Another one bites the dust

Braves Update:
After a day off, the Braves take on the San Francisco Giants at Turner Field on Tuesday. The Braves scheduled starter of John Smoltz will go up against San Fran's Scott Atchison. You can catch all the action live on SS at 7:35 PM/est.

Games behind NY Mets in NL East: 3.5
Games above .500: 6
NL Wild Card Leader: San Diego Padres

Braves Notes: Julio Franco cleared waivers and is reporting to the Class A Rome Braves with knowledge that he will be recalled on September 1st when the rosters expand.

NASCAR Update:
As previously reported, Joe Gibbs Racing will make an official announcement that Kyle Busch will be joining their team in the #18 for 2008. Busch will replace J.J. Yeley who has been in that car since 2006.

Kyle Petty broke his hand on Sunday after hitting it against a door in the #45 trailer. His status for Michigan is unclear.

An appeals court has sided with NASCAR in their on-going lawsuit with AT&T. Cingular, the original telecommunications brand that sponsored the #31 RCR car currently being driven by Jeff Burton, merged with AT&T following Nextel Cup's entrance into NASCAR. Part of their deal was that only current telecommunications brands would be allowed to continue sponsorship which included Cingular and Altel (which sponsored Ryan Newman's #12 Dodge). AT&T decided to rebrand itself moving away from Cingular and renaming the merged company AT&T thus forcing the name on the #31 to change. Nextel felt that went against its original agreement with NASCAR and looked to block the change, thus the lawsuit. AT&T won a preliminary judgement which has allowed its logo to appear on Burton's car thus far but with Monday's developments, AT&T may not have a leg to stand on.

News & Notes: Congratulations to Palcido Polanco on setting a new record for most consecutive games without an error (144) by a second baseman in the Tigers 7-2 loss to the Oakland A's on Monday...Yesterday, I headed up to the Bronx for an exciting game between the Yankees and the Orioles. Mariano Rivera blew his first save since April but the Yankees were able to come back off a Derek Jeter dribbler that allowed Melky Cabrera to score the winning run in a 7-6 win...Hopefully this won't stop Cheap Sexson Monday's but Richie Sexson, who has been having an off year, drove in the winning run in the Mariners 4-3 defeat of the Minnesota Twins...In other Seattle news, the new owners of the SuperSonics want to move the team to Oklahoma City. Oklahoma has played host to the New Orleans Hornets since Hurricane Katrina in 2005...And finally, Yone Minagawa, the world's oldest person has died at the age of 114.

UPDATE: Phil Rizzuto, the oldest living member of the Hall of Fame has died at the age of 89.

Check this out: Want to see how Andruw Jones is living? Click here.

It's been fun blogging with you,
Kate