Ashamed to be a Braves Fan

Braves fans should be ashamed of themselves after last night’s little performance at Turner Field. I had the rare opportunity to see my favorite team in action last night in Atlanta and I was SUPER excited! I told my co-worker who joined me for the game that the tomahawk chop is the greatest sound in baseball…maybe the greatest sound in the world. And hotdogs and beer never tasted so good as they do in the stands. With Smoltz pitching and it being Barry’s first game in Hank’s house post-record breaking, I just knew it was going to be a spectacular game. I’ve never seen Smoltz pitch and I’ve only seen Barry walk.

To be honest, I’m not thrilled about Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron’s long standing home run record either, due to the fact that he did use “performance enhancing drugs.” Steroids (and the strike in the late 90’s) are the two reasons many now consider football to be America’s game and that breaks my heart in to a thousand pieces. But there is NO EXCUSE WHATSOEVER to boo a player for doing his job. And do keep in mind that this is his job. Whether you agree with the record or not, it is COMPLETELY disrespectful to act that way. I would have thought I was surrounded by Yankees fans as badly as people were behaving.

A little good natured ribbing (like one of the VERY few Giants fans in the stadium being shown on the big screen to the tune of All By Myself) is fun, but bad sportsmanship (or fanmanship?) is inexcusable. It almost ruined the game for me. And I’m kind of glad the intentional walks of Bonds backfired. Of-course I want to see my team win, but it’s not fair to not even give the guy a chance. Yes he has the home run record, but his batting average isn’t that great. Why would you intentionally walk him rather than the other Giants players with much better records?

Next time you guys want to give a sports person grief, why not go for your homeboy Michael Vick? You aren’t showing any loyalty to the Braves or Hank Aaron by booing a player.

What saved the game for me? I saw two pictures of Bobby Cox smiling. No kidding. I’ve never seen him smile before; I didn’t think he could do it. I only learned later that Bobby broke a record last night himself. He has now been thrown out of more major league games than any other coach in the history of the game. And it wasn’t the spectacle we all know and love. He was ejected straight from the dugout. Way to go, Bobby.