When Jeff Francouer was called up in 2005 from Double-A I almost immediately fell in baseball-love. The young prospect who started his career with a .300 avg, 14 HRs in just 257 ABs and an OPS+ of 126 seemed to signal a future superstar. Toss in his prodigious throwing arm and his enthusiasm for the game and I was smitten.

His first full year though saw the average drop to .260 but he also managed to knock 30 balls over the wall and was still seemingly learning the game.

Another reason I (used to) pine for Francouer; up until last season, the life-long Red Sox fan was using a Red Sox branded credit card until several of his Braves teammates chided him and made him get rid of it.

Despite growing up in Georgia, Francouer has always been a Red Sox fan and that always makes someone better in my book. These days Francouer has gone from struggling to anemic. He was sent down to the minors last year in an attempt to get him back on track, which unfortunately didn't help.

In an effort to both help his scuffling team and his own stats, Francouer told reporters he will be wearing his lucky Thanksgiving-themed turkey boxer briefs. According to Francouer the Braves are 7-0 when he wears the lucky briefs, including Sunday's 2-1 win over the Red Sox. Knowing the team needed a win on Sunday, especially with rookie pitcher Tommy Hanson suffering a bout of the flu, before the game Francouer let his team know everything would work out; "I wore the turkey underwear," he announced.

Francouer's wife Catie washed the boxers yesterday, and Francouer intends to wear them again today, the first time he's worn them in back-to-back games.

[AJC]

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