Thursday, March 9  2000

Good morning and welcome to Day 6 of the 7th Annual Spring Training Trek 2000!

We're here at the All-Star Cafe at Disney's Wide World of Sports prior to today's game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. One of the benefits of my Disney package is something called a Flex Feature, which allows me to have one lunch on the Mouse, along with a souvenir pin. So as a change from the normal ballpark fare, I am having Andre's Ace Pamadora, fresh chopped roma tomatoes, garlic and basil, tossed with linguini and topped with Italian parmesan cheese.

This is the first game against a National League team this trip, and Greg Maddux is on the mound. Eddie Perez was originally announced in the starting line-up, but Jeff Horn started the game. If you blinked, you missed the top of the first inning, as Maddux was getting the corner call from the home plate umpire. In the bottom of the inning, it was quiet until Chipper Jones and Brian Jordan drew walks with two outs, and then Andruw Jones exploded off the scoreboard for a 3 run home run.

Randall Simon flies out to end the inning.

In the top of the 2nd, Maddux gets a come backer to the mound, a strikeout, and a fly out to left. In the bottom of the inning, Horn grounds to short, Weiss grounds to short, and Maddux singles to right for a hit. Quilvio Veras singles up the middle but the 2nd baseman let's it get past into center. Maddux ends up at 3rd and Veras is at first on the error. A pass ball scores Maddux and Veras moves to second. Reggie Sanders doubles off the left field wall, scoring Veras.

Chipper flies out to left to end the inning, but the Braves lead the Dodgers 5-0.

In the third inning, Tim Unroe replaces Chipper Jones at 3rd. Maddux gives up a lead-off walk an then gets a strikeout on 3 straight pitches. The pitcher makes a sacrifice bunt to move the runner over, but the next batter grounds up the middle, throw to first, inning over.

In the bottom half, Jordan grounds to third. Jones singles to left, Simon flies to left, and Horn strikes out to end the inning.

Top of the 4th inning, and an old friend returns to the mound as #32 Steve Avery makes his first appearance as Brave this season. Trenidad Hubbard takes over in right, batting ninth; Avery is batting 4th. Avery walks his first batter faced, gets his first pop-up out, gets a fly out, and a ground to 3rd to end the inning. No hits, no runs. Welcome back, Steve Avery. Walt Weiss leads off the bottom of the 4th with single to left. Hubbard lines right to 2nd base for an out, and Weiss scrambles back to 1st. Veras singles to left and runners are at 1st and 2nd.

Sanders singles to center to load the bases. Tim Unroe grounds up the middle, and the throw beats Weiss to the plate for the second out. Keith Lockhart pinch hits with a single to right, scoring Sanders and Andruw Jones fouls one off his leg and walks it off, then gets hit on the shoulder and the bases are again loaded with 2 outs. Randall Simon flies out to deep center, but it is barely caught by the fielder. Almost only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and Randall Simon.

In the 5th, Mike Remlinger comes in to pitch. Freddy Garcia is in at left and Lockhart takes over at 2nd. A called third strike for out #1. Furcal bobbles a grounder and gives up the first hit of the game. Maddux and Avery combined for a 4 inning no-hitter. Furcal again has trouble getting the ball out of his glove and earns an error. The Dodgers have runners at 1st and 2nd with one out. A pop foul and a fly out to center gets Remlinger out of the jam and the inning. In the bottom of the inning, Jeff Horn strikes out, Furcal draws a walk, Hubbard strikes out, and a ground to first and the inning is over.

In the 6th, #36 Medina pitches, giving up a walk, pop fly, strikeout, base hit moving the runner to 3rd, and another walk to load the bases with 2 outs. A pop-up pile-up involving Simon, Garcia, and Lockhart results in out #3 to end the inning. In the bottom of the 6th, Furcal strikes out, Unroe grounds to short, and Lockhart flies out to left to end the inning.

Mark DeRosa takes over at short for the Braves in the 7th and Furcal moves to 2nd. Medina gets the Dodgers 1-2-3. After the 7th inning stretch, Junior Brignac pinch hits and singles to left. Simon singles to right, but Horn hits into a double play. Furcal grounds to first to end the inning.

In the 8th, Richard Dishman takes the mound and gets a grounder to short for his first out. A ground to short and a strikeout takes care of the Dodgers. In the bottom half, Hubbard grounds to 3rd, Garcia grounds back to the pitcher, and Dishman strikes out. Garcia hit a foul tip that would have smacked me in the head if the net had not been in place.

And now for the Rocker Report. No direct sign of John Rocker, but there were calls from the stands. But, one choir boy (a college student from Ohio, here to sing at Epcot tomorrow) claimed to have seen Rocker in the bullpen. Therefore, this qualifies as a potential rocker sighting.

In the top of the 9th, the Braves have a 7-0 lead and need only 3 outs for victory. Dishman gives up a lead-off walk, a hit to center putting runners in the corners. A double off the wall in left scores a run, with runners at 2nd and 3rd. A home run over the left field wall clears the bases, and just like that the Braves lead is cut to 7-4. Leo Mazzone goes to the mound to talk it over with Dishman. The young pitcher digs a deeper hole giving up another walk. A fair ball to the left side of 3rd brings the tying run to the plate.

A grounder to short becomes the first out, but the runners move to 2nd and 3rd. Dishman can't find the strike zone, but Bobby Cox is letting him work through the inning. Check swing up the 3rd base line, and Dishman is slow to field, expecting the ball to roll 4 feet to the foul line. It does not, and the bases are loaded with only one out. A strike-out is followed by a run-scoring pass ball. The fans grow rowdy, urging Dishman to put the game away. A single to left, the throw comes to the plate but not in time, and the Dodgers score 2 to reach a 7-7 tie. And Dishman has been dished up as Bobby brings in #74 Winston Abreu. A quick strike-out ends the inning, but not before the Dodgers get 7 runs on 6 hits.

Tim Unroe leads off the bottom of the 9th inning, and LAUNCHES A HOME RUN over the left field wall. Game over! Braves win! The Braves had 8 runs on 11 hits with one error; the Dodgers had 7 runs on 8 hits with one error.

After the game, I skipped over to Downtown Disney's Marketplace where I spent what little money I had left at the World of Disney, the largest collection of Disney character merchandise in the world. Then I took the ferry over to Downtown Disney's West End to eat at the Wolfgang Puck Express restaurant. Dinner tonight was a Mediterranean Calzone, with pesto sun dried tomatoes, feta cheese, olives, and chicken and a Zima.

Total cost, $12.50.

Finally, one of my most anticipated events, a performance of Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba at the Cirque's custom build theater. For those who have never seen a Cirque performance, I can only describe it as an assault on your visual and auditory senses. If you have not seen it, you can not understand it and if you have seen it, you can't explain it. And if you ever get the chance to see it, do so at any cost. You will thank yourself later.

Fuskie