TBAATIL delivers yet again with the Smoltz interviews (naked Julio Franco included)

Click here for an interview that John Smoltz did on 790AM The Ticket in Miami, FL. A little background info on the interview:

-Smoltz plays golf with Tiger Woods (duh)

-Smoltz and the host Dan LeBatard are pretty good friends. Smoltz refers to himself as an Atlanta brave while LeBatard is a Florida coward. Nice little play on words.

-The last few minutes with the Julio Franco story is a staple of 790 The Ticket. They play that story all the time. It is hilarious. Listen to it a few times because the guy's accent is tough to understand at times.

-Jon Sciambi used to have a show on 790 The Ticket but he quit in order to focus on baseball.

McCann's B-day Present For Chipper

There was no better bday present other than McCann's belly flop into third base last night. Braves Love has the videos for your viewing pleasure.

I Went To A Braves Game That Had More Than 4,000 People

During my time away, I did a lot of traveling and lo and behold I found myself driving through downtown Atlanta. I attended my first game at Turner Field on Friday (reminder: I live in Miami). Here's what I remember from the experience:

- Braves fans are weird. They will boo just about anybody (Andruw, Glavine, etc) that isn't in a Braves uniform anymore.

- Braves fans like to drink and be sloppy. While waiting in line to buy tickets, the #44 shrine to Hank Aaron was covered in beer cans and filth. It was kind of sad to see his number trashed.

- FEMALE Braves fans like attention. Other than the ladies at Braves Love and Velcro Vernacular and their respectives friends and families, female Braves fans are attention-greedy posers. During the whole bit between innings where the fans dance and they are put up on the jumbo screen for everyone to see I saw a girl take a picture of HERSELF. Somewhere out there is a girl with a picture of herself taking a picture of the jumbo screen while she is ON the jumbo screen. Wow.

Other quick notes:
- Andruw and Furcal colliding on a pop-up was not as funny as I thought it'd be.
- I used to hate Boyer but now I think he's OK. He throws pretty hard so good for him. Acosta is OK in my book now too.
- I like the way Blanco and Kotsay play in the OF. Very smooth.

All in all it was a good experience. This write-up of the Turner Field experience is pretty much what I experienced.

Ground Ball Grape is a scruffier Tom Glavine

First of all, I apologize for not having posted in quite some time. There were things that I had to take care of and I'm sorry to all five of my readers for the lack of posts.

Look what I found though. I stopped at a gas station one day and bought some Big League Chew. I dug in the bag for some gum and I froze when I saw the pitcher on the bag. It looks a teeny bit like Glavine with the high right elbow covering his face, the curled up grip on the ball.... It's not a dead-on copy but it's as close as you'll find on a bag of chewing gum.


Anyhoo, I will post more often now that I'm back on a regular schedule. I have a lot to tell you guys about including my first time at Turner Field for a Braves game. (I live in Miami so it was a big deal for me). So stay tuned for my recap of Braves Fans At Turner Field Are Weird post.

Google Jeff Francoeur. I dare you.

I did and apparently these are the "related searches" that Google suggests I should look into:

jeff francoeur fiance

jeff francoeur contract

chipper jones

catie mccoy

This whole Mrs. Frenchy thing has gotten way out of hand. Click on her name and enjoy all the cringe-worthy links and pictures that Google provides, like this one.

Blahhhhhh. I blame her for that 2-1 loss last night.

Braves playing like the Braves from the Braves era

Much like the last few years, the Braves beat good teams and lose to god awful teams like the Nats and Bucs. It's only one week into the season but there have been some memorable plays already. I nominate the 15 seconds of Resop in LF as the most memorable so far. I felt like I was back in Little League watching players switch gloves in the middle of an inning.

Oh, and when I can afford to do so I will buy a Smoltz jersey because the old man can pitch.

Oh ye of little faith

Autism and Atlanta Braves (this is not an April Fool's joke)

Here's a feel-good story for you guys. From CNN: When meeting Jeff Donohoo, it's not immediately apparent he is a 36-year-old man living with autism. In fact, unless you get him talking about the Atlanta Braves -- one of his true passions in life -- he is a very quiet person.

Read the rest here

How sweet would it be for the Braves to fly him to a game in ATL? Pretty frickin' sweet I would say.