Massacre on the St. Johns

My lack of posting as of late has been a disgrace to the handful of friends who apparently enjoy the ramblings on this blog. For that, I apologize.

I had a lot of positive thoughts a couple of weeks ago after the Dawgs trounced LSU but in all honesty my joy was short-lived. I woke up on Sunday after the LSU game with the realization that we were in all likelihood going to get overwhelmed on Saturday against the Gators. I just had a bad feeling in my gut. Now I tried to envision some positive scenarios and even sought some advice from some sages (Scott,Karl,Matt T.,Mookie) but nothing I heard could give me any true relief from my gut feeling. Unfortunately the feeling I had was correct. We were out-manned, out-coached, out-everythinged...

I can't even bring myself to watch a replay for any insight into this game. Did we play bad? Yes. Is Florida that much better than us? No. It was just one of those days. They had a better game plan, had more intensity, got the breaks, etc. Was it classless of Urban Meyer to call 2 late timeouts? Yes. But you know, what really irks me is that it even came to that. We have too good of a team and too good of a program to play against ANYONE and have that be an issue. We should never have been down 49-10 like that but... it is what it is.

One area that the Gators lost in, at least in my experience of the weekend, was partying. I saw some of the most hardcore partying (not the porn site) I have ever seen and the majority of our group is 4 + years out of college. We had a lovely little home a block from the beach on St. Simons and turned that place into an absolute breeding ground of mayhem and destruction. We had an absurd Halloween party w/ ridiculous costumes which included; Joe the Plummer,John McCain,Sarah Palin,a Construction worker,2 Scottish horndogs,an inmate,an 80's mom and prom queen,Tequilla Man,Superman,Wonderwoman, and my personal favorite-some sort of Richard Simmons-esque fitness class leader. Too much happened to go into but I am stunned the house was still standing at the end of the night.

Saturday culminated with a lot of hangovers and the arrival of a bus to take us to Jacksonville. The ride was filled with a lot of people dealing w/ very full bladders and no bathroom. Of the numerous exits off the bus to urinate on the side of the road, the best had to be a female who got off the bus and attempted to enter a doctor's office to pee. When the door was locked she decided to squat behind a column about 5 feet from the door of this office. Oh, and in case you were wondering-the lobby was full of patients who no doubt were in sheer amazement at what they saw. Among other events yours truly also nearly incited a riot with some ill-timed remarks in bad taste which I truly regret making, but it was dealt with and the day went on. Oh and before I forget, another favorite moment from the ride to the game involved our man Mook-Dawg getting off the bus on the highway to keep a Gator's car from merging into us.

Let's skip the game. Had great seats and watched us get killed, I think someone lost their girlfriend and some other folks about got in about 60 fights over a 2 hour period but that's neither here nor there.

And then came the ride home. Never in my life have I seen such a scene:
-Nearly 30 drunken people yelling and dancing to any music that came on the radio.
-At least 4 impromptu dance parties where probably 10+ bus patrons got off the bus and attempted to seduce pedestrians and other vehicles with their erotic and exotic dancing.
-A man who we believe to be 30+ years old stripping down nude and giving almost every single person on the bus a lap dance and swinging all up and down the bus with his over-sized package flopping around
-A gas station stop with 10 men peeing on the side of a Subway
-Two men hanging from rails at the top of the bus engaging in the single most acrobatic simulated dance/sex act I have ever seen and will see. Words cannot begin to do this particular scene justice.

I'm sure I forgot some things and events worth noting but hopefully the feeling of the weekend will come through in the words that have been written.

And onward we go; we've still got 3 regular season games left and a chance to get back in the top 10 w/ a 10-win season. Then we can spend 8 more months talking about how next year will be 'the year'. I, for one, will savor the rest of this season though. I still love this team and want to see us start to realize our potential.

God Bless,

Les

Success at a Price

Well, the goal this weekend was to attend Saturday night's Braves game but getting tickets turned out to be quite an issue. We waited to get tickets at the gate and paid the price for it, the lihne extended for probably a 1/4 mile and it was decided that it was not worth it to wait in that line. Thus we ended up at a restaurant to watch the game.

Redemption came yesterday though as a last minute decision to attend the Sunday afternoon game was rewarded with a win. Jo Jo Reyes looked pretty good again and the Braves got a win. Frenchy still sucks, his poor play is beginning to become a problem and its really annoying me. Frenchy makes so many poor decisions at the plate, I think thats why he frustrates me so much.

We did sit in the 'Chop-House' during yesterdays game which was pretty enjoyable. We had a man-waiter bringing us beer all day, nothing better than that. Unfortunately, no Miller Lite on draft so I had to drink Bud Lite-I wasn't happy about it but I felt I had no choice. Apparently the Oakland A's do have some fans in Atlanta as quite a few were at yesterdays game. I never realized the trashiness of the A's fans, but they are quite the sight. One lovely young lady decided to wear some shorts that were about 4 sizes to small with a nice green tank top that was also way too small. She had fat rolls coming out everywhere, I literally almost vomited. As always w/ people like her, she thought she was hot. She strutted around like she owned Turner Field and kept her head high as if every guy was checking her out. Don't get me wrong, most guys would still hit it but it wasn't a pretty sight.

Now the Braves have got a pretty big stretch coming this week. The Mets come in town tomorrow and then the Diamondbacks this weekend. My record for the year is at a solid 5-2 and talks have begun to trying to stretch it to 6-2 tomorrow night. Nothing beats heckling Mets fans so it might get pretty ugly.

Braves and Beer=A great weekend

My 3rd Braves game of the year was the most successful trip yet. A Saturday afternoon game lent itself for some heavy pre and post-game tailgating and quite a few Miller Lite's. We had a solid crowd of at least 10 people, most of whom are fantastic Braves fans and prodigious beer drinkers. Yesterday was an absolute clinic on how to tailgate for a professional baseball game.

The game itself was fantastic, another win for the red-hot Braves who after today's game have climbed back up to the .500 mark. Andruw Jones hit his 1st homer of the year, but that was about all the Dodgers did right all day. The Braves got a good outing out of Chucky James and the bats stayed hot enough for the Braves 3rd straight win. Chipper most cerainly enjoyed the standing ovations he got from our section with every plate appearance he had. Andruw probably didn't enjoy the ruthless heckling he received from one of our paying patrons, the Godfather. People around us didn't seem to like Andruw being booed but as the Godfather pointed out-"He was terrible last year, that's why I'm booing him. Plus I paid for a ticket, I can do what I want." I agreed whole-heartedly with this logic and supported his right to free speech.

Also, we had a cultural expert in the section. Some 50 year old fat guy appeared to be disturbed with our antics, most notably with our "aye,aye,aye" chants as Yunel Escobar came to the plate. He informed us that Yunel is Cuban, not Mexican and we certainly thanked him for letting us know. We did mention that they speak spanish in Cuba as well and Yunel chose a latino club song to play when he comes up to bat but that did not matter to the fat dude. He was disgusted with our behavior and was just looking to try and embarrass us. Little did he know, that isn't possible. We showed him that in more detail with a lot of man-contact, dancing, and a new tomahawk chop dance.

For anyone interested in this new phenomenom, it is called the 'tomahawk thrust'. It begins with both arms doing the tomahawk chop with the pelvis being thrusting simeoltaneously with the arms. Then one puts their hands behind their head and continues thrusting their pelvis in rhythym with the drum. Finally, one leaves one hand behind the head and takes the other arm and does a perfect sideways chop, all the while thrusting the pelvis. This dance will completely revolutionize anyone's Turner Field experience when it is done properly.

Anyway, I've got 3 games under my belt for the year and the Braves are 2-1. Looks like this could really turn into a great season. More to come...

The Season has Begun

The Braves are off and running and off to a disapointing 0-2 start but no worries just yet as they have 160 games to right the ship.

I had the good fortune to attend the opening home game for the Braves last night and although the outcome was not the desired one, a good time was had by all. Tom Glavine was back in a Braves uniform and looked pretty good on the mound. The crowd was much more supportive than I thought they might be with the exception of a good friend of mine who booed the living hell out of old Thomas. The disgust on people's faces as he booed Glavine and heckled him about being an AARP member is something I will not soon forget. Apparently Pittsburgh has fans as well as there was a group of 5 or 6 real winners cheering for the Pirates like it was the World Series. I have a feeling our group was about 2 beers shy each of causing a real flap with them but since we were moderately sober, nothing ensued.

The frustration of Manny Acosta's poor outing made us decide it was time to leave the game before the real fireworks began in the bottom of the 9th. I must say that had we stayed in the stadium, that would not have happened-Braves fans owe us for that. I heard the comeback on the radio and saw the replay, amazing. But in true 2008 fashion, we gave up another extra inning homer, I'm definitely glad I was not in the stadium for that.

Anyway, Spring means Braves baseball and I couldn't be happier. Hopefully, the boys will start putting together some wins so heading down to the 'Ted' will be more fun.

One final note...The beer vendors in the outfield all ran out of Miller Lite in the 6th inning, if they want my business they had better fix that ASAP. I'm not nearly as effective a fan drinking Bud Select.