ticket prices went from top price of $6 to a top of $300 and gasoline has gone from 36¢ per gallon to well over three dollars.
At 6:52 AM, the morning of the Nationals' first game - exactly 12 hours before President Bush was scheduled to throw out the first pitch - The Lad came through the arrival doors at Dulles airport, returning the favor of my flight to Austin for a baseball game a decade earlier.
At 7:05 PM the first pitch from a Major Leaguer was thrown to a Major Leaguer in a real game.
Fathers and sons - parents and kids - have been going to baseball games for over a hundred years. This father and this son have been blessed to have shared unique opportunities over the course of our 30+ years together. That Opening Day was one of them.
Baseball has been a continuing thread in our relationship, The Lad and I.
That year, we sat along the first base line and watched a ballgame together. Ate hotdogs. Worried over defensive alignments. Ducked foul balls. And went home happy.
This year The Lad is in California so I sat in the press box. The game ended on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning by Nats third baseman Ryan Zimmerman who is the face of this franchise.
While I was in the interview room waiting for the post-game press conference with manager Manny Acta The Lad sent me an instant message which read: "Walk off! Go Zim!"
Zimmerman, who in a little over two years in the majors has had four walk-off homers, came to the interview room after his manager had finished. He was asked if this was the most thrilling walk-off home run.
"No," he said. "The first one was. It was on Father's Day and my dad was in the stands."
See what I mean?
Fathers and sons and baseball. Life might get better than that, but it doesn't have to get much better.
Rich Galen has been a press secretary to Dan Quayle and Newt Gingrich. He was a senior adviser to Fred Thompson's presidential campaign and writes at Mullings.com.

Back to the Future

It's been 5 long years since Tommy Glavine toed the bump in a Braves uniform but he will seek to recapture the magic of the 90's in tonight's home opener. Just one day shy of his 42 birthday Tommy will try and harness all 1.21 gigawatts of steam left in his Delorean. If anyone spots Doc Brown at Turner Field tonight point him towards the bullpen and see if he can undue last night's Moylan meatball. If the Braves are going to win the East then Tommy is going to have to be a major factor every 5 days. The good news is the Braves get to face the Bucs in the home opener.

Glavine has posted a 22-12 mark with a 3.12 ERA in 43 starts against the Pirates.

Opening Day 08 - Zimmerman blasts Nats past Braves

“Every team knows they’re going to win 60 games and lose 60 games. They’re all fighting to decide the other 42.” –George Will

Opening Day for the Braves began with a trip to D.C. and the opening of the Nats new ballpark. Uber-prospect Ryan Zimmerman sent the home fans home happy with a walk off Homerun with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th inning. Of note on the homerun is the fact that the ball would have likely gone for a double in RFK stadium where the left center field wall was 10 feet deeper.

Unfortunately for the Braves last night’s game was likely one of the 42 that could go either way. We’re now 0-1 in that department.

Of interest from last night’s game

*AU alum Tim Hudson pitched a masterful game after getting out of a troublesome first inning. He allowed only 3 hits and struck out 3. Of the three hits only one was hit hard and the other two were balls clearly out of the strike zone. All in all a great start for opening day.

*Fantasy owners of Mark Teixeira were shorted a run scored when Martin Prado pinch ran for MT in the top of the 9th. He would score on a past ball. Good call by Bobby Cox because it is not clear that Tex would have scored on the play.

*Brian McCann getting thrown out at second base following a long single to right field was also likely an effect of the new ballpark. The laser hit by BM ricocheted off the top of the wall like it was shot out of a cannon. It is apparent that BM was unaware of how the ball would play off of the right field wall as he was thrown out by a solid 6 feet.

Getting Started

Welcome to Spot and Stripe! Here at SNS we will primarily be discussing Auburn University Athletics and Atlanta Braves Baseball. We will also be covering the formation and development of the University of South Alabama Football program. It’s the goal of SNS to be the FIRST USA Football blog on the web. It is appropriate that we are launching on MLB Opening Day as we will attempt to bring you daily coverage of the 2008 season and the Braves’ quest for a World Title.