The Blue Workhorse

The Tampa Bay (no longer Devil) Rays are following the design Atlanta’s John Schuerholz so masterfully created after taking over as the general manager for the Braves and are now doing the unfathomable by leading the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees, and the remainder of the AL East while having the best record in baseball.

The Rays have used each of their high draft picks to build their organization from the farm system up much the same way the Atlanta Braves have been renowned for doing. Tampa Bay also has focused on building around a talented young pitching staff (their starting rotation is aged 24-26) just as Schuerholz did with Atlanta.

How similar are this year’s Rays to the Atlanta squads from the early ’90s? We’ve compared this year’s squad of the AL East leading Rays, who are coming off a sweep of perennial power Boston, to the Atlanta squads from their early 1990s heydays:

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The Atlanta Braves may answer to multiple names, which makes sense, after all, since they seem to have a split personality.

Meet Personality #1 - The Hotlanta Braves: Just as the name implies, when they play in Atlanta at Turner Field, the Braves are HOT!

Juan Pierre was in the box hitting — the same Juan Pierre who hasn’t hit a home run since September 2006. Needless to say, I wasn’t on the edge of the rail waiting for him to hit a bomb, but I was still paying attention nonetheless. Lo and behold, Pierre hits a line drive straight toward where I was positioned. At first I thought it was going to fly over my head, and I prepped myself to make a jumping attempt, but instead, it raised my glove just a bit above eye level, and the ball traveled directly into it.

I couldn’t believe it had come right to me. I pulled down my glove, took the ball out, and immediately handed it to the second young brother, who had seen his brother get a ball and had been standing out in the outfield with his father for nearly as long as I had (despite his parents asking him a couple of times if he’d rather go play in the kids zone or go shopping in one of the souvenir shops). I never thought I would give up the first batted ball I ever caught at a major league stadium, but without thinking, I had done exactly that.

For the past two seasons, there have been concerns about a couple of the most known and dominant closers in the game. Last season, it was New York Yankees’ stopper Mariano Rivera after he got off to a rough start. This season the troubles are in the other league, on the other coast as Trevor Hoffman, the man who enters to “Hell’s Bells,” has left without the lead, or a save, already twice in the early stages this season.

After week one of the MLB season, there have been several teams, including the Padres, that have already run into bullpen issues, particularly on Opening Day, so we decided to examine each of the 30 major league teams bullpen performances thus far and see which teams should really be concerned with their bullpen.

Opening Day is one of the most glorious days in sports, despite the fact that MLB tried to ruin it by having an opening series in Japan and then by having a one game series (yea, that’s not even possible Major League Baseball - a series means multiple) in Washington.

Now that all the teams and players have each put on the uniform for the first official games of the season, and to honor the first true day of the MLB schedule, we make initial observations on every team about what we saw on Opening Day after watching some games and examining boxscores:

The first clear signal Spring Training has begun in earnest for the Atlanta Braves organization has arrived: Mike Hampton is injured once again.

The lefty hurler, who once went 22-4 in 1999 with the Houston Astros but hasn’t thrown in a regular season game since 2005, left abruptly in the second inning of today’s game against the Detroit Tigers (his second outing of the spring).

Last season, the New York Metropolitans collapsed at the end of the season allowing the Philadelphia Phillies to take their first division title since 1993. The Atlanta Braves, the former requisite 1st place team in the NL East, also appear to be back in the running after two consecutive seasons finishing in third. However, each team appears to have some weaknesses whether it is age, pitching, injury issues, or a combination of possible calamities. Then there are the up-and-eventually-coming Washington Nationals and then…the woeful Florida Marlins.

Many sports teams have fan traditions that can be seen as fun, funny, or just goofy. Some traditions are universal in all stadiums (such as the wave), some are sport specific (throwing hats on the ice after a hat trick in hockey), and some traditions are only performed in individual stadiums (throwing back a home run hit by an opposing team and singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” at Wrigley Field) or by the fans of individual teams (the New York Jets chanting “J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets”).

While it may look foolish when one person stands and waves a towel or a foam tomahawk, 30000, 50000 or even 100000 rabid fans yelling and waving a piece of sports paraphernalia becomes an imposing spectacle for an opposing fan or team member.

With the recent passing of Pittsburgh Steelers famed broadcaster Myron Cope, who was perhaps most famously known for his creation of the “Terrible Towel” waved frequently by the Steelers’ fans, we’re decided to honor Cope and his “Terrible Towel” with a list of the top 9 (we’re anti-top 5 and top 10) paraphernalia traditions in sports: