Sigh

The Braves are out of the running...again. The tear-jerking farewells to Bobby Cox left me a little cold, because I think five, maybe ten years ago would have been much better.

When a team fails you, they really ought to fail you royally, as the Sox did for most of the 86-year drought, or as the Cubs continue to do, goat or no goat. This business of almost getting there, year after year, is just playing cruelly with the fans' hearts.

So from here on in 2010, I don't have a dog in the fight, and no excuse to stay up late.

The mixed feelings of the young-old

On the one hand, it is good news that John Smoltz has been designated for assignment. It is good for the Sox--one of those moments when it's better to do something than nothing. In baseball, moves like that can pay off. The decision brings to a close an awkward and embarrassing coda to a stellar career. Ballplayers are no better than opera stars when it comes to knowing when it's time to hang it up.

When my daughter E was young, from age seven through 11 or so, we spent many Friday evenings watching the Braves on TNT or TBS. I would tell her how my grandfather used to be able to sit in the dugout when they were the Boston Braves and things were slow for the day games. I trotted out the old, splintered, Braves bat that I inherited from him. Then we'd talk about the game, the tactics, the probabilities...and when Smoltz was the Braves closer, we couldn't wait for him to stride out from the dugout with the very un-PC "chop" in the background, and finish off the adversary.

Growing up when and where she did, E naturally became an unreconstructed Red Sox fan. But I have to credit Smoltz and the Braves for doing their part to make her a baseball fan, which to me is so much more important.

Here's to you, John Smoltz. I wish this had worked out, but nothing that has happened this year will ever take away what you gave to at least one father and daughter.