Braves and September renewals

Ah September!! It's that great time of the year when College Football and the NFL seasons are getting underway and baseball pennant races are heating up. It's the best time of the year if you're a sports fan, well with the exception of a three week period in March.

Well for the second straight year I am only left to look forward to football and wondering if the Dallas Cowboys will challenge the Eagles for the NFC East Division Championship and to see if Clemson can manage to piece together a great overall season and play for a ACC Championship. The reason I can't include baseball into that mix is because the Atlanta Braves can't seem to get anything together and are in a serious hole to make the playoffs.

With 23 games remaining in the 2007 schedule, the Braves find themselves at 70-69 and in third place in the NL East. They are currently 8 1/2 games out of first in the east and 6 games back of Wild Card leading Arizona Diamondbacks. Playoff hopes are fading as fast as Michigan's chances at a National Championship, but that's another story all together. Basically in order for Atlanta to have a chance at making the post season they would seriously almost have to run the table in the next 23 games and considering in the last 10 games they are 3-7, I'm not holding my breathe for that to happen. So I'm now re-shifting my focus to football.

It's yet another disappointing season for the Braves world. Remember back in early April, think hard, like really hard, the Braves were 10-1 and looking like an all-world team. They had pitching and hitting, timely hitting and a consistent bullpen. It looked then like last years losing season was just a fluke, a hiccup in a 15 year winning stretch. Well it's looking more like they have a flu and this isn't a hiccup anymore.

There are two things that have stood out the most in this turbulent season. One being Andruw's well document struggles at the plate. The second is really three things, as in Atlanta's 3, 4 and 5 game starters. With the exception of Smoltz and Hudson the braves have used a total of 7 men for those 3 spots and their combined record is 23-35 compared to Smoltz and Hudson's record of 27-17.

So I am taking my emotions out of baseball now and moving them to football.

Ah September, time for some Football and sports rejuvenation.