#44

This decade the Atlanta Braves have played 657 games. (648 regular season, 9 postseason)

Of those, I’ve watched or listened to roughly 500 or so live. I estimate I’ve watched another 100 or so on DVR or MLB.com’s archives. I’ve also attended 29 games in person over that time. (that’s not an estimate, I’ve kept track here)

That leaves about 28 (give or take a few) games I haven’t watched in entirety

In 2013 I watched 166 of 166 games. In 2012 it was 157 of 163 (the 6 I missed were all related to travelling to/from seeing them in person) 2010 and 2011 were each in the area of 10 games missed. The work I had- much of it from home or at hours of my choice helped greatly. Having no kids and being sans girlfriend for most of the summers during the 4 year span also didn’t hurt.

The Braves consumed my life. And I loved every minute of it. Nothing makes me happier than watching a Braves game.

But it came at a price.

I willfully insulated myself from those around me. For 6 months of the year the Braves were all that mattered. I regularly backed out of commitments with those who cared about me so I could watch games. More than once I avoided obligations so I could watch the replay of a game I knew they got blown out.

Addiction is the wrong word. Having out of whack priorities is a more apt description. Although there are worse vices, I’m sure.

Why did I have to watch *every* game and not just as most I reasonably could?  A lot of it was my obsessive compulsive love of sets. Having a complete collection was just better in my head. But at least a small part was a self-righteous belief that somehow watching more games than anyone else would somehow make me a better fan than everyone else.

Last fall I got a new job. It’s perfect in every way- fun people, strong company, good pay, great benefits- everything. There’s one catch. The hours are 3:30 to midnight. This isn’t in issue on the surface: I’m a night owl. In fact, these hours work perfectly for my natural schedule. It’s just that I’ll be missing a huge chunk of those Braves games I adore. At first I was apprehensive, but now I think it’s wonderful impetus to realign my priorities. I’m not going to be tied down by anything except the people I care about and working my ass off to hopefully advance in the job I love. Baseball will still be a huge part of my life, but it won’t be the only piece.

So what does this mean for @BravesAmerica? I won’t be tweeting nearly as much during games, but I certainly won’t be disappearing. I’ll still be able to watch about half of the games live. (I’ll be able to watch east coast day games before heading in to work) My employer is amazingly flexible and allows me to have an ipad up at all times. Whether I will have the games on while I work remains to be seen. I fear that by trying to do two things at once- baseball and work- I’ll succeed at neither. We shall see.

I will still provide my trademark irrelevant and irreverent commentary on the Braves, with plenty of border line creepy Jason Heyward swooning. And I’m hoping to better utilize this blog. I do a solid amount of research that goes unseen or just crammed in to a few tweets. Hoping to expound on that here.

Whether I’m watching live or not, I’ll still be chopping at heart.

Best,

Dayton from Nebraska