Game Day #4 (6/26/07)
By Andrew Tonachel
Day
5 Photo Album
Those
of us who awoke first on Tuesday morning had a little campground surprise.
Some of our nocturnal neighbors were returning home after another night
out. I’m talking about raccoons, and their homes were the palm trees
of Ft. De Soto campground, including a big one on our site. I saw three
different residents return to their roosts soon after sunrise. Didn’t
know raccoons lived in palm trees. By the water, gulls were diving for and
fighting over
fish. One by one, the BO crew rose and gathered around the picnic table
to soak up our last morning in the Sunshine State. A few started a game
of Phase 10, while Cooper bugged the Kommish to update our fantasy teams’
performances. After checking and rechecking his records from the previous
evening, Jeff announced the updated standings and presented awards for attendance
and BO Bingo winners from previous games. 
The
Kommish had handpicked (if not handmade) each award; for example, Jen earned
a friendship bracelet with Marlins colors, for being closest (without going
over!) in guessing the attendance in Miami.
Before long, we were on the road again, heading north on
our 460-mile trek to Atlanta. The next seven hours were spent napping, snacking,
Mad Libbing, trading trivia, playing cards, 
scheming
sites for BO ’08, and reflecting on Suzanne’s shouting in Vero
Beach, Mauer’s mashes in Miami, and Jenks’ jousting in the Trop.
By mid-afternoon, we were projecting an arrival in Atlanta just before game
time. So, we traded a leisurely lunch stop for fuel, snacks, and a smorgasbord
to be eaten later. On the final leg to Atlanta, passengers in Casper were
startled
by a truck blowing a tire in the next lane, at 65 miles per hour. A close
call, but the brothers Haynes steered us safely ahead. And, more than an
hour before game time, they had us parked in a lot across the street from
Atlanta’s Turner Field.
We walked north on Hank Aaron Drive to get to Turner’s
main 
entrance.
Once there, we could see the former site of Atlanta’s Fulton County
Stadium which now serves as additional parking space. However, the pavement
is marked with the sites of both the swing and landing spot of Aaron’s
historic 715th home run in 1974. Although a tempting landmark, we opted
for Monument Grove instead.
Monument
Grove, located outside the ticket turnstiles, contains statues of Aaron,
knuckleballer Phil Neikro, winningest pitcher Warren Spahn, and native son
Ty Cobb, all in action poses, along with number statues for retired number
honorees.1 We soaked up the legends,
while being followed by the Chick-fil-A Cows, imploring us to “Eat
Mor Chikin.” Frivolity is never far away at the old ballpark.
Once inside Turner Field, we split up to explore. Some of
us went in search of grub while others went down to the field (twenty feet
below street level) to check out our seats and the pre-game ballet known
as Batting Practice (BP). For some fans, BP is the most exciting part of
the 
ballpark
experience. Indeed, BP is a misnomer; there’s a lot more going on
than batting practice. While small groups of players rotate into the batting
cage at home plate and take cuts under the watchful eye of the hitting coach
and manager, the other twenty players, bat boys, and coaches have their
own tasks. The rubber-armed pitching coach on the mound is fed baseballs
by bat boys who gather the balls from players scattered around the park.
In the outfield, the players—mostly pitchers— roam the field
playing toss, stretching, jogging along the warning track, chatting with
fans, checking the field conditions, and catching flies. About thirty minutes
before game time, on opposite sides of the field, the starting pitchers
and catchers start stretching and playing long toss in preparation for their
bullpen sessions.
On
this sunny, hot Atlanta evening, large groups of fans stood amongst the
outfield seats (Turner doesn’t have bleacher benches), gloves poised,
hoping to out duel their neighbors to snag a long fly off the next slugger’s
bat. Others staked out a front row seat down the foul lines to beg for baseballs
or autographs. I followed Cooper down towards the field, where a Washington
Nationals pitcher was signing autographs. While I was watching the negotiation,
I heard a loud crash. I turned around to discover that a foul ball had just
smashed into the seat directly behind me. Before I reacted, the ball rolled
under my feet and rested on the concrete floor one row in front of me. Another
fan nearby quickly ran up and grabbed the souvenir. I failed to get a ball
hit right to me; of course, I was dumb lucky not to be knocked out.
After
surviving Cooper’s autograph seeking efforts, I walked to the main
concourse and took in the pictorial history of the Atlanta Braves. There’s
a team picture and season summary for each year since their move from Milwaukee
in 1966. It was fun to reminisce while looking at the great, and not so
great, Atlanta teams of the past. I focused on the juggernaut teams of the
nineties that started the unprecedented run of 14 straight divisional titles
(and one championship) from 1991 – 2005.2
Others peered at the teams of the early 80s, managed by a young Joe Torre,
who got his first managerial playoff experience with the ’82 Braves.
Or Hammerin’ Hank’s teams of the early 70s. Before finding out
what the 2007 team was about, I snuck up to the upper concourse and checked
out some interesting art work on the walls, including a huge mural of a
baseball scene, constructed of license plates from the three states the
Braves’ have called home. Up an 
escalator,
I reached the Coke-sponsored Fan Zone, complete with a “cool”
walkway equipped with misting machines. Nearby, there are three oversized,
red rocking chairs with Coke bottle-shaped backs facing downtown, and a
38-foot high coke bottle—that lights up and shoots fireworks when
a Braves player hits a homerun—covered in baseball equipment. There
was much more to do and see,3 but
the National Anthem was about to be played and I was up three levels and
halfway around the park from my seat. Time for a quick jog to section 123.
It’s
safe to say that this game’s crowd did not gather expecting to see
a pitcher’s duel. The Braves’ Earl “Buddy” Carlyle
and Nationals’ Mike Bacsik came into the match up with combined lifetime
major league records of 8 wins, 14 losses with seven teams. Both 29 years
old, the two pitchers were both fighting for a permanent spot in the rotation
a month after being called up from the minors. A month earlier, in fact,
Carlyle had won his first start in seven and a half years, the longest period
between wins for a starter amongst active players.5
Despite the lack of a marquee match up, the crowd got pumped
up as Carlyle struck out former Braves’ outfielder Ryan Langerhans
to start the game. But, the stadium quieted as consecutive singles by shortstop
Felipe Lopez and third base phenom Ryan Zimmerman put runners at first and
second with one out and clean up hitter Dmitri Young at the plate. Carlyle
worked the count to 1-2 on Young before leaving a ball over the plate that
Young slapped into left for solid single. Lopez rounded third and decided
to test the arm of left fielder Matt Diaz, who came up firing to home. It
was a close play at the plate, but Braves’ catcher Brian McCann blocked
the plate and tagged out Lopez for out number two. Then, McCann got up and
fired the ball to third where Chipper Jones applied the tag to the sliding
Zimmerman, completing a 8-2-5 double play to end the inning.
Bacsik
retired the Braves in order in the bottom of the first, and Carlyle returned
the favor in the top of the second. In the bottom of the second, McCann
got the Braves first hit, a two-out single. But he was stranded there. In
the third, the Nationals’ veteran catcher, Brian Schneider, singled
and was sacrificed to second on a good bunt by Bacsik. Then Langerhans doubled
against his old team, scoring Schneider for the first run of the game. Carlyle
then settled down to get the next two batters and keep the deficit at one.
In the bottom of the third, eighth place batter Jarrod Saltalamacchia—who
was playing first base despite being featured on the cover of our free “Game
Day” program in his catcher’s gear—led off hitting a homerun
over the centerfield fence to tie the score. With two outs, Edgar Renteria
reached first on an error by Lopez. Next up was Chipper Jones, hitting well
over .300 and by far the most dangerous bat in the Braves lineup. With the
fan 
favorite
at the plate and a runner on, we got our first exposure to the Tomahawk
Chop chant from the Braves’ faithful. Loved in Atlanta and hated just
about everywhere else, the Chop involves a slow series of “Ohhhhh”
chants, punctuated with a chopping motion by one or both arms. The Braves
insistence on maintaining this cheer, despite its obvious offense to many
native groups, has led to a lot of controversy over the years. One of the
enduring images of the Braves’ decade-long playoff run was seeing
President Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter doing the Chop along with former owner
Ted Turner and one-time girl friend Jane Fonda from their seats near the
Braves dugout. In any event, with the anxious crowd watching, Jones fouled
off a tough 3-2 pitch before walking. That put Chipper’s long-time
teammate and perennial All-Star Andruw Jones at the plate. The Chop started
again. Andruw, mired in a season-long slump, ran the count to 3-2 as well
before flying out to center to end the threat.
The score froze at 1-1 until the fifth. In the top of the
inning, Brian Schneider reached on an error by Saltalamacchia and was successfully
sacrificed to second, for the second time, by Bacsik. But Langerhans struck
out looking on three pitches to end the threat.
Saltalamacchia
led off the bottom of the fifth much the same way he led off the third,
this time blasting the first pitch from Bacsik over the left field wall.
That gave Saltalamacchia two home runs for the night and four for his weeks-old
major league career. Then, with one out, rookie second baseman Yunel Escobar
and veteran shortstop Edgar Renteria singled, bringing up Chipper Jones.
Again the Tomahawks chopped. The rhythmic clappers clapped. Jones ran the
count to 2-2 and then fouled off two more pitches before skying out to Church
in left. That brought Andruw Jones with another chance to extend a rally
and get his batting average back over the Mendoza line. This time, he guessed
right on a 3-1 pitch, depositing the ball over the fence for a 3-run homer
and a 5-1 Braves lead.
Carlyle, having retired eight of the last nine hitter, started
off the Nationals sixth by striking out Lopez looking. He proceeded to retire
the visitors with only a walk between flyouts. Bacsik also pitched well
in the sixth. After McCann singled, the pitcher got three fly outs to strand
him. The last out came off the bat of Carlyle, who got a nice ovation from
the crowd, nonetheless. We thought that might be the last action of the
night, but he was back on the hill in the seventh. He faced four batters
again, throwing only six pitches, to retire the side.
In
the bottom of the seventh, with the Braves still up 5-1, Bacsik was replaced
by recent call-up Chris Schroder. Bacsik had pitched well, except for the
20-pitch stretch in the fifth when a tie game suddenly became a 4-run deficit.
But now it was Schroder’s turn to calm the Braves’ bats. After
a 10-pitch at bat by leadoff hitter Escobar, which ended in a single, Schroder
struck out Renteria. After falling behind 3-1 to Chipper Jones and allowing
Escobar to steal second base, Schroder induced an infield flyout. That brought
up fifth inning hero Andruw Jones. But this time, Schroder snuffed the rally,
striking out Andruw on four pitches.
New Braves pitcher Tyler Yates took over for Carlyle in
the eighth. Carlyle finished with excellent numbers, giving up only two
hits after the rocky first inning and fanning six while walking only one.
It was the strongest performance by a starter we had seen during BO07. Yates,
a native Hawaiian, picked up where Carlyle had left off. He retired the
Nationals’ 1-2-3 hitters in order in the eighth, getting three flyouts
in seven pitches.
Schroder came back out to pitch the eighth for Washington.
With one out, McCann, already two for three, doubled, and Schroder hit Matt
Diaz to put two on for Saltalamacchia. Anxious to do more damage, the rookie
swung at the first pitch, bouncing to short and allowing the Nationals to
force Diaz at second. With two outs and runners at the corners, Manager
Bobby Cox sent in nine-year veteran Chris Woodward to pinch hit, and Nationals’
Manager Manny Acta countered with nine-year veteran Ray King to face him.
King fell behind 2-0 before Woodward knocked a single through the infield,
scoring McCann with the sixth Braves run of the night. With runners at first
and second, King fell behind Escobar, too. But Escobar got under the 3-1
pitch, sending a fly ball to short to end the eighth.
In the ninth, the Braves turned to set up man Peter Moylan.
Dmitri Young greeted the Australian reliever by smashing a double. Then
Moylan struck out Austin Kearns looking, ending his night 0 for 4. But then
Moylan surrendered a double to Church, making the score 6-2. When second
baseman Ronnie Belliard singled, bringing the tying run on deck, Cox had
seen enough. He pulled Moylan and called in the closer, Bob Wickman.
At
38 years old, 6’1”, 240 pounds, Bob Wickman is not the kind
of pitcher that strikes fear in the hearts of hitters. However, he has been
effective over a sixteen-year career. He entered this game, the 807th of
his career, with 260 saves, the twenty-fifth most in major league history.
Acquired from the Indians the previous summer for an anticipated playoff
run, Wickman proved to still be a reliable closer, saving 18 games in 19
tries. Now he was called on to get save 14 of 2007, with two runners on
and the potential tying run on deck.
Up next was catcher Schneider who had reached base, via
hit or error, all three previous trips to the plate tonight. Wickman nibbled
his
way to a 2-2 count, and then Schneider swung and missed at the next offering.
Two away. Then, Manager Acta chose to send up switch-hitting utility infielder
D’Angelo Jimenez to pinch hit in the pitcher’s spot. Despite
the fact that Jimenez had been in the league since 1999 and had over 2000
career at bats, he and Wickman had never faced each other. Jimenez stepped
in, looking to get on base to bring up the top of the order and the tying
run. The count ran to 3-1, with Jimenez not biting on close pitches. The
next pitch was in there, though, and Jimenez lofted it to center field.
Andruw Jones drifted over and squeezed the ball for the final out. Fireworks
and high fives for the home team!
After
our customary group photo, which documents both the contentment and sadness
that marks the end of each Odyssey, we headed for one last trip to the ballpark
rest stations. Then we circled up for one last, customary Rhythmic Clap
and headed back out to Hank Aaron Drive and our cars. Pillows and other
provisions were shuffled to the appropriate vehicle; Magellan headed to
a hotel, followed by Red Meat which dropped some of us off before heading
off to the airport, and Casper immediately hit the road for the overnight,
1,000-mile trip back to Minnesota.
The long and winding road that was BO07 left us tired, but
well nourished. And hungry for the next round tripper.
