Faded flag, scoreboard only partially operable.


Stupid, Stupid T-D

I sure hope the paper edition of the Capital City Right-Wing Rag has better coverage than this online gloss of yesterday's game. I remembered home runs by Perry and Timmons and that the last out was a pop fly; I don't need to read that. I did not make a mental note of the former RBraves honored at the beginning of the game, nor did I try too hard to get a picture of the -- dignitaries? former players? holding the Goodbye banner at the end. That's what photojournalists do: I don't need to point my little camera at the backstop net. Listing the former players and dignitaries is what some journalist should have been doing. Instead we get a random listing of quotations, posing as an article (though I admit that's a strong opening sentence). And I'm not even mentioning that the slideshow link isn't working.

I should have scored the game so I could write down the former players and other details. There were a couple of tough-to-score plays, though, like when the Tides' secondbaseman held onto the ball in some staring contest with the Braves' runner, while the Brave who had tagged third decided to keep running and score. So that made me glad I did not have a scorecard in hand! Given that the Tides lead our division (standings here) and we finished at the bottom of it, I wondered if Tidewater (er, Norfolk) would throw the game. . . .

I remember Ralph Garr and Javy Lopez from the pre-game line up, but that's it. I will admit crossing my fingers that Chipper Jones would be there; though I am not surpised that he wasn't. I guess he had to work. Luckily, it looks like the International League (or, MLB if I understand the byline) sent someone competent to write this nice piece.

It was a great day for a ballgame, sunny and clear, and we got a win. The US flag is too faded to fly for another season, and my folks reported that the Braves (the RMA? who makes the call about the electric bill?) had given up using the extra screens on the scoreboard -- the ones with the line up. I feel certain we will secure a A or AA team to play in a renovated Diamond, but I can't see us ever again cheering players on their last stop before become big-league players. And that frustration at being demoted, as much as the ending of 43* seasons, made me teary.

















Beautiful day for a game.


















One out to go.






















One in a series of "maybe this will be the last RBraves pitch" shots. I gave up after taking about 5. This pitch may well be the walk. . . . The last out was a pop fly: a white dot in the brown mitt of a white-uniformed man against that plain green wall, in the late afternoon sun of Septemeber.


*43 vs. 42 years: unlike a person born in 1966, the RBraves get to count 1966 as year/season one