The drive from the airport in New Orleans to the hotel on Magazine Street takes about 30 minutes. You get to see a lot of the damage that Hurrican Katrina caused just in that drive. You drive by the Superdome and the same image of the Dome with the skin of the dome ripped off is still evident. So is a large banner that reads, "Will re-open 9-24-06, GO SAINTS!" If you look off to the sides of the highway you also see some of the neighborhoods affected by the hurricane. What you see is a sea of blue plastic tarps. Those tarps cover roofs damaged, destroyed, vaporized by the hurricane. When you arrive at the hotel on Magazine Street you see even more damage, caused, not by the storm, but caused by looters. At one intersection in the French Quarter there are many businesses still open, still doing business. But in that same intersection are three stores; FootAction USA, and two Foot Locker outlets. These shoe stores are boarded up because looters broke in and stole the inventory. The sidewalk is made of pieces of slate and many of those slates are now gone. Outside the hotel are two street lamps. One is missing one of the lamps, the other is lying on the sidewalk, the entire thing snapped at the base and still lying on the sidewalk. Everyday life is a lot harder. I spoke with a freing in New Orleans who stayed and she said, and I quote,"If you live in New Orleans, you drink." She also told me that just going to a grocery store to get milk and bread can be a two hour ordeal. Imagine going to the local Krogers and finding out that they had NO milk and bread. Them picture the Harris Teeter and the Publix in your neighborhood in the same fix.
That's the bad news. The good news is that there is a lot of work being done. Construction (or, re-construction) is everywhere with orange barricades and highway cones and yellow tape marking the area where repairs are taking place. The people, and there are fewer of them than there were a year ago, were pretty hopped up when I was there. It was not because they were happy top see me, but rather they were happy about recent events. During our first game word leaked out that the Houston Texans had inked a deal with Mario Williams for the number one pick in the NFL draft, thus ensuring their place as the biggest chumps in the NFL. This meant that the Saints would get Reggie Bush from USC, the best player in the draft, bar none. Apparently the Texans felt that they would be okay with Domanick Davis, which is like telling somebody that you'll pass on the Maserati because you already have a Chevy Impala. Maybe they figured Mario Williams would be the safer pick because that way, with Williams on defense, the Texans pathetic offensive line would not get him killed. Needless to say the city of New Orleans is printing up Reggie Bush jerseys ASAP.
The other good news for the Big Easy was Jazzfest. Jazzfest started the day after we arrived and was a huge success despite some wet weather and the fact that Little Feat was one of the acts. Attendance was great and gave a lot of hope to the city that it will recover its place as the city where everyone gets drunk, throws beads, and flashes complete strangers.
As for the Sounds (you think I forgot this was a baseball blog?) they did not do much to improve the cities mood as they swept four straight from the New Orleans Zephyrs. Its hard to find a fault in the way the Sounds played. They were outstanding defensively, the pitching was superb, even Dennis Sarfate, who struggled with his command, kept the damage to a minimum, and the offense was, well...............Johnny Knoxville on a dare. The Sounds are team built for speed and they were playing in a ballpark (Zephyr Field) rated as the best pitchers park in all of AAA year after year. So, of course the Sounds hit eight home runs in four games, including four in the final game. Nelson Cruz hit a shot the opposite way that landed halfway to Lake Pontchartrain and Corey Hart hit a home run to left field that gave the pitcher whiplash. You know you've hit the ball hard when the leftfielder only drops his head and never moves his feet at the crack of the bat.
I think the most encouraging part was the bullpen. Allan Simpson, who had struggled early on, saved two games on the trip and Mike Meyers curveball is still going to make somebody cry one of these days. Knuckleballer Jared Fernandez joined the club shortly before the trip and some of his pitches were ghastly in their movement. The Oklahoma Redhawks at times looked like angry men swinging at bees. The Sounds finished the trip 6-1 with one game suspended by weather and tied for the best record in the PCL and their best April record since the Sounds joined the PCL in 1998. The philosophy that manager Frank Kremblas has instilled in this club of putting pressure on the other team with aggressive baserunning and shifting defenses is paying off. I spoke with Breent Abernathy and Jermaine Clark on the way to the ballpark one day and they helped explain how Frank's philosophy is paying off. At the beinning of the year the Sounds were running all over other teams and scoring runs by forcing errors from their opponents. Now the Sounds are not as successfuol stealing bases because other teams are starting to spend extra time holding runners and calling for pitches that help the catcher throw out base stealers like fastballs, and fastballs away.. Of course when you spend so much time worrying about the runners, you can't spend as much time worrying about the guy at the plate. Sounds hitters are seeing more fastballs because that is what the catcher is calling for so he can get a throw off quicker to try and nab baserunners. Sounds hitters, ALL hitters, love fastballs. So instead of running all over the opposition, the Sounds are pounding fastballs over the wall and getting good counts to hit in because the other team is calling for pitch outs. Eventually the other team will make an adjustment and start throwing more pitches that concentrate on the hitters and the Sounds will start running again.
Thats all for now. I'll try and write more later. And a quick P.S. If anyone knows where the good fishing is around Nashville, post it here. A couple of the Sounds are trying to waste a good day in a boat.
As always please email your questions to
chuck@nashvillesounds.com
Thanks Jilly!
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