Well, the reason Pittsburgh won those "most livable city" awards was partly because they had the most open space within the city limits, IIRC. Apparently that's now being enforced within the stadium, as well.
(Detroit also has a lot of "open space", but a good chunk of that is from buildings that burnt down and were not replaced, so my city planner college roommate would have to give them an asterisk for that, IMO.)
And so, it's officially gone. The Braves have gone 62-24 since June 1, which makes the Mets' 51-34 not necessarily shameful. But the current triple-faceplant is surely a sign of a team that spent all of its bullets in August (19-11) for no real effect (Braves went 18-10) and is now out of gas.
"Easy schedule"? To use a reference Fred Wilpon might understand, "Is Brooklyn still in the League?"
(Manager Casey Stengel, 1934, after his lowly Dodgers had eliminated the defending World Champion Giants, whose manager [Bill Terry] had mocked his city rivals with that 'question' in Spring Training.)
Mind you, I'm sure the Braves won't have any problems with the Gnats or the Fish, just as they beat Oakland last night. The only difference between their schedule and ours is that they play the Phillies seven times, whereas we are "lucky" enough to pull the other half of Pennsylvania. So just bash those Buccos and…oh, never mind.
