Bravesworld.com | Atlanta Braves News, braves Scores, Game Recaps & Commentary - <div>Having played his share of Baseball for the amusement of two-lane America, from Visalia, Calif., to Burlington, Vt., Dave Brundage knows about subsistence-level sport. </div>Tack on another 11 years managing his way up through every level of the minors, and there's not a moldy cranny of a clubhouse he hasn't seen. Which helps explain his attitude these days when reporting to work at shiny new Gwinnett Stadium, even when his Class AAA Braves aren't winning much. quot;To be a part of something like this is pretty special,quot; the skipper said, looking out on The House That $77 Million in Bond Debt Built. quot;No question, being around all this puts a jump in your step.quot; After one week of play at the Lawrenceville ballpark, the Wannabe Braves are enthusiastically settling into a place that's located just on the border of major league comfort and minor league kitsch. They've got flat-screen TVs down on the farm these days, three of them in the Gwinnett Braves clubhouse. They have 23 private suites, too, with nooks where fans can pull up a rocking chair and watch the game as if it was being played just beyond their front porch, where the redbud would be first base. You have an array of concessions that is well out of the hot-dog-and-popcorn class --- from $6.50 quesadillas at the concourse Taqueria to the $9 Knucksie pulled-pork sandwich plate at Niekro's Restaurant (as in Braves Hall of Fame knuckleballer Phil). The most important stat to a fan weighing the merits of minor league ball versus the majors is, of course, the cost of a 16-ounce beer. At Gwinnett Stadium, the big domestic pour costs $6. At Turner Field, it's $7. Lamentably, the Baseball beer gap seems to be closing. But then you have Buford's James and Ashley Tucker and 3-year-old daughter Julea, who could spread a blanket on the grassy berm beyond right field to watch a game for only $17 in all. quot;We travel a lot and go to a lot of stadiums. This has got to be the best one,quot; James Tucker said. Chopper, not Chipper Here also are the diversions that every level of professional Baseball seems to require. Just behind the Tucker family was a giant Spiderman children's bounce pit, competing with another in the shape of an inflatable Roman Coliseum. Call it the Gwinnett Braves cultural enrichment initiative, where Marvel Comics collides with Pliny the Elder. They don't have Chipper here. But they do have Chopper, the team mascot introduced to the fans as quot;the hardest-working groundhog in Gwinnett County.quot; And soon to be a proud stadium tradition is the between-innings Eyeball Race, sponsored by a local optical firm. Three guys climb inside blow-up eyeballs and run between dugouts while the crowd urges them on. Finally, another use for the old Baseball chatter, quot;Good eye! Good eye!quot; As the season wears on, we are told, this team is not going to overdose on the wacky factor. In his quarter-century in minor league Baseball, Gwinnett Braves general manager Bruce Baldwin has contributed to the great heritage of offbeat Baseball promotions. In Pulaski, Va., he once brought in a 500-pound block of ice and held a contest for fans to guess how long it would take to melt. In Richmond, he held a left-handers day, highlighted by three busloads of fans from an actual town named Left Hand, W.Va. quot;Are we going to do something that's a little left of center? Maybe. That's me,quot; Baldwin said. quot;But you need to be respectful of the fans and the community here.quot; Building better Braves Just 35 miles from the major league mother ship, doing business in a large metropolitan area, the Gwinnett Braves are operating on a bit of a different stage than many minor league teams. Mainly because they are not the best --- or only --- game in town. On the field, their primary mission is to develop talent for the big league club, not to win games at any cost. In the seats, fans accustomed to the skill level and name recognition of major league ball have to recalibrate their expectations for the next step down. It's too early to judge how the G- Braves will do at the gate. There was the initial opening excitement in Gwinnett --- a sellout (10,427) on the first home date, April 17. And then came the inevitable settling in to the day-to-day business of building a better Brave, with midweek crowds closer to 3,000. It is not too early, though, for the G- Braves themselves to start handing out rave reviews. Especially those with experience at the team's former Class AAA haunt, Richmond. In Virginia, where the most recent incarnation of the stadium dated back to 1985, luxuries were scarce, although they were the only ball club with a lap pool (actually the home dugout, which filled with water every time it rained). Players hung their clothes in dented, rusting metal lockers, where now they have wide wooden built-ins. The Gwinnett clubhouse is clean and new, smelling of just-laid carpet and fresh-cut wood. In Richmond, you could grow mushrooms on the floor. quot;We didn't dare to walk around without our shower shoes,quot; laughed infielder Wes Timmons. Next best not bad Give a Baseball guy a decent home, and he can feel so much better about himself and where he is. Like so many of his kind, Brundage is a gypsy, leaving his wife and two young children at home in Oregon while chasing a managing career. quot;Saw them three days over a seven-month period last year,quot; he said. But, finally, they are joining him in Georgia, now that he is working somewhere worth sharing with them. Granted, there is nothing like The Bigs. Describing the majors to his minor league teammates in the 1988 movie quot;Bull Durham,quot; Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) rhapsodized, quot;You hit white balls for batting practice, the ballparks are like cathedrals, the hotels all have room service and the women all have long legs and brains.quot; What else is going to match that? But, said G- Braves catcher Clint Sammons, quot;If you can't be at the major league level, this is a decent second option.quot; He then returned to his corner locker, the one big enough to subdivide, and a pre-game plate piled high with a sandwich and sides. The next best thing was looking pretty good. G- Braves NEW WORLD * The team drew a sellout crowd of 10,427 for its first game in new Gwinnett Stadium, besting the International League home-opening average of 9,891. Last season, the league claimed a record attendance of 7.13 million. The effects of an economy on the disabled list are yet to be measured this season. * The cheapest ticket: A $6 ($5 for kids) seat on the berm beyond right field, grass stains included. Swells can get an infield box seat for $15. * Maybe the actors still are working dinner theater, but the stage is pure Broadway. The Gwinnett field is built to the same dimensions as Turner Field: 325 feet in the corners, 400 feet to straightaway center. * Don't think about trying to smuggle so much as a bag of peanuts into the park. While Turner Field allows small soft-sided coolers and food (after a near fan revolt), none of that gets by the Gwinnett gatekeepers. There is a big bond payment to make, and every hot dog counts. * If you have a problem with the manager, keep it to yourself. The G- Braves' Dave Brundage fought Golden Gloves for 11 years, beating, his bio says, three future Olympic gold medalists. * Just in case the well-below .500 G- Braves get it going, the International League playoff format is: Three division winners and one wild-card team play best-of-five division and championship series in mid-September. Good seats are still available.

Having played his share of Baseball for the amusement of two-lane America, from Visalia, Calif., to Burlington, Vt., Dave Brundage knows about subsistence-level sport.

Tack on another 11 years managing his way up through every level of the minors, and there's not a moldy cranny of a clubhouse he hasn't seen.

Which helps explain his attitude these days when reporting to work at shiny new Gwinnett Stadium, even when his Class AAA Braves aren't winning much.

quot;To be a part of something like this is pretty special,quot; the skipper said, looking out on The House That $77 Million in Bond Debt Built. quot;No question, being around all this puts a jump in your step.quot;

After one week of play at the Lawrenceville ballpark, the Wannabe Braves are enthusiastically settling into a place that's located just on the border of major league comfort and minor league kitsch.

They've got flat-screen TVs down on the farm these days, three of them in the Gwinnett Braves clubhouse. They have 23 private suites, too, with nooks where fans can pull up a rocking chair and watch the game as if it was being played just beyond their front porch, where the redbud would be first base.

You have an array of concessions that is well out of the hot-dog-and-popcorn class --- from $6.50 quesadillas at the concourse Taqueria to the $9 Knucksie pulled-pork sandwich plate at Niekro's Restaurant (as in Braves Hall of Fame knuckleballer Phil).

The most important stat to a fan weighing the merits of minor league ball versus the majors is, of course, the cost of a 16-ounce beer. At Gwinnett Stadium, the big domestic pour costs $6. At Turner Field, it's $7. Lamentably, the Baseball beer gap seems to be closing.

But then you have Buford's James and Ashley Tucker and 3-year-old daughter Julea, who could spread a blanket on the grassy berm beyond right field to watch a game for only $17 in all.

quot;We travel a lot and go to a lot of stadiums. This has got to be the best one,quot; James Tucker said.

Chopper, not Chipper

Here also are the diversions that every level of professional Baseball seems to require. Just behind the Tucker family was a giant Spiderman children's bounce pit, competing with another in the shape of an inflatable Roman Coliseum. Call it the Gwinnett Braves cultural enrichment initiative, where Marvel Comics collides with Pliny the Elder.

They don't have Chipper here. But they do have Chopper, the team mascot introduced to the fans as quot;the hardest-working groundhog in Gwinnett County.quot;

And soon to be a proud stadium tradition is the between-innings Eyeball Race, sponsored by a local optical firm. Three guys climb inside blow-up eyeballs and run between dugouts while the crowd urges them on.

Finally, another use for the old Baseball chatter, quot;Good eye! Good eye!quot;

As the season wears on, we are told, this team is not going to overdose on the wacky factor.

In his quarter-century in minor league Baseball, Gwinnett Braves general manager Bruce Baldwin has contributed to the great heritage of offbeat Baseball promotions.

In Pulaski, Va., he once brought in a 500-pound block of ice and held a contest for fans to guess how long it would take to melt. In Richmond, he held a left-handers day, highlighted by three busloads of fans from an actual town named Left Hand, W.Va.

quot;Are we going to do something that's a little left of center? Maybe. That's me,quot; Baldwin said. quot;But you need to be respectful of the fans and the community here.quot;

Building better Braves

Just 35 miles from the major league mother ship, doing business in a large metropolitan area, the Gwinnett Braves are operating on a bit of a different stage than many minor league teams. Mainly because they are not the best --- or only --- game in town.

On the field, their primary mission is to develop talent for the big league club, not to win games at any cost. In the seats, fans accustomed to the skill level and name recognition of major league ball have to recalibrate their expectations for the next step down.

It's too early to judge how the G- Braves will do at the gate. There was the initial opening excitement in Gwinnett --- a sellout (10,427) on the first home date, April 17. And then came the inevitable settling in to the day-to-day business of building a better Brave, with midweek crowds closer to 3,000.

It is not too early, though, for the G- Braves themselves to start handing out rave reviews. Especially those with experience at the team's former Class AAA haunt, Richmond.

In Virginia, where the most recent incarnation of the stadium dated back to 1985, luxuries were scarce, although they were the only ball club with a lap pool (actually the home dugout, which filled with water every time it rained). Players hung their clothes in dented, rusting metal lockers, where now they have wide wooden built-ins.

The Gwinnett clubhouse is clean and new, smelling of just-laid carpet and fresh-cut wood. In Richmond, you could grow mushrooms on the floor. quot;We didn't dare to walk around without our shower shoes,quot; laughed infielder Wes Timmons.

Next best not bad

Give a Baseball guy a decent home, and he can feel so much better about himself and where he is. Like so many of his kind, Brundage is a gypsy, leaving his wife and two young children at home in Oregon while chasing a managing career.

quot;Saw them three days over a seven-month period last year,quot; he said. But, finally, they are joining him in Georgia, now that he is working somewhere worth sharing with them.

Granted, there is nothing like The Bigs. Describing the majors to his minor league teammates in the 1988 movie quot;Bull Durham,quot; Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) rhapsodized, quot;You hit white balls for batting practice, the ballparks are like cathedrals, the hotels all have room service and the women all have long legs and brains.quot;

What else is going to match that?

But, said G- Braves catcher Clint Sammons, quot;If you can't be at the major league level, this is a decent second option.quot;

He then returned to his corner locker, the one big enough to subdivide, and a pre-game plate piled high with a sandwich and sides. The next best thing was looking pretty good.

G- Braves NEW WORLD

* The team drew a sellout crowd of 10,427 for its first game in new Gwinnett Stadium, besting the International League home-opening average of 9,891. Last season, the league claimed a record attendance of 7.13 million. The effects of an economy on the disabled list are yet to be measured this season.

* The cheapest ticket: A $6 ($5 for kids) seat on the berm beyond right field, grass stains included. Swells can get an infield box seat for $15.

* Maybe the actors still are working dinner theater, but the stage is pure Broadway. The Gwinnett field is built to the same dimensions as Turner Field: 325 feet in the corners, 400 feet to straightaway center.

* Don't think about trying to smuggle so much as a bag of peanuts into the park. While Turner Field allows small soft-sided coolers and food (after a near fan revolt), none of that gets by the Gwinnett gatekeepers. There is a big bond payment to make, and every hot dog counts.

* If you have a problem with the manager, keep it to yourself. The G- Braves' Dave Brundage fought Golden Gloves for 11 years, beating, his bio says, three future Olympic gold medalists.

* Just in case the well-below .500 G- Braves get it going, the International League playoff format is: Three division winners and one wild-card team play best-of-five division and championship series in mid-September. Good seats are still available.