A Braves Tale a Day Late

Dale Murphy

With the Braves moving to Cobb County reminds me of the times I carried Rocky and Adam to Braves games in Atlanta.  We did not go to many, but a few.  We went with the scouts and the baseball teams my boys belonged to.

 I remember the time Dale Murphy was up at bat.  It was in the 9th inning and the Braves were 3 runs behind.

As Dale Murphy swung his bat, limbering up everybody were cheering and clapping and hollering support. 

A lot of people around us were hollering, "Knock it out of the park Dale!"  But of course Dale couldn't here that because there was a roar of screaming.

Wanting to feel part of the roaring crowd, I too, hollered, "Knock it out of the park Dale!"

Except just before I hollered it, everybody took a deep breath from hollering so much.  My shouting demand solitarily were heard all over the stadium.  People turned around to look at me.

Being invisible like I am, every time more than one person look in my direction, I turned around to see who they are really staring at.

Me!  Embarrassed,  I looked down.

Then, I heard footsteps rapidly coming towards me and stopped right in front of me.  I looked up and a man in a Braves logo on his blazer and holding a walkie-talkie asked if I was the one that hollered for Dale Murphy to knock a home run. 

I shook my head and denied it.

Several people around me said it was me too.  Uh-Oh, I'm in trouble, I thought.

The man asked me my name and  handed me his walkie-talkie and said Bobby Cox wanted to talk to me.

I said, "Hello?"

The voice said, "Eddie?  This is Bobby Cox.  You mean to tell Dale Murphy to get a home run?"

I said, "I didn't mean to, I don't know what I was talking about."

Bobby said it might work.  They just haven't thought about it.

Then from m seat I saw Bobby Cox walk out onto the edge of field and give Dale a hand signal.

Dale's eye widened and looked puzzled.  Bobby Cox gave a Dale the same hand signal but more faster and forcefully.

You could read Dale's expression as saying, "Well, OK, if you say so..."

And he knocked the ball out of the park and it caused four runs to come in.

The Braves won.

But as you can tell, I quit giving Braves advice.