Tag: braves

Photos: Atlanta Braves 2011 Home Opener

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It’s amusing to me how this year, so many teams are doing these grandiose WWE-style entrances for the players for their home openers, with the Braves being no exception on their own opener.  It pales in contrast to the prior year, where it was traditional lineups and fan applause instead, but whatever floats their boat.  Despite the fact that the Phillies were on the table for the home opener, I didn’t want to miss out on breaking in a new season of watching baseball at the home park.

There were a few noticeable differences around the park this year, with a lot of renovations being done to hopefully improve commerce within the gates throughout the course of the season.  Instead of the legion of clone food stands, there’s actually a little bit more variety with consumable options.  Where as previous years, there were the same crappy fan gear being sold in the merch stands of varying sizes, they actually have some variety in brands and labels throughout the park.  And despite not ever having anything I’m remotely interested in purchasing, the team clubhouse store was impressively renovated.  Color me impressed.

One thing I am not impressed about though is this year’s Tomahawk Team.  I think the standards of what makes a glorified Braves cheerleader have really gone down throughout the last two years, and I’m very amused by the litany of fake names that many of them are obviously using.  Seriously, “Aria?”  Someone must be a Mass Effect 2 fan.  And if that’s the case, I’d totally be interested, if not for the three pounds of makeup, fake tan, and eh well, I’m not one to speak, but whatever, butterface.

So glad baseball’s back.  Braves chased off Cliff Lee in three innings, and ended up winning 6-3, which ruled.

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Photos: Gwinnett Braves 2011 Home Opener

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

At this point, the baseball season was already eight days old.  The Atlanta Braves started the season on the road in Washington D.C., and then Milwaukee, and weren’t going to be home for another day.  Tired of just watching baseball games on television, I couldn’t wait any longer to be out at a ballpark, so I jumped on the opportunity to attend the Braves’ AAA minor league affiliates, the Gwinnett Braves, located about 20 minutes north of Atlanta.

I like early-season baseball, and the cool chill in the air after the sun sets.  I enjoy wearing sweatshirts or hoodies, and the comfort in wearing long sleeves and fighting off lower temperatures, and not feeling the least bit hot, like things tend to get in the middle of July.  But most importantly, it felt so refreshing to once again sit in the stands, and just be watching live baseball, with the action happening in actual person, and not behind a television screen.

The G-Braves prevailed over the always good Tampa Bay affiliates, Durham Bulls.  Considering the pitcher for the Braves pitched at the major league level all of 2010, I guess I should have expected him to be somewhat adequate against minor leaguers.

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A quick status blurb

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

There are a lot of things that I need to catch up with – Wrestlemania weekend mainly, with a lot of words, stories, pictures, and random other things I’d like to brog about.  But with recent events, emotional roller coasters, watching baseball, going to baseball games, keeping track of baseball stats, and writing about baseball in two other blogs, the substantial posts will have to take a back seat.  With the Braves home opener tonight, along with a busy Saturday ahead, catching up will have to wait a little bit longer, but not too much, hopefully.

Sunday appears to be a day in which I will sleep in, likely need a Waffle House hangover trip, but as far as I can tell, appears to be a suitable day in which I can catch up.  But even such plans are predicated on whether or not I’m even in the mood to write about life and events in the first place.  Or, I may just cop out, and proceed to brog via visual photos, with hopefully witty captions instead, but at least people can see that my life isn’t that boring.

I could easily have kept my post count chugging along by posting one of the rainy-day posts I write and draft for when I hit writers blocks, but instead, I felt the compulsion to write about how I’m feeling – confused mostly, and a little weary.

The beginning of an eventful season

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

As my work day winds down, I find that my heart is still excited, and it’s influencing my physical actions.  Double-clicks are too fast, and my hands are jittery.  I’m having slightly more difficulty at being steadier with the mouse as I repeat repetitive tasks again and again with no good rhythm.  I can’t help it.  I’m excited.  The baseball season if officially underway, and the Braves have already started their season on a good note with the first win in all of baseball today.  Black Jesus homered, in his first at-bat, again.  There is much reason for me to be excited.

To spare everyone from my sports ramblings, I’ll likely be doing a vast majority of my sports-related writing on my other brog, BSW. The point is that I don’t really mind that readers of my personal brog knowing about my sports brog, but I’m not too keen on it being the other way around, just yet.

But with the kick-off of the baseball season comes the kick-off of what could very well be the most eventful baseball season of all time.  And I say baseball season as the frame of time, because it is perfectly encapsulated within the approximate time frame in which the season takes place, between April all the way into October.  Between baseball itself, possible trips, confirmed trips, birthdays and weddings, it’s going to be an extremely eventful season this year.

I have been put into a foul mood today

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday, my computer was infected with the mother of all AIDS and took me many many hours to alleviate.  Regardless of its supposed cleared status right now, I am contemplating backing all my shit up and completely reloading this machine, this time to Windows 7.  Conclusively, this has laid down the ground work for what’s so far been a lousy weekend.

I have not yet received my copy of the Atlanta Braves annual that I contributed to despite being promised a copy once it hit news stands, which it has today.  Response has been positive from those not cheap enough to talk the talk and actually buy one, and those educated enough to actually want to purchase one.  Given the fact that I’m one of the authors of the book itself, I’m anticipating it greatly, and regardless of the fact that I am going to be getting a free copy … eventually, I’m very tempted to cash in a Borders coupon and going to buy one so I can just have one on my terms.

I have a headache that I can’t seem to shake, even two aspirins and caffeine in.  I’m also in the mindset that is in a state of perpetual agitation, since I haven’t worked in the last three days of the week, and I’m coming to the realization that no matter how hard I try to with my talent agency, without my ace in the hole, I can’t seem to get any gainful work out of them.  Subsequently, as a result of the negative state of mind, I happen to think the world is full of uneducated, ADD-minded simpletons who rather communicate in 140 characters or less about trivial shit, than enlighten and educate themselves on something with substance.

Traveling sounds like it would’ve been a good idea this weekend, but I don’t know where to travel to anymore these days.  I wish I knew more people in places that are easy-to-access Delta hub regions, where I could fly easily and fairly inexpensively to on a whim, because frankly, I just don’t really feel like being home right now, and the lack of working sort of puts the handcuffs on my spending habits to excess.

Pre-order now: My literary contributions to a real sports publication

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It would be in my greatest interests, if one day, I could get paid to write about sports for a living. This is about as good as a start for my amateur, unaccredited background, aside from once being an English major in college.

The Maple Street Press 2011 Braves Annual is just that – an annual edition about the Atlanta Braves, to which your truly has contributed some writing to, and this will be available on a fairly wide-spread distribution, mostly to the remote Georgia regions, but available online to anyone who would want to purchase.

I wrote one “main” article, as well as one “light” article for the publication, as well as several reviews for many of the current Atlanta Braves going into 2011. And although it will go uncredited, I also served as an associate editor to some capacity, as I was responsible for grammar and proofreading duties towards the tail end of the editing process, probably when the lead editor discovered how thorough I could be with such a task.

Not that I genuinely think anyone who reads my personal brog would have the least bit of interest of purchasing this, but I’m proud of my contributions to a real publication, and therefore you’re going to have to read about it this time.

As a whole, 2010 sucked. Good Riddance.

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I often think it is cliche the way people sum up entire years, this time of year, but then again, it’s so often done when things aren’t very good.  I can be fortunate to say that I haven’t really had too many bad years as wholes, and the last one that genuinely comes to mind is back in like 2002.  With all that in mind, in the pessimistic world we live in, I suppose it simply is easier to blabber about something when it’s more like a trainwreck than a sappy, warm, feel-good story.

In a nutshell, 2010 has sucked great big, gigantic, sweaty goat balls, overall.  I’m ecstatic to see that it’s mercifully coming to a close, and I’m praying that 2011 treats me, and treats Jen a whole lot better than 2010 did, because I’m not sure if I’ll have enough black hairs left to turn white by the end of next year if this shit keeps up.  With great trepidation, I clench my anoos, fearing that there’s still time for more discouraging, cringe-inducing bullshit to occur, and as evidenced by recent events, there’s no such thing as coasting to the finish.

But not to say that 2010 was 100% pure rubbish.  There were a few good things that happened this year.  And to start off this conclusive post on a positive note, let’s get the good shit out of the way so I can talk about all the shitty shit that happened that most people are more intrigued about anyway:

Continue reading “As a whole, 2010 sucked. Good Riddance.” →