I read in the Atlanta paper yesterday that ESPN ran a story about Adam LaRoche the Braves 1st basemen. LaRoche has ADD and his disorder has come into play a few times this season. You’d see him completely blow a play or pull a bonehead move and wonder what the heck is going on. Adam had tried to go without medication and would just lapse or blank during games. He was early on criticized for not taking medication.

Now after he’s been on medication (Mr. Cruise, I don’t want to hear the Ritalin rant - that’s a whole other argument) his game has improved. He’s concentrating and hitting and fielding really well.

ESPN is now claiming that he’s using performance enhancing drugs because of his improvement in the field. This poor guy can’t win. He’s criticized for not using the medicine and he’s criticized for using them.

Just let him play ball!

This reminds me of a quote from Teddy Roosevelt:  

“It’s not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or when the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worth cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”

For more read here

It’s official, the Braves post season is officially non-existent. The 14yr. run ends here. And quite eloquently the clincher wasn’t a loss, it was a rain-out. The whole season seemed wet and soggy. I vow every year that this is my last, but each spring I forget the pain of frustration.

So I’ll be back with the hope of a new season (because this one couldn’t get any worse).

Are you a glutton for punishment too? How so?

So where is that point in life when hope is officially dead? Right now it seems for the Atlanta Braves. Less the ‘comeback kids’, and more the ‘how are they going to blow it this time’guys, the Braves find themselves in a bad situation. We’ve got 32 games left and are 19 games back from the Mets and 4 games back in the wild card.

Proverbs 13:12 says that, “hope deferred makes the heart sick.” Well, in some prophetic way Soloman must have been talking about the Braves. And I wish I could say that it was just this season that makes my heart sick. But, 14 years and one World Series ring?

Yes, my heart is sick, but for some reason I keep coming back for more. I still have hope in this season. I still watch the games waiting for a spark or something. I still hope that there is a postseason for Atlanta. I still have hope.

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I love the boys from A-town. I’m a big fan, but apparently, I have nothing to boast.

The “No. 1 Braves Fan,” Pearl Sandow has died. Sandow, enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame’s fan section, attended 1,889 consecutive Braves home games, starting with the team’s first game in Atlanta in 1966.

For more on Pearl

So I guess, I’ll just stick to the title, “No. 1 Braves Fan” in the Pacific Northwest.