Atlanta Roadie

  Sadly, it had been longer than I care to admit since I have seen a live Cubs game until yesterday at Turner Field.  Even worse, after 18 innings almost 7 hours of live baseball on Thursday, I still have yet to witness a Cubs victory.  (I apologize in advance for the length.)

Game 1

   There was a misty rain falling at Turner when my buddy Dave and I arrived around noon, but stopped right at the 1pm game time.  It was actually a nice break from the otherwise torrid summer heat of "Hotlanta," and the overcast skies only showed rays of sun briefly in the top of the 3rd. The stadium looked only about half full with basically all of the upper decks empty, and several areas of the field level had considerable gaps in between spectators. We scalped some tickets field level 3rd base (Cubs) side, about 4 rows up with an overall nice view of the diamond.  

Prior looked good to begin the game.  His fastball was working, the fly balls were staying in the park and he got some key strikeouts to keep the game close (most notably Raffy Furcal, who had words for the ump when he was called out looking).  The problem he had was with his off speed pitches.  He didn't seem to be locating it for strikes, and none of the Braves were biting on it, which led to 4 walks.  On the flip side, the Cubs obviously had nothing going.  Horatio Ramirez isn't exactly Cy Young, but the combination of his hot streak (5-1) and the Cubs dismal hitting lately underscored the troubles of this club and the perserverance of the Braves.  I thought it could still be an entertaining game when it was 3-0 in the 5th, but  right as I was making my 4th or 5th geriatric joke involving Julio Franco, he launched one into the outfield seats and the game was basically sealed.  The only bright spot for me in the game was getting (I would say catching but...) a laser line drive foul from Sergio Mitre's arm to Andruw Jones' bat to damn near taking off my right leg in the bottom of the 7th.  My first foul ball, ever =).

 Game 2

 By 530 or so, the remnants of tropical storm Cindy had turned into blue skies, sparse clouds and a very comfortable temperature for the nightcap at 730.  There were noticably more people walking towards the stadium for this one, and the stadium looked much more full compared to the first game by the 2nd inning or so.  With Smoltz on the mound, I figured it would be more of the same for the Northsiders, but the bats actually came alive. Well, sort of.  

 The game was obviously more competative than the former, and it was nice to clap for something other than a single or a strikeout.  Smoltz handcuffed the Cubs for the first 3 innings until Macias and Walker got on base and scored on a single by Ramirez and a sac fly from Hollansworthless.  The Braves came back with 3 runs in the next 2 innings, 2 of which came from Furcal's 6th homer this year.  Ramirez answered with a 2 run power shot in the 6th (which thankfully ended the obnoxious stadium "wave" that had been going.) Ohman came in to relieve in the 7th inning after a 1-2-3 6th for Williams.  This is where it gets frustrating.
  Ohman walked Furcal with 2 outs but fanned Kelly Johnson to end the inning and all was looking well. Enter Roberto Nova for the 8th.  I personally thought that Ohman was dealing, and that taking him out didn't make much sense, but hey, everything looks better in hindsight I guess. Marcus Giles comes up first and promptly blasts a pitch to right field. Myself and everyone in the stadium thought it was gone, and Burnitz made an excellent effort to catch it but it still turned in to 3 bases.  I guess (in hindsight, again) it wouldn't have mattered if it was a single because Andruw Jones crushed one over the center field wall which turned out to be the game winning home run.  I wanted to throw up.

  This should not have happened.  How can a veteran team get swept by basically a AAA Braves team + Andruw Jones, Giles, Furcal and old man Franco?  The Braves have been a MASH unit all year, but props where they are due.  They have done more with less this year than probably any team in baseball, and in the difficult NL East no less.  

  A few notes...

    Jeff Francour, a touted rookie from the Atlanta area, made his major league debut and did it with a 3 run shot off Rusch in the 8th.  I was amazed when he came to the plate in the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 8th he got a standing ovation from the hometown crowd each time.  

    The scoreboard at Turner Field is absolutely immense.  Calling it a jumbotron really does it no justice.  I looked for something in the stadium to reference it to but I came up with nothing.  Picture about 5 highway billboards stacked on top of each other, and in high definition.  It was funny watching the outfielders look up at it after they made a play.  

    The number of Brave to Cub fans in attendance was probably 2-1 in the first game, and blew up to around 6 or 7-1 in the second.  It was hard to gauge in the first game, because there wasn't much to cheer about, but I would say that the 2nd game count is accurate.  There was even a small "let's go cubbies" cheer that broke out briefly in the top of the 4th of the second game.