34: It’s A Long Journey From October to March.

All material is copyrighted and may not be used without written permission.

by SavannahGuy

 

After five long months,

never missing a single beat, going it alone against any and all blogosphere odds, trudging ever forward with determination and grit, heads held high, chins up, computers and keyboards ready for action, a merry band of good denizens and pranksters set out to discover and settle a new and peaceable kingdom in a nice, quiet, respectable little corner of the Braves Nation.

 

After another missed post-season,

hanging ever tough and never ever losing any hope or dreams of victory, sucking it up and blogging together throughout the dreary winter doldrums, hanging on and measuring every word of hot-stove predictions, getting totally caught up in all of the anticipation of a glorious new season to come, sharing personal ups and downs, ins and outs and throughout it all…we laughed.

 

After braving the rain, sleet and snow,

the high wind, the devastating storms, the damaging tornados, the floods, the power outages… we stuck in there and blogged.

 

After all of that…

we also, somehow managed to amass an incredibly impressive 33 superb posts, 14,652 comments and 34,223 views…

 

I think we’re ready for some Braves baseball.

 

 

While considering an appropriate topic to write about for my lead on this special opening day, I have to admit that it was a real head-scratcher. What could possibly be said about the players, the teams, those that made the roster and those that didn’t after four months of speculation? On this first day of real, honest to goodness Braves baseball, where our season begins and the games really count, I assumed that nothing written by anyone anywhere could possibly be interesting alongside the excitement of this rite of Spring occasion.

 

Then it hit me like a hard up and inside Francoeur pitch! Just not, well, that painful or bloody, mind you. Here’s the thing: this day actually marks two very special events and should be cause for celebration, commemoration and congratulation. It’s opening day but it’s also a milestone for Braves and Stuff.

 

The march to October is 162 games, but we began by making the journey from October to March and we’re still here for the start of the 2008 Braves baseball season. Looks like we made it!

 

Beginning on December 5, 2007 at 4:42 pm, a first-ever lead was written and posted by our founder and gracious ‘hostess with the most-ess’, the esteemed Carolina Lady. A blog was born. Friends gathered. Braves and Stuff was officially launched.

 

We got off to a respectable but an expected slow start. Baseball was not being played and winter was upon us. Braves fans had once again come to grips with a second season without a playoff berth and settled into the realization that Braves Nation was now feeling what most other teams in Major League Baseball have felt and experienced many times in the last fifteen years.

 

Being loyal and resilient Braves fans, we denizens gathered around and stoked our own hot stove to talk baseball and ‘stuff’, meaning whatever else we had a mind to discuss. Soon, new and old friends found the time and came to the neighborhood. The good company of loyal Braves fans and blog denizens would surely get us through the ‘tunnel’ of off-season. And it did. Four months of time has flown by and the settlement is strong and the hits keep coming.

 

As of today, Braves and Stuff can proudly boast a sustained and successful gathering place. That’s quite an accomplishment for a brand new blog that just started in the off-season, especially considering that, according to Cyberjournalist.net, as of July 31, 2006, 50 million blogs were tracked. The blogosphere is doubling every six and a half months and about 175,000 new blogs are created every day. Most will no doubt be relatively inactive and sparsely populated until they are abandoned. It’s easier to start a blog than to fill it with contributors.

 

Add to that, the impressive fact that our Braves and Stuff blog has been created and populated with quality, sustained activity without any marketing or advertising whatsoever. No substantial money has been invested, no web or IT consultants have retained and no funding has been required.

 

The success of Braves and Stuff blog is due to three very unique advantages:

 

First and foremost: Our hostess, the esteemed Carolina Lady. She has taken on all of the setup and management onto her capable and tireless shoulders. She serves as a host, greeter, gatekeeper and sanity monitor. She’s created and managed the site; loaded candid photos, helped with avatars, added links and has influenced and inspired all of us with her kind spirit and graciousness. It may be a labor of love for her, but it’s labor. We love her and thank her for it.

 

Secondly: Braves and Stuff was created as a respectable alternative to most other sports blogs. Our respectable neighborhood has had it’s less than pleasurable moments and a few times ‘words’ have gone back and forth, but the brief and comparatively mild unpleasantness is the rare exception. Even a peaceable kingdom has its moments. It’s Stuffville, not Pollyannaville after all. It works.

 

Last but not least: The third unique advantage is you. All of you make this blog the most interesting and enjoyable place in the universe of blogs that I’ve had the pleasure of visiting, period. Pound for pound, the intelligence and down to earth good nature here will stack up against any blog anywhere, any time.

 

We’ve seen not only good off-season baseball talk but a regular supply of original thinking, thoughtful opines, poetry, music, naturally good humor, jokes, hilarious repartee, friendly denizen to denizen advice on matters of health and well-being, food talk, condolences and prayers, good wishes, good vibes and good karma sent toward one another.

 

Now that the Braves are taking the field and our favorite ‘reality show’ is back most every day for 162 games through September and well into October hopefully, there will be a bit of a blog topic shift – from talking mostly stuff to talking Braves baseball and stuff – as our team takes the field, capturing our attention and inspiring our posts.

 

During this Braves Nation journey to post-season, I’ll remind myself often to remember… particularly on those inevitable days when we get beat up, when we lose a close one, when our batters don’t get the clutch hit or when our pitchers falter… that it’s not only the October destination that is most critical. Even on those nights when I’m barking orders to the players or Bobby Cox through my TV or radio, I’ll enjoy the journey itself. That, and I’ll continue to enjoy all the good Braves and Stuff folks along the way.

 

Congratulations, Carolina Lady and good denizens of Braves and Stuff! Now, let’s watch Braves baseball and swing away. Just remember…

 

Words really do matter…

especially in Stuffville and on the blogosphere.

~SavannahGuy~

 

Home Plate

Text Effects

Blog Birthdays

The Lineup Card

Baseball Videos & Photos

Our Own Candid Cameras!

Email: BravesAndStuff@hotmail.com