WUOG Sports Blog

Greetings and salutations from Tim Kohrumel and Ryan Evans, who will be giving you an inside look at the Braves Spring Training for the next few days here at the Disney Wide World of Sports.

Let's start you off with the accommodations--Ron Burgendy would have lived it up big here at the Ramada where renovations have been non-existent since the disco era. But that gives it character.

Today was a day game with Jair Jurrjens taking the mound for his second start of the spring season. He looked solid, only giving up one hit in 4 innings. Detroit is going to be sorry for giving up this guy. He'll be a part of the 5-man rotation for sure.

Other things of note include old timer Javy Lopez getting his second homer of the spring...which also happened to be his second hit of the season. If he only gets homers for hits, that might be enough to give him a backup spot behind McCann. But that's probably unlikely at this point because he is hitting below .200 and his defense has been shakey. He admitted that he's pressing, but maybe Frank Wren will throw him a bone and give him a minor league contract in the meantime.

Jordan Schafer also is continuing to impress. He ended up with a double and two walks today, so the pop in his bat is continuing to...well, pop. Yes. Pop. He'll still play behind Kotsay this season, but he'll definitely be the starting center fielder in a year.

We were fortunate enough to sit behind the rarest of all baseball fans - the fan of both teams. He routinely would cheer for each batter, yelling "This is our inning! Get some RBIs!" only to cheer when the opposing team made an out. And as you would expect of a man of 60+, he was wearing his vintage Atlantic City hat sideways. Good thing the stereotypical Braves fan is apathetic, otherwise there would have been a bloodbath.

There was also the obligatory drunk and obnoxious Cubs fan there wearing Top Gun style mirrored aviators. Not sure if he knew where he was or who was playing. There was a "Massh*le" sitting in front of us (pardon the french) wearing a Red Sox shirt. Maybe those two guys were going to Epcot together tomorrow.

Words of warning to those of you wanting to come catch some spring training action. 1) Wear sunscreen and apply it evenly. Tim has a phallic looking sun burn running the length of his arm. He's not pleased. 2) If you are looking to try any local brews here in Florida, you are SOL. We've been to two bars/restaurants and the most eccentric beer choice is a Boston Lager and a Corona Light (this sadly includes the ESPN Club). Score dudez! Who wants a Bud Heavy and watch some NASCAR??? 3) If you really think there is some chance in this world that a hot trio of blonde females between the ages of 18-25 will be at spring training baseball games, you are going to be extremely disappointed. Women like Erin Andrews don't actually exist in the real world.

So tomorrow night, we'll shamelessly compete with 12 year-olds for autographs as we continue bringing you the inside scoop from Disney's Wide World of Sports. We'll leave you with a few pictures that I hope you'll enjoy.