Hey everyone,

Well here we are back in Atlanta after a trip up to Pennsylvania for a week to play the Pirates and the Phillies. While I wasn't able to do much sightseeing on this past trip – one of our games in Pittsburgh was rained out and the weather was bad all week – so it's definitely good to be back here in Atlanta for nearly two weeks. It's very unusual for any team in the Majors to be home for more than a week, so this is a special chance for us to not only spend some quality time at home, but also pick up some wins against some great teams - the New York Mets and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

When in the airport I picked up a magazine that surveyed the best airports in the country. As someone who has traveled to more airports than I want to remember, I feel like I'm a pretty good judge of what cities are good to fly into, and what cities aren't. Pittsburgh, for those of you who may be frequent travelers to the Keystone State, has one of the best airports in the United States. Last year, business travelers who wrote in to the magazine ranked it as the 9th best airport in the U.S.

I saw that Portland was ranked No. 1 (too bad Portland doesn't have a Major League Baseball team), followed by Washington-Reagan, Tampa, and Milwaukee. I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a "business traveler" in the same respect that you all do (the Braves travel on one of Delta's chartered planes), but I'm interested in knowing from you: what is your favorite airport, and why? I have my top three, and I'll reveal them in my next blog.

Off-days

On Monday, we had our first ‘off-day' in nearly two weeks. Baseball players do different things on off-days. Some go fishing, some go golfing, and some just relax with friends and family. One thing we all do, though, is stay away from picking up a bat and a mitt. This time, I took the day to just drive around the northern Atlanta suburbs with my wife, Catie. When you travel as much as I do, you forget how nice it is to just spend time with the ones you love, even if it's doing something as simple as running errands. Yesterday, we did just that. It was a great off-day.

The Season

On the baseball field, we are right in the thick of things in the National League East. We're two games out of first place at the moment, but we're in 4th place. The Marlins, Mets, and Phillies are all just a few games ahead of us. Even though we aren't playing our best baseball, I'm confident that this home stand will be a great chance for us to pick up some games, especially because we are about to open up a four-game series with the New York Mets and we've been playing great baseball at home. Right now, we are one of the best teams in baseball at home, with a 16-5 record, and we need to capitalize on that. Tomorrow is actually Delta Day at the ballpark. I'm really looking forward to that because earlier this year I spent some time passing out free tickets at Delta's Employee Block Party to as many kids as I could. I love seeing as many kids out at the ballpark as possible. Without a doubt, kids are our biggest supporters. It doesn't matter if I hit a home run or I strike out with the bases loaded to a kid. They are always there supporting the Braves.

After we play the Mets and the Diamondbacks (who won the NL West last year), we head up to Milwaukee and Cincinnati, two teams in the NL Central that can really scare opponents. Certain road trips always seem to bring teams together, and Milwaukee seems to be one of those places. Maybe it's because there isn't as much to do in Milwaukee as there is to do, say, in New York or Washington, and because of that, guys on the Braves team seem to do the same thing. In Milwaukee, we tend to go out to eat after a game together at the same one or two restaurants, and the camaraderie then extends onto the baseball field. I'm hoping that will happen to us again this next road trip.

Enjoy your travels, wherever they may be. I'll check back in with you all after Milwaukee. And remember, keep those comments coming.

Best,
Jeff

Hey everybody,

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind not only for me but also the Atlanta Braves. The last time I posted, I talked about making the decision to spend an ‘off' day in either New York or Washington. The ballclub made the decision to go a day early to Washington, and I ended up finding myself on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club at Lake Manassas with John Smoltz and Tom Glavine. That's a beautiful golf course just outside of Washington, D.C. in Virginia, which has held The President's Cup over the years.

There are two great perks about being close to John Smoltz. The first is that he's one of baseball's greatest pitchers ever. Being teammates with him is a total honor. The other great perk about being on the same ballclub as John is that John has this unbelievable ability to get on the greatest golf courses in the world, and thankfully he lets me tag along. Next week, when we go to Pittsburgh to play the Pirates, he's set me with a round of golf at Oakmont, a former U.S. Open course. Has anyone played there? I need some tips if I want to go out there and not make a fool of myself. But yea, John's an incredible teammate and an even better person. (Not only do I want him on my baseball team for as long as he can play, but I also want him to stick around so he can help set me up with great golf around the country!)

Delta Day

Last week, before our game against the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday, May 3rd, I made it down to the Delta Block Party at the company headquarters in Atlanta. What a great experience. It says a lot about a company when you basically shut down the entire complex on Saturday and have an Employee Appreciation day. I spent time with not only members of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team who were there, but also with country star Josh Gracin, who performed for the audience. I had never met Josh, and I found out that he's a serious Detroit Tigers fan. He clearly knows his stuff when it comes to talking baseball. It was just a great experience for me to be in the presence of a country music star (click for pic).

Thankfully the people at Delta set me up in a booth and I was able to interact with employees and autograph some items for employees and their families. Over the years, I had the opportunity to 'sign' some crazy stuff that people put in front of me. I always sign a photo with my name, and then my jersey number (#7) after it. During the Block Party, a really nice family approached me with a 5x7 photo of me playing high school football and asked if I'd autograph it. I had never seen that photo before in my life (I graduated high school in 2002) so it made me laugh when I took a look at myself as a skinny 17-year old. In high school I wore #12, so I figured this time I'd sign that picture with my name, and then #12 next to that. I got a kick out of that.

My favorite part of the day, however, was when Delta gave me about 200 tickets to the Braves – Mets game on May 22nd and had me just walk through the crowd passing out free tickets (Delta is also the official airline of the Mets). I tried to sort of fly 'under the radar' when the Josh Gracin concert was going on and pass out tickets to every kid I could find. So I'll definitely be looking for the Delta section on May 22nd. Hopefully when I look up it will be a sea of young kids cheering for the Braves.

I had the chance to meet with Delta's President, Ed Bastian, as well as Delta's Vice President of Delta AirElite, Doug Blissit. Ed and Doug were great, great people. Doug and I actually spent a good bit of time checking out the new Delta AirElite plane - a sort of 'corporate' jet for Delta customers. I was blown away by how beautiful the plane was inside. Last year, my entire family and I flew to Bend, Oregon after the season for a golf getaway. The trip was great, but it was tough to get from Atlanta to the west coast of Oregon without having to make a few stops on the way. Now that Delta has the Delta AirElite, I'm can't wait to look into seeing how I might be able to utilize that program. This could turn a difficult trip in terms of travel into a very, very enjoyable one. I'm definitely going to see what I can do with the AirElite program this fall. More pictures of me in the AirElite jet and at the Block Party here.

The Season

I'm looking forward to the next few weeks for the ballclub. After our trip through the state of Pennsylvania, we come home for almost two full weeks (unheard of in Major League Baseball) and play the Oakland A's, New York Mets, and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Those are three teams playing great, great baseball right now so we are going to find out pretty soon just how good we are.

I look forward to checking back in soon.

Best,
Jeff