An ....Unimpressive Start

Maybe it's.........

All those years I spent in New Jersey and New York. You know..........the typical New York way of thinking. "I want it.....and I want it now!" Patience? Forget about it!! We want winners all the time........every time! We despise losers! We will not tolerate mediocrity.

Maybe it's...........the 40 years of being an Atlanta Brave fan. Going from being competitive in the sixties........to being awful in the seventies......to being mediocre in the eighties......to being great in the nineties.......to being irrelevant the last couple of years.

Maybe it's.........these personnel changes made over the last few years. Gone are Javy Lopez, Andruw Jones, and Raphael Furcal. As well as Adam LaRoach, Edgar Renteria, and GM John Scheurholz.

Maybe...........the Braves just aren't that good.

April Fool's day greeted Atlanta with a cruel 0-2 record...............with losses to cellar dwellers Washington and Pittsburgh.

Sunday nights opening loss stung. The bullpen blew in the bottom of the ninth by serving up a walk off home run.

Monday saw a 42 year old Tom Glavine go only 5 innings...........The untested bullpen surrendered the lead..........again.....but the Braves scored 5 runs in the bottom half of the ninth to tie it a 9 all. No sweat for the Pirates........In the 12th, Xavier Nady tattooed a pitch from Brave reliever, Blaine Boyer, for a three run homer........that sealed the deal.

Yes..........it's only 2 games..........there are 160 left. But..........No John Smotz (he's on the disable list with a sore shoulder).......A shaky Glavine.........a suspect bullpen..........a defense which had 3 errors Monday..........has me thinking......."This could be a long season."

At any rate...........I saw..........what I saw............and I ........was not impressed.