Tag: braves

The Gwinnett Barves

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

A little bit of backstory: the Atlanta Braves are one of the few organizations in baseball that owns the majority of their minor league affiliates.  It’s why all the teams they own are called “Braves;” the Danville Braves, Rome Braves, Mississippi Braves and Gwinnett Braves.  At one point, they stressed the importance of naming all their teams Braves, so that they could really reinforce brand awareness and strengthen their identity to all parts of the Southeast in which they resided in.

This was a stark difference to the vast majority of the rest of Minor League Baseball, who had team names that were often more whimsical and often identifiable to their specific towns/regions, like the Montgomery Biscuits, Modesto Nuts, Las Vegas 51s, Buffalo Bisons and Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp just to name a few.  It was almost a rite of passage for young players to work their way up the ranks, through teams with less than prestigious names, before they had the chances to hope to play for one of the 30 Major League Baseball franchises.

Personally, I’ve always felt the Braves were an organization of squares, to name all their minor league franchises Braves, in such a calculated and serious-business manner.  Like their 18-year old rookies in Danville might be able to close their eyes and imagine that they’re in a 35,000 attendance ballpark in Atlanta and suddenly translate playing like a major leaguer in their rinky-dink park that maybe 35 people are actually at.  Or that their fans will automatically love the Atlanta Braves solely because their favorite players in Jackson, Mississippi were ultimately traded to the White Sox or Diamondbacks.

Anyway, what prompted this post was this news that I saw that the Gwinnett Braves are taking suggestions for new names for them to use in starting in 2018.  The Atlanta Braves are finally opening up to the idea of naming one of their Jesus affiliates something other than “the Braves.”

Continue reading “The Gwinnett Barves” →

Baseball is awesome

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Somehow, the Atlanta Braves are in second place in their division.  Despite the fact that they’re five games under .500 and eight games behind the Washington Nationals, somehow there are three teams that absolutely refuse to compete more than the Braves and are somehow worse.

If the Braves were in just about any other division in baseball, they’d be in fourth or last place, but being in the NL East, they’re somehow a second-place team.  Wild card #2, look out!

This is the kind of shit why baseball is awesome.  Sometimes, you just never know how things pan out.  This is kind of like a double-win for me, because the Braves are sucking like I want them to suck while they’re disrespectfully tanking on purpose, yet at the same time, they’re still somehow superior to the Mets and the Phillies.

Continue reading “Baseball is awesome” →

lol Braves #835

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Impetus: Days before the official first-ever Opening Day at ScumTrust Park, where Atlanta traffic will be put to the ultimate test of futility, Interstate 75 is temporarily crippled when a truck carrying boxes of Atlanta Braves foam tomahawks, spills some of its contents onto the highway, forcing closure of two lanes in an extremely congested section the highway

Oh, I can feel the excitement in the air.  The AJC, Atlanta Magazine, WSB, any and every outlet in Atlanta, trying to drum up interest in the impending grand opening of ScumTrust Park.  Trying their best to accentuate the newness of the park, all the things around the ballpark, and doing their best to hide the fact that the traffic will be Snowpocalypse bad, and nothing around the ballpark is actually open.  Not to mention the Braves, who started the season on the road are 1-6 at the time I’m writing this, and are the worst team in the National League and tied for the worst team in the Majors.

Yup, didn’t see any of this coming.

But one thing I didn’t expect to see, but am not the least bit surprised, because “Braves” and “fucking up” seem to go together these days like peas and carrots, was like, a soft opening of shitty traffic, when some boxes of foam tomahawks fell onto I-75 and shut down two lanes in literally the worst possible spot where I-75 and I-285 intersect.

Sure, it was mostly harmless and no foam tomahawk is remotely capable of physically damaging any motorists’ vehicles, but it still provided a nuisance to anyone on the road, and is a nice reminder of the shitshow that the Cobb Braves and their corruption-fueled new ballpark are all about.

lol Braves: Ryan Howard, really?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

SMH: Braves sign Ryan Howard to minor league deal

I can only imagine the things the talking heads said to themselves/one another to justify thinking that this was a fantastic idea.

“This guy has killed us for years.  He’s hit 52 home runs against us.  We should get him!”

“This guy has killed the Nats/Mets/Marlins throughout his career.  We should get him!”

“This guy is a former rookie of the year, MVP and a World Series winner.  We should get him!”

None of those are wrong statements, but they’re mostly applicable to the first half of his career, before a torn ACL pretty much destroyed his career after 2011.  The reality of the situation is that since that injury, he’s been a shell of his former self, batting .226 and hitting an average of 19 home runs a season, which isn’t terrible, but this is also a guy that once clubbed 58 in 2006 and 284 in his first six full seasons, regularly putting the fear of god into opposing pitchers and fans of other teams.

In all honesty, this really isn’t a bad signing.  It’s a minor league deal, which basically means that Ryan Howard is basically getting a set minor league salary while he’s playing in the minor leagues trying to prove that he’s still capable of playing baseball, and if he gets called up to the majors, he’ll get a pro-rated major league minimum salary, minus any incentives worked into the contract.  It’s a very low risk, high reward deal for the Braves, and if they didn’t pull the trigger, undoubtedly someone else would have.

Continue reading “lol Braves: Ryan Howard, really?” →

Initial thoughts on ScumTrust Park

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Originally, I had no intentions of visiting ScumTrust Park with any urgency.  I’ve made no secret about how much I abhorred the unethical means in which the Braves operated in order to get their brand new park, as well as the poorly veiled financial and racial intentions behind their decision to move.  And then the cherry on top, selling the naming rights to the unethically developed ballpark to one of the companies that I morally detest, giving them right to be the entity to call themselves the home to the Braves that are for lack of a better term, my home team.

It would’ve been easy to say that I would never go to ScumTrust Park, but I’d have been lying if curiosity wasn’t eventually going to get to me, not to mention when inevitably some bobbleheads would entice me to want to go.  But I figured I’d have waited until the hoopla, spectacle and honeymoon of newness passed, and when the Braves were in third or fourth place by June, then I’d keep my eyes peeled for some seats on StubHub at well below face value, and then make my way to ScumTrust Park to see how things were. 

But I got some tickets from mythical gf’s family over the holidays, and suddenly those plans were dashed.  However, the tickets were for an exhibition game intended primarily for season ticket holders, meaning a reduced attendance, because I loathe insane crowds, and ultimately, I didn’t pay for them.  And if anything at all, it would give me the opportunity to knock the park off my eventual list, but with slightly more reasonable conditions.

Continue reading “Initial thoughts on ScumTrust Park” →

Well, that didn’t take long

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Color me surprised: The Atlanta Braves have decided to renege on their draconian policy to disallow outside food from hallowed ScumTrust Great White Flight Park

I actually am surprised by this.  Usually when a baseball team does something that can easily be perceived as unpopular by the fans, they usually inevitably double-down on their decision and address the media with an as-of-matter-of-fact tone that declares that the unpopular decision is what’s best for the long-term, and that ultimately baseball is a business and choices like these are made that are best for business.

I would’ve expected that the Braves would have listened to the initial outcry of unhappy fans, weathered the storm, and then had a stuffy press release that dictated that they understand that people are unhappy with the decision to ban outside food, but that proceeds from concessions and the take from all adjacent The Battery businesses would inevitably be the coffers in which the team could use on free agents, despite the fact that the Braves are amongst the cheapest teams in the world and rarely ever are willing to overpay for a free agent unless it’s something completely haphazard like Dan Uggla or B.J. Upton.

Continue reading “Well, that didn’t take long” →

Surprise of the century

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Shocker: ScumTrust Park, the new home of the Atlanta Braves of Cobb County, has abolished on of Turner Field’s most popular policies – the ability to bring in outside food

This is about as surprising as finding out water is wet and fire is hot.  Anyone who thought for a second that one of Turner Field’s most popular policies would carry over into the new ballpark was delusional.

Of course ScumTrust Park isn’t going to allow people to bring in their own food; with the park smack dab in the middle of The Battery, the lame name used to describe the epicenter of shops, restaurants and other tourist crap that will surround Great White Flight Park, naturally they’re going to do everything to dissuade people from bringing their own food and instead spending money on overpriced homogenized pretentious crap around the park in order to eat instead.

Continue reading “Surprise of the century” →