BRAVES NEWS
Hey look, it's our good friend Gondeee! He's still writing about the Braves for various sites across the internet, but he stopped by Bleacher Report to deliver a message that pretty much everybody whose heart beats to the tune of the Tomahawk Chop has been trying to spread: Fredi Gonzalez must go. From his piece on B/R:
In four seasons as Braves manager, Fredi Gonzalez has presided over two epic late-season failures, both punctuated by offensive ineptitude. Perhaps one such collapse could be excused as a fluke of baseball. After all, the historically bad 2011 collapse coincided with Boston’s historically worse collapse...
...But Gonzalez was not blameless in Atlanta’s 2011 collapse, and many of the same symptoms of that September swoon were present in the team’s most recent disaster.
Walker Was Good Coach, But Didn't Get Good Results
It's an AJC post from Mark Bradley. Now, I'm not exactly a fan of most of the columnists over at our local newspaper of record. With that being said, if even Mark Bradley agrees that this was the right move, then it was probably a good move to make.
Longform Piece Enters The Zone With Greg Maddux In '95
SB Nation's Longform wing continues to pump out interesting and intriguing articles, and yesterday Jeremy Collins released a piece that centered around 2 of the most important people in his life: his best friend Jason, and Greg Maddux. You'd think that 2 random kids in Georgia and a Hall of Fame legend wouldn't have much of a connection, but you'll have to read it to see the connection (13 connections, in fact) for yourself. If you're a Braves fan (and I'd say that if you're reading this, you probably are), then this is definitely a must-read. In the meantime, here's a highlight video of Greg Maddux throwing a 76-pitch complete game shutout.
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MLB NEWS
Giants Win NL Wild Card, Advance To Postseason Proper
It's October in an even-numbered year, so that means that the Giants are still playing and winning. Last night, they stepped into an extremely hostile environment in Pittsburgh to take on the Pirates in the deadly 1-game Wild Card round. However, the only team with lethal intentions was the Giants, who absolutely bludgeoned the Pirates (who were starting the 5th guy in their rotation because they naively started their ace on Sunday) to the tune of 8 runs. They got half of those runs on one swing when Brandon Crawford launched one of Edinson Volquez's pitches into the Pennsylvania night sky. After that, it was smooth sailing for Madison Bumgarner, and now the Giants will be traveling to Washington to face off with the Nationals in their NLDS encounter.
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Ludicrously Rich Baseball Player Refuses To Take More Money
It's the Postseason, so anybody who's actually participating in the chase for the Commissioner's Trophy gets a bonus for their efforts. Signing on the dotted line for that bonus is normally a formality, but one player has decided to refuse to take the money, and that's Detroit Tigers superstar Miguel Cabrera. From the USA Today's article:
"I'm not signing anything," Cabrera told [teammate Max] Scherzer. Teammate Victor Martinez, who had just signed, looked quizzically. Scherzer tried to explain..Martinez and Cabrera continued the discussion in Spanish, with Cabrera finally saying, "I just want the ring."
So there you have it: Guess it really ain't 'bout the money for Ol' Miggy.