I’ve been a baseball fan ever since I was a toddler. Seriously, my dad was a coach and he would bring me to all the games and practices. When I was 3 or 4-years-old, you could catch me in the field, preferably shortstop taking ground balls. Throughout my years a young’n, my teams were the Atlanta Braves and the Boston Red Sox. Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Chipper Jones, Ron Gant, Dave Justice and Javy Lopez are still amongst my all-time favorites. If you want to, we take this back to Dale Murphy, Bob Horner, Glenn Hubbard, Phil Niekro and Andres Thomas were some of my early favorites. My first Braves game was the game Bob Horner hit 4 HRs in one game. This year, I’m very excited about the baseball season and I even visited Spring Training in Florida.
As far as opening day, things were going horribly against the Philadelphia Phillies. We were down 5-0 and our offense couldn’t until the 6th inning when Freddie Freeman hit that 2-run HR. “When Freddie hit that homer, I think that’s really all it took,” Braves left fielder Preston Tucker said. “That was the first ball we really laid into. People fed off that, and good things happened after that.” Standing as one of the bright future pieces in the Braves’ organization, Ozzie Albies opened Atlanta’s three-run eighth with a home run off Adam Morgan. In the ninth inning, that’s when it happened when Markakis ended the game in walk-off fashion. The two-out ninth-inning homer off Phillies closer Hector Neris was his first game-ending home run. It was the largest Opening Day comeback victory in the modern era. Markakis’ first career walk-off homer provided a celebratory finish to an 8-5 win over the Phillies on Thursday at SunTrust Park.
What did you think about the Opening Day walkoff for Atlanta? Are you excited about this upcoming season? All my Braves fans, leave a comment below and chop on!
