Madness in the Mile High Club

CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. -- Buried under four comforters, warmed by a third glass of Glenlivet and still shocked that 8-degree temperatures can actually send a scalding-hot jolt through various appendages, your trusty OTR correspondent has braved the elements and is back to serve the loyal masses a hearty dish of bloggage.

Before exploring the week's activities -- or inactivity, if you're the Braves -- how about a refresher course in meteorology?

In the Western part of New York, the Finger Lakes if you're looking at a map, there tends to be significant snowfall in the winter because of the "lake effect," or the weather phenomenon that occurs when a cold front crosses over a body of water. Any city or region on the eastern side of the lake is hit hardest.

My parents attended Oswego College, literally crawling distance from Lake Ontario, and they told me horror stories about their adventures in getting to class. There were underground tunnels. There was a pulley system that would guide students around campus because the wind gusts would occasionally knock girls, or extraordinarily scrawny guys, to the ground. And there was the snow, the sometimes 2-3-foot squalls that would accumulate within hours and engulf the front half of the car.

Anyway, the first big snowstorm of the year hit the Northeast on Friday, which just so happened to be the busiest travel day of the year, with many getting Monday and Tuesday off next week for an extended holiday break.

More than half of the planes that were supposed to land at Rochester International Airport were cancelled, wreaking havoc for a certain OTR scribe and his family, and clouding what was supposed to be a holly, jolly Christmas of family portraits and award-winning theatrical productions. No joke.

Brother 1, who flew out of L.A.X at 4 a.m. Friday morning, is stranded in Chicago until Sunday, after having three flights and two standby flights delayed, then cancelled.

Save a potentially career-ending run-in with the law six years ago, this afternoon's flight into
Rochester, with Radiohead's "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" pumping through the iPod headphones, was the most harrowing experience of your young author's life. It was snowing so hard it drifted sideways. The runway already had 10 inches of snow on it when we landed, which drew a sarcastic and relieved round of applause from the 80 passengers.

"Welcome to Cancun," the captain said.

And then the trip got fun, because the snow plows had yet to, you know, clear the white stuff from an already slick driving surface.

Estimated driving distance between Rochester and Canandaigua: 35 miles, or about 40 minutes.

Leave baggage claim: 5:21 p.m.

Open the door of my house: 8:11 p.m., our trip prolonged by a Saab that had been jackknifed into a snowdrift at least a foot high, blocking our exit, a snow plow that decided to do donuts near the median and a pick-up of two beer-battered fish fries for two hungry voyagers.

Frustration level: 8.

Not too bad considering the frustration level and current mental state of Frank Wren and the rest of the Braves brass.

The second-year general manager was duped earlier this week into believing free-agent shortstop Rafael Furcal was headed back to Atlanta to create a formidable double-play duo in the middle of the Braves infield. The reports are mixed, but Wren was told by Furcal's agent Monday night to send over a term sheet -- the final step in the negotiating process. It was never returned.

Instead, the Dodgers re-entered the bidding war for the 31-year-old's services, and offered him a three-year, $30M offer that he accepted Wednesday, prompting former Braves GM and current team president John Schuerholz to characterize the dealings as "despicable."

In the past two months, Wren and the Braves have...

• Been forced to mash together a multi-prospect, Yunel Escobar-cornerstone package to appease the unappeasable and slightly insane Padres GM Kevin Towers, only to see the negotiations die a slow and public death after six weeks.
  
• Been outbid for All-Star right-hander A.J. Burnett, who signed a hefty contract late last week with the New York Yankees. A source told OTR Sports that although Burnett seriously considered joining the Braves, he wanted to focus solely on pitching -- in the National League, pitchers also must bat -- and be closer to his wife, who does not fly.
  
• Been publicly embarrassed by the Furcal fallout. The move to land the former NL Rookie of the Year seemed ideal: Get the tablesetter that had been lacking last year, keep Escobar, whom many believe is one of the slickest-fielding shortstops in baseball, move the error-prone Kelly Johnson into left field and give Furcal, who missed most of last season with a back injury, some relief and prolong his stay in Atlanta, where he has a home and developed a strong relationship with manager Bobby Cox.

The result: If the season started tomorrow, the Braves would finish -- at best -- in third place, 10 or 15 games behind the Mets and Phillies. And if the Nationals are able to entice first baseman Mark Teixeira with their reported eight-year, $180M offer, they could legitimately finish ahead of the once-proud Braves franchise.

There's still time before spring training, and after having three promising deals fall through because of miscalculation, misguidance or the misdeeds of a particular agent, the Braves should be more determined than ever to make substantial overtures to pitchers Derek Lowe and Ben Sheets, and maybe even reignite the flickering Jake Peavy trade talks.

Their 2009 season, and their quest to again become of baseball's most appealing destinations, likely depends on it.


Other Week-long Grumblings

-- Full disclosure: Never truly been a fan of Teixeira, the former Georgia Tech and Braves standout who epitomized the team's seismic shift last season from preseason World Series favorites to a 90-loss squad with no identity. And if the reports that surfaced Thursday are true, that the Red Sox "are not going to be a factor" in the Teixeira derby, as the Red Sox team president said in an e-mail to The Associated Press, it reaffirms the previously held notion that Tex doesn't want to win a championship.

If he rejects the Red Sox deal, which was reportedly somewhere between $160-$184M over eight seasons, he'll likely wind up with the lowly, hometown Nationals (he grew up in Maryland) or back with the Angels, who made the initial offer of $160M two weeks ago.

He would be hilariously foolish to turn down the Red Sox, who desperately need a bat to protect David Ortiz and could easily move Kevin Youkilis over to third base to accommodate the switch-hitting robot. And just imagine the AL East, with the upstart Rays, the reloaded Yankees and the Tex-powered Bo Sox. What intrigue.

-- There is no team in the NBA that matches up favorably against the streaking Celtics, who claimed their 17th consecutive victory Friday night over the Bulls. No team except the Hawks, who had several chances to secure their signature victory Wednesday night against the defending world champs, but fell in the final seconds after All-Star Joe Johnson missed the second of two free throws with less than 3 seconds remaining.

Deranged power forward Kevin Garnett was quoted in Thursday's editions of the AJC as saying, "For the record, this is not a rivalry. You have to win some games for it to be a rivalry."

Hm. Last year the would-be champs needed seven games to fend off a pesky and inexperienced Hawks team. And this season, the soon-to-be champs have won both games, but by a total of four points. The Hawks are the last team Boston wants to see in the playoffs come spring, rivalry or not.

-- This just in to OTR Headquarters: The Braves made their second splash of the offseason, resigning utilityman Greg Norton to a one-year deal. Hey, if nothing else, the best quote on the team is back, and so is the most unorthodox and clumsy left fielder in the major leagues.


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