BEING YOUNG AGAIN

The Biscuits continued their tough play against competitive teams by beating up on the Braves, taking four games out of the five to throw a wrench in the works for the Ms.Braves playoff hopes. The series victory brings the Biscuits back to .500 for the year.

The homestanding Skitz now welcome the division leading Suns of Jacksonville to Riverwalk for a five game tilt that has much to bear on the SL postseason picture.

Following this matchup the Suns and Braves face off in head-to-head play for the final series of the year - a series that will likely determine which of them plays Mobile in the first round of the SL playoffs, barring the Suns extending their division lead to more than five games over the Braves. Such a lead would only be possible if the Suns can take the series against the Biscuits or getting major help from the Stars against the Braves...


LAST FIVE HOME GAMES OF 2013
No predictions today from me on this series other to say that we tend to play well against good teams. The Braves are fighting to keep their lead, the Biscuits are playing to pad their stats before time runs out on the season. Anything can happen, even getting a Biscuit to return.

BEING YOUNG AGAIN

Delmon Young in Biscuits Dugout on Thursday

Delmon Young has returned to the city of his birth as he works to get himself back into the big leagues with the team that he got his start with, the Rays, who were the Devil Rays in his first go round with the Biscuits.

The internet was abuzz with fans and detractors putting opinions to voice on the reunion between the player and the big club, and there was no consensus to be found. Many fans remember Delmon more for one minor league game when a bat he tossed hit an umpire. Others cite his legal history and warn of him being a clubhouse problem.

Marichal shows Roseboro how to use a bat to send a message - For S.L. with love :)

Yet there are also those who point out his 2012 postseason series MVP and the Rays need for extra power in the outfield and DH against righties.

Delmon Young in SL AllStar game 2005

One commenter mentioned that Young had reached all his weight requirements as stipulated in his contract with the Phillies, and mentioned that the financial side played a large role in the Phils decision to cut him. Delmon apparantly was due $1 million in performance bonuses that would have kicked in with a handful more at bats, prompting his release to save the money.


TWO CENTS ON A MILLIONAIRE
For my part, Delmon has a history of big series and can carry a team when he gets hot. He has had issues with temper flare ups but has completed every legal and contractual hurdle he encounters, including anger management. Face to face he has always been friendly and respectful to me, both in the past and today when I saw him, cheerfully signing a baseball!

Young with AZL Scorpions

Everyone has bad days, when they happen in front of thousands of people and on camera it can take a long time to change opinions formed by the actions of a young man. A person should be judged on merit, but there are those who will never remember Delmon as anything other than an angry 22yr old who is paid to play a game. Even though he is now a fairly level headed 27 year old professional who has an LCS MVP on his resume'.

There is good reason for his being chosen first overall in 2003 and has just reached his prime, I think its a great thing for the city to have its native son return just before his chance at redemption. Delmon has 97 career homeruns, just over 500 RBI in eight mlb seasons. He has hit a .283 batting average and played in over 100 games every season after his rookie callup year of 2006.

Also, Delmon Young is a monster in the playoffs.
Just ask Minnesota. And the Yankees. Twice.
And the Rangers. And the Athletics.
And the Yankees again. And the Giants.
All those teams have watched Delmon take their pitchers over the wall, steal bases, drive in runs and generally hit the ball hard when the leaves turn brown, a time when even some of the best hitters have found it hardest to produce.

NOT SO DIFFERENT
In many ways Delmon Young and Montgomery parallel each other - both of us are from here, obviously. But there is so much more than that.

learned from mistakes?

We both have had issues with anger and hatred and racism in the past, both he and we have made people think things about us even though they have never met or seen us in person. We have become concepts larger than ourselves, encompassing issues and ideals.

We have risen up and fought back when we felt pushed around. We have been humbled when we were defeated and seen that our actions had farther reaching effects than perhaps we knew.

Both the City of Montgomery and Delmon Young realized we had to do things differently if we expected success.

We both want to change how people think of us and have put alot of work into showing people that we can be better than we have been shown to be in the past.

Learned from mistakes?

Montgomery, like Delmon Young, has alot more work to do in order to get to where we want to be, where we expect ourselves to be.

But Montgomery, like Delmon, has made great strides and is very proud of the good things that we have done and the progress we have made. Cities, like people, do change as they grow.

Montgomery, like Delmon Young, is working to be better and should be given a fair chance to show true colors and grow. We all can learn from our mistakes and make improvements to be proud of.