don't let the door hit you on the way out


while you were celebrating with the rest of the universe in the glory that is the metaphorical representation of jesus christ, himself, in one tim tebow, i've been sowing the seeds of hate towards one of my former favorite major league baseball players of all time.

screw you, john smoltz. and good riddance.

andy and i have been going back and forth on this since thursday. let it be known that this has been the most disastrous braves offseason in the history of my connection with the team as a fan. every single targeted player, with one exception, the braves have eyed this winter has either shunned them or had their organization/agent set the price tag so high for them that the braves could not reach it, even standing on their tippy-toes. jake peavy? the padres ended up wanting too much. braves gm frank wren stood firm and was unwilling to completely compromise the future of his franchise for one elite starting pitcher. as difficult as this decision was to swallow, i stood by the team and waited for the next shoe to drop. a.j. burnett? oft-injured, but electrifying when healthy, turned down the braves best offer for millions more to play for the new york yankees. awesome. raffy furcal? the beloved shortshop for many years in atlanta that would provide an answer in the leadoff spot that the braves have lacked since he left? depending on who's telling the story, furcal had agreed to come to atlanta and then had a last minute change of heart, heading back to l.a. screw him too. the one exception? javier freaking vazquez. the pitcher whose own manager begrudgingly started him in the postseason last fall and let it be known in the media that vazquez was not a "big game pitcher". how did javy respond? he lost the playoff game. perfect.

the braves now seem to be turning their attention and checkbook to some unknown japanese pitcher with a pretty cool name that is no more than a third or fourth starter in america. they are also going to offer many millions of dollars next week to 35 year-old derek lowe who is a good two to three years past his prime. the braves hope him to be their opening day starting pitcher and hold that role 'til tim hudson comes back in august. call me underwhelmed.

then came the bad news.

then came wednesday night when news leaked that john smoltz had signed an offer sheet with the boston red sox, a team i rooted for during their fairytale run in 2004. since then, their continued self-loathing and big market spending cloaked under the veil of sabr-metrics cast them just this side of the yankees in my book. i don't care if their second baseman is scrappy or a little better than marcus giles used to be. i don't care that "youk" is blessing team usa (along with chipper and mccann) with his talented presence in the world baseball classic. i do care that big papi is now on the downhill side of his production. i do care that jacoby ellsbury is now overrated. i do care that jon lester is due for a down year. i do care that dice-k is a wonderful illustration of how to throw 100 pitches in five innings. i do care that jason bay will always be a pirate. and i do hope andy understands that when his pirate-ass curses the red sox's postseason chances until he decides to leave or is shipped out, pun intended. and I AM jealous that every single one of these players plays for the red sox and not the braves. i would take them all.

but not john smoltz. alongside chipper, he's been the face of my braves for as a long as i've been passionately aware and a fan of the team. the facts of the negotiations are these. the red sox offered him 5.5 million, guaranteed, with incentives that could take him up to ten. the braves? around 2 guaranteed, incentives up to twelve. in the words of frank wren, "we were willing to pay john as much or more than the red sox to pitch. we just weren't willing to pay him as much as the red sox were to not pitch."

and therein lies the crux. smoltz is currently hurt and rehabbing a surgically repaired shoulder. again. he's always hurt. as impressive as his 200 plus wins and 150 plus saves are, who knows what kind of numbers he'd have put over over his 21 years as a brave if he could have stayed healthy. and yet, every time one of his injuries ripped the heart out of his own team, the braves have been there to support him and pay him. that did not change this offseason. but the braves, you see, are not the red sox. they are not the yankees or mets. they have a budget. they must stick to it. and to that end, andy, i totally understand why they couldn't just "throw in" another three million dollars. why would they? they had offered him 12 if smoltz could stay healthy and pitch at an all-star level. what does it say about smoltz and the product your team is getting that he didn't feel like those escalators were reachable?

i don't know. it's not andy's fault. he doesn't run the team that smoltz is leaving "us" for. he just fancies them. it's just so hard when a loved one goes away. when you and what you can offer them is not as good what someone else can. for smoltz to have made 10 million dollars this year with the braves, he would have had to work harder, sacrificed and risked more. to make 10 million with the red sox, he just has to show up and pitch for a couple of months. great. go. enjoy yourself. and don't let the door hit you on your way out.

but that attitude is what pains me about every single person that has left huffman united methodist church over the last however many years. from pastors to members to friends to family. when the going got tough, they got going. because it was easier to leave and plug in somewhere else where you didn't have to work as hard but the perks were just the same. hell, even the folks that have given me shit about what i've written about the church on the blog are at least still at the church. they've decided in their own way that they aren't going to go take the guaranteed attendance at trussville or clearbranch and the perks that come along with those attendance and membership numbers. i may not agree with everything they say. i may not feel like they understand me as much as they think they do, but that they are in the same boat as me still? i respect that. i really do, and i will let that be my guide as i focus on a direction, my direction, in the church this coming year.

john smoltz put his mouth where the easy effort money was, and now he is no longer one of my favorite players. i don't think he really gives a crap.

here's hoping in 2009, humc can begin to stem the tide of those leaving out of convenience with an eye towards reversing the trend completely. maybe we can even pick up some scrappy second basemen that don't mind working a little harder than everyone else along the way. andy? kiker?