Former Braves 3rd baseman Clete Boyer passed away, at 70 years of age, in an Atlanta hospital yesterday. Clete was a long-time Yankee who finished his career here in Atlanta, winning his only Gold Glove while playing here in 1969. Boyer, one of 14 kids, had 2 brothers who also made it to the majors. He and his brother Ken became the first brothers to hit homers in the same World Series game in 1964. But Clete was able to remain in the bigs for 16 years because of superlative glovework, rather than his hitting. No doubt, had he spent the prime of his career in the NL, rather than with Brooks Robinson in the AL, he’d have garnered several more Gold Gloves. We send our condolences to the Boyer family.
Unrelated note(s) on today’s game(s): The Braves love playing the Marlins so much, they’ll do it twice today. After Huddy took the loss yesterday, its imperative that the Braves win at least one today. Giving up 2 to a division rival just 4.5 games back of us would be bad news. But the Braves currently have more wins in the division than anyone else. Its important that we keep that distinction.
Smoltz goes in the afterno0on. Carlyle tries to look like a major-leaguer in the nightcap. Needless to say, we look for pitching early and hitting late. In fact, with Carlyle (9.00 era) facing Vanden Hurk (12.75 era), the late game promises to be a fantasy-league….. well…. fantasy. Expect a 4-hour game. Go Braves.
UPDATE: Looks like I was confused. Its Carlyle looking to post a win in the afternoon game against Mitre and then Smoltz against the AA-quality Vanden Hurk. The match-ups work out very well for the Braves, seeing how Carlyle has a 2-run lead in the 8th right now.
2 Comments
June 5, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Q: How can you tell it wasn’t Smoltz who gave up one hit in seven innings in the first game?
A: I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have sent Smoltz to AAA immediately afterwards….
June 6, 2007 at 4:04 pm
R.I.P ,Clete