Eat Your Heart Out, Bronson Arroyo

The Ballad of the Atlanta Braves

A few years back, I wrote and recorded a song to celebrate the achievements of the Atlanta Braves organization.  It's only a demo.  But I just put it on the server of a friend of mine, so you can download it and check it out if you want.  You can download it here.  If you just want to listen to it, click on the afforementioned link.  If you want to download it to your computer for you to cherish for all time, right-click on the link and choose "save target as." 

What's that?  You think this is weird?  It is weird.  I wrote it when I was much younger than I am now, and I had much less going on in my life. 

Jason Isringhausen

It looks like the new, smarter Jason Isringhausen is no more effective than the old, stupid Jason Isringhausen.  "Izzy," true to the form he's displayed the last few years, was handed the ball in the ninth inning of last night's Cardinals/Phillies contest, where he promptly issues a couple of hits and a walk to load the bases.  Who says there's no poetry in baseball?

La Russa, walks to the mound and points with his right-index finger, as if to say "Give me Isringhausen."  Isringhausen, wearing a determined scowl, makes his way from the bullpen to the mound.  They exchange a few words and then La Russa hands him the ball.  Isringhausen pulls the bill of his cap down over his face.  He is ready.  He won't be rejected.  Not here.  Not tonight.  What's his out pitch?  The cutter, of course.  Every other pitch he uses builds around getting to his cutter.  But the hitters realize this.  They know that Isringhausen won't serve up a fat pitch because he's looking to use his cutter.  So they watch.  And wait.  Ball one is a curve ball, just missing off the corner of the plate.  Ball two is a four-seamer outside.  Now he has the hitter right where he want him!  The next pitch is a fastball called strike on the inside corner; a pitch the hitter can afford to watch because he's ahead in the count 2-0.  Isringhausen executes his pitch.  Now the count is 2-1.  He's still behind the hitter.  What to do?  He can either go back to the breaking pitch, or go to his cutter earlier in the count than he'd like to.  Yadi Molina flashes the signal for the cutter.  They agree.  And the batter strokes the pitch for a single, setting up a hectic ninth for the Cardiac Cardinals.

The details of this pitch-sequence may not be exactly accurate, but it IS poetic!