Thursday, March 29, 2018

The Boys Of Summer: MLB Opening Day 2018


A new Major League Baseball season begins today and this year marks the earliest Opening Day in the history of the organization. Every team in the league is scheduled to play today—something that hasn’t happened since 1968.
I’ve been a devoted fan of the Braves since 1984.  I briefly lived in Atlanta during the best period in modern-day Braves history.  I was fortunate indeed to attend the World Series when the Braves did battle with the Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays and the Cleveland Indians.
Those were the glory days of Bobby Cox, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Chipper Jones.
It was wonderful when the Braves moved out of that rock pit known as Fulton County Stadium into their new digs at the Ted.  Now they’re at SunTrust Park.  That’s not the only change in recent years.  Now they’ve gone and done something silly.
To become politically correct the organization dumped their mascot Chief Noc-a-homa so as not to offend Native Americans.  That effort brought forth Homer.  Homer was a knockoff of Mr. Met and now they’ve kicked poor Homer to the curb and ushered in Blooper.
Look at this thing.  Admit it.  It’s a rip-off of the Philly Phanatic.  I don’t want to be a crybaby about a furry mascot intended to entertain the kiddies at the park, but why go from a Homer to a Blooper?  A blooper is a weakly hit fly ball plopping juuuuuust beyond the reach of the infielders.  What were these guys thinking?
Yeah, it’s been a while since the Braves were baseball’s version of America’s Team winning an unprecedented 14 consecutive division titles.  This mascot, in my humble opinion, is a painful reminder of how the mighty have fallen.

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