Hey everyone,

One of the questions I am asked a lot is: "What do you guys actually do 5 to 6 hours before a night game?" It's a good question, and one that changes day-by-day, so I thought I'd walk you through my pre-game routine before yesterday's home game against the Milwaukee Brewers.

With Catie out of town visiting family, I was able to get some of my off-field obligations out of the way. When Catie is with me, we like to spend as much time as possible together, but since she was gone, I took the middle of the day (from about Noon-2 p.m.) to get some of my business affairs in place. That meant staying at home (it's getting hot here in Atlanta, so air conditioning is becoming my best friend) and signing a set of 3,000 baseball cards to sign for the company Upper Deck, the trading card company who I have a relationship with. I can't sign all 3,000 cards at once (I'm pretty sure my hand would fall off, which wouldn't make Bobby Cox, our manager, happy) so I signed about 300 baseball cards in half an hour and then got ready to head to the field.

Turner Field

At around 2 p.m. I arrived at Turner Field. I'm usually one of players that gets there the earliest. I like to spend some time in the video room talking to the coaches, or getting some treatment from our trainers. After that, I spent some time in a Bible study session. The Bible study session was a chance for me to clear my mind, and put a lot of things in perspective. Many players throughout Major League Baseball are active in participants in some sort of Bible study session, and I'm no different. Faith and family are important to me, so this is something that I like to do when I have the chance.

Dream House

At about 3:45 p.m. (3 and a half hours before first pitch) I was excited to come out to the field because of two reasons: the first was that I had been selected by the charitable organization Dream House to film a Public Service Announcement that will be shown across the city of Atlanta and state of Georgia. (See photos from the shoot here). As some of you know, Dream House is an organization dedicated to helping medically fragile children, and I have teamed up with Delta to donate 25,000 sky miles to the facility for every home run that I hit. Dream House (which received almost a million sky miles last year from Delta) is then able to fly their children across the country to hospitals where they can receive the absolute best treatment. It was very touching to hear yesterday from their CEO, Laura Moore, that thanks to these sky miles they were able to fly a young boy from Atlanta back and forth to a specific hospital in Pittsburgh from Atlanta to receive the best medical attention possible. It makes everything we do worth it.

After I wrapped up the filming of the PSA (it took me a few 'takes' to master the script. I had to check out the script a couple times to make sure I memorized the words correctly) I walked back to the dugout around 4:15 p.m. and met up with the first round draft picks of the Atlanta Falcons, Matt Ryan (Quarterback) and Sam Baker (Offensive Lineman).

Fellow Atlanta Players

Matt and Sam were at Turner Field to do a promotional bit for the Falcons where the three of us were filmed by the Falcons video staff talking and getting to know each other. Matt and I hit off a friendship quickly. Some of you may not know this, but in 2002 I actually signed a football scholarship to play defensive back at Clemson University, which is an ACC school located in South Carolina. Matt, who the Falcons picked 3rd overall in this year's draft, was the starting quarterback for Boston College the past few years, another ACC school. It's funny how our careers worked out. Who knows, I might have been on the other side of the football field from Matt the past few years, trying to pick off his throws. Instead, I'm the right fielder for the Atlanta Braves and he's the (future) starting quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons.

Since he's new to the town (he admitted he's a Phillies fan because he grew up outside of Philadelphia) I'm looking forward to spending some more time with him and showing him what's great about the city of Atlanta. He's a very cool guy and we scheduled to play some golf in the near future. I'm also a big Falcons fan (Delta also proudly sponsors the Falcons!), so I told him I'll plan on catching him at his games this fall.

By the time Matt and Sam left it was nearly 4:40 p.m., which is the normal time for batting practice and warm ups. From 4:40 p.m. on it's about nothing but focusing on the game, taking care of some minor adjustments, autographing anything and everything for the fans, and then getting ready to run out there and play for the Braves!

Are there any other questions you'd like to know more about?

Best,
Jeff

Hey Everyone,

Well we're getting ready to fly up to Chicago for the start of a very important, 10 day trip that will take us here, then to Los Angeles, and then to Dallas, Texas. At least the trip got off to a good start for me financially, as we thankfully didn't arrive in Chicago late last night, which would have given Catie a full day to walk the streets of Michigan Avenue!

The team is coming off a three game sweep at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies, and because we are one of the very best teams in baseball at home (we've struggled on the road), this weekend was a wake up for our club. Baseball is a game of streaks. When teams are hot, everything is great. The flights across the country don't nearly seem that long, and the questions the media ask are fun to answer. When a team loses a few in a row, as we have, the flights become quieter, and the questions become tougher to answer.

Flying on Delta

On this flight up to Chicago it will be all business. I've been working with our coaching staff to help determine what I need to do with my swing to get me back to hitting at a higher average. On the flight, I'll look to see if I can spend time going over some of my at bats on a portable DVD player that we can use to see some of our highlights, etc.

Different teams do different things on flights. I actually heard that the Colorado Rockies put their players' swings on video Ipods and let them watch their at bats on the plane that way. Some guys like to take flights as their ‘personal' time away from the media and the crowds. It's an opportunity for them to read a book or check out the stock market or even check out the box scores of other players/friends. It's a bit surreal to open up the newspaper on an airplane and read about yourself and all your friends. And people write about the Braves every day.

Summertime Trips

As we get towards the months of June and July my off the field routine became more and more structured. It's so incredibly hot during the summer months, particularly in Atlanta, that it's too hard to play baseball at the level I want to on the baseball field if I've spent a lot of my energy out on the golf course in the morning. People ask me all of the time what I take on a road trip. Ha, I wish I had something better to tell them. I did not take my golf clubs on the trip, even though Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas have some incredible courses. I did take about six dress shirts, four or five ties, and three different suit jackets/pants. That way, I'll never double up on the road and make the "rookie" mistake that we all make.

I did hear about a story involving a player on the San Francisco Giants rookie who forgot to bring his belt on the road trip. Well, he figured "oh, I have a belt. It's the belt I wear during my games" and tried to sneak out to the bus on the last day of a road trip wearing his San Francisco Giants uniform belt with his suit. Now that is what I call a real "rookie mistake"!

Is there one item you can't leave behind "on the road"?

Best,

Jeff

P.S. -My favorite airports as promised in my last post:

#1 - Atlanta: it's my hometown airport and we fly so much in and out of there that I feel like I know everyone at Hartsfield. Plus, there is nothing like landing at home.

#2 - Green Bay: Austin Straubel International. In the off-season, I go up to Wisconsin to see family and we always fly into there. You know those places where you land and you think "I have nothing but really good memories from this place and this airport." Well, this is the one for me. Plus, it doesn't matter if it's February, May, or October….at least 50 percent of the people in that airport will be wearing Green Bay Packers gear at one time. Besides, I've always wanted to know who Austin Straubel is. Ha.

#3 - Pittsburgh: Totally underrated. That place has everything. I've heard people try to fly into their as a layover just because the airport has so many places to shop. It's a tie between Pittsburgh and Charlotte, but since Pittsburgh's a baseball town I'm going with Pittsburgh.

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

Hey everybody,

Greetings from Denver, Colorado, where we have arrived to take on the Colorado Rockies, the defending National League champions. In my first post as a guest blogger, I talked about spring training and getting ready for the beginning of the season in Atlanta. This time I wanted to update you on the season so far, but also take a minute to give you a little background about me.

A Little History

I grew up in the Atlanta area (home of Delta) and it was a dream-come-true when I was selected by the Atlanta Braves in 2002 out of high school. I had planned to attend Clemson University (on a football scholarship, actually) but the opportunity to play major league baseball in front of my hometown fans was too much to pass up. After spending a few years working my way up the minor league system, I joined the big league team in 2005 and have been the starting right fielder ever since. As for my personal life, I'm 24 years old, and this past off-season I married my childhood sweetheart, Catie. We have a dog named Bruiser and we moved into our first home just a few months ago. You can learn more about me here if you're interested.

On Opening Night

The MLB season is just underway and so far so good. On opening night we were in Washington, D.C. to take on the Washington Nationals. It was an electric evening, with President George W. Bush in attendance. I have to say this was the first time I've ever been frisked three separate times before entering the locker room! When the President threw out the first pitch, it was as if a sea of light bulbs erupted at the same time. It was an incredible sight.

For all of you who travel to Washington, D.C. in the future, I would certainly say that going to a Nationals game is something you must now check out. The new stadium is beautiful, and the surrounding area will one day grow into a great atmosphere for baseball fans.

In terms of ballparks, where is your favorite place to watch a baseball game? Is it a historic place like Wrigley Field in Chicago or Fenway Park in Boston, or do you prefer going someplace new and high tech, like Turner Field in Atlanta, or PNC Park in Pittsburgh? Everyone has their reasons for their favorites, so I want to hear yours.

On the Start of the Season

I feel good about the start of our season. We've only had a handful of games, but the team just came off a great series again one of our biggest rivals, the New York Mets, and came away with two victories in two games. It's always great to beat your rivals early in the season.

So now I'm here in our team hotel and it's the start of an 11-day road trip (10 games) that will take us from here in Colorado back to Washington, D.C. (yes, again) and then down to Miami, Florida to take on the Florida Marlins. We have an off-day on Monday, April 14th in Miami/Fort Lauderdale.

As some of you may have heard, I'm a golf freak. Is there a great golf course in the area that you suggest I try to take some of my teammates too? Is there a restaurant for either lunch or dinner that the guys on the team should check out in either Denver, Washington, D.C., or Miami/Fort Lauderdale? Does anyone have any ideas for what to do on my off-day in MIA?

I look forward to checking back in soon.

Best,
Jeff

Welcome everyone, this is Jeff Francoeur, and this is my first blog at http://www.jefffrancoeur.com/.

As an outfielder for the Atlanta Braves, one of 32 Major League Baseball teams, I'm looking forward to taking you on a journey through the 2008 season. I'll be posting blogs from around the United States as I travel with the ballclub around the country this summer.

Today's first blog post is from Orlando, Florida, sight of our Spring Training complex. Along with about half of the teams in Major League Baseball, we spend about six to eight weeks here in the state of Florida (the other teams are in Arizona) getting ready to start the season. Each team is located in a different city around the state, and the Braves make their home here in Orlando at the Disney Wide World of Sports complex. I actually love coming to Orlando for Spring Training because there are so many different things to do for my family and friends. Sure, it would be nice to train at a city by a beach (I know other teams train in places like Jupiter, West Palm Beach, and Clearwater), but the great thing about being here in Orlando is that there is so much entertainment for everyone that comes down here to visit me. When I wake up every day, I know that I can go to the complex and train, while my family can go to Disney World, they can go golfing, they can go to any number of great restaurants, etc. I eat with my friends and family every night here in Orlando, and it's great to listen to them talk about all the different things they did during the day while I was at the ballpark. I'm also a big golfer, so that's another reason why I love coming down to Orlando. There are just so many good golf courses in the area. As many of you know, Florida is a great destination if you are looking to get a few good rounds of golf in during February or March.

Spring training is a different atmosphere than the regular season. It's much more relaxed and fan-friendly, and the fan-friendly part is one of the reasons why I really love coming down here. If we have a game at 1:05 p.m., I will usually get to field at 8 a.m. That's where I am now. I lift until about 8:45, and then I go hit in the batting cage till 9:15 a.m. The team has an organized stretch at 930 and then I'm in the first hitting group at batting practice with teammates Chipper Jones, Mark Teixeira, and Mark Kotsay. After we hit, we then go and shag fly balls. After about 30 minutes working in the outfield, we then go back into the cage to get some more work. At around 11:00-11:15 I'll go inside, stretch again, maybe get a massage from our trainer and work out and back or leg issues I might have that day. By 12:40 I'm back out on the field signing autographs and ready for the game to start.

Since we are at spring training it affords me some more time to spend with fans signing autographs. During the season, when every game means so much, it's very important to stay focused before the game and make sure I'm ready to go 100% before the first pitch. In the spring, with the pressure down a little bit, it gives me more time before the game to interact with fans and sign more autographs pre-game. I really love the fan interaction.

Some of you may have seen that I was hit in the face last Sunday during a game against St. Louis. I'm totally fine, and I'm already back and playing with the team. In fact, my first game back came against Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander (who consistently throws 100 mph) and then my next game back was against 2007 CY Young Award winner C.C. Sabathia of the Cleveland Indians. Just my luck, right? Once you get in the box to face those guys, you realize that when you are facing pitchers who throw as hard as they do you have to look for a certain ‘spot' to swing at and not a certain pitch. Unlike facing a guy with some off-speed stuff where you might be looking for a pitch in a certain count, when those guys throw every pitch at 98 mph you have to basically swing at a certain spot over the plate and hope to make contact. It's tough.

The season starts next week, and after our one-game season opener against the Washington Nationals in Washington, D.C. I like Washington, D.C. a lot. It's going to be quite a thrill to open up the season at the Nationals' new stadium.

Like many of you business travelers out there, our trip to Washington, D.C. for one game is a pure business trip. Usually, we may spend three or four days in a city. But with this trip being just one game, I'll probably wear a suit on both flights and might take a very small piece of luggage with me, literally just a fresh set of shirts and some other small items. With President Bush in attendance, and with the game being shown on national television (ESPN), it's a great opportunity to play on the big stage. That means I'll probably take it easy that day by just hanging around the hotel. Just like many of you who come into Washington for a day of business, I won't do much sight-seeing this time.

When that trip is over, however, our next trip takes us on our first "real" road trip to Colorado, back to Washington (this time for three days) and then to Florida. I think Denver is a real cool city. Flying in over the Rockies is a beautiful scene. And yes, they have some really great golf courses there, too. Then we go play the Marlins in Fort Lauderdale which I really enjoy because as a team we stay on the beach. When we play the Marlins, I like to go down to the beach from 10 am to 1 p.m. just to get relaxed.

Looking at the calendar, our first home stand sees the Pittsburgh Pirates. It will be great to see my former teammate Adam LaRoche. Then we have the Mets coming into town which excites me because it means we face a big rival early in the season.

Throughout the year, I'll be updating you on my travels across the country. I'll update you on my favorite restaurants, hotels, and road trips as we criss-cross the country on Delta Air Lines playing for the NL East title. I'm excited to interact with you all, and I look forward to checking in with you right after the season starts.

Best,
Jeff