Apr 07 2009
Off day gives Braves Nation time to enjoy season-opening victory
By Bud L. Ellis
braves.today.com
ATLANTA — My oh my, how much better this feels, doesn’t it Braves Nation?
OK, so one game doesn’t make a season, particularly a season where 161/162nds of the schedule remains to be played. But still, after all that the Atlanta Braves endured the past year or so, wasn’t it nice to spend Monday basking in the glow of Sunday night’s season-opening 4-1 victory at Philadelphia?
Sure it was. This is what football feels like, when you open the season with a victory, then get a whole week to savor the flavor of being 1-0 without having to turn around 24 hours later and put that unblemished ledger on the line. No next-day turnaround for the Bravos after winning the lid-lifter. Monday was spent watching the rest of Major League Baseball kick away the covers from its long winter’s nap.
It was a day for watching ball, for talking about Derek Lowe’s precision on the mound, for raving about Brian McCann and Jeff Francoeur and Jordan Schafer, of dissecting Mike Gonzalez’s ninth inning …
Or for this correspondent, it was a day that he gladly spent at the house and not at Turner Field. Remember last season? The Braves opened what would become their worst season since 1990 with a heartbreaking loss on Sunday Night Baseball, then flew home and dropped the home opener the very next night in extra innings to Pittsburgh in frosty weather.
That was a cold, miserable night inside Turner Field. But Monday was spent snuggled under a blanket on the couch, watching ball. As the winds whipped outside and some reporting stations up in the North Georgia mountains recorded snow – yes, snow! In April! In Georgia!! Paging global warming – it gave us time to reflect on what we saw Sunday in Philly, and what we hope to see as this campaign takes its second step tonight.
We saw a team – one that was its own worst enemy a season ago — do the things it needed to do to grind out a tough win on the road. It got great starting pitching. It got early offense, placing a muzzle on a hostile crowd. It displayed good defense. It secured the key outs in the ninth inning to snuff out a rally.
These are the things good teams do, what the Braves of 2008 were incapable of doing most nights. But that was then. This is now, and the first steps on the current journey provided plenty of warmth and hope that this summer will be one navigated in more familiar waters.
October tickets aren’t punched the first week in April. This I know. I also know the team I watched Sunday night is one capable of being there when the dance card is filled.
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