I was at the ballpark for the second game yesterday and thankfully got to witness Jeff Francoeur’s very first major league at bat. In the 3rd inning, Francoeur got a standing ovation that made you think he had just won us the game on a walk-off. He’s been heralded as the future of the Braves for a couple of years, so there has been a lot of anticipation for this moment. But the really great thing is that Francoeur is a native. He went to Parkview High School and now, 4 years later, he is back in Atlanta playing for the Braves.

Not just playing, but producing. Though his first three at-bats weren’t all that impressive (groundout, strikeout, strikeout – and he looked a little silly on the K’s), the fourth at bat didn’t disappoint. The Braves were already ahead 6-4 when Francoeur came up in the 8th and he still got a major ovation. With two on, Jeff connected for a 404 footer for his first hit, RBI, and home run. The place went crazy. The ovation lasted until Jeff came back out of the dugout to acknowledge the crowd.

Congratulations Jeff! And to the rest of the Atlanta rookies. The Braves injury list is so long (Chipper, Hudson, Hampton, Perez, Jordan, Thomson – that’s 60% of our rotation and three other everyday starters) that you couldn’t blame them for falling in the division. But these rookies are so impressive and so exciting that they’ve now won 6 of 7 and 14 of 19. Oh, and let’s not forget the veterans. Julio had a 3 run shot in the first game yesterday making him the oldest player to ever… well, do anything.

On the ride back from the game yesterday, I was listening to Lemke on the post-game show and he was saying that this team was almost as exciting as the ’91 team. Well, I was 12 at the time the ’91 team made its run and being excited about baseball at twelve is completely different than being excited when you are 25 (back then, the Braves were my life. Now, they’re only about 1/3 of it), so I don’t know if I can agree completely. But this team is so exciting to watch and, come October, we’ll have one of the deepest clubs in the league.